I'm unsure how copyright law works in Europe, but I would imagine EU member nations could respond by passing laws that remove the copyright protection enjoyed by Microsoft's products in their countries.
At which point they are in violation of the Berne convention and about a dozen other IP treaties they've signed off on. Not that MS is really going to withdraw its products, but if, hypothetically, they did, the EU would either have to let them go, or watch the entire worldwide IP system fall apart. Considering that European companies make money from copyrights too, they really don't have much of an incentive to do that.
More realistically, as someone else pointed out, if they can come up with a scheme to tie the disk to one and only one player, they can certainly attempt to do so. I wouldn't buy such a thing, and I'd advise everyone I know against it, but they can try.
The RIAA doesn't have the power to overrule the "first-sale" doctrine.
They can't use the law to prevent you from reselling it, but they're perfectly within their rights to make disks that are only useful to the first owner. If they can come up with a disk that self-destructs when it leaves your house, the first-sale doctrine hardly impedes them from doing so.
Damn, my first car cost less than that. Granted, it was a piece of shit, and it didn't have the latest and greatest Cell HypeEngine® built in, but it did have a nice big back seat (wink, wink), which produced a lot more fun than any Sony equipment I've ever owned.
Courts are not supposed to "establish" rights in the first place, but rather serve as a forum to adjudicate competing claims and protect the rights that already exist from infringement wherever possible.
In any case, the state treats people differently all the time, based on differing circumstances. That's why bank robbers get ten years, but check-forgers get six months. Differential punishments are only a problem if they infringe upon some fundamental right and the state cannot show a compelling interest for so doing. In the case of bank Once the Skinner court recognized the fundamental right to procreate - the first two sentences of the opinion - and failed to find some compelling state interest for unequal infringements of that right, the outcome was inevitable.
No way. I used to work for a bank, and the busiest machines carried $30k when full, and most of our machines carried less. The machines just aren't set up to hold 12,500 bills (about 25 pounds worth of currency), which is $250k in $20 bills. Plus, that amount of cash would be way too tempting for the sorts of idiots who might consider hooking up a tow truck or backhoe and just driving off with the thing.
Not leaking memory like a sieve doesn't seem like it's too much to expect. I've seen installs of NIS 2005 that, after a few days heavy usage, take up 80-100 MB of system memory. That seems a touch excessive, even given what all it has to do;)
Seriously. Considering how good NAV is at sucking up memory and CPU cycles, the only way anyone probably noticed was when their computer suddenly seemed much smoother and more responsive.
Also, restarting a process and hoping the crash does not happen again is not in general the right thing to do, as students of the Ariane V disaster will realize. In that case there were multiple redundant processors that all had the same bug (relative to the inputs they were getting from the new vehicle).
Actually, IIRC the Ariane software didn't attempt a restart, and it wasn't really a crash per se, although if it had attempted a restart, the result would have been the same. Anyway, as I recall, each control system (two redundant systems) was designed to assume a hardware failure and shut down upon receiving inputs that were outside a certain range, and thus leaving the second (working) system in charge. Except that they slapped an old system in from the Ariane IV and didn't bother to test it against the flight profile of the new rocket, so upon getting out of range inputs, both systems duly shut down as designed, thereby leaving nobody to drive the bus;)
You don't really need to worry about "wasted energy" no matter where you are. I find having my computers running 24/7 to be convenient for me. The power used keeping them on 24/7 is not "waste", it's the price of convenience.
Remember your words when you've spent 40k and 5 years of college learning a subject which recently became the target of massive outsourcing and layoffs.
Which ties back into the original subject rather neatly, I think. If your employer pays for you to learn new stuff, good for you - take advantage of it. If not, oh well. Either way, you'd be well advised to take every opportunity to learn new things, even stupid things like Windows administration, and if that means doing it on your own time, so be it. The alternative is to risk waking up some morning and finding yourself out of work and unemployable because nobody wants the sorts of skills you have any more.
Hey, can I give you a virtual cookie for being the first person to register an objection (to me, anyway) that consists of more than "I don't like it"?;)
What you say is true, but unfortunately I don't think it's going to make a difference, as a practical matter. They're talking about getting kids who are already legitimately registered in classes to record, so there's no issue of outsiders coming in. And all they want to do is sit and hit "record", so I don't think the disruption angle works either.
Finally, once the professor gives his students permission to record, the jig is up - unless the recipients of these tapes start distributing them in their entirety, they're pretty much necessarily going to fall in the realm of fair use. Needless to say, they're not interested in distributing the things in their entirety - who wants to (voluntarily) listen to sixty hours worth of Biology 101? Nah, they're just interested in the juicy parts for purposes of criticism, which is practically the dictionary definition of "fair use".
Now, professors could avoid it all by not giving permission to record lectures, but that's likely to prove unpopular among their students. Not to mention that it gives the appearance, true or not, that they have something to hide. So, while your objection is sensible and well thought-out, I still don't think it gets them anywhere. YMMV.
I think it's not quite that bad yet. That is, I suspect that a lot of the folks who behave that way online would never dream of acting that way towards you in person. Although I suppose that many of them would be raging assholes in person if they felt as safe and secure about it as they do online;)
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Compulsory licensing is not the same as copyright revocation, which is what was proposed above.
