I think the ultimate FU to the EU and security sotware manufacturers would be if they could make it secure by default.
The EU wouldn't mind that. What they do mind is Microsoft bundling other products with a product that has a monopoly position. Doesn't matter if it's software, cars or hamburgers.
I don't think it'd be difficult for them to link those into the installation package system (you know, the thing you use to decide if you want to install Minesweeper) instead of automatically installing them but they are unwilling.
Yes. Slavery was the 'boogey man' invented by the north part way through the war to justify its conclusion. Slavery is cruel and intolerable, but it was only a tiny element of a huge number of reasons why the North and South went to war.
New findings lead historians to believe that the reason for the civil war was WMDs.
That depends. If your software isn't that popular the store might decide to stack all your SKUs into one or two piles while a very popular piece of software might take the entire shelf for itself with only one SKU.
That's why games offer an options menu that lets you turn the graphics down a lot. You can play most games on a pretty old rig but if you have the latest and greatest you can turn them up so they look better. Few if any console games offer the ability to look better on future hardware that may be backwards compatible (exceptions include the Super Gameboy and Gameboy Color, some games looked better on those while still running on the old grey brick).
Come to Germany, look at the store shelves and try telling me PC gaming is a niche. Yeah, a niche that gets more shelf space than all consoles combined!
Keyboard and Mouse isn't necessarily better, you can make the argument that the mouse is more accurate but are you sure you don't prefer that method simply because that's the control mechanism you learned how to play FPSs with? Personally I'll take a gamepad over a keyboard and mouse any day of the week, it's just more comfortable for me and feels more natural to me, I currently use a console like controller for all of my PC gaming because it's my preferred input device.
Depends completely on the game. If the game is about controlling one actor directly the gamepad is almost always the "better" solution (though I use gamepads only for 2d games, being able to orient your character with the mouse makes analog movement control unnecessary for almost all purposes) but once you're controlling more than one object or use indirect control ("go here") the gamepad reaches its limit. Games like strategy and many puzzle genres aren't as nice to control with a gamepad. Pointing at things is a more natural input method for many games which is why Nintendo is bringing it to the console world with the DS and Wii.
Noone's stopping you or anyone else from making your own music and sharing it for free if you just have the desire to spread music. However, not everyone wants to do that just for fun or maybe they like music so much they'd like being able to make music all day instead of having a day job to feed the family and only make music in their free time (which may not be much time after you subtract the time spent with the wife and children). I've certainly seen web comic artists strife for that, the ability to produce art without needing a day job. Without copyright there's nothing to stop people like Eric Bauman from taking everyone's hard work, aggregating it at their website and take the ad revenue for themselves instead of letting the artists profit from those ad impressions.
Do you need an explaination that "iPod" is an MP3 player made by Apple or that Windows is an OS released by Microsoft each time an article about those comes up?
Also asking a company for permission will net you no reply at all with almost all companies. That's a sign that they'll let you continue but if your product looks too good you'll get a C&D letter when it's a month or two away from release. Asking for permission and not getting an answer means they don't object to fan content per se but they reserve the option to kill your project. Some companies have publicly posted policies regarding fan stuff (e.g. you can make a Star Wars mod as long as it doesn't involve Jedis), beware of the rest.
It's always safer not to copy someone else's ideas.
This is evident in their initial response to the growing open-source movement, which they have now come full circle to "embrace" (not really but they claim to) after failing to squash it's rise.
Of course MS embraces opensource software. Embrace, extend, exterminate. Though I don't think they've got screeching, laser-shooting pepperpots for that last bit...
Well, bragging rights are a benefit. And what's to stop EA from hiring a few mod teams as inofficial workers to produce mods using other companies' IPs to increase the sales of their own game without paying license fees?
Counterstrike wasn't infringing upon any games comapny's IP, only that of the weapon makers and they don't seem to complain that often.
Devaluation is not the same as losing your copyright. By allowing fan games to compete with their products they reduce the monetary value of their IP (since the fan-made games will impact their sales a least slightly) and that's devaluation.
It's a derivative work, that's infringing already. Copyright covers copies and derivative works. Probably to prevent people from changing a few bits of your work and claiming it as their own.
The starwars and startrek fan movies are infringing too, but George Lucas and Paramount respectively have basically said that they won't do anything against them as long as they're not being sold (of course, there's no legal binding on that, so for all intent and purposes they could have a change of heart tomorrow and start suing right and left).
Announcing that you permit derivative works like that is considered an oral contract and is indeed legally binding.
Maybe it's 1-2 months in a professional full-time work environment but hobbyists usually take much longer. Many mods are TCs, i.e. do that much and end up taking years if they finish at all.
This is completely standard practice. Most mods just fall apart by themselves since the team has too lofty goals or simply gets bored. Companies usually just wait for the mods to collapse, only if they don't the company will take action. After all, it's nice promotion to have others make a mod of your IP but at some point they may become too serious a threat to your business or simply reach completion (many mods have plans that take like 2 years to get done and refuse to release anything before the mod is complete, 99% of them never make it to the first release). C&Ding is always unpopular with the fanbase and the company tries to avoid it as much as possible (and even avoid flat out telling people no when they ask if they can make a mod). Very few companies don't reserve the right to C&D anything based on their IP.
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I think the ultimate FU to the EU and security sotware manufacturers would be if they could make it secure by default.
The EU wouldn't mind that. What they do mind is Microsoft bundling other products with a product that has a monopoly position. Doesn't matter if it's software, cars or hamburgers.
