'windows' is a generic name and use of it does not constitute trademark violation unless the product is in the same market. 'windows defender' was obviously a product in the microsoft windows market so microsoft owned and had rights to the trademark. if the guy had named the product 'OS defender for windows' he would have been good.
How is it in the same market? MS Windows is a trademark relating to an *operating system*, the kid was making software that protects against bad software? Just because we are talking about computers doesn't make all computer markets the same. Shouldn't MS Windows be confined to the OS market and not every single software market that MS has a presence? They don't call MS's productivity suite Microsoft Windows Office. They don't call Halo Microsoft Windows Halo, they don't call their browser Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer. Where does the insanity end????
They really should have mentioned they wanted the name for a product, so the guy could have hung on to it a bit longer and perhaps got more for it. Perhaps not the most sensible course of action from MS's perspective. Perfectly understandable that they would use copyright infringement as the crowbar to get the name off the guy, but still, pretty disingenuous.
If you remember in the mikerowesoft issue, MS used it against him in court when MS offered to buy the name and the kid had issue with the price. They then said that he was squatting because he was looking to sell it to them. It is odd that his defence for his right to the name would have been better if he had stood his ground on a moral basis rather than trying to justify a fair price for the work he had done in staking his claim and name on the internet.
What if he had made that blast retardant stuff for glass windows. The stuff that keeps the windows from shattering in an explosion. Would that still have left him needing to give up the name? Now, if he had called it Microsoft Windows Defender that'd be another story.
Suppose he made a product that defended Microsoft Windows from malicious software. How else would you name it and still be descriptive? "That gui operating system that Microsoft makes defender?" There are plenty of computer uses of windows that apparently don't infringe (X Windows anyone), I really don't see how this dilutes MS's trademark. It is especially underhanded since MS wishes to use it for their own product to protect that gui operating system that Microsoft makes from malicious hardware.
What tax system would you choose for the society you will live in before you discover the actual alternative into which you are born? Is it fair to newborn children that some are born into wealthy families and others into poor families or that some are born with great talent and others with physical or mental handicaps? To me, a fair tax system is one that balances incentives to work hard and grow the economy with the moral understanding that people don't all start out equally.
Try the Fair Tax Plan www.fairtax.org. It is currently a bill in congress. Write your congressmen!!
Indeed. It still centuries last for computers really the capacity to approach sense construction of the human languages also but slightly of course.
OMG! I actually read this through the first time and it made sense. I then went back and read it more slowly and it didn't. It was kinda like the same sensation I got when You can read sentences with words that are misspelled as lnog as tehy ahve hte aprpopairte unmber of ltteers in tehm.
Perhaps it's nothing more than the "softening" of traditional sci-fi that is causing the shift.
And so what exactly makes up sci-fi? Does it have to be ultra-uber futuristic? I mean 1984 was sci-fi, but the exent of its futuristic technology was two-way tv's and microphone listening devices placed everywhere and police with advanced phychology degrees. Part of sci-fi is someone's vision of an alternate (ostensibly future) reality, but it doesn't have to be future. Look at sliders, most of the worlds that they visited involved contemporary time periods. As for the fantasy aspect, at least in book stores, sci-fi and fantasy have frequently been lumped together, probably because they appeal to the same demographic.
What gave you the right to use the copper verizon bought fair and square on the open market?
I was under the impression that the current copper plant was heavily subsidized by local/state/federal governments. As such, shouldn't it be treated as a public utility after the LECS are allowed to recoup their investment off of it? I mean, you could treat it like a patent, giving exclusive use over the ifrastucture for a period of time and then open it up as a utility just like they do with namebrand/generic drugs.
I just bought Firefly on DVD. It's really good and I recommend that everyone watch it, but I wish someone would have told me in advance so I could have saved $35.
Yeah, but consider that you help improve visibility of the show's popularity by buying the DVD. DVD sales are one of the main reasons that family guy is back. I bought the DVD for myself after I had watched the whole thing just for that purpose. I also bought all of futurama even though I can watch it almost nightly on Cartoon Network. Firefly has been in the Amazon top 50 for DVD sales since the DVD's were released. Keep up the good work folks!
