So we have witnessed one species become another? Where was I?
I think you were in church. Speciation has been observed several times in my lifetime, both in laboratories and in the wild. Of course this is speciation of bacteria and wildflowers, so to creationists it doesn't count. It seems a lot of people have an incorrect assumption as to what speciation means. Until they see a cat give birth to a squirrel they won't believe. The fact that such an occurrence would actually be better evidence against evolution than for it doesn't phase them at all.
Then am I wrong when I say it is called the Theory of Evolution?
No, you're wrong to call Creationism a theory. Creationism is a disproven conjecture. I'd really recommend reading the articles at www.talkorigins.org to get a better idea of the facts.
The thing is, if you aren't selecting out bad genes then they'll be selected in. Evolution doesn't have a direction, and it doesn't stop for anyone. Not that it isn't possible that humans are at some local maximum - like sharks, for instance. But chances are, we're going to continue the trend of evolving into dumber, sicklier creatures. We just won't notice because better medicine will keep up with or advance ahead of our own infirmities.
If all Amiga was offering was an OS, then the Amiga would be dead. However, if what they have works as they've described, then it's one more example of what the future holds.
A small, efficient means for a single binary to run on a multitude of hardware may only be a laudable goal at present, but with the predicted increases in information-appliances it could become a necessity. Especially since what Amiga (and of course, Tao) seem to be building will run any any hardware and any operating system.
The only question that remains is How Well Does It Work?
I'll start by saying that you don't want to minimize the number of unpaid for copies, you want to maximize the number of copies that make you money. Those aren't the same thing.
I'm a little unsure of how much income you'd make, by, for instance, putting it all up on a multipage web site with banner ads. If you could get enough page views it might be worth it (apparently you need around 30 page views to make a dollar - beats me if that's accurate.)
Personally, I prefer to read my books on paper, but I have been know to kill a few hours reading things on the internet. You might want to make the book available for download in multiple formats (pdf, plaintext, whatever) in addition to having the whole thing available online in html. That way, people could read the whole thing - and generate page views, or they could download it. I'd only put a few chapters online at a time, so that people would have to return - but I wouldn't make it so anyone had to wait more than a week to download the entire thing.
Of course, this would probably work better once your site develops some brand recognition, and you have multiple works availble. Possibly even works by other authors, and/or in various genres. Add in an online order form for getting the deadtree editions, and some Venture Capital, who knows?
Of the above posts, only #197 would be on shakey ground, in my opinion, as it is the only one to actually include any copyrighted material. A particularly disgusting suggestion on MS's part is the removal of post #86, which merely discusses the legality of the use of this information.
You will notice that MS is almost completely wrong about which posts actually contain the text of the copyrighted material.
I do not think that MS is in any way justified in describing information concerning the properties of MS's self extracting CAB files as an "attempt to bypass the EULA" - the information presented (using WinZIP) would be widely known to anyone in a position to make use of the information.
Since/. has a limit to post length, I'm unsure if even the contents of post #197 are in violation. If they are not complete, could they be considered an exerpt? In any case,/. is not responsible for that post - the AC in question is.
Slashdot should not remove any posts without being forced to by a judge. And even then, I'd want to find a way around it.
Disclaimer: any of the above may be false, IANAL, YMMV. Although I did check the listed post contents,/. has slowed to a crawl - which makes rechecking too much of a pain in the ass.
While I have yet to witness a Jon Katz comment, only "Features", I wouldn't be surprised if you posted anonymously. (Well, actually, I would - but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.)
Your position as "most hated" seems to stem at least in part from a perception within/. of your handing down opinions from on high, without taking part in the general discussion. Given this, do you think a policy of shorter "articles" and longer (or existant, or not AC) "comments" might be in order?
The judge should most definitely have granted an extension. This looks a lot like a set of SLAPP lawsuits. The MPAA/DVDCCA are trying to push this through so fast that the judge won't even consider the consequences. Hell, they can't even wait for the damn DMCA to be finalized!
The DeCSS program is designed for DECRYPTION. Not copying, and somehow the lawyers for the EFF need to get that through to the judge.
The fact that DeCSS is intended to be used in Windows seems to have thrown the judge. It looks like this is want convinced him that the program was for copying purposes. If the program only ran under Linux, he'd have been more likely to see it our way. As it is, I get the impression that the judge thinks that the Linux community is a bunch of pirates trying to pull a fast one.
This is for the judges benefit (like he'll be reading Slashdot:):
Just because the program creates a file that can be copied does not make it a copying program. You can easily copy the garble that exists on the DVD without decrypting it. In fact a lot of people are making a lot of money doing just that. Some of them even pay license fees to the DVDCCA. However, at present, ALL of the DVD player manufacturers pay the vig to the DVDCCA. DeCSS would stop this, and that is why this pointless lawsuit is being persued.
Hopefully, our side will be given a chance to be heard, and this case will be tossed on the trash heap where it belongs. If not, I guess we'll have to look to China to protect our freedom - I doubt they'll knuckle under to American interests. A dark thought indeed...
