What this means is that shrinkwrap licenses are legitimate - at least as long as the terms are displayed on the outside of the packaging
<IANAL%gt; The shrinkwrap licence is a contract. If a contract contains illegal terms, then it is not binding. (If it says in small letters "You must jump out of your office window after using this product" You dont have to)
Of course "they" are lobbying to make various evil terms lawful. See DMCA </IANAL%gt;
Free speech is not an absolute right. There *are* no such rights (except in a perfect world). The reason being of course that freedom used to its limit tend to invade someone else's freedom.
(or in a more Xenon-ish manner: I will not defend to the death your right to silence me.)
Linux is growing into the world of Big Companies now. That is a dirty world. Don't expect anybody to survive there without getting his/her hand a wee bit dirty.
I remember a time when Bill Gates was looked upon as a geek hero who dared to pick a fight with big bad IBM.
Hold it flamers! I'm not implying that Linus is the next Gates (though I have nothing against Bill personally. I don't know him after all) I'm just saying that saints don't survive in that world. Linus has made a great job. Don't expect him to be a saint. A "good guy" up there is quite enough.
Do I walk around with a note with username and password for my network in my wallet? NO! Do I tag my home adress to my keys? NO! Do I walk around with a card in my wallet, containing in plain text form all information required to purchase stuff online. YES!
If our computers were cracked because i had a postit with UID/PW I would be in serious trouble with my boss. If a pick pocket would break in because I told him where my keys went, I would probably get nothing from my insurance. But the plain text information on a plastic card is enough to spend my money! Hello!
Of course I might be able to prove that a transaction was not valid and eventually get my money back, but that would take lots of work.
Where I live, a CC purchase must be validated with either a PIN-code or a signature. Get my number if you want to. You still dont have access to my money without forging my signature or getting my code.
Enter the net. Thousands of opportunities to buy stuff online in my name. Once my number is out, I just have to trash my card.
IIRC, that line about morals actually was Mallow quoting Hardin...
Thing is, this story really made me think about the traders in the first place. Remember using neat gadgets that broke down due to lack of service as a weapon. That was why I had to remark on your quote when I saw it.
I would never be allowed to lend or borrow a car, or even give a friend a ride. When I purchased it, i signed a single user licence, which states that I alone may use this product.
If I want a new car, I cant sell my old. The licence says so.
My car only runs in one region. If I move, or travel I will need separate cars for separate regions. And of cource an imported car won't run here.
If my car is broken I am not allowed to fix it. I must buy a new one.
These new cars dont work on some roads. However It is forbidden to modify a car to do so, even if you have the skill.
Of cource these regulations are only there to protect the intellectual property of the car designers. Hey, they actually get 1 cent for every car sold.
...But in practice, companies that *use* hostile licencing terms are those with products that have no real competition, or where it would cost far more to teach the staff to use a new product, than to keep paying.
And for companies with a decent policy getting ahead: How many people actually reads the license before opening the shrink wrap or clicking "Next"?
Abusers of this law will lose out, of cource, but they will have followers, and more followers.
A bad thing is a bad thing.
*Side note*
A friend of mine tried to contact lotus support to report a security bug. They directed him to a pay-per-minute support number.
Do we really want VB drones swarming to linux? Why on earth would we want mediocre code in a pretty package?
I want good code with a good interface. By "Mediocre programmer" I meant those that can code correct algorithms to do what they need, but rely on RAD-tools to do all the UI and OS stuff.
I'm sorry, but in a race between a genious-code-with-difficult-interface and good-enough-code-with-nice-interface, the latter always wins. Of cource a good interface does not equal just pretty. A good interface can be, for example, to combine GUI and command line in the same application. Or to simply have a server process with some configs, so that the user need not worry at all as long as everything is running. (oops, that sounded dangerous).
Don't tell me that you have never seen lousy gcc programs?
No, you're not. I was just throwing in some support buddy. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough on what was "I agree" and what was my own addendum, sorry.
