Having 500 people log on to a private business's site(Amazon), and ABUSE their system leaving bad reviews (without reading the book, no less) is completely detached from democracy.
I realize this is off topic, BUT, actually, that sounds a LOT like democracy to me... at least modern democracy here....
Think about how many people actually go to the polls and vote for a particular candidate simply because he or she is affilitated with a particular party.
Or how many women voted for Al Gore in 2000 because they thought he was "sexy". And that was actually polled...
How many people vote a particular way simply because their parents vote that way, or because some puffed up hollywood actor tells them to??
With the exception of Amazon.com being a private business, and thus the site being private property, the "Mob Democracy" idea sounds a LOT like voting here in the US... Sorry, but it does. Most people vote without having even an inkling of what the positions of the candidates are, what the issues are, or what electing a particular person will mean in the long run...
This happened in a year where a drunk-driving North Dakota politician who killed a person got off with a hundred days in jail.
True... and that one was just unbelievable. If it had been you or I, one of us would be rotting in jail for several years over that wreck. But he is a "popular representative" and was "so very remorseful"... sigh... just goes to show that money and power can get you pretty much anything.
Perhaps car stereos should be illegal too, aren't they potentially just as dangerous? What if you hit someone while fiddling with the air conditioner, is that just as bad? If not, why not?
Apples and Oranges. The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but in this case, are not similar enough to compare. The guy wasnt fiddling with the DVD player. IF in fact it was on, (and while that has not been proven yet, BUT they DID say that the player was wired to come on and show the LCD screen when the car was turned on) if it was on, the wreck happened because he was watching it... not fiddling with a knob or two.
Listening to the radio, while using SOME brain function (unless you are listening to pop or boy bands), does not involve visual acuity. However, playing a DVD in a dashboard mounted player DOES require concentration visually on the screen. Personally I thought the whole idea of a video screen in the dash like that was just dangerous in and of itself. A really stupid idea, and I cant wait to get my own...:\
Aren't cars the real problem?
No, the problem, and I think you get this, is People. Not just Americans, or Eruopeans, or Asians, or whatever. People. In this day and age (especially in America) people feel that they don't need to be responsible for their own actions. People blame everything under the sun, except for themselves when something bad happens.
There is a very small and dwindling groups of people who still believe in personal responsibility, and unfortunately, that is a trend likely to continue as the US Govt steps in wiht all sorts of rules and laws "for our own good".
I think maybe only politicians should be allowed to drive. They should be allowed to drunkenly swerve onto the sidewalks killing pedestrians, and for the rest of us, running a stop sign should be punished by having the accelerator foot chopped off.
O'Dowd thinks that unfriendly countries will attempt to hide intentional bugs that the Open Source community will have no chance of finding
He's right. The Open Source community will not find these "terrorist bugs"......for all of about 15 minutes... but by then someone will have released a patch.
The only way I could see this happening would be through apps... but if ANY military groups were to use random apps without checking them out first, then they probably get what they deserve.
The main things to worry about would be the kernel, driver modules, x.org, and the rest of the things that make up the "Core" functionality of Linux. And those have such stringent (usually) controlls over what goes into the actual released product that the possibility of that sort of rampant code corruption is negligent...
Then again, this was never about facts or truth... he did it all for the nookie... tha nookie...
Whenever something even remotely spinnable happens in one of these cases, SCO is there with a prepared press release that is sent out to the media almost immediately.
Its now 4PM EST so they have had a few hours to come up with SOMETHING, but their website only has two PRs so far today... one about a new release, and another about a partnership with Ericom.
SCO provides much wanted recreation...to my busy days. These guys are down right funny, when it comes to how they are running their business.
Ahhh, yes, SCO does provide an enticing diversion from the mundane daily life that pays my bills. I dont know what I am going to do when this is all over... I will actually have to start working again.
And RE your sig: -x-x-x-x- Are you as bold as me ? I have done a rm -rf / and watched a system slowly die..
I have rm -f/dev/random/dev/zero/dev/null and watched a machine slowly eat itself to death. Anyone can rm -rf the root, but start removing devices and much hilarity ensues...
Here is what I sent to them, for curiosities sake. If I get a reply, I will post it as well:
I would like more information regarding your action against Red Hat. As a share holder, I find it a bit confusing as to what prompted this action. The restatment makes little to no difference on their bottom line, as the did not misreport any erarnings. The restatment merely takes the number from one column and moves it to a different columns. The dip is stock price is due to the market's normal reacivity to announcements of this sort, from any company whatsoever.
