Exactly. If the highway (Bittorrent protocal) wasn't there, the high speed chase (copyright infringement) would have happened on something else instead.
I think he's talking about how many different "executable" filetypes there are on Windows. For example I was surpised the other day when GMail refused to send a MS access (.mdb) file because it can contain executable code.
I'm pretty sure that on YAM (Yet Another Mailer) on the Amiga you could drag and drop names from the address book into emails you are composing and it adds the email address to the list of people the email is to. IIRC first version of it was released in 1995 or so.
"
The drivers are digitally signed after being SAP verified by Microsoft. It will refuse to play protected audio if you have unsigned drivers."
Gah then I really hope the BBC's DRM doesn't use this, pretty much all my drivers are unsigned (using Windows x64 edition on my Windows partition, so most drivers are beta still).
I very much doubt the BBC will open the source of their player, at least while DRM is still used - it would be much too easy to work around; For example if the player grabs the decryption key from the server as you guessed, I could just stick some extra code in to cache the keys.
What I think it does is if it's a plain text file with a.txt extension, it will search it, but if it's a plain text file with any other extension, it won't even try.
I seem to remember a while ago that it was taking so long for them to do this (they announced it first quite a long time ago) because of the issues of paying actors (IIRC they get paid royalties each time it's shown, or something like that), so DRM is probably their solution they could agree on. Also the BBC gains a lot of capital from DVD sales.
Really is a pity though they are using DRM, and a custom application, as I wouldn't be surprised at all if it only ran on Windows. I also hope the P2P part of it actually lets me cap upload and download bandwidth, and the application allows me to watch the video on my TV which is connected to my PC.
If I had to guess I'd say games which use the proper APIs will work, and those games which "bang the metal" (ie use the hardware directly rather than telling directx or whatever to do it) will have issues.
"On the bright side, once your OS falls behind so do the number of virus attacks. Win98 is pretty safe now, for instance, because most attacks only work on XP.
"
In some cases yeah, but I've had some malware (ok not a virus as such, but close) completely kill a Windows 98SE box's network stack after it got in by trying to "patch" the Winsock libraries and assuming it was XP.
"Now how about just frying the RFID chip on the DVD, voila: it looks like a regular DVD
"
Unless they're amazingly stupid, that won't work. The DVD player will say "hey this is encrypted, I need the key" then look for the RFID tag with the key on it, if the key can't be read from the RFID it can't decrypt it and therefore can't play it.
Basically I theres a hole in the networking part of Phantasy Star Online which lets you execute code remotely on the game cube. Exploiting this hole lets you "stream" games stored on another machine's HD over the network, so you can for example download GC games and play them on the GC.
A more extreme example was the 1983 election where the SDP-Liberal Alliance got 7,780,949 votes, and got 23 seats, and Labour got 8,456,934 votes (under a million more) yet got 209 seats.
Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems to me that "thought crime" as MS describes it would refer to copying the "idea" in software, ie creating a word processor would be "thought crime". Copyright would be copying the actual software implementation, ie producing illegal copies of MS word.
Starts with black screen and text fades in reading "Imaging working for hundreds of hours..."
Screen fades to a coder sitting at a linux box with the sudo source code on the screen. Screen fades back to black.
Text fades in "Finally completing it". Screen fades to display of coder falling back with a sigh of relief. Screen fades to black.
Text fades in "Giving it away for Free".
Screen fades to linux machine running Firefox uploading sudo to sourceforge.
Screen fades to black and fades in text "15 years later... " Text fades out, fades in picture of Slashdot story of MS patenting sudo, story of MS trying to patent the internet again, story of Amazon one click patent. Screen fades to black, fades in text "Only to be told YOU could be sued because companies have "stolen" your idea and patented it." Screen fades to black and fades in text "No software patents. No monopolies on ideas."
My phone has all that, and you either send mp3s to it via bluetooth or access it as a standard usb hard drive (no drivers needed with most OSs) with the usb cable. The down side? It's a Nokia N-Gage and as a result fairly large (well compared to most other phones anyway at least), and I had to get the 1GB MMC seperatly (was £60 iirc). Only other disadvantage I can think of is I get worse reception on it than on other phones in the same place.
It doesn't restrict me from copying anything to or from it (my brother's Sharp GX15 for example only lets you download java software, ringtones etc from GPRS even though it has bluetooth), can install my own java and symbian OS software and can even set MP3s as ring tones (although I just put mine on vibrate usually as it's less annoying for other people). It can even play oggs with extra software (IIRC there's a free-as-in-speech version available on sourceforge).
I find the sound quality on it to be good, but I'm not really an audiophile so can't comment too much on that. Also the headphones I have (HDD-2) is actually a stereo handsfree kit and has a button on the cable which you press and it goes to the next track, and the phone pauses the song if you get an incoming call when using the handsfree kit, which I find a useful feature, and another reason I prefer to use my phone as an phone as an MP3 player, as well as the obvious one of it taking up less space.
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly. If the highway (Bittorrent protocal) wasn't there, the high speed chase (copyright infringement) would have happened on something else instead.
I think he's talking about how many different "executable" filetypes there are on Windows. For example I was surpised the other day when GMail refused to send a MS access (.mdb) file because it can contain executable code.
It's because we're too busy downloading television shows.