My standpoint is that one must always see the difference between moral and legal. Too many people scream loudly about the tiny illegal fraction (child porn, warez etc) when what they are really after is all that they consider imoral (including sex education, DeCSS and xenu.net)
If you (contiously) distribute the first kind you contributed to a crime. If you distribute the second, you'll get some loud-voiced enemies who are executing *their* free speech, but you are in the clear as far as any (fair) law goes.
Now the pseudo anonymous net does an equally good job at protecting and exposing both kinds.
*The* way to get Linux (and others) beyond the geek world is to get some RAD tool for it.
VB sucks big time as a language, but the means for even a mediocre programmer to wrap his/her programs in something that *looks* good, and for the good coder to wrap those nice algorithms in a selling package is what keeps windoze going.
I live in Sweden, a small country. One of our biggest corporation is Astra, Inventor and manufacturer of 'Losec' (I think the second most selling drug today after prozac).
Losec's patent is about to run out, which presents the (public) health insuracne with this delicate problem: a) Losec sales generate a lot of tax money, used for example on health insurance. b) 'Cloned' drugs are a lot cheaper, making the same tax money last longer.
So the same government tries to: a) Support Astra fighting 'drug-piracy' and promoting the original b) Persuade doctors to perscribe clones instead of the original to save money. Go figure...
Now I have some friends doing medical research. They all agree: Patents are what keeps the medical research going. There are many years of research and testing behind a succesful drug. And there are many failed projects for every successful one too.
It would be very nice with an "open source medical research movement" instead of the greedy corporate approach, but how many of you would like to beta test an aids vaccine? Or experiment with alzheimer drugs on your grandmother?
Genome/Medical patents are ethically tricky. Software patents are legally tricky. Please do not confuse the two!
I've unvillingly stumbled across a number of porn sites. I hate it. If I want to look at dirty pics I can find them myself, thank you.
What I've *never* seen is this famous internet kiddie porn. (though I haven't really looked for it). How come, do you think? Producing child pornography is illegal almost everywhere. (though some enforce the laws quite losely). Thus there is almost always a case against whoever outs it on the net. Thus you don't want the wrong people (cops) finding it.
Point being, the justice system actually has a case, so it is not really a "internet problem"
"Regular" porn is a completely different story. You and I may dislike it, but IT IS NOT ILLEGAL!!!
You want to ban porn? Fine! start with defining what "porn" is. Picures of intercource? Genitalia? General nudity? Bare legs? Women without a veil?
We can (and ought to) stop porn sites with illlegal (unmoral) business practices, just like spammers, but separate business practice from content. Spamming for a "good cause" is still spamming. Putting intercource videos on a site where it is legal is still legal.
The article wasn't (as I read it) about a single point. there were many.
Free speech in general
City ballot vs township taxpayers
A case study on how to rig a ballot
How to enforce censorship by yelling porn, Tax money and children in the same sentence.
(geek) Minority's rights
Holland, MI is not the world, Library computers are not the only way to access the net (well for some it is) and a net without porn would not leave me crying.
However, people confusing "What I want to do" with "What other people should be able to do" always pisses me off.
8. Xerox feels confident 9. Xerox does not invent time machine 10. 3. trough 7 never happened 11. GOTO 1.
Re:AOL Time Warner not a monopoly.
on
AOL Nation
·
· Score: 1
Well I agreee that the AOL/TW "monopoly" can be routed around in a way that the old Standard Oil monopoly (content: oil plus media: railroads) could not be.
Still I'd like to plot a little semi-paranoid scenario here:
TW starts producing content in a proprietary encoded format that uses some form of micro payment method. New versions of Netscape (AOL) supports this.
Meanwhile, Microsoft splits off its internet part (forced by the DoJ) which merges with some other content producer (say FOX). This MicroFox company does the same as TW/AOL.
Now if Joe Public gets a nice broadband access to the web. Only, it is not the same old web. Priorities goes to shopping malls, Ricki-Lake-on-the-web and other approved sites. No way any independent sites makes the way onto Joes screen. BTW there is no URL-fields in the browser anymore, Too hard to use. Joe can get everything he "wants" from the AOL/TW or MicroFox portal.
