Honestly, I'd be happy if I could A) filter out apps that have in-app purchases
By that rule, you would have filtered out Doom and all other 1990s shareware games, which gave the player the first episode without charge and required payment for later episodes. Would you prefer that even the first level be paywalled?
And if your software right out of the box requires constant updates, then you sold a defective product, and it is on you to make it right
Even if the updates are mostly to reflect changes in tax law or other externally imposed requirements since the product was shipped? Intuit TurboTax and H&R Block At Home (formerly TaxCut) have annual editions for this reason.
It's not just Nintendo. The maximalists say the same thing when asked about the film Song of the South and the animated TV series Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea (the English dub of Les mondes engloutis). Hence why I said "work", not specifically "game".
sure, carry around a laptop in your back pocket to do these things
It's called a messenger bag. I already carry a compact laptop (currently a Dell Inspiron 11 3000 series) in order to work on contract programming projects while riding transit to and from my day job.
and I'm sure the webcam is adequate for scanning barcodes inside a server, just have to carefully hold thing in position.
In theory, barcode-driven price comparison could work with a PDA with no cellular capability, such as the iPod touch. It would use Wi-Fi or save the scanned barcodes for later retrieval once you're back to a laptop whose software you control.
In the case of games, I would account for each title as a separate purpose
If you'd deem each "Fortnite" app in the games category to have a separate purpose, that's the same as not curating games at all.
one title does not substitute for another.
Some copyright maximalists on Slashdot would disagree. Their comments state that if lawful copies of a given work are not available to the public at any price, viewing a different work is preferable to viewing an infringing copy of that work.
Is an application still "malware" if it has the name "Fortnite" for a legitimate reason, such as a unit conversion calculator centered around the furlong-firkin-fortnight system whose source code is published?
Just curate the best ten apps for any given purpose or category and only show me those.
Let's explore the feasibility of "curat[ing] the best ten apps for any given purpose or category". To start with: What are the ten best side-scrolling platformer video games of all time, what is number 11, and on what basis do you conclude that each of numbers 1 through 10 beats number 11?
Items 1, 2, and 4 can be done with a laptop through a native or web-based calendar app, native SSH, and the website of the bus or train operator respectively. Item 3 can be done with a smartphone that has no cellular service and is powered off except when in use for authentication.
Restaurant rewards programs and TOTP authentication are two perks of having a smartphone that I don't see how to replicate with a fixed-function basic cell phone or a laptop. And how does Firefox for Android differ in terms of "tracking/privacy" from Firefox for GNU/Linux, Windows, or macOS?
- Dynamic IP address is solvable by renting cheap VPS. Use the VPS box for sending, receiving your home internet IP address (via simple API, encrypted preferably).
Once you've rented a VPS, why not just use it for the file storage?
- ISP disallows incoming connection for your home internet connection, means that your ISP is garbage.
Some countries have a much smaller allocation of IPv4 addresses per person than the United States or countries in western Europe. In these countries, all home ISPs are garbage by your definition, and only business-class plans aren't.
Dropbox was always a solution for a problem that never existed under Linux/Unix in the first place.
Such as not all of your collaborators who use Windows or macOS for other reasons necessarily being willing to install "Linux/Unix" into a virtual machine through which to access your shared folder.
One reason to lease hosting for file sync instead of maintaining an rsync server at home is that your home Internet access plan might not have a dedicated IPv4 address that allows incoming connections to your rsync server.
Can we get a high-spec phone with a plastic back so the damned thing doesn't feel like a hot brick if you happen to have the GPS on or be recording video?
Perhaps we can get one once you provide a robust answer to the following question: Where else, other than the back, should the SoC be dumping the waste heat from processing related to GPS or recording video?
There's a difference between works used as tools and works used as mass entertainment. The featured article acknowledges a deep divide between movie studios and the free software community over digital restrictions management. But even if a studio puts DRM on its entertainment products, that need not extend to putting DRM on tools.
So instead of copying a ROM let's just copy the idea of the ROM. Create new games that play like Mario or Donkey Kong but don't use the copyrighted (copywritten?) characters. Let's build an "app store" for old 8 & 16 bit style games that aren't custom written.