As a shareholder, and as someone who is qualified as part of this class, I find it odd, and a bit disconcerting at the speed at which this was filed. I dare say that no one actually came to you asking for a mass tort suit, but here it comes anyway. Sadly, your firm seems to me to be nothing more than opportunistic lawyers intent on making a large fee from the settlement of class action suits.
Of course, I could be wrong, and I always stand waiting to change my opinions of people and situations, should an incontrovertable arguement be presented to me.
Therefore, my challenge to you, is to convince me otherwise. I have read the documents you have provided regarding this case, but have yet to be convinced that I should join this venture. As I see it so far, the only people who really benefit from litigation of this nature are the lawyers themselves, with the many plaintiffs recieveing a paltry share of the settlement.
So please, enlighten me. Convince me. Change my mind. That is my challenge to you. Are you up to it?
I dont know, but just very simply, I am one of the people who does alpha and beta testing of SuSE/Novell linux, and if what I have seen so far is any indication, they have a LONG way to go before they can honestly claim any top 5 spot.
Admittedly, YaST is a MUCH better installer than it used to be, and it is fine as a system configuration tool as well, but there are just so many little things that dont work right, and too many issues in the release cycle that are just plain annoying. BUT they are definitely getting better. I would almost dismiss most of my beef with them as integration pains as Novell takes the reins.
Oh well, more power to them, I wish them well. We need more major linux players in the distro field (and no, Debian doesnt count, as it is not an enterprise OS).
What linux needs, is a few more Red Hats or SuSEs in the enterprise OS market. Make competition between Distros increase and we will get better underlying OSs, even better development and innovation than we have now, more hardware vendors will start creating drivers, or releasing specs so that OSS developers can create drivers, more companies will take up Linux as their OS of choice, and so on and so forth.
Right now we have a good start, but we really need more to get the momentum going. I would love to see another major player in the field, it would make MS sweat just that much more:)
The timing was appropriate 2-3 years ago. Actually, the original should never have passed in the form it was in.
The whole thing was railroaded right through the senate and house, through the oval office, and straight up our asses, along with civil rights, liberties, and basic common sense.
It was pushed through faster than probably any law has been in the past, with little to no discussion or regard for possible consequences...
Things may have changed, but in the past, in the US at least, Dell's customers called Dell support for any issue. The Dell Tech determined if the call was a Linux issue or a Hardware issue. Then, if it was a hardware issue, the customer was handled by the Dell tech. If the issue was a Linux issue, the customer was forwarded to Red Hat's tech support.
That was a few years ago, and since then, Red Hat has had some big changes in their support model, and Dell has sent all its tech support to India, and brought parts of it back again, so YMMV.
Sorry, but I am failing to see where this is either cool, tech, neat, different, or even anywhere remotely newsworthy.
Sorry, but I was a little disappointed. I went to the site expecting to find perhaps some hardware hacking info on the iTrip for boosting its output, or something like that... but come on now... has slashdot really gotten to the point where "if you pull the antenna out of the case, your signal will improve!"
I mean, really. That whole thing did not take any bit of genious, or even the slightest bit of creativity. Geez... thats what the iTrip is for. Broadcasting... and it isnt the best around for that either... there are better version, and in fact, you can even get fm broadcaster kits with a good deal more transmit power than the iTrip has...
But still, I dont see whats so special here. They are using an iPod and an FM broadcaster to do exactly what they were meant for... nothing new or special here.
YES!!!! Let's say I take a movie at home and rip it from a DVD - essentially the same process as what this kid is doing. Am I a criminal yet? No!! It's only when I take action and DISTRIBUTE that copy that I am doing something wrong.
Still no. It is not the same. If you take a DVD that you bought and rip a copy, there is some degree (for now, at least, unless the MPAA gets its way) of fair use backups. If you rip that DVD and then sell copies, you are a pirate. However, the grey area, which still hasnt been concluded yet is whether or not purchasing a DVD == ownership of that copy of the movie, or purchasing a DVD == ownership of the media, with permission to watch the contents under certain circumstances (no public showings, etc).