What about open source? What about Mozilla? Lynx etc? Sure you can use any browser but if you want access to TW material you must use an approved one. (remember DVD). Slashdot sites will still exist (with first posts:) but Joe and Jane Public will never find it. (or anything else outside main stream)
If (and I say if) you want to keep children from wathing hardcore porn in a public library, simply place the monitors outwards and let a human librarian wander around now and then.
The reason that porn sites work so well on the net is that you can watch them privately. No more having to smuggle dirty magazines up to the counter, hoping that the cashier does not know you or your mother.
But actually the children vs porn issue has an even simpler solution: ignore it!!! Kids too young for sex are simply not very intrested in porn. I remember this childrens TV show back in the 70-ies. When they made a rerun, I noticed that the actors threw in a couple of quite dirty jokes, which we kids simply didn't get (or even observed) the fist time. However they made our parents watch the show too.
My point? (if you dit not get it) Unless some clueless parent start screaming NOOO! at the first sign of nudity, the children will just ignore it and move on to disney.
The problem is not that someone gets hold of your cc number. The problem is that they can use it.
The idea that the printed information on a card is enough to verify it is IMHO plain outrageous. It doesn't matter if a villain got my credit card number by cracking a site or from simply looking at the card. Paying for stuff giving only the cc number (and date) is as stupid as logging on using only a uid.
Even if that pokemon was worth those money it is still outrageous. Shouldn't damages be calculated on the actual damage to the "victim", not the gains of the "villain"?
I tried to reg a domain 4 years ago and it was alredy taken. I have yet to see anything on that domain. I could have had my e-business set by now and making millions.
If you tried to start an "e-business" with nothing but a cool domain name, you certanly don't deserve any millions.
"amazon.com" was worth exactly zero bucks until that book$tore moved in. Slashdot would still be slashdot even if I had to type "http://209.207.224.42" before bookmarking.
...that the site is at www.domainmagistrate.com instead of the more appropriate domainmagistrate.networksolutions.com?
Otherwise its basically sound. Let's just hope that they follow their own rules. I don't like all aspects of the domain name rules, but.com stands for commersial, and therefore we will have to accept commercial rules there.
Very high on my wish list is a top domain not ruled by the needs and greeds of big coropration.
Slashdot Mirror
<IANAL%gt;
The shrinkwrap licence is a contract. If a contract contains illegal terms, then it is not binding. (If it says in small letters "You must jump out of your office window after using this product" You dont have to)
Of course "they" are lobbying to make various evil terms lawful. See DMCA </IANAL%gt;
Free speech is not an absolute right. There *are* no such rights (except in a perfect world). The reason being of course that freedom used to its limit tend to invade someone else's freedom.
(or in a more Xenon-ish manner: I will not defend to the death your right to silence me.)
I remember a time when Bill Gates was looked upon as a geek hero who dared to pick a fight with big bad IBM.
Hold it flamers! I'm not implying that Linus is the next Gates (though I have nothing against Bill personally. I don't know him after all)
I'm just saying that saints don't survive in that world. Linus has made a great job. Don't expect him to be a saint. A "good guy" up there is quite enough.
Do I tag my home adress to my keys? NO!
Do I walk around with a card in my wallet, containing in plain text form all information required to purchase stuff online. YES!
If our computers were cracked because i had a postit with UID/PW I would be in serious trouble with my boss.
If a pick pocket would break in because I told him where my keys went, I would probably get nothing from my insurance.
But the plain text information on a plastic card is enough to spend my money! Hello!
Of course I might be able to prove that a transaction was not valid and eventually get my money back, but that would take lots of work.
Where I live, a CC purchase must be validated with either a PIN-code or a signature. Get my number if you want to. You still dont have access to my money without forging my signature or getting my code.
Enter the net. Thousands of opportunities to buy stuff online in my name. Once my number is out, I just have to trash my card.
