Remember the scene where the Palpatine proclaimns himself Emperor (and gives rise to one of the best lines of the hexology -- "And so democracy dies, to the sound of thunderous applause.")?
The very next scene cuts to Obi-wan Kenobi, who has just survived Order 66 hundreds of light years away. As I remember he has yet to make contact with the rest of the world (or he might be trying) and he refers to Palpatine as 'Emperor.'
Man, the Jedi must have saved a packet on newspapers...
I had a read of the article (actually, the discussion paper itself) and it contains a really good, refreshingly unbiased explanation of copyright law in.au. It turns out that copyright only aplies to non-trivial items. There doesn't seem to be a definition of 'trivial,' but my shopping list would definitely be there.
You're right about format transfer though, it is overly strict. I've never known anyone to be actually sued over this. I read an interview last year with an ARIA bigwig, and he was asked about this issue. Whilst he didn't promise to never sue anyone in the future, he pointed out that they've never done it before, and that they're more worried about commercial piracy.
Still, there's no provision under current law to allow this. Except for some heavily circumscribed uses, there is no such thing as fair use in Australian Law. I hope this review of the legislation will result in MP3 player owners all over Australia becoming law abiding citizens.
The school my daughter goes to (rural.au) has a very strong anti-bullying policy. Kids are taught very clearly what sorts of behaviours are acceptable, unacceptable and so on. Kids are also taught appropriate ways to stand up to bullies. I thought it all sounded a bit soft until I saw it in action.
The problem in Australia is that it's all a little too strict. There's very little flexibility in the system, and all original works are, like you say, copyrighted.
It seems ridiculous, but if I write 'sugar, eggs, bread, milk' on a piece of paper I have the copyright to that shopping list.
In Australia, I can sue anyone else who also happens to have written out the same list.
(Of course, such a list would presumably have been written by someone else a long time ago and would have passed into the Public Domain by now... but you get my point! Even in that case, I own the rights to the typesetting, which means that I can sue you if you photocopy it.)
I can sell my list, and I can sell licences to copy it. But if someone takes that list, and transfers the content to their PDA because they prefer that format, they have abused my rights as a copyright holder, unless I specifically gave them permission to do such a thing.
Automatic copyright is good, but do we need it to apply in such trivial situations?
True, it's not better than encryption- because QE, as your use of scare-quotes apparently alludes to, is not encryption at all.
I agree with your point, but not your logic. You seem top think that something can't be better than encryption if it isn't, in fact, encryption.
The corollary is that if it is encryption, then it can be better than encryption, which is logically the same as saying that if a number is equal to one, then that number might be greater than one.
Don't want to start calling anyone an insensitive clod, but how does copyright law outside the US affect this argument? Can fonts be copyrighted in, say, Chad?
And would this mean that documents created with an embedded GPLed font in Bangladesh would have the GPL virally attached, but if it was created in Peru there wouldn't be a problem?
Discrepancies... another unintended consequence of the GPL.
If MS were to add this sort of clause to the EULA would it mean I can't reverse engineer the MS-Word.doc format because the receptionist at my day job uses Word?
According to the article Andrew Tridgell may have worked for ODSL, but he didn't use BK. I'm not sure how you can be bound by the licence of software you're not using.
Does the US have a payroll tax? As far as I understand (which isn't very far) we have one here in Australia. Could this also be a way of lessening the tax that Google Inc. have to pay?
Who's fault is that? No one is forcing me to use GPL software. If I choose to use it, I have to agree to the terms given. That means that if I distribute the software, I am required to make the source available, just like I would be required to keep the source secret if I bought the software off of, say, Microsoft.
If a solution that suits my business doesn't exist at a price I'm willing to pay, that's my problem, not my suppliers'.
If I were going to pay $100,000 for software that I didn't want my competitors to have, I would make sure that my programming contractor didn't use GPL code.
My understanding is that the 'L' in the term 'FLOSS' stands for 'libre,' which means 'free as in speech' in Spanish. This introduces a new word to the debate, which could have solved so many problems if it existed in English...
Actually, I suspect it's one of those nasty ones that just ends up becoming correct. For example, I play in a band, and when a feedback loop starts between a microphone and a speaker, we'll say it's 'feedbacking' rather than 'backfeeding,' 'feeding back,' or 'being fed back.'