Spending the next 6 months in prison to make your point ( or dead ) even if you are right, isn't cool. Especially when postponing your 'statement' a little will keep you outside.
But its ok to spend a year dead for tax reasons:).
Are you being sarcasting when you critisize the American two-party system? Outside of the states, we tend to find your system pretty weird. Two parties sounds like you're just pretending to have a democracy...
Not at all. Neither of the two parties represent more than 5% of my views....perhaps 10% between them. I am sure that there are various individuals of each party that have closer views to mine, but when they clump together for the strength in numbers effect and stand by the party line, they do me no good. Its become about appealing to the largest demographic of voters. I think that if you were to take a survey of every member of our elected federal government and group the different viewpoints into semi-broad groups, you would get 5-7 different parties. People in the US don't want choice, they want a favorite team to rally behind, its sickening. Well, thats a little off topic...go Firefox!
Choice is still good which is why I want to to see Firefox, Netscape, Opera, Konq, Safari and even IE compete to build something better.
I know this is a little off topic, but your view also makes me think of the problems with our electoral system...not enough Choice! Two parties just doesn't give us enough choice! I agree...the more browsers the better. As geeks become more and more mainstream (a growing trend I think), niche browsers will flourish.
No. There is nothing wrong with having "cloned" software that performs the same function. Compete on features and user interface and performance and the lack of bugs in your software. If software patents had been established early enough, there would be only one word processor and only one spreadsheet and only one web browser. Forget open source software as they would never be able to afford to license.
In fact, it has been noted that you are actually better off using the A/C than opening the window, because opening the window decreases your fuel economy more than running the A/C.
Actually, the mythbusters show covered this one. They took two SUV's with the same amount of fuel in them and ran one with the A/C turned on and one with the windows down. The one with the A/C ran out of fuel first by a good margin. I suppose that if a vehicle had a significant number of windows, as in the bus example, it might be the other way around.
"I'll sell you this software, but you can only use it in ways that are specifically outlined in this contract that's in the drawer over there.
"But the CONTRACT was on display..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find it."
"That's the display department."
"With a flashlight."
"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the notice didn't you?"
"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."
This could make telemarketing nearly untraceable, a company just uses a call center that utilizes this technology, and people will never know where the phone call is coming from. Imagine getting a phone call from a telemarketer, and it says 911 on the caller ID.
Yes, but if this costs 5 Cents per minute, it will probably create a significant overhead to an industry that relies on mass communication. It would probably be prohibitively expensive. This is also probably besides the point being that anyone with their own PBX and PRI lines to the telco (something that I am sure that mass marketers have) can forge their own caller-ID. This was the whole point of recent legislation prohibiting this behavior.
I don't understand the problem. With Pay Per View, you are QUITE SPECIFICALLY buying a license to watch a movie once. You are PAYing PER VIEW.
There's no ambiguity about buying physical media vs the content, about buying a license, and so on. You're paying to have a movie playing to your sat/cable box at a specific time and date. Done.
This is presupposing that the uses of existing technologies are invalid (VCR DVDR) where you can record a program off of television and record it in a semi-permanent state. This is the heart of fair-use, you paid for it to be displayed on your television, whether you record that with your brain or on some other media (dvd, vhs, hard disk) it should not matter.
It seems to me, that a trademark infringement like creating a new game with Link and Zelda or Samus Arun in it is very obviously a legal event waiting to happen. But simply stating "Hey, I love playing Zelda"... That can't possibly be an event Nintendo would win in anything other than "We have enough money to out lawyer you into the poor house"
Your use of Nintendo's trademarked names Zelda and Samus Arun have come to the attention of Nintendo. Please cease and desist your comments in the forums of the site referred to as Slashdot. If you must make reference to our games, you may refer to Zelda as the game where a horny little elf fights to save a princess whose name begins with Z and you may refer to Samus Arun as the freaked out bitch bounty hunter kickin' ass and takin' names to the effect of galactic peace without the presence of spherical nuclear looking aliens with big nasty teeth. Thank you for your cooperation.
I can't condone someone saying awful things in bad taste, but I can sure support their right to say them. If we only look the other way for speech that we agree with, then we really are as bad as he says. We here on Slashdot talk about open source software and free speech and freedom from government intervention in our lives. What is more free than having the right to expound your views despite the majority disagreeing with them?