Thats the problem with CC numbers on the net.
Thing is, this story really made me think about the traders in the first place. Remember using neat gadgets that broke down due to lack of service as a weapon. That was why I had to remark on your quote when I saw it.
Really liked your post BTW. Deserved its ranking.
Oh no! you unleashed the huge flamebreathing Europe vs US dragon on /. again!
Run for your life, the moderators are closing in!
Never mind
If I want a new car, I cant sell my old. The licence says so.
My car only runs in one region. If I move, or travel I will need separate cars for separate regions. And of cource an imported car won't run here.
If my car is broken I am not allowed to fix it. I must buy a new one.
These new cars dont work on some roads. However It is forbidden to modify a car to do so, even if you have the skill.
Of cource these regulations are only there to protect the intellectual property of the car designers. Hey, they actually get 1 cent for every car sold.
And for companies with a decent policy getting ahead:
How many people actually reads the license before opening the shrink wrap or clicking "Next"?
Abusers of this law will lose out, of cource, but they will have followers, and more followers.
A bad thing is a bad thing.
*Side note*
A friend of mine tried to contact lotus support to report a security bug. They directed him to a pay-per-minute support number.
I want good code with a good interface. By "Mediocre programmer" I meant those that can code correct algorithms to do what they need, but rely on RAD-tools to do all the UI and OS stuff.
I'm sorry, but in a race between a genious-code-with-difficult-interface and good-enough-code-with-nice-interface, the latter always wins. Of cource a good interface does not equal just pretty. A good interface can be, for example, to combine GUI and command line in the same application. Or to simply have a server process with some configs, so that the user need not worry at all as long as everything is running. (oops, that sounded dangerous).
Don't tell me that you have never seen lousy gcc programs?
No, you're not. I was just throwing in some support buddy. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough on what was "I agree" and what was my own addendum, sorry.
My standpoint is that one must always see the difference between moral and legal. Too many people scream loudly about the tiny illegal fraction (child porn, warez etc) when what they are really after is all that they consider imoral (including sex education, DeCSS and xenu.net)
If you (contiously) distribute the first kind you contributed to a crime. If you distribute the second, you'll get some loud-voiced enemies who are executing *their* free speech, but you are in the clear as far as any (fair) law goes.
Now the pseudo anonymous net does an equally good job at protecting and exposing both kinds.
Is there a FAQ somewhere with the usual:
- Commercial DVD recorders cant do bitwise copy
- And yes they mess with DVD -> VHS too
- Region codes yada yada
- Reverse enginering vs Norwegian and US law
- Single layer vs multi layer DVD
- CSS licence agreement
Somebody, Pllllease?VB sucks big time as a language, but the means for even a mediocre programmer to wrap his/her programs in something that *looks* good, and for the good coder to wrap those nice algorithms in a selling package is what keeps windoze going.
Losec's patent is about to run out, which presents the (public) health insuracne with this delicate problem:
a) Losec sales generate a lot of tax money, used for example on health insurance.
b) 'Cloned' drugs are a lot cheaper, making the same tax money last longer.
So the same government tries to:
a) Support Astra fighting 'drug-piracy' and promoting the original
b) Persuade doctors to perscribe clones instead of the original to save money.
Go figure...
Now I have some friends doing medical research. They all agree: Patents are what keeps the medical research going. There are many years of research and testing behind a succesful drug. And there are many failed projects for every successful one too.
It would be very nice with an "open source medical research movement" instead of the greedy corporate approach, but how many of you would like to beta test an aids vaccine? Or experiment with alzheimer drugs on your grandmother?
Genome/Medical patents are ethically tricky.
Software patents are legally tricky.
Please do not confuse the two!
What I've *never* seen is this famous internet kiddie porn. (though I haven't really looked for it). How come, do you think?
Producing child pornography is illegal almost everywhere. (though some enforce the laws quite losely). Thus there is almost always a case against whoever outs it on the net. Thus you don't want the wrong people (cops) finding it.