However, when the kid walks into a privately owned theater and copies a movie there, it is stealing, plain and simple. He paid, in his ticket price, for the priveledge of coming into the owners theater to view a movie that the owner has paid money to be able to screen. The kid DIDNT buy the movie reel, the theater is. He is watching someone elses property, on someone elses screen. Not his own. So, he is still stealing, plain and simple. There is no logical arguement against this.
When you go to a movie you are ALREADY usign a recording device - your brain!! You can make drawings based on what you see, or renact it in play-doh. Arguably the quality may even surpass that of a hand-held camcorder.
Tell you what, you go to a theater with a handi-cam, and film a new release. When you get caught, try convincing your lawyer to use the "My brain is a recording device" defense. Your lawyer will laugh at you, as will any judge, jury, etc. That is a poor defense. For that matter, whats to stop me from looking at the design of a can of coke, then turning around and making my own soda and putting it in cans or bottles bearing artwork that I drew from images in my recording device (brain) that happens to look almost exactly like the Coke artwork? Again, still stealing, and Coke's lawyers would have me for breakfast...
Here's an analogy. Let's say I go to a gas station, and get gas. Would you arrest me for driving off without paying before I leave? There's no way to be certain of intent, and for that reason alone this should NOT be a crime.
Nope... and again, two different things. If you come to my gas station, and pump gas with your car, you are allowed to do so without pre-paying because you have the intent to PURCHASE THAT GAS. When you walk into that theater, you buy a ticked for the priveledge (not right, because you have no rights to be able to see that movie, and the theater has every right (within reason) to not let you in) of seeing that movie. However, when you walk into that theater, it is implicitly understood (again legally by any average person) that you paid to view the movie there, NOT to copy it with a camcorder to take home and do who knows what.
Lets say I rent a room in your house for a week.
Now lets say you came home and found me in your bedroom, with my pockets full of whatever jewelry you own, any cash laying around, and say a bag full of your DVDs and whatever else you happen to have laying around. Am I stealing? By your definition, no, because you say no one knows the intent. However, it has been legally supported ad nausem that it IS stealing, regardless of wether or not I have actually left the premesis yet. Again, it comes to what a "reasonably person" would believe. And claiming, in the rented room analogy, that I wasnt stealing anything, even though I was caught with your most expensive stuff in a bag, is laughable. The same applies in this case. Even if the kid was going to go home and watch it over and over on his own, and not show anyone, or share it with anyone, it is STILL STEALING. If I take a candy bar without paying for it, and dont tell anyone, take it home, and eat it all by myself, I STILL STOLE THE CANDY BAR.
I don't like movie pirates either. But this kid - what crime did he commit?
Ummm... how about attempting to pirate a movie via camcorder?? So are you really saying that you dont like movie pirates, but have no problem with them BEFORE they distribute pirated movies??
did he sell the movie to anyone else? No. Did he even distribute the movie elsewhere? No.
Well, no shit. He got caught BEFORE he had a chance to sell or give away copies.
In fact a (lame) defense he could use is time-shifting - saying he rather wanted to take a nap during the movie, and watch it later - or make a funny video from some footage (parody). How woud that be any different from what was done?
I doubt it. The nap defense is just too lame. And you have no rights as to time-shifting in RE movies in theaters. Your ticket is good for one showing only, at the appointed time, in the appointed theater, on the appointed screen. Not two days later.
And Parody is fine... THAT could conceivably be a good defense, HOWEVER, given the circumstances, it probably wouldn't hold up either. Plus, to make that one really work, you would have to show that the kid has a history of making video parodies of various movies, etc etc...
What would happen if I took a camcorder into the theater, and turned it on without a tape inside. Is that a crime?
Not in and of itself... HOWEVER, it would lead you to some really embarassing moments as you try to explain why you have a powered camcorder in a theater, tape or no... besides, most modern digital camcorders also take memory sticks for digital stills. Besides, the theaters have stated that recording devices are not allowed. Period. So you would be wrong, they would be right, Irregardless of your intent.
What if I use the focus controls to record the guys head in front of me instead of the movie. Is that a crime, just because I'm in a theater?
See above.
I hope this kid can turn the tables on them and sue them for a horrendous amount of money for slander.
For what? How has he been slandered? HE WAS CAUGHT WITH A CAMCORDER RECORDING THE MOVIE!!
