Actually, I mis-spoke earlier when I said that I had gotten the software from RIM and T-Mobile. There was an upgrade to the RIM desktop application at about that time, but the instructions actually came from a User Forum.
Also, in response to Lord Jester's question, I have to say that as I think back, I'm not certain that this procedure worked on Linux - I may have only used Windows with the Blackberry "modem." I apologize if my comment was misleading about the OS.
I agree that this isn't news. Five years ago, I could do this from my Blacberry using software from RIM and T-Mobile. The great part was that the Blackberry kept on recharging while I using it as a modem.
What makes you think someone who spent a lifetime studying and practicing law is going to be "technically experienced" and able to discern the difference between an IP address and an MP3?
Actually, most attorneys spend their free time doing something other than reading law. Some of us even listen to music and use computers. In fact, I've owned and used computers since Kaypros were called "portable."
The small amount and the way you phrased the bet probably makes most people think you're being sarcastic. In other words, to a speaker of American English, it sounds like you know who the companies are and are critical of those who protest against the RIAA without even knowing whom they represent. This is why a moderator thought you were trolling.
Your not understanding the downmod, along with the link to your dictionary. now make me think that you are probably Japanese and did not intend to be sarcastic. Therefore, if I had modpoints, I would now use one to take away the troll rating.
Unfortunately, 95% of the crap I receive from people looks like they spent hours trying to make it look fancy and failed miserably. As such, it comes out looking like junk in Open Office.
I cannot begin to count the number of documents I've received in which MS Word users have used hard returns and a bunch of spaces on the beginning of the next line because they're too stupid to figure out how to do an indented paragraph. They should be forced to use MS products forever so they don't bother folks in the forums with their stupidity.
The first time I read this, I fully agreed with this point. I know that once I buy a book, I can give it away, loan it to friend or sell it as a used book, all under what is called "the first sale rule." However, I was interrupted in typing up my post so I decided to look up the legal issues surrounding the first sale of a video game. I discovered that the rule about whether you can sell the game to Game Stop or the like is very clear: the answer is "maybe."
When Congress made a sweeping rewrite of copyright law in 1976, they clarified that the first purchaser of a copyrighted work can dispose of it as he wishes unless the work is a "sound recording" or a "computer program." Under Section 109 of the 1976 copyright law (specifically, 17 USC Sec.109(b)(1)(A)), the first purchaser of either a recording or a program cannot lend, lease or rent that product for commercial gain.* Note that nothing is said about selling or reselling the record or program, which should leave everyone in the clear. However, some courts still accept the "shrink wrap licenses," which means that the purchasr of the game doesn't really own the program and thus can't legally sell it.
Isn't law FUN?
*Before someone asks, Blockbuster and other game rental business get by under a specific exclusion for games that can only be used on a dedicated game player (e.g., Playstation or Wii).
If they say you have to, but you really don't want to, don't take the job.
You can speak to your employer about what you want out of the deal and see if there's any possibility.
While it's a/. tradition not to RTFA, you should at least RTFS. He's already taken the job and produced the software--and it appears that he has already discussed this with corporate counsel. That discussion was not wrong per se, but it may well have led to in-house counsel having set their minds on the view they espoused during that discussion.
As several people have already said, "Do not discuss this anymore with University personnel" (this includes the legal department, the IT folks and the professors that you believe have a different deal). Find an attorney who specializes in intellectual property contracts and take her copies of everything you signed in relation to this research job. If there's any possibility of further discussions with the University, let your attorney handle the matter.
And in the future, take all those contracts to an attorney for review before you sign them. A review beforehand will have some cost, but nowhere near the amount of costs that will be necessary to make exceptions or changes to contracts that you have already signed and worked under.
Early Boomer. I believe that Bob's answer is the best ethical solution but I have to say that I like the idea of sending a money order to the author for use of a pirated copy*. She (as specified in TFA) wouldn't receive a dime from the sale of the second-hand book and yet it's her intellectual work that is really the product that the questioner wants.
*Of course, I'd have to get someone from a younger generation show me how to do the actual pirating.
Okay folks, you're bringing up some very good points about the new administration in general and Mr. Holder in particular. But don't just leave those ideas here for other/.'ers to discuss. Send your thoughts here: http://www.change.gov/page/s/ofthepeople
Obama and Biden say that they are listening, so tell them how you feel about curtailing our rights and freedoms in the name of protecting the country.
I'm sorry I don't have mod points right now; it's nice to hear a voice of reason among some of these rants. I think that a tiff between a major computer maker and a major software vendor really is "news for nerds."
I think there may be one more obvious question; despite the illegality of his actions,how could anyone expect to come up with a good image while just sitting there with a video camera aimed at the screen? It seems that you'd have to be careful where you sit--not too close nor too far from the screen. Then, even if you're in the best seat for making a quality videotape, you'll still have to deal with people getting up and walking in front of you, while the other folks around you are talking and a couple of kids are screaming.