In simple terms, the verb in the phrase is 'feed,' and any change to the tense of the phrase should be applied to the verb, not the word that's lucky enough to be at the end.
In your example, the word 'voice' ordinarily acts as a noun, but becomes a verb in this situation. However, if you're going to change one word from a noun to a verb, you can legitimately change the whole thing, so I'll retract my post and leave 'voice-overed' be.
Having said all of that, I'm no expert, and only really understand my language because I've spent a bit of time studying others. The problem I have is that I've got a pretty good grasp of my own language, but I still can't put two words of anyone else's together.
I retired a tape that hadn't been working the other day. One of the staff asked what it was, so I told her. I pulled out a screwdriver and undid the thing to show her what was on the inside, and I thought I should do the right thing and destroy the tape inside.
Stress relieving, I must say, playng with a little reel of tape. When the staff member asked me what the little red switch on the side was for, though, I felt the stress start leaking back.
Where did you get that crack? And I mean the one in the back of your head, not the one you're obviously smoking.
The parent said '300% growth.' That implies 'larger than,' not 'of.' So I was correct, and I'm not sure what the point of your post is unless you're stoned, meaning there is no point.
And on the it/it's thing, give me a break. I was posting at 1:42 am. Given that that was the only mistake I made, I thnk I'm doing better than one other person I'm replying to right now.
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Umm, is this supposed to be multiple choice?
There was one thing I picked up on.
Remember the scene where the Palpatine proclaimns himself Emperor (and gives rise to one of the best lines of the hexology -- "And so democracy dies, to the sound of thunderous applause.")?
The very next scene cuts to Obi-wan Kenobi, who has just survived Order 66 hundreds of light years away. As I remember he has yet to make contact with the rest of the world (or he might be trying) and he refers to Palpatine as 'Emperor.'
Man, the Jedi must have saved a packet on newspapers...
My four year old daughter heard Grover on Sesame Street the other day, and asked me why Yoda had blue fur.
I had a read of the article (actually, the discussion paper itself) and it contains a really good, refreshingly unbiased explanation of copyright law in .au. It turns out that copyright only aplies to non-trivial items. There doesn't seem to be a definition of 'trivial,' but my shopping list would definitely be there.
You're right about format transfer though, it is overly strict. I've never known anyone to be actually sued over this. I read an interview last year with an ARIA bigwig, and he was asked about this issue. Whilst he didn't promise to never sue anyone in the future, he pointed out that they've never done it before, and that they're more worried about commercial piracy.
Still, there's no provision under current law to allow this. Except for some heavily circumscribed uses, there is no such thing as fair use in Australian Law. I hope this review of the legislation will result in MP3 player owners all over Australia becoming law abiding citizens.
The school my daughter goes to (rural .au) has a very strong anti-bullying policy. Kids are taught very clearly what sorts of behaviours are acceptable, unacceptable and so on. Kids are also taught appropriate ways to stand up to bullies. I thought it all sounded a bit soft until I saw it in action.
Bullies don't survive long in that school.
Unless, it appears, they come from Redmond.
I haven't heard too many people refer to the kernel as GNU.
I guess terminology pedants do pick on these things prety quickly when they do happen though.
Which would eventually end up with everyone dead bar one person, or several identically super-intelligent people.
Sounds like it's time to take the crayon out of my nose...
The problem in Australia is that it's all a little too strict. There's very little flexibility in the system, and all original works are, like you say, copyrighted.
It seems ridiculous, but if I write 'sugar, eggs, bread, milk' on a piece of paper I have the copyright to that shopping list.
In Australia, I can sue anyone else who also happens to have written out the same list.
(Of course, such a list would presumably have been written by someone else a long time ago and would have passed into the Public Domain by now... but you get my point! Even in that case, I own the rights to the typesetting, which means that I can sue you if you photocopy it.)
I can sell my list, and I can sell licences to copy it. But if someone takes that list, and transfers the content to their PDA because they prefer that format, they have abused my rights as a copyright holder, unless I specifically gave them permission to do such a thing.
Automatic copyright is good, but do we need it to apply in such trivial situations?
I agree with your point, but not your logic. You seem top think that something can't be better than encryption if it isn't, in fact, encryption.
The corollary is that if it is encryption, then it can be better than encryption, which is logically the same as saying that if a number is equal to one, then that number might be greater than one.
