And I also saw a while ago on the NaN site that Blender 2.26 (Publisher only maybe not that it matters any more) was supposed to support renderman rendering directly but the link is broken now (since the NaN site is closed).
expect similarly vast amounts of money. If Scott McNealy left Sun, most of Sun's major customers would probably still trust the hardware, software and services
Then maybe the Sun stockholders should fire him or reduce his pay from the 3-5 million dollars hes getting per year.
How come no one ever asks what happens when a copyright runs out and something reverts to the public domain?
Because its been so long since anything has.
I think that at least some of the public's willingness to flaunt copyright law is that it has been perverted from its original intent and now so little has entered the public domain in recent history that the commons is decaying.
Wouldn't it be interesting to see what could be done artistically if all the works in the 20s-70s were in the public domain, rather than having to fight through all sorts of restrictions and laws to incorporate the plots and images into modern works?
I think the problem they had was with the news release in april stating -
The film is being released on VHS videocassette only and is not being released on the DVD format in 2000 or for the foreseeable future.
Then releasing the DVD in October of the next year. Most people think that a little over a year is forseeable, especially when that includes the time to manufacture the completed product.
I'm sure it is a hardship to Germans who lose their licenses, but I'm sure it isn't nearly the burden one would experience in the US.
Why? Because Germany has a good public transit system, and frankly the US public transit system outside (and inside some) large urban areas is virtually non-existant. Thus automobiles have become the default/only "public" transport outside of large cities in the US making being unable to use a car a much harsher punishment.
That isn't to say there isn't a need to remove habitually dangerous drivers from the road. Just that the punishment of permanent license revokation is a much harsher punishment here than in Germany, perhaps resulting in more leinency in the sentancing in the US.
One way to alleviate this would be to upgrade the public transportation systems in the US, but that would be quite expensive, and I don't see it happening any time soon.
Theres an easy way to fix this for people who do want to purchase legitamate product, but don't want to modify their DVD players.
Release your product in a region free format
I'm sure if there was a release of a Harry Potter book in Engalnd 3 years before it was released in the US and you could only read it with a licensed viewer moddified to allow other region viewing people would photocopy the entire book and sell it.
Its just another illustration of how screwed up the whole dvd region system is, and frankly I don't have much sympathy.
The problem also lies with the investors - the little and big ones (the big ones the most, pension funds and other institutional investors own about 45% of public companies) - started seeing the stock market as a big time casino game and rewarding quick profits rather than the fundamental value of the company and its business model.
But are you fully comprehending all of the legal ramifications of the contract?
Do you know all the relavent state and local laws of the region you just flew into?
I'm sure the large team of lawyers who drafted the contract did, maybe we all need to have lawyers on retainer to run over the contract at the rental counter for us before we sign.
Don't bother. Nick butchered the origninal episodes and neutered the new ones they made to fit into their kiddie vision. You can read about the whole story of how it happened here (at least as long as the bandwidth holds out). Or you can try to find the same story in pages of links (or cached) from Google
Book sellers already tried this and were shot down in flames when it got to the Supreme Court.
They tried to put licenses in books restricting resales (maybe they should have used the argument that the buyer only owns the paper not the words inked on it) and the case clarified the doctrine of first sale:
In our view the copyright statutes, while protecting the owner of the copyright in his right to multiply and sell his production, do not create the right to impose, by notice, such as is disclosed in this case, a limitation at which the book shall be sold at retail by future purchasers, with whom there is no privity of contract. This conclusion is reached in view of the language of the statute, read in the light of its main purpose [210 U.S. 339, 351] to secure the right of multiplying copies of the work,-a right which is the special creation of the statute. True, the statute also secures, to make this right of multiplication effectual, the sole right to vend copies of the book, the production of the author's thought and conception. The owner of the copyright in this case did sell copies of the book in quantities and at a price satisfactory to it. It has exercised the right to vend. What the complainant contends for embraces not only the right to sell the copies, but to qualify the title of a future purchaser by the reservation of the right to have the remedies of the statute against an infringer because of the printed notice of its purpose so to do unless the purchaser sells at a price fixed in the notice. To add to the right of exclusive sale the authority to control all future retail sales, by a notice that such sales must be made at a fixed sum, would give a right not included in the terms of the statute, and, in our view, extend its operation, by construction, beyond its meaning, when interpreted with a view to ascertaining the legislative intent in its enactment.
The court has recently upheld the doctrine of first use in another case.