Windows is GUI based to be sure, but there are behind the scenes things (registry, hosts files, policies, clustering, etc) that is not as intuitive as people think it may be. That's also where a LOT of problems occur, and cause the BSODs and other things that the *nix fans love to jump at.
Yes, my penultimate reason for leaving Windows was all of those hidden problems like "why is xxx.dll using 92% of my capacity? and WTF is xxx.dll anyway?" MS would never tell anyone the answers so you had to go to all of the forums where people volunteer to help you, but first you have to download and run a spy seeker, an ad finder, a virus detector and "Hijack this." BTW, I have great respect for these volunteers but they shouldn't be needed in a system that I paid for.
Just to forestall questions, my ultimate reason for leaving was when I read what Microsoft Genuine Advantage was going to do, rather than blindly pushing the download key so that I could get this "advantage."
You're right as to the phrase's position in the Constitution and that the whole of Clause 10 limitss state powers. However, much of this clause is aimed at the problems with allowing states too much power as had happened under the Articles of Confederation.
The impairment of contracts provision was designed to prohibit states from enacting legislation that would harm or help a portion of that state's citizens. For instance, during the current mortgage crisis, the state of Florida might feel that Floridians were being unduly penalized by having to pay increased mortgage interest rates. If there were no "impairment of contracts" provisions, the Florida legislature could enact a law that no Floridian has to pay more than 8% interest on a mortgage loan despite any provision in their contract for greater interest. Then Georgia might adopt a similar law limiting interest to 7.5 percent. If you think the current financial crisis is bad, imagine the additional chaos that would result if each state decided what was an appropriate mortgage rate for the citizens of that state and passed a law nullifying any rate greater than that rate. THIS is the kind of "impairment of contracts addressed by Clause 10.
The part of the Constitution applicable in this case is the "full faith and credit" language in Article IV, Clause 1. And most business contracts contain a choice of law provision. So, if Mr. Papermaster had agreed that all disputes would be handled under New York law, his argument for having the non-compete judged under California law is much weaker than he would like.
Drat, I hate to give up my mod points on what promises to be an interesting discussion after the chaff is sorted from the wheat. Where do you think that you read that in the US constitution?
"An urgent investigation is now under way into how the stick... came to be lost."
I don't think it should take much of an investigation as to how a flash stick came to be lost "in a pub car park." I think that one pint too many would be the obvious answer. It seems that investigation should focus on how and why he had the USB stick in the first place.
Wake me when it'll work on my laptop.
-Sleep/hibernation
I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop which I have configured to never go into sleep/hibernation mode; nevertheless, any Windows OS overwrites the configuration and sends it into sleep/hibernation if I don't use it for 20 minutes or so. The great joy there is that the laptop cannot then be awakened by any usual method. The only way to get it working is to remove the battery AND disconnect the power cord, count slowly to ten and plug them back in again.
On the other hand, I've used this same machine on various verisions of Kubuntu and the OS believes me when I say "no sleep or hibernation."
In other words, all British court rulings are like SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the U.S.) rulings?
While it's true that the Supremes can hand down some ambiguous rhetoric, they nearly always give you a count of "who's on first." It may be that the opinions are like the following:
Opinion by Justice A, joined in parts 1 and 2 by the Justices B, C, F and I. Justice D, concurring as to part 2, but dissenting as to parts 1 and 3, and so on.
The chief difference between these and the Law Lords is that you generally count where they each stand so one can say, e.g., There was a 5-4 decision as to parts 1 and 2, a 6-3 split as to part 3, and a 4-4 holding as to part 4 (Justice H abstaining).
This ruling is soooo much easier to read than American (US) judge's rulings.
If you think US judges' rulings are unclear, you need to read a few decisions from Britain's Law Lords. They each write a nice long opinion expressing their feelings on the matter and then they publish them all together. However, the Lords tend not to include in their commentary their opinion of the underlying issue (i.e., were the Crookes plaintiffs defamed? Or was there an actual publication?) Then the litigators in subsequent cases get to decide if there even is a decisive result in the earlier case.
As I said before, I've never practiced tax law; but I don't think that the single copy sale would work. My impression is that selling one or two copies, even in the beginning, would not have made a difference. Since then, trying to establish the "value" of the works could be viewed as a sham by the IRS.
Also, IMHO the value would be very small. For instance, if he had freely distributed 1000 copies,and then sold 10 at $20 each, the value would be ((10 x 20)/1010) which would be less than 20 cents each and would probably not help his tax situtation at all.
wurp, I think you're on the right track. Altlhough I am a retired lawyer, I never practiced tax law. However, I believe that the following analysis falls within the terms of the IRS code.