As a closing comment, I think I've developed an opinion on software as speech vs software as product. In my opinion, software source code (and therefore opensource software) are examples of speech, and should have copyright protections. Binary software is, in my opinion, a product. It should therefore have the same protections as any machine - including no protection from reverse engineering.
See, I can be logical and an Open Source Bigot at the same time:)
We'll have to wait and see what ABC has to say (can they get around the Disney affiliation or not). But I think the MPAA may have just shot themselves in the foot.
Outside of the US, local media (espcially public media) takes a dim view of American media interests. (Seeing as those interests usually involve drowning out the locals.) Given what I heard last night about Jon's case (on CBC radio) Canadian Public Broadcasting, at least thinks the MPAA has been heavy handed. Of course, they said that Jon was 14, and that DeCSS was "probably illegal", but they did mention that it was for viewing DVDs on Linux, and not originally intended for piracy. As soon as they start to make an issue about how unecomonical DVD piracy actually is the MPAA will probably lose the public's good opinion.
Looking at the quotes from the Norwegian Parliament, I think the whole issue of "Big American Business Persecuting Local Talent" is starting to hit home. I mean just look at Jon's picture (I don't have a link handy). He's a clean cut kid, hardly the image the public has of a "Dangerous Hacker". He's from "a farm in Vestfold". Now, if he had purple hair and piercings, sadly, the public would hate him. But the public isn't likely to hate a smart, apparently articulate, teenager who hasn't actually caused anyone any harm. They may still think what he did should be outlawed (wrongly in my opinion), but when Big Business tries to put someone who could be your kid in prison - I'd tend to react unfavorably.
I can't help but believe that even though there is a legitimate reason to go after these "pirate" radio stations (their broadcast is in effect, a false claim to being a local traffic report) that the reason that will be put forward for arresting them will be "You hacked our proprietary format" or "You need to be licensed to broadcast radio signals" (at least the licensing one is probably a real law.)
The Courts need to be made aware of the true motivation behind this lawsuit, which seems to me to be about protecting the regionalization of DVD, and keeping a stranglehold on who is allowed to manufacture a DVD Player, and not about copying at all. After all, all it takes to copy a DVD is to burn the exact same bits onto another disk. But, then you'd need an approved player for it to do you any good. What DeCSS is doing is allowing anyone to manufacture a DVD player (most specifically in software, for Linux) without the permission of the Powers That Be.
This needs to be made clear. The reason that DeCSS is being targetted, is that it would destroy the monopoly on DVD playback Hardware and allow people to obtain DVD players that would play back DVDs made for any Region. This would, of course, force down DVD prices, as cross-region competition would be possible.
Slashdot Mirror
I think you were in church. Speciation has been observed several times in my lifetime, both in laboratories and in the wild. Of course this is speciation of bacteria and wildflowers, so to creationists it doesn't count. It seems a lot of people have an incorrect assumption as to what speciation means. Until they see a cat give birth to a squirrel they won't believe. The fact that such an occurrence would actually be better evidence against evolution than for it doesn't phase them at all.
No, you're wrong to call Creationism a theory. Creationism is a disproven conjecture. I'd really recommend reading the articles at www.talkorigins.org to get a better idea of the facts.
The thing is, if you aren't selecting out bad genes then they'll be selected in. Evolution doesn't have a direction, and it doesn't stop for anyone. Not that it isn't possible that humans are at some local maximum - like sharks, for instance. But chances are, we're going to continue the trend of evolving into dumber, sicklier creatures. We just won't notice because better medicine will keep up with or advance ahead of our own infirmities.
If all Amiga was offering was an OS, then the Amiga would be dead. However, if what they have works as they've described, then it's one more example of what the future holds.
A small, efficient means for a single binary to run on a multitude of hardware may only be a laudable goal at present, but with the predicted increases in information-appliances it could become a necessity. Especially since what Amiga (and of course, Tao) seem to be building will run any any hardware and any operating system.
The only question that remains is How Well Does It Work?
I'll start by saying that you don't want to minimize the number of unpaid for copies, you want to maximize the number of copies that make you money. Those aren't the same thing.
I'm a little unsure of how much income you'd make, by, for instance, putting it all up on a multipage web site with banner ads. If you could get enough page views it might be worth it (apparently you need around 30 page views to make a dollar - beats me if that's accurate.)
Personally, I prefer to read my books on paper, but I have been know to kill a few hours reading things on the internet. You might want to make the book available for download in multiple formats (pdf, plaintext, whatever) in addition to having the whole thing available online in html. That way, people could read the whole thing - and generate page views, or they could download it. I'd only put a few chapters online at a time, so that people would have to return - but I wouldn't make it so anyone had to wait more than a week to download the entire thing.
Of course, this would probably work better once your site develops some brand recognition, and you have multiple works availble. Possibly even works by other authors, and/or in various genres. Add in an online order form for getting the deadtree editions, and some Venture Capital, who knows?