However since copyright is to a very large extent controlled by congress they may be able to pass law to allow this (and hopefully take the political fallout from it).
However if it is in the best interests of the governed the government does have the right/duty to suspend the intellectual property rights of a company.
For example the intellectual property rights on certain AIDS medications have been suspended in Brazil.
Although the software question doesnt really rise to the same bar, since its not really/usually a life or death issue, it doesnt mean that there would never be a case where the needs of the public would outweigh the harm done to the individual even for software (although I couldn't come up with any at the moment).
I respect the rights of an author to control their work, however I also feel that holding on to a piece of property effectively forever that you never intend on doing anything with just for the sake of controlling it (in particular IP) is miserly, anti-social and relegates it to be forgotten forever adding nothing to the human condition. (However these decisions are only sometimes made by the original developers, often instead being relegated to some company that owns the code the developers produced, or bought said company or the work is already completely forgotten by everyone and no one really knows who owns it anymore).
Of course no idea alone is patentable -- "A patent cannot be obtained upon a mere idea or suggestion. The patent is granted upon the new machine, manufacture, etc., as has been said, and not upon the idea or suggestion of the new machine." (1).
The current problem IMHO is due to the overturning of the business method exception (2) which almost allows just an idea to be a valid patent and were excluded with a 100 years of case law, that this type of business method patent was not the intent of the constitution, and also one of the reasons all these patents were available, since even though the basic ideas are very old (for instance Priceline patented a reverse auctioning business method) no one was able to patent them when they first appeared since business models werent able to be patented (with good reason IMHO) until 1998.
Unfortunately, the big companies are now in a mode where they will not release new technology until after they feel like they've got the DRM security issues worked out.
And in this comment is the clear reason that media hardware producers should be kept at arms length from media content producers.
When the media content producers can dictate the hardware usable to view their content (which they do at the moment), then you can be sure that the end customer is getting a brain damaged product that isnt made to the most rational specifications that the end customer would most likely to want to purchase. Instead you get a weird amalgam of what the customer will tolerate and what the media content producer is willing to allow.
Slashdot Mirror
There are already scripts to use other rendering engines.
See this -
http://www.janw.gothere.uk.com/export.html#usage
and for some pics of various renderers from the same site -
http://www.janw.gothere.uk.com/exportmesh.html
And I also saw a while ago on the NaN site that Blender 2.26 (Publisher only maybe not that it matters any more) was supposed to support renderman rendering directly but the link is broken now (since the NaN site is closed).
expect similarly vast amounts of money. If Scott McNealy left Sun, most of Sun's major customers would probably still trust the hardware, software and services
Then maybe the Sun stockholders should fire him or reduce his pay from the 3-5 million dollars hes getting per year.
Better yet just have anyone disrupting a performance be financially responsible for anyone who wants a refund.
How come no one ever asks what happens when a copyright runs out and something reverts to the public domain?
Because its been so long since anything has.
I think that at least some of the public's willingness to flaunt copyright law is that it has been perverted from its original intent and now so little has entered the public domain in recent history that the commons is decaying.
Wouldn't it be interesting to see what could be done artistically if all the works in the 20s-70s were in the public domain, rather than having to fight through all sorts of restrictions and laws to incorporate the plots and images into modern works?
Its not USED, its an heirloom or antique diamond.
:>
You just need to know how to put it in a favorable light.
They've actually gotten some releases on DVD to do a pan and scan only (no widescreen as well) for them on DVD.
AI was one and Harry Potter was another I made the mistake of renting one, took it back and told them I was no longer renting there.
Then releasing the DVD in October of the next year. Most people think that a little over a year is forseeable, especially when that includes the time to manufacture the completed product.
Start --> Accessories --> System Tools --> System Information
From the Tools menu select System Configuration Utility and then choose what starts and what doesn't.
YMMV, this can mess up a system if you don't know what you're doing. Most likely you can turn stuff back on if you have problems though.
(Alternate way - Run... msconfig)
I'm sure it is a hardship to Germans who lose their licenses, but I'm sure it isn't nearly the burden one would experience in the US.
Why? Because Germany has a good public transit system, and frankly the US public transit system outside (and inside some) large urban areas is virtually non-existant. Thus automobiles have become the default/only "public" transport outside of large cities in the US making being unable to use a car a much harsher punishment.
That isn't to say there isn't a need to remove habitually dangerous drivers from the road. Just that the punishment of permanent license revokation is a much harsher punishment here than in Germany, perhaps resulting in more leinency in the sentancing in the US.