Assume that the good doctor had originally copyrighted the material and sold a bunch of the books/CD's, etc. at a reasonable price (let's say $20-$25 each). Now, however, the doctor has seen the light of FOSS and starts giving the books away to aspiring med school students. I would argue that this puts the doctor in the same position as Microsoft in your example; i.e., giving away products with an established value.
Looking at what really happened and the good intent in giving the work away from the beginning, I'm afraid that the only wisdom we can offer is the old saying: "No good deed goes unpunished."
Slashdot Mirror
Also, in response to Lord Jester's question, I have to say that as I think back, I'm not certain that this procedure worked on Linux - I may have only used Windows with the Blackberry "modem." I apologize if my comment was misleading about the OS.
I agree that this isn't news. Five years ago, I could do this from my Blacberry using software from RIM and T-Mobile. The great part was that the Blackberry kept on recharging while I using it as a modem.
What makes you think someone who spent a lifetime studying and practicing law is going to be "technically experienced" and able to discern the difference between an IP address and an MP3?
Actually, most attorneys spend their free time doing something other than reading law. Some of us even listen to music and use computers. In fact, I've owned and used computers since Kaypros were called "portable."
Your not understanding the downmod, along with the link to your dictionary. now make me think that you are probably Japanese and did not intend to be sarcastic. Therefore, if I had modpoints, I would now use one to take away the troll rating.
Whatever it's called, it should be top contender for a Golden Fleece Award. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Fleece_Award
Unfortunately, 95% of the crap I receive from people looks like they spent hours trying to make it look fancy and failed miserably. As such, it comes out looking like junk in Open Office.
I cannot begin to count the number of documents I've received in which MS Word users have used hard returns and a bunch of spaces on the beginning of the next line because they're too stupid to figure out how to do an indented paragraph. They should be forced to use MS products forever so they don't bother folks in the forums with their stupidity.
Once purchased, the game is mine to sell.
The first time I read this, I fully agreed with this point. I know that once I buy a book, I can give it away, loan it to friend or sell it as a used book, all under what is called "the first sale rule." However, I was interrupted in typing up my post so I decided to look up the legal issues surrounding the first sale of a video game. I discovered that the rule about whether you can sell the game to Game Stop or the like is very clear: the answer is "maybe."
When Congress made a sweeping rewrite of copyright law in 1976, they clarified that the first purchaser of a copyrighted work can dispose of it as he wishes unless the work is a "sound recording" or a "computer program." Under Section 109 of the 1976 copyright law (specifically, 17 USC Sec.109(b)(1)(A)), the first purchaser of either a recording or a program cannot lend, lease or rent that product for commercial gain.* Note that nothing is said about selling or reselling the record or program, which should leave everyone in the clear. However, some courts still accept the "shrink wrap licenses," which means that the purchasr of the game doesn't really own the program and thus can't legally sell it.
Isn't law FUN?
*Before someone asks, Blockbuster and other game rental business get by under a specific exclusion for games that can only be used on a dedicated game player (e.g., Playstation or Wii).
But then again, there's always
George lifted his eyes to heaven. (There is always a last time for everything.) Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.
Arthur C. Clarke, The Nine Billion Names of God http://lucis.net/stuff/clarke/9billion_clarke.html
If they say you have to, but you really don't want to, don't take the job.
You can speak to your employer about what you want out of the deal and see if there's any possibility.
While it's a /. tradition not to RTFA, you should at least RTFS. He's already taken the job and produced the software--and it appears that he has already discussed this with corporate counsel. That discussion was not wrong per se, but it may well have led to in-house counsel having set their minds on the view they espoused during that discussion.
As several people have already said, "Do not discuss this anymore with University personnel" (this includes the legal department, the IT folks and the professors that you believe have a different deal). Find an attorney who specializes in intellectual property contracts and take her copies of everything you signed in relation to this research job. If there's any possibility of further discussions with the University, let your attorney handle the matter.
And in the future, take all those contracts to an attorney for review before you sign them. A review beforehand will have some cost, but nowhere near the amount of costs that will be necessary to make exceptions or changes to contracts that you have already signed and worked under.
"moot" means already decided and thus not arguable (except for law students in moot court who may be required to keep arguing the case interminably).
*Of course, I'd have to get someone from a younger generation show me how to do the actual pirating.
Obama and Biden say that they are listening, so tell them how you feel about curtailing our rights and freedoms in the name of protecting the country.
I'm sorry I don't have mod points right now; it's nice to hear a voice of reason among some of these rants. I think that a tiff between a major computer maker and a major software vendor really is "news for nerds."
I think there may be one more obvious question; despite the illegality of his actions,how could anyone expect to come up with a good image while just sitting there with a video camera aimed at the screen? It seems that you'd have to be careful where you sit--not too close nor too far from the screen. Then, even if you're in the best seat for making a quality videotape, you'll still have to deal with people getting up and walking in front of you, while the other folks around you are talking and a couple of kids are screaming.