At this point in the world's history, I cannot sympathize with anyone attempting to use false ID to travel. Further, if it's true, I cannot sympathize with his point of view regarding the senseless murder of thousands of innocent lives.
If his only transgression were for the love of the game, the world would have forgiven him quickly... the court of public opinion would have ruled in his favor. This guy has hosed himself up pretty bad and now he's caught. If it's true that his views are against the people of Jewish faith and that he applauds the horror of 9-11, then the court of public opinion will rule against him if it hasn't already.
I feel that there is a lot more going on than is being revealed though... I've seen crazy in a variety of ways, but there is something really weird about this case.
Pardon me, but they said that they can read it because it is stored....I may be grossly mistaken but aren't snail mail communications "stored" on a piece of paper and isn't it quite illegal to read someone else's snail mail?
Screw that. Use instant messaging. The reason why ISPs can read the mail is because it sits on their servers. Find an IM program that doesn't use a server to store the messages (i.e. I think that rules out ICQ...) and you're set. The only real problem then is packet sniffing.
In addition... On average, a city pays $50/ton to throw away garbage.... and $150+/ton to recycle it.
Yes, but consider what the cost of the raw materials is. You have to factor in that NEW raw materials might cost $150/ton such that the net cost of recycling is lower than $150/ton.
What about Robot? Wasn't it coined by Asimov? Just because someone made up a word that has since entered into popular usage does not give the coiner any rights whatsoever to the word. They would have to trademark it and then begins the onerous task of defending that trademark.
I suppose that Groklaw is going down for using "grok," a term coined by R A Heinlein?
Keep in mind that we do not only use oil as an energy source. Oil is the foundation of the petrochemical industry. It makes plastics and a myriad of other products possible. If we wait until oil is so scarce that it is not viable as a fuel source, how viable will it be for use in petrochemicals?
And as for it being "too damned expensive," it's funny that you mention that. The argument of the majority of the eco-doomsayers that I know is that oil will run out, and we'll have no viable solutions in place. My counterargument is that we have no incentive to PUT said alternatives into place until oil reaches a level of scarcity that the outlay price of implementing the alternative is less than the price of just burning oil over a period of time. Right now, hydrocarbon fuels are insanely cheap -- cheaper than electricity generated by any other fasion. But with crude production shrinking and demand increasing by almost half a billion barrels per year, we're going to reach that point fairly soon. At which point tons of manufacturers and installers will jump on the bandwagon to further decrease prices of the alternatives.
Slashdot Mirror
Obligatory Simpsons reference: ...
Bill Gates: I didn't get rich by writing alot of cheques! hahahahah *evil laugh*
Bill Gates: Buy him out boys!
Bill Gates boys proceed to beat the living #*$& out of Homer
How is it in the same market? MS Windows is a trademark relating to an *operating system*, the kid was making software that protects against bad software? Just because we are talking about computers doesn't make all computer markets the same. Shouldn't MS Windows be confined to the OS market and not every single software market that MS has a presence? They don't call MS's productivity suite Microsoft Windows Office. They don't call Halo Microsoft Windows Halo, they don't call their browser Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer. Where does the insanity end????
If you remember in the mikerowesoft issue, MS used it against him in court when MS offered to buy the name and the kid had issue with the price. They then said that he was squatting because he was looking to sell it to them. It is odd that his defence for his right to the name would have been better if he had stood his ground on a moral basis rather than trying to justify a fair price for the work he had done in staking his claim and name on the internet.
Suppose he made a product that defended Microsoft Windows from malicious software. How else would you name it and still be descriptive? "That gui operating system that Microsoft makes defender?" There are plenty of computer uses of windows that apparently don't infringe (X Windows anyone), I really don't see how this dilutes MS's trademark. It is especially underhanded since MS wishes to use it for their own product to protect that gui operating system that Microsoft makes from malicious hardware.
Try the Fair Tax Plan www.fairtax.org. It is currently a bill in congress. Write your congressmen!!