Sorry to nitpick. I had a long day...
REG: Right. You're in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the fucking Judean People's Front.
FRANCIS: And the Judean Popular People's Front.
LORETTA: And the People's Front of Judea.
REG: What?
LORETTA: The People's Front of Judea. Splitters.
REG: We're the People's Front of Judea!
LORETTA: Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.
REG: People's Front! C-huh.
FRANCIS: Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?
REG: He's over there.
P.F.J.: Splitter!
Don't want to start calling anyone an insensitive clod, but how does copyright law outside the US affect this argument? Can fonts be copyrighted in, say, Chad?
And would this mean that documents created with an embedded GPLed font in Bangladesh would have the GPL virally attached, but if it was created in Peru there wouldn't be a problem?
Discrepancies... another unintended consequence of the GPL.
If MS were to add this sort of clause to the EULA would it mean I can't reverse engineer the MS-Word .doc format because the receptionist at my day job uses Word?
According to the article Andrew Tridgell may have worked for ODSL, but he didn't use BK. I'm not sure how you can be bound by the licence of software you're not using.
During the Sydney Olympics a mate of mine and I would hunt out Americans, and start chatting.
"So where do you come from?"
"The USA."
"Where's that?"
(Mate interrupts) "I heard about that country. Isn't that just south of Canada?"
Let me tell you, the look we got kept us going with the same gag for two whole weeks...
Does the US have a payroll tax? As far as I understand (which isn't very far) we have one here in Australia. Could this also be a way of lessening the tax that Google Inc. have to pay?
Who's fault is that? No one is forcing me to use GPL software. If I choose to use it, I have to agree to the terms given. That means that if I distribute the software, I am required to make the source available, just like I would be required to keep the source secret if I bought the software off of, say, Microsoft.
If a solution that suits my business doesn't exist at a price I'm willing to pay, that's my problem, not my suppliers'.
If I were going to pay $100,000 for software that I didn't want my competitors to have, I would make sure that my programming contractor didn't use GPL code.
What's so hard about that?
Same for the GPL. You don't have to contribute changes to GPL code either, so long as you don't distribute those changes.
My understanding is that the 'L' in the term 'FLOSS' stands for 'libre,' which means 'free as in speech' in Spanish. This introduces a new word to the debate, which could have solved so many problems if it existed in English...
Actually, I suspect it's one of those nasty ones that just ends up becoming correct. For example, I play in a band, and when a feedback loop starts between a microphone and a speaker, we'll say it's 'feedbacking' rather than 'backfeeding,' 'feeding back,' or 'being fed back.'
In simple terms, the verb in the phrase is 'feed,' and any change to the tense of the phrase should be applied to the verb, not the word that's lucky enough to be at the end.
In your example, the word 'voice' ordinarily acts as a noun, but becomes a verb in this situation. However, if you're going to change one word from a noun to a verb, you can legitimately change the whole thing, so I'll retract my post and leave 'voice-overed' be.
Having said all of that, I'm no expert, and only really understand my language because I've spent a bit of time studying others. The problem I have is that I've got a pretty good grasp of my own language, but I still can't put two words of anyone else's together.
Oh well...
Sorry to pick on you, but I'm asking, not nagging! Shouldn't that be 'voiced-over?'
Hmm, they seem to be using a fair bit of GNU in there. Better make it GNU/Zeta.
Or, if it's meant for novices, GNU/Be.
I retired a tape that hadn't been working the other day. One of the staff asked what it was, so I told her. I pulled out a screwdriver and undid the thing to show her what was on the inside, and I thought I should do the right thing and destroy the tape inside.
Stress relieving, I must say, playng with a little reel of tape. When the staff member asked me what the little red switch on the side was for, though, I felt the stress start leaking back.
Lucky I'm the boss.
Where did you get that crack? And I mean the one in the back of your head, not the one you're obviously smoking.
The parent said '300% growth.' That implies 'larger than,' not 'of.' So I was correct, and I'm not sure what the point of your post is unless you're stoned, meaning there is no point.
And on the it/it's thing, give me a break. I was posting at 1:42 am. Given that that was the only mistake I made, I thnk I'm doing better than one other person I'm replying to right now.
No, that's only 200% growth. The outfit is 300% larger than it's original size, but don't forget that it started at 100%.
Good point though.