Filing (or having someone file) false DMCA take-down requests as we've seen occur far too often with little or no real consequences imposed for doing so.
Once one victim of a false copyright claim lawyers up and prevails in court, it sets a template for other defendants in a similar fact situation to prevail. A victim of a false DMCA claim filed suit (Smith v. Summit Entertainment) and prevailed on several counts in 2011: wrongful assertion of copyright infringement, intentional interference in contractual and business relationships between the musician and the platform, and defamation of title.
Claims against independent works on the platform for plagiarism/copying, which the courts have ruled can be only three notes in one famous case.
I agree with you that claims of accidental infringement could pose a problem for musicians or platforms. But over the past several years, other Slashdot users have disagreed with me that this problem is substantial. So they (and I) would appreciate harder evidence of the scale of this problem.
One example I've trotted out myself several times on Slashdot is Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music over "My Sweet Lord". That case was over at least eight notes: one three-and-a-half-note motif repeated several times followed by one five-note motif repeated several times.
To leave the Berne Convention, a country must first leave the World Trade Organization because the TRIPS agreement includes the terms of the Berne Convention. That would likely cause other countries to increase tariffs on that country's exports. Copyright thus holds not only culture but also commerce hostage.
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Honestly, I'd be happy if I could A) filter out apps that have in-app purchases
By that rule, you would have filtered out Doom and all other 1990s shareware games, which gave the player the first episode without charge and required payment for later episodes. Would you prefer that even the first level be paywalled?
And if your software right out of the box requires constant updates, then you sold a defective product, and it is on you to make it right
Even if the updates are mostly to reflect changes in tax law or other externally imposed requirements since the product was shipped? Intuit TurboTax and H&R Block At Home (formerly TaxCut) have annual editions for this reason.
It's not just Nintendo. The maximalists say the same thing when asked about the film Song of the South and the animated TV series Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea (the English dub of Les mondes engloutis). Hence why I said "work", not specifically "game".
sure, carry around a laptop in your back pocket to do these things
It's called a messenger bag. I already carry a compact laptop (currently a Dell Inspiron 11 3000 series) in order to work on contract programming projects while riding transit to and from my day job.
and I'm sure the webcam is adequate for scanning barcodes inside a server, just have to carefully hold thing in position.
In theory, barcode-driven price comparison could work with a PDA with no cellular capability, such as the iPod touch. It would use Wi-Fi or save the scanned barcodes for later retrieval once you're back to a laptop whose software you control.
In the case of games, I would account for each title as a separate purpose
If you'd deem each "Fortnite" app in the games category to have a separate purpose, that's the same as not curating games at all.
one title does not substitute for another.
Some copyright maximalists on Slashdot would disagree. Their comments state that if lawful copies of a given work are not available to the public at any price, viewing a different work is preferable to viewing an infringing copy of that work.
Is an application still "malware" if it has the name "Fortnite" for a legitimate reason, such as a unit conversion calculator centered around the furlong-firkin-fortnight system whose source code is published?
Just curate the best ten apps for any given purpose or category and only show me those.
Let's explore the feasibility of "curat[ing] the best ten apps for any given purpose or category". To start with: What are the ten best side-scrolling platformer video games of all time, what is number 11, and on what basis do you conclude that each of numbers 1 through 10 beats number 11?
Game Boy Pocket runs on two AAA batteries, and mGBA and SameBoy emulate it.
(In addition to the battery meaning, "AAA" means leading-edge, large-budget production values.)
Items 1, 2, and 4 can be done with a laptop through a native or web-based calendar app, native SSH, and the website of the bus or train operator respectively. Item 3 can be done with a smartphone that has no cellular service and is powered off except when in use for authentication.
Restaurant rewards programs and TOTP authentication are two perks of having a smartphone that I don't see how to replicate with a fixed-function basic cell phone or a laptop. And how does Firefox for Android differ in terms of "tracking/privacy" from Firefox for GNU/Linux, Windows, or macOS?
buy old games at retro-shops, pawn shops, Goodwill, garage sales, e-bay, whatever.
Until other publishers start following the lead of Bethesda in threatening to sue secondhand sellers.