What part of that did you not understand? Even given all your arguements, he was caught with a tape onto which he had been recording the movie. He wasnt recording the guy in front of him, nor the girl in the next seat over. He was recording the movie. Sorry, but that is piracy, plain and simple.
I am simply amazed at how downright stupid people can be sometimes. It is not like this kid was just minding his own business. He was stealing a movie from the theater.
For those of you with the big brother analogies... bullshit. If I were a theater owner, and I had to pay the price they pay for movies (and belive me, theaters make little to no profit from the movie itself after they pay rent on the film, pay the royalties to the MPAA, etc etc), I would have beat the kid silly for doing that. I would have taken out a leather strap and whipped his ass. Theaters dont make that much money off the films themselves. They make the most money off the popcorn, drinks, candy, hot dogs, nachos, etc. They make a percentage of box office recipts, but the majority of that goes back to the MPAA and the studio that produced the film. They have every right to sit there with night vision goggles, just as they have every right to put 3 employees in every row of the theater during a movie to do the same thing. Its just that night vision goggles are cheaper.
Theaters are also private property. If you dont want them watching you (and not you in specific, but the audience in general) dont go. Wait for the DVD, rent or buy it, adn watch it at home. But when you go to a theater, you are in their home, so the house rules apply.
I see nothing wrong with what they did here. That kid was just stupid enough to get caught doing someting illegal. Tough shit for him. People like him are part of the reason (eve
Well, if it makes you feel any better... I didnt mod you down;)
But yes, and the one thing I have been in favor of all along is community based wireless networks. I submitted an ask slashdot a good while back asking if anyone had experience in either setting up and running or at least belonging to a co-op wireless service.
I could see a good potential market there for locally owned, co-operative internet services. The community purchases the incoming lines (maybe a single t3 for the entire community in some cases) and everyone who participates pays an equal share for the rent and upkeep and such...
That was rejected by the editors tho...:(
But you do, in that case have a valid point, but I would wager that rather than do one or the other, people should do both... fuss at the FCC and keep on them to monitor and enforce their own rules, AND look for, support and propose alternatives...
If you are truely a licensed Amateur AND a slashdot reader, then you have no excuse whatsoever to actually go and RTFA.
If you had done even a modicum of research into this, you would know that what the ARRL and others are complaining about is BPL or PLC in europe that uses the HF spectrum for transmission. Over long unshielded agind powerlines, this == big fscking antenna. Hence the bleed, and RF issues ensue.
They have also stated (the ARRL and others) repeatedly that they have no problem with BPL itself. They have problems with the power companies that are trying to roll this out to make an extra buck or two. I mean, lets face it, many power companies have problems just keeping the power going, let alone BPL... and to have to handle interference complaints as well?
But in any case, the people who are against BPL, as I said, are against the version that uses the HF spectrum. Not just parts of the HF spectrum, but the ENTIRE HF spectrum from around 3 to 30+MHz. They support other means readily, such as the BPL system that was being developed in the desert that used gigahertz transmission frequencies instead of HF freqs... or the aforementioned fiber wound around the power lines, and some companies ALREADY have cable wound around the powerlines that they use themselves.
Heh.. Go read the PDFs for a better idea of what is going on. Honestly, it really doesnt look like an issue of IP portability so much as continued access to a particular netblock.
From the plantiff's affidavit part 1: "If UCI were to leave NAC on short notice (e.g. the 45-day period provided for in the contract in the event NAC raises rates) and NAC refused access to the existing IP addresses supplied by NAC until new addresses were secured. .." much doom ensues for UCI.
But the point is, he is not asking to take the IPs to another company... he is asking for use of the IPs until he has time to aquire IP space from a different host.
Basically, he is suing to keep his IP space from being shut off during the move.
I still dont agree with it personally, but it makes a little more sense after reading the papers relating to the case.
You are correct, except on one count... IP addresses are VERY like phone numbers. The only problem is that people dont seem to understand that. Personally, I was against number portability from the start.
Think about what you said about IPs and phone numbers. All phone numbers are exactly like IPs in that they route from one network to another, to a subnetwork to a machine(phone) or gateway(PBX).
With a class C, for example, you have WWW.XXX.YYY.ZZZ with in simple terms, WWW being the big network, XXX and YYY being subnets of that WWW network, and ZZZ being the individual machine or gateway, or NAT box, or whatever.