Point being, the justice system actually has a case, so it is not really a "internet problem"
"Regular" porn is a completely different story. You and I may dislike it, but IT IS NOT ILLEGAL!!!
You want to ban porn? Fine! start with defining what "porn" is. Picures of intercource? Genitalia? General nudity? Bare legs? Women without a veil?
We can (and ought to) stop porn sites with illlegal (unmoral) business practices, just like spammers, but separate business practice from content. Spamming for a "good cause" is still spamming. Putting intercource videos on a site where it is legal is still legal.
- Free speech in general
- City ballot vs township taxpayers
- A case study on how to rig a ballot
- How to enforce censorship by yelling porn, Tax money and children in the same sentence.
- (geek) Minority's rights
Holland, MI is not the world, Library computers are not the only way to access the net (well for some it is) and a net without porn would not leave me crying.However, people confusing "What I want to do" with "What other people should be able to do" always pisses me off.
To get back on topic, The net is not local. National trademarks don't mean sh-t outside that country. They just mess things up.
2.There's already a beer brewed in Budweis that has the rights (locally) to call itself "Budweiser".
Plus the Czech Budweiser (Budvar) tastes like beer, not water :-)
8. Xerox feels confident
9. Xerox does not invent time machine
10. 3. trough 7 never happened
11. GOTO 1.
Still I'd like to plot a little semi-paranoid scenario here:
TW starts producing content in a proprietary encoded format that uses some form of micro payment method. New versions of Netscape (AOL) supports this.
Meanwhile, Microsoft splits off its internet part (forced by the DoJ) which merges with some other content producer (say FOX). This MicroFox company does the same as TW/AOL.
Now if Joe Public gets a nice broadband access to the web. Only, it is not the same old web. Priorities goes to shopping malls, Ricki-Lake-on-the-web and other approved sites. No way any independent sites makes the way onto Joes screen. BTW there is no URL-fields in the browser anymore, Too hard to use. Joe can get everything he "wants" from the AOL/TW or MicroFox portal.
What about open source? What about Mozilla? Lynx etc?
Sure you can use any browser but if you want access to TW material you must use an approved one. (remember DVD). Slashdot sites will still exist (with first posts:) but Joe and Jane Public will never find it. (or anything else outside main stream)
Paranoid? Maybe.
If (and I say if) you want to keep children from wathing hardcore porn in a public library, simply place the monitors outwards and let a human librarian wander around now and then.
The reason that porn sites work so well on the net is that you can watch them privately. No more having to smuggle dirty magazines up to the counter, hoping that the cashier does not know you or your mother.
But actually the children vs porn issue has an even simpler solution: ignore it!!!
Kids too young for sex are simply not very intrested in porn. I remember this childrens TV show back in the 70-ies. When they made a rerun, I noticed that the actors threw in a couple of quite dirty jokes, which we kids simply didn't get (or even observed) the fist time. However they made our parents watch the show too.
My point? (if you dit not get it) Unless some clueless parent start screaming NOOO! at the first sign of nudity, the children will just ignore it and move on to disney.
The idea that the printed information on a card is enough to verify it is IMHO plain outrageous. It doesn't matter if a villain got my credit card number by cracking a site or from simply looking at the card. Paying for stuff giving only the cc number (and date) is as stupid as logging on using only a uid.
Also run by network solutions unfortunately.
Try to register $BIGCOMPANY.net|org and see if they invite you to join the fun lawsuit game...
If you tried to start an "e-business" with nothing but a cool domain name, you certanly don't deserve any millions.
"amazon.com" was worth exactly zero bucks until that book$tore moved in. Slashdot would still be slashdot even if I had to type "http://209.207.224.42" before bookmarking.
Otherwise its basically sound. Let's just hope that they follow their own rules. I don't like all aspects of the domain name rules, but .com stands for commersial, and therefore we will have to accept commercial rules there.
Very high on my wish list is a top domain not ruled by the needs and greeds of big coropration.