I'm pretty sure that on YAM (Yet Another Mailer) on the Amiga you could drag and drop names from the address book into emails you are composing and it adds the email address to the list of people the email is to. IIRC first version of it was released in 1995 or so.
Torrent here. WMV format.
WMA .
" The drivers are digitally signed after being SAP verified by Microsoft. It will refuse to play protected audio if you have unsigned drivers."
Gah then I really hope the BBC's DRM doesn't use this, pretty much all my drivers are unsigned (using Windows x64 edition on my Windows partition, so most drivers are beta still).
I very much doubt the BBC will open the source of their player, at least while DRM is still used - it would be much too easy to work around; For example if the player grabs the decryption key from the server as you guessed, I could just stick some extra code in to cache the keys.
What I think it does is if it's a plain text file with a .txt extension, it will search it, but if it's a plain text file with any other extension, it won't even try.
"the BBC is supported by advertising and (are you sitting down?) a yearly television tax."
Nope, just a yearly TV tax, no advertising.
I seem to remember a while ago that it was taking so long for them to do this (they announced it first quite a long time ago) because of the issues of paying actors (IIRC they get paid royalties each time it's shown, or something like that), so DRM is probably their solution they could agree on. Also the BBC gains a lot of capital from DVD sales.
Really is a pity though they are using DRM, and a custom application, as I wouldn't be surprised at all if it only ran on Windows. I also hope the P2P part of it actually lets me cap upload and download bandwidth, and the application allows me to watch the video on my TV which is connected to my PC.
If I had to guess I'd say games which use the proper APIs will work, and those games which "bang the metal" (ie use the hardware directly rather than telling directx or whatever to do it) will have issues.
First things that come to mind are prototyping and education - I'm sure I'm not the only /.er who was taught Pascal at school.
Uh I'm pretty sure illegal network's don't exist. Even if 100% of the traffic on the network is illegal, the network itself is not.
" I should think Macrovision would hardly mind if other companies copy them and start similarly interdicting P2P users. "
Actually they probably would, they're paid by the media industry to do this, and competition might mean the media industry goes to someone else.
"On the bright side, once your OS falls behind so do the number of virus attacks. Win98 is pretty safe now, for instance, because most attacks only work on XP. "
In some cases yeah, but I've had some malware (ok not a virus as such, but close) completely kill a Windows 98SE box's network stack after it got in by trying to "patch" the Winsock libraries and assuming it was XP.
We call them crisps in England, and probably in other parts of Britain too.
"Now how about just frying the RFID chip on the DVD, voila: it looks like a regular DVD "
Unless they're amazingly stupid, that won't work. The DVD player will say "hey this is encrypted, I need the key" then look for the RFID tag with the key on it, if the key can't be read from the RFID it can't decrypt it and therefore can't play it.
Basically I theres a hole in the networking part of Phantasy Star Online which lets you execute code remotely on the game cube. Exploiting this hole lets you "stream" games stored on another machine's HD over the network, so you can for example download GC games and play them on the GC.
A more extreme example was the 1983 election where the SDP-Liberal Alliance got 7,780,949 votes, and got 23 seats, and Labour got 8,456,934 votes (under a million more) yet got 209 seats.
Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems to me that "thought crime" as MS describes it would refer to copying the "idea" in software, ie creating a word processor would be "thought crime". Copyright would be copying the actual software implementation, ie producing illegal copies of MS word.
I was thinking of:
Starts with black screen and text fades in reading "Imaging working for hundreds of hours..."
Screen fades to a coder sitting at a linux box with the sudo source code on the screen. Screen fades back to black.
Text fades in "Finally completing it". Screen fades to display of coder falling back with a sigh of relief. Screen fades to black.
Text fades in "Giving it away for Free".
Screen fades to linux machine running Firefox uploading sudo to sourceforge.
Screen fades to black and fades in text "15 years later... " Text fades out, fades in picture of Slashdot story of MS patenting sudo, story of MS trying to patent the internet again, story of Amazon one click patent. Screen fades to black, fades in text "Only to be told YOU could be sued because companies have "stolen" your idea and patented it." Screen fades to black and fades in text "No software patents. No monopolies on ideas."
IIRC here in the UK, they can't sign anything below the age of 16 and must have their parent/guardian sign it instead.
My phone has all that, and you either send mp3s to it via bluetooth or access it as a standard usb hard drive (no drivers needed with most OSs) with the usb cable. The down side? It's a Nokia N-Gage and as a result fairly large (well compared to most other phones anyway at least), and I had to get the 1GB MMC seperatly (was £60 iirc). Only other disadvantage I can think of is I get worse reception on it than on other phones in the same place.
It doesn't restrict me from copying anything to or from it (my brother's Sharp GX15 for example only lets you download java software, ringtones etc from GPRS even though it has bluetooth), can install my own java and symbian OS software and can even set MP3s as ring tones (although I just put mine on vibrate usually as it's less annoying for other people). It can even play oggs with extra software (IIRC there's a free-as-in-speech version available on sourceforge).
I find the sound quality on it to be good, but I'm not really an audiophile so can't comment too much on that. Also the headphones I have (HDD-2) is actually a stereo handsfree kit and has a button on the cable which you press and it goes to the next track, and the phone pauses the song if you get an incoming call when using the handsfree kit, which I find a useful feature, and another reason I prefer to use my phone as an phone as an MP3 player, as well as the obvious one of it taking up less space.
On my Amiga 1200, it can also come up red if the expansion card is loose.