At which point they are in violation of the Berne convention and about a dozen other IP treaties they've signed off on. Not that MS is really going to withdraw its products, but if, hypothetically, they did, the EU would either have to let them go, or watch the entire worldwide IP system fall apart. Considering that European companies make money from copyrights too, they really don't have much of an incentive to do that.
More realistically, as someone else pointed out, if they can come up with a scheme to tie the disk to one and only one player, they can certainly attempt to do so. I wouldn't buy such a thing, and I'd advise everyone I know against it, but they can try.
They can't use the law to prevent you from reselling it, but they're perfectly within their rights to make disks that are only useful to the first owner. If they can come up with a disk that self-destructs when it leaves your house, the first-sale doctrine hardly impedes them from doing so.
Sounds like someone hasn't leveraged the empowerment of their paradigm shift....
"Also, hypothetically speaking, how would someone go about getting in and changing grades? Strictly hypothetically, of course."
Damn, my first car cost less than that. Granted, it was a piece of shit, and it didn't have the latest and greatest Cell HypeEngine® built in, but it did have a nice big back seat (wink, wink), which produced a lot more fun than any Sony equipment I've ever owned.
Clipped my own sentence - it should read "In the case of bank robbers, the state has a compelling interest in discouraging violent crime".
In any case, the state treats people differently all the time, based on differing circumstances. That's why bank robbers get ten years, but check-forgers get six months. Differential punishments are only a problem if they infringe upon some fundamental right and the state cannot show a compelling interest for so doing. In the case of bank Once the Skinner court recognized the fundamental right to procreate - the first two sentences of the opinion - and failed to find some compelling state interest for unequal infringements of that right, the outcome was inevitable.
Skinner v. Oklahoma, 316 U.S. 535 (1942), for starters.
The law says otherwise, and I don't think you'll have much luck changing that.
No way. I used to work for a bank, and the busiest machines carried $30k when full, and most of our machines carried less. The machines just aren't set up to hold 12,500 bills (about 25 pounds worth of currency), which is $250k in $20 bills. Plus, that amount of cash would be way too tempting for the sorts of idiots who might consider hooking up a tow truck or backhoe and just driving off with the thing.
I imagine it will work about as well as the DARE anti-drug program does in schools. That is, not at all.
Obviously the internet executed him.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled bashing :)
Not leaking memory like a sieve doesn't seem like it's too much to expect. I've seen installs of NIS 2005 that, after a few days heavy usage, take up 80-100 MB of system memory. That seems a touch excessive, even given what all it has to do ;)
Seriously. Considering how good NAV is at sucking up memory and CPU cycles, the only way anyone probably noticed was when their computer suddenly seemed much smoother and more responsive.
Actually, IIRC the Ariane software didn't attempt a restart, and it wasn't really a crash per se, although if it had attempted a restart, the result would have been the same. Anyway, as I recall, each control system (two redundant systems) was designed to assume a hardware failure and shut down upon receiving inputs that were outside a certain range, and thus leaving the second (working) system in charge. Except that they slapped an old system in from the Ariane IV and didn't bother to test it against the flight profile of the new rocket, so upon getting out of range inputs, both systems duly shut down as designed, thereby leaving nobody to drive the bus ;)
You don't really need to worry about "wasted energy" no matter where you are. I find having my computers running 24/7 to be convenient for me. The power used keeping them on 24/7 is not "waste", it's the price of convenience.
Which ties back into the original subject rather neatly, I think. If your employer pays for you to learn new stuff, good for you - take advantage of it. If not, oh well. Either way, you'd be well advised to take every opportunity to learn new things, even stupid things like Windows administration, and if that means doing it on your own time, so be it. The alternative is to risk waking up some morning and finding yourself out of work and unemployable because nobody wants the sorts of skills you have any more.
What you say is true, but unfortunately I don't think it's going to make a difference, as a practical matter. They're talking about getting kids who are already legitimately registered in classes to record, so there's no issue of outsiders coming in. And all they want to do is sit and hit "record", so I don't think the disruption angle works either.
Finally, once the professor gives his students permission to record, the jig is up - unless the recipients of these tapes start distributing them in their entirety, they're pretty much necessarily going to fall in the realm of fair use. Needless to say, they're not interested in distributing the things in their entirety - who wants to (voluntarily) listen to sixty hours worth of Biology 101? Nah, they're just interested in the juicy parts for purposes of criticism, which is practically the dictionary definition of "fair use".
Now, professors could avoid it all by not giving permission to record lectures, but that's likely to prove unpopular among their students. Not to mention that it gives the appearance, true or not, that they have something to hide. So, while your objection is sensible and well thought-out, I still don't think it gets them anywhere. YMMV.
The law says otherwise. And it's really better that way, even if we don't always like how it works out in practice.
Yep, like pulling teeth....
I think it's not quite that bad yet. That is, I suspect that a lot of the folks who behave that way online would never dream of acting that way towards you in person. Although I suppose that many of them would be raging assholes in person if they felt as safe and secure about it as they do online ;)
You didn't expect a serious response to such a thing, I hope...