- Dynamic IP address is solvable by renting cheap VPS. Use the VPS box for sending, receiving your home internet IP address (via simple API, encrypted preferably).
Once you've rented a VPS, why not just use it for the file storage?
- ISP disallows incoming connection for your home internet connection, means that your ISP is garbage.
Some countries have a much smaller allocation of IPv4 addresses per person than the United States or countries in western Europe. In these countries, all home ISPs are garbage by your definition, and only business-class plans aren't.
Some people will move to be within the service area of a non-garbage ISP. Most won't.
Dropbox sync depends on behaviors of extended attributes, some of which I imagine are implementation-defined.
What Linux user uses drop box?
A Linux user whose client happens to use Windows.
put a Linux "cloud server" image onto a microSD card, stick it in a Rasperry Pi, add a USB disk, enable dynamic DNS, and you haer your own Dropbox.
Dynamic DNS won't help you if your home network is behind a carrier-grade network address translation (CGNAT) operated by your Internet service provider.
Dropbox was always a solution for a problem that never existed under Linux/Unix in the first place.
Such as not all of your collaborators who use Windows or macOS for other reasons necessarily being willing to install "Linux/Unix" into a virtual machine through which to access your shared folder.
One reason to lease hosting for file sync instead of maintaining an rsync server at home is that your home Internet access plan might not have a dedicated IPv4 address that allows incoming connections to your rsync server.
If you are not willing to part a few bucks for the game then you really don't need it.
Where can I buy a lawfully made copy of those games that are not currently available through Virtual Console?
I, too, would like better reliable data
A list of music copyright infringement cases may help.
Does Qi inductive charging work through ridged aluminum?
Can we get a high-spec phone with a plastic back so the damned thing doesn't feel like a hot brick if you happen to have the GPS on or be recording video?
Perhaps we can get one once you provide a robust answer to the following question: Where else, other than the back, should the SoC be dumping the waste heat from processing related to GPS or recording video?
There's a difference between works used as tools and works used as mass entertainment. The featured article acknowledges a deep divide between movie studios and the free software community over digital restrictions management. But even if a studio puts DRM on its entertainment products, that need not extend to putting DRM on tools.
So instead of copying a ROM let's just copy the idea of the ROM. Create new games that play like Mario or Donkey Kong but don't use the copyrighted (copywritten?) characters. Let's build an "app store" for old 8 & 16 bit style games that aren't custom written.
We already have one: Itch Direct. There's already a platformer inspired by Mario and Kirby titled Nova the Squirrel by Joshua Hoffman, distributed by its author as an NES ROM that runs in an emulator or on a PowerPak or EverDrive. If you like it, you may also like The Curse of Possum Hollow by Retrotainment Games (also on Steam) or Lizard by Brad Smith.
And if Nintendo or some other company tries to say their "idea" was stolen, simply point to Facebook and FarmVille that was copied.
Until the victim of this "copying" lawyers up in earnest. Then you get things like Tetris v. Xio (2012).
Filing (or having someone file) false DMCA take-down requests as we've seen occur far too often with little or no real consequences imposed for doing so.
Once one victim of a false copyright claim lawyers up and prevails in court, it sets a template for other defendants in a similar fact situation to prevail. A victim of a false DMCA claim filed suit ( Smith v. Summit Entertainment ) and prevailed on several counts in 2011: wrongful assertion of copyright infringement, intentional interference in contractual and business relationships between the musician and the platform, and defamation of title.
Claims against independent works on the platform for plagiarism/copying, which the courts have ruled can be only three notes in one famous case.
I agree with you that claims of accidental infringement could pose a problem for musicians or platforms. But over the past several years, other Slashdot users have disagreed with me that this problem is substantial. So they (and I) would appreciate harder evidence of the scale of this problem.
One example I've trotted out myself several times on Slashdot is Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music over "My Sweet Lord". That case was over at least eight notes: one three-and-a-half-note motif repeated several times followed by one five-note motif repeated several times.
Which case was over only three notes?
To leave the Berne Convention, a country must first leave the World Trade Organization because the TRIPS agreement includes the terms of the Berne Convention. That would likely cause other countries to increase tariffs on that country's exports. Copyright thus holds not only culture but also commerce hostage.