MS said had a full copy:
MS said had a link:
MS said described methods of circumventing EULA:
Of the above posts, only #197 would be on shakey ground, in my opinion, as it is the only one to actually include any copyrighted material. A particularly disgusting suggestion on MS's part is the removal of post #86, which merely discusses the legality of the use of this information.
You will notice that MS is almost completely wrong about which posts actually contain the text of the copyrighted material.
I do not think that MS is in any way justified in describing information concerning the properties of MS's self extracting CAB files as an "attempt to bypass the EULA" - the information presented (using WinZIP) would be widely known to anyone in a position to make use of the information.
Since /. has a limit to post length, I'm unsure if even the contents of post #197 are in violation. If they are not complete, could they be considered an exerpt? In any case, /. is not responsible for that post - the AC in question is.
Slashdot should not remove any posts without being forced to by a judge. And even then, I'd want to find a way around it.
Disclaimer: any of the above may be false, IANAL, YMMV. Although I did check the listed post contents, /. has slowed to a crawl - which makes rechecking too much of a pain in the ass.
While I have yet to witness a Jon Katz comment, only "Features", I wouldn't be surprised if you posted anonymously. (Well, actually, I would - but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.)
Your position as "most hated" seems to stem at least in part from a perception within /. of your handing down opinions from on high, without taking part in the general discussion. Given this, do you think a policy of shorter "articles" and longer (or existant, or not AC) "comments" might be in order?
The judge should most definitely have granted an extension. This looks a lot like a set of SLAPP lawsuits. The MPAA/DVDCCA are trying to push this through so fast that the judge won't even consider the consequences. Hell, they can't even wait for the damn DMCA to be finalized!
The DeCSS program is designed for DECRYPTION. Not copying, and somehow the lawyers for the EFF need to get that through to the judge.
The fact that DeCSS is intended to be used in Windows seems to have thrown the judge. It looks like this is want convinced him that the program was for copying purposes. If the program only ran under Linux, he'd have been more likely to see it our way. As it is, I get the impression that the judge thinks that the Linux community is a bunch of pirates trying to pull a fast one.
This is for the judges benefit (like he'll be reading Slashdot:):
Hopefully, our side will be given a chance to be heard, and this case will be tossed on the trash heap where it belongs. If not, I guess we'll have to look to China to protect our freedom - I doubt they'll knuckle under to American interests. A dark thought indeed ...
As a closing comment, I think I've developed an opinion on software as speech vs software as product. In my opinion, software source code (and therefore opensource software) are examples of speech, and should have copyright protections. Binary software is, in my opinion, a product. It should therefore have the same protections as any machine - including no protection from reverse engineering.
See, I can be logical and an Open Source Bigot at the same time :)
We'll have to wait and see what ABC has to say (can they get around the Disney affiliation or not). But I think the MPAA may have just shot themselves in the foot.
Outside of the US, local media (espcially public media) takes a dim view of American media interests. (Seeing as those interests usually involve drowning out the locals.) Given what I heard last night about Jon's case (on CBC radio) Canadian Public Broadcasting, at least thinks the MPAA has been heavy handed. Of course, they said that Jon was 14, and that DeCSS was "probably illegal", but they did mention that it was for viewing DVDs on Linux, and not originally intended for piracy. As soon as they start to make an issue about how unecomonical DVD piracy actually is the MPAA will probably lose the public's good opinion.
Looking at the quotes from the Norwegian Parliament, I think the whole issue of "Big American Business Persecuting Local Talent" is starting to hit home. I mean just look at Jon's picture (I don't have a link handy). He's a clean cut kid, hardly the image the public has of a "Dangerous Hacker". He's from "a farm in Vestfold". Now, if he had purple hair and piercings, sadly, the public would hate him. But the public isn't likely to hate a smart, apparently articulate, teenager who hasn't actually caused anyone any harm. They may still think what he did should be outlawed (wrongly in my opinion), but when Big Business tries to put someone who could be your kid in prison - I'd tend to react unfavorably.
I can't help but believe that even though there is a legitimate reason to go after these "pirate" radio stations (their broadcast is in effect, a false claim to being a local traffic report) that the reason that will be put forward for arresting them will be "You hacked our proprietary format" or "You need to be licensed to broadcast radio signals" (at least the licensing one is probably a real law.)
O well...
The Courts need to be made aware of the true motivation behind this lawsuit, which seems to me to be about protecting the regionalization of DVD, and keeping a stranglehold on who is allowed to manufacture a DVD Player, and not about copying at all. After all, all it takes to copy a DVD is to burn the exact same bits onto another disk. But, then you'd need an approved player for it to do you any good. What DeCSS is doing is allowing anyone to manufacture a DVD player (most specifically in software, for Linux) without the permission of the Powers That Be.
This needs to be made clear. The reason that DeCSS is being targetted, is that it would destroy the monopoly on DVD playback Hardware and allow people to obtain DVD players that would play back DVDs made for any Region. This would, of course, force down DVD prices, as cross-region competition would be possible.
Had to comment...