Windows is GUI based to be sure, but there are behind the scenes things (registry, hosts files, policies, clustering, etc) that is not as intuitive as people think it may be. That's also where a LOT of problems occur, and cause the BSODs and other things that the *nix fans love to jump at.
Yes, my penultimate reason for leaving Windows was all of those hidden problems like "why is xxx.dll using 92% of my capacity? and WTF is xxx.dll anyway?" MS would never tell anyone the answers so you had to go to all of the forums where people volunteer to help you, but first you have to download and run a spy seeker, an ad finder, a virus detector and "Hijack this." BTW, I have great respect for these volunteers but they shouldn't be needed in a system that I paid for.
Just to forestall questions, my ultimate reason for leaving was when I read what Microsoft Genuine Advantage was going to do, rather than blindly pushing the download key so that I could get this "advantage."
since i lack any children. there is no reason for me to buy a 'learning tool'
You could buy two and give the second one to a disadvantaged child in this country.
The impairment of contracts provision was designed to prohibit states from enacting legislation that would harm or help a portion of that state's citizens. For instance, during the current mortgage crisis, the state of Florida might feel that Floridians were being unduly penalized by having to pay increased mortgage interest rates. If there were no "impairment of contracts" provisions, the Florida legislature could enact a law that no Floridian has to pay more than 8% interest on a mortgage loan despite any provision in their contract for greater interest. Then Georgia might adopt a similar law limiting interest to 7.5 percent. If you think the current financial crisis is bad, imagine the additional chaos that would result if each state decided what was an appropriate mortgage rate for the citizens of that state and passed a law nullifying any rate greater than that rate. THIS is the kind of "impairment of contracts addressed by Clause 10.
The part of the Constitution applicable in this case is the "full faith and credit" language in Article IV, Clause 1. And most business contracts contain a choice of law provision. So, if Mr. Papermaster had agreed that all disputes would be handled under New York law, his argument for having the non-compete judged under California law is much weaker than he would like.
Here endeth the rant for the day.
Drat, I hate to give up my mod points on what promises to be an interesting discussion after the chaff is sorted from the wheat. Where do you think that you read that in the US constitution?
"An urgent investigation is now under way into how the stick ... came to be lost."
I don't think it should take much of an investigation as to how a flash stick came to be lost "in a pub car park." I think that one pint too many would be the obvious answer. It seems that investigation should focus on how and why he had the USB stick in the first place.
Wake me when it'll work on my laptop. -Sleep/hibernation
I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop which I have configured to never go into sleep/hibernation mode; nevertheless, any Windows OS overwrites the configuration and sends it into sleep/hibernation if I don't use it for 20 minutes or so. The great joy there is that the laptop cannot then be awakened by any usual method. The only way to get it working is to remove the battery AND disconnect the power cord, count slowly to ten and plug them back in again.
On the other hand, I've used this same machine on various verisions of Kubuntu and the OS believes me when I say "no sleep or hibernation."
In other words, all British court rulings are like SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the U.S.) rulings?
While it's true that the Supremes can hand down some ambiguous rhetoric, they nearly always give you a count of "who's on first." It may be that the opinions are like the following:
Opinion by Justice A, joined in parts 1 and 2 by the Justices B, C, F and I. Justice D, concurring as to part 2, but dissenting as to parts 1 and 3, and so on.
The chief difference between these and the Law Lords is that you generally count where they each stand so one can say, e.g., There was a 5-4 decision as to parts 1 and 2, a 6-3 split as to part 3, and a 4-4 holding as to part 4 (Justice H abstaining).
This ruling is soooo much easier to read than American (US) judge's rulings.
If you think US judges' rulings are unclear, you need to read a few decisions from Britain's Law Lords. They each write a nice long opinion expressing their feelings on the matter and then they publish them all together. However, the Lords tend not to include in their commentary their opinion of the underlying issue (i.e., were the Crookes plaintiffs defamed? Or was there an actual publication?) Then the litigators in subsequent cases get to decide if there even is a decisive result in the earlier case.
Also, IMHO the value would be very small. For instance, if he had freely distributed 1000 copies,and then sold 10 at $20 each, the value would be ((10 x 20)/1010) which would be less than 20 cents each and would probably not help his tax situtation at all.
Assume that the good doctor had originally copyrighted the material and sold a bunch of the books/CD's, etc. at a reasonable price (let's say $20-$25 each). Now, however, the doctor has seen the light of FOSS and starts giving the books away to aspiring med school students. I would argue that this puts the doctor in the same position as Microsoft in your example; i.e., giving away products with an established value.
Looking at what really happened and the good intent in giving the work away from the beginning, I'm afraid that the only wisdom we can offer is the old saying: "No good deed goes unpunished."