One way to alleviate this would be to upgrade the public transportation systems in the US, but that would be quite expensive, and I don't see it happening any time soon.
Theres an easy way to fix this for people who do want to purchase legitamate product, but don't want to modify their DVD players.
Release your product in a region free format
I'm sure if there was a release of a Harry Potter book in Engalnd 3 years before it was released in the US and you could only read it with a licensed viewer moddified to allow other region viewing people would photocopy the entire book and sell it.
Its just another illustration of how screwed up the whole dvd region system is, and frankly I don't have much sympathy.
GIYF (Google is your friend)
The problem also lies with the investors - the little and big ones (the big ones the most, pension funds and other institutional investors own about 45% of public companies) - started seeing the stock market as a big time casino game and rewarding quick profits rather than the fundamental value of the company and its business model.
But are you fully comprehending all of the legal ramifications of the contract?
Do you know all the relavent state and local laws of the region you just flew into?
I'm sure the large team of lawyers who drafted the contract did, maybe we all need to have lawyers on retainer to run over the contract at the rental counter for us before we sign.
Youre just plotting the wrong quantities on the axes.
Don't bother. Nick butchered the origninal episodes and neutered the new ones they made to fit into their kiddie vision. You can read about the whole story of how it happened here (at least as long as the bandwidth holds out). Or you can try to find the same story in pages of links (or cached) from Google
IANAL, this is not legal advice, just my reading of a relatively recent (1989) Supreme Court case.
You have it backward from how I read the supreme court decision.
Work for hire only applies if its work done within the confines of your employment.
As an independant contractor if copyright is not assigned as part of the contract it is yours.
U.S. Supreme Court
COMMUNITY FOR CREATIVE NON-VIOLENCE v. REID, 490 U.S. 730 (1989)
However if it is in the best interests of the governed the government does have the right/duty to suspend the intellectual property rights of a company.
For example the intellectual property rights on certain AIDS medications have been suspended in Brazil.
Although the software question doesnt really rise to the same bar, since its not really/usually a life or death issue, it doesnt mean that there would never be a case where the needs of the public would outweigh the harm done to the individual even for software (although I couldn't come up with any at the moment).
I respect the rights of an author to control their work, however I also feel that holding on to a piece of property effectively forever that you never intend on doing anything with just for the sake of controlling it (in particular IP) is miserly, anti-social and relegates it to be forgotten forever adding nothing to the human condition. (However these decisions are only sometimes made by the original developers, often instead being relegated to some company that owns the code the developers produced, or bought said company or the work is already completely forgotten by everyone and no one really knows who owns it anymore).
Of course no idea alone is patentable -- "A patent cannot be obtained upon a mere idea or suggestion. The patent is granted upon the new machine, manufacture, etc., as has been said, and not upon the idea or suggestion of the new machine." (1).
The current problem IMHO is due to the overturning of the business method exception (2) which almost allows just an idea to be a valid patent and were excluded with a 100 years of case law, that this type of business method patent was not the intent of the constitution, and also one of the reasons all these patents were available, since even though the basic ideas are very old (for instance Priceline patented a reverse auctioning business method) no one was able to patent them when they first appeared since business models werent able to be patented (with good reason IMHO) until 1998.
Yes the most complex infrastructure in a MMORPG, since....
;)
Habitat although I would agree this is an evolution of the model, with what looks to be much improved graphics
Face facts people, corporations are not charities.
Then why does it always seem that they have their hands out for tax breaks, grants, and bail-outs?
Unfortunately, the big companies are now in a mode where they will not release new technology until after they feel like they've got the DRM security issues worked out.
And in this comment is the clear reason that media hardware producers should be kept at arms length from media content producers.
When the media content producers can dictate the hardware usable to view their content (which they do at the moment), then you can be sure that the end customer is getting a brain damaged product that isnt made to the most rational specifications that the end customer would most likely to want to purchase. Instead you get a weird amalgam of what the customer will tolerate and what the media content producer is willing to allow.
Is only a "sneak peek" or a part of the short film.
Unfortunately the entire thing is not up yet.
I've read that in hunter/gatherer days, we spend less than 4 hours a day on neccesities (food/shelter). Now we spend 8 or more.
Does 100% of your income go to food and shelter?
Does even 50%?
Plus you likely have 2 days off a week.
And thats if the 4 hrs a day is accurate.
I think they need the automatic link embedding to extend to their own posts.