OMG! I actually read this through the first time and it made sense. I then went back and read it more slowly and it didn't. It was kinda like the same sensation I got when You can read sentences with words that are misspelled as lnog as tehy ahve hte aprpopairte unmber of ltteers in tehm.
And so what exactly makes up sci-fi? Does it have to be ultra-uber futuristic? I mean 1984 was sci-fi, but the exent of its futuristic technology was two-way tv's and microphone listening devices placed everywhere and police with advanced phychology degrees. Part of sci-fi is someone's vision of an alternate (ostensibly future) reality, but it doesn't have to be future. Look at sliders, most of the worlds that they visited involved contemporary time periods. As for the fantasy aspect, at least in book stores, sci-fi and fantasy have frequently been lumped together, probably because they appeal to the same demographic.
I was under the impression that the current copper plant was heavily subsidized by local/state/federal governments. As such, shouldn't it be treated as a public utility after the LECS are allowed to recoup their investment off of it? I mean, you could treat it like a patent, giving exclusive use over the ifrastucture for a period of time and then open it up as a utility just like they do with namebrand/generic drugs.
Yeah, but consider that you help improve visibility of the show's popularity by buying the DVD. DVD sales are one of the main reasons that family guy is back. I bought the DVD for myself after I had watched the whole thing just for that purpose. I also bought all of futurama even though I can watch it almost nightly on Cartoon Network. Firefly has been in the Amazon top 50 for DVD sales since the DVD's were released. Keep up the good work folks!
Read carefully to see if any words out.
But its ok to spend a year dead for tax reasons :).
Not at all. Neither of the two parties represent more than 5% of my views....perhaps 10% between them. I am sure that there are various individuals of each party that have closer views to mine, but when they clump together for the strength in numbers effect and stand by the party line, they do me no good. Its become about appealing to the largest demographic of voters. I think that if you were to take a survey of every member of our elected federal government and group the different viewpoints into semi-broad groups, you would get 5-7 different parties. People in the US don't want choice, they want a favorite team to rally behind, its sickening. Well, thats a little off topic...go Firefox!
I know this is a little off topic, but your view also makes me think of the problems with our electoral system...not enough Choice! Two parties just doesn't give us enough choice! I agree...the more browsers the better. As geeks become more and more mainstream (a growing trend I think), niche browsers will flourish.
No. There is nothing wrong with having "cloned" software that performs the same function. Compete on features and user interface and performance and the lack of bugs in your software. If software patents had been established early enough, there would be only one word processor and only one spreadsheet and only one web browser. Forget open source software as they would never be able to afford to license.
Actually, the mythbusters show covered this one. They took two SUV's with the same amount of fuel in them and ran one with the A/C turned on and one with the windows down. The one with the A/C ran out of fuel first by a good margin. I suppose that if a vehicle had a significant number of windows, as in the bus example, it might be the other way around.
The internet: where men are men, women are men and the little girls are FBI agents...and they're MEN!
Yes, but if this costs 5 Cents per minute, it will probably create a significant overhead to an industry that relies on mass communication. It would probably be prohibitively expensive. This is also probably besides the point being that anyone with their own PBX and PRI lines to the telco (something that I am sure that mass marketers have) can forge their own caller-ID. This was the whole point of recent legislation prohibiting this behavior.
This is presupposing that the uses of existing technologies are invalid (VCR DVDR) where you can record a program off of television and record it in a semi-permanent state. This is the heart of fair-use, you paid for it to be displayed on your television, whether you record that with your brain or on some other media (dvd, vhs, hard disk) it should not matter.
Your use of Nintendo's trademarked names Zelda and Samus Arun have come to the attention of Nintendo. Please cease and desist your comments in the forums of the site referred to as Slashdot. If you must make reference to our games, you may refer to Zelda as the game where a horny little elf fights to save a princess whose name begins with Z and you may refer to Samus Arun as the freaked out bitch bounty hunter kickin' ass and takin' names to the effect of galactic peace without the presence of spherical nuclear looking aliens with big nasty teeth. Thank you for your cooperation.
I for one welcome our nation of mindless, workaholic zombie overlords.
Yes, but consider what the cost of the raw materials is. You have to factor in that NEW raw materials might cost $150/ton such that the net cost of recycling is lower than $150/ton.