I don't think it'd be difficult for them to link those into the installation package system (you know, the thing you use to decide if you want to install Minesweeper) instead of automatically installing them but they are unwilling.
The post title sounded like he was alluding to that. But instead of writing you're practicing reading...
That non-IE browsers and non-Outlook email clients are still way too rare?
Yes. Slavery was the 'boogey man' invented by the north part way through the war to justify its conclusion. Slavery is cruel and intolerable, but it was only a tiny element of a huge number of reasons why the North and South went to war.
New findings lead historians to believe that the reason for the civil war was WMDs.
That depends. If your software isn't that popular the store might decide to stack all your SKUs into one or two piles while a very popular piece of software might take the entire shelf for itself with only one SKU.
Interesting, I always thought everyone uses A4.
Yes but turning on VSync won't kill that breathing room and won't cause tearing.
Cool, that could replace my 386 luggable Toshiba T5100.
That's why games offer an options menu that lets you turn the graphics down a lot. You can play most games on a pretty old rig but if you have the latest and greatest you can turn them up so they look better. Few if any console games offer the ability to look better on future hardware that may be backwards compatible (exceptions include the Super Gameboy and Gameboy Color, some games looked better on those while still running on the old grey brick).
Come to Germany, look at the store shelves and try telling me PC gaming is a niche. Yeah, a niche that gets more shelf space than all consoles combined!
But what if consoles won PC vs Console? Mac vs. Console? Man, that would be a pointless battle...
Then you can probably afford the hardware to rip them from their original media.
Keyboard and Mouse isn't necessarily better, you can make the argument that the mouse is more accurate but are you sure you don't prefer that method simply because that's the control mechanism you learned how to play FPSs with? Personally I'll take a gamepad over a keyboard and mouse any day of the week, it's just more comfortable for me and feels more natural to me, I currently use a console like controller for all of my PC gaming because it's my preferred input device.
Depends completely on the game. If the game is about controlling one actor directly the gamepad is almost always the "better" solution (though I use gamepads only for 2d games, being able to orient your character with the mouse makes analog movement control unnecessary for almost all purposes) but once you're controlling more than one object or use indirect control ("go here") the gamepad reaches its limit. Games like strategy and many puzzle genres aren't as nice to control with a gamepad. Pointing at things is a more natural input method for many games which is why Nintendo is bringing it to the console world with the DS and Wii.
Noone's stopping you or anyone else from making your own music and sharing it for free if you just have the desire to spread music. However, not everyone wants to do that just for fun or maybe they like music so much they'd like being able to make music all day instead of having a day job to feed the family and only make music in their free time (which may not be much time after you subtract the time spent with the wife and children). I've certainly seen web comic artists strife for that, the ability to produce art without needing a day job. Without copyright there's nothing to stop people like Eric Bauman from taking everyone's hard work, aggregating it at their website and take the ad revenue for themselves instead of letting the artists profit from those ad impressions.
Do you need an explaination that "iPod" is an MP3 player made by Apple or that Windows is an OS released by Microsoft each time an article about those comes up?
With Bittorrent?
Also asking a company for permission will net you no reply at all with almost all companies. That's a sign that they'll let you continue but if your product looks too good you'll get a C&D letter when it's a month or two away from release. Asking for permission and not getting an answer means they don't object to fan content per se but they reserve the option to kill your project. Some companies have publicly posted policies regarding fan stuff (e.g. you can make a Star Wars mod as long as it doesn't involve Jedis), beware of the rest.
It's always safer not to copy someone else's ideas.
This is evident in their initial response to the growing open-source movement, which they have now come full circle to "embrace" (not really but they claim to) after failing to squash it's rise.
Of course MS embraces opensource software. Embrace, extend, exterminate. Though I don't think they've got screeching, laser-shooting pepperpots for that last bit...
Well, bragging rights are a benefit. And what's to stop EA from hiring a few mod teams as inofficial workers to produce mods using other companies' IPs to increase the sales of their own game without paying license fees?
Counterstrike wasn't infringing upon any games comapny's IP, only that of the weapon makers and they don't seem to complain that often.
Devaluation is not the same as losing your copyright. By allowing fan games to compete with their products they reduce the monetary value of their IP (since the fan-made games will impact their sales a least slightly) and that's devaluation.
It's a derivative work, that's infringing already. Copyright covers copies and derivative works. Probably to prevent people from changing a few bits of your work and claiming it as their own.
The starwars and startrek fan movies are infringing too, but George Lucas and Paramount respectively have basically said that they won't do anything against them as long as they're not being sold (of course, there's no legal binding on that, so for all intent and purposes they could have a change of heart tomorrow and start suing right and left).
Announcing that you permit derivative works like that is considered an oral contract and is indeed legally binding.
Maybe it's 1-2 months in a professional full-time work environment but hobbyists usually take much longer. Many mods are TCs, i.e. do that much and end up taking years if they finish at all.
This is completely standard practice. Most mods just fall apart by themselves since the team has too lofty goals or simply gets bored. Companies usually just wait for the mods to collapse, only if they don't the company will take action. After all, it's nice promotion to have others make a mod of your IP but at some point they may become too serious a threat to your business or simply reach completion (many mods have plans that take like 2 years to get done and refuse to release anything before the mod is complete, 99% of them never make it to the first release). C&Ding is always unpopular with the fanbase and the company tries to avoid it as much as possible (and even avoid flat out telling people no when they ask if they can make a mod). Very few companies don't reserve the right to C&D anything based on their IP.