With a phone number, you have exactly the same.
WWW-XXX-YYY-ZZZZ is the typical phone number. We of course dont have to use the WWW or XXX on local calls because that is routed locally and is not needed (obviously different from IP addressing, but a minor point) but for any other call, the info is the same. WWW tells the telco to route your call to a particular country. For US numbers at least, XXX is the areacode which tells telco to route call to a particular area of a state. YYY then tells the local telco to route the call to a set of switches that handle an even smaller geographic or population area. ZZZZ is the individual machine code or gateway... telling the switches in the YYY exchange to send that call down cable A so that it connects to machine ZZZZ.
All exactly like IP addresses. Which is why this is distressing, and as you said so well, shows a very profound ignorance on the part of the court and the former customer.
Honestly, however, I really would expect ARIN to step in claiming international treaty breaches here (the IP standard is IIRC, technically an international treaty to handle internet data routing around the globe), or something of that nature to squash this.
But I would also think it important for NAC and anyone else who leases IP space to a company, ISP, or other entity to have it explicitly spelled out in writing that the IP space assigned is NOT the property in any way shape or form of the customer. Basically copy the ARIN TOS and add it to your own.
Umm... There is no June 30 pull out. It has been widely stated that coalition troops will remain in Iraq for at least a few more months, and now NATO is going to be sending troops in as well to train Iraq security forces...
The June 30 deadline was for transfer of control from the coalition to the interim Iraqi government. And THAT was accomplished YESTERDAY... a day before you wrote this. So actually, they beat the june 30 deadline by 2 days.
since process and business method patents are so freaking popular, why couldn't someone go and patent the business method of aquiring IP and Patent portfolios for the purpose of profit by licensing and profit by litigation...
I love Joss Whedon's shows. I have seen every Buffy and Angel episode, as well as Firefly before it got scrapped... this movie is someting I have been hoping for for a while, so when I found out it was going to be a reality, I was ecstatic to say the least.
But now misgivings are starting to creep into my idle mind... is it just me, or does ANY movie with one of the Baldwins in it suddenly become B material at best? I certainly hope it doesnt happen with this one.
But take a look around the local video store, and see how many truely bad B movies that ALL of the Baldwin brothers star in... they are like Hollywood whores... anything for a buck.
Hope I spelled that right... I tend to reply conversationally to posts, and as that was regarding my country, I had assumed that people who aren't American would be savvy enough to understand what I was saying.
But to be sure, I was referring to American citizens... Although all you over in Europe and in Australia should consider lobbying your respective leaders to support things like this from time to time, as it seems that the EU and Australia have been basing your own copyright and IP related laws and regs on what America passes...
Not to say that is right, but it may help you keep things DMCAish out of your backdoors as well...
but then again, that is a matter of international politics, and I am Not a Politician...:)
No it doesnt.... this is something that Rep. Boucher has been working on for quite some time, and its been mentioned on slashdot quite a bit as well here, here, here, and here.
and that was just the top four in a search of old stories by score...
And you are correct, at least, in that this is a bold move, and definitely in the right direction. It is indeed a folly to think that media lobbies will just ignore this, which is why we ALL need to come together and slashdot congress both via email and snail mail to get things like this pushed all the way through.
And besides which, they may have almost unlimited funds, but we have unlimited bandwidth collectively...
Thats one of the nice things about Rick Boucher... I spoke with him before he was first elected, and he came across then, as he does now, as a politician who really is working in the interests of those he represents.
Mr Boucher is a very smart guy, and is usually very up to date on technology, and, as has been stated and shown here on more than one occasion, actually has a clue when it comes to technology and law.
I wish I still lived in VA so I could vote for him again. But either way, he is a nice guy who really does give a shit about the common person.
Oh great... what about those of us who took it in the ass thanks to outsourcing, downsizing, and the overall sorry state of the economy, and can barely afford a beat up Honda...
Aye... that sounds about right... all he really needed to do was go to the local bestbuy, or really any other big box retailer or any decent computer store and pick up an inexpensive cable router... cable router plugs into the cable modem, routes to the internal network. Most all now come with built in firewalling, web accessible configuration, NAT, etc... and you can pick them up for 35-45 dollars on average...
Slashdot Mirror
I realize this is off topic, BUT, actually, that sounds a LOT like democracy to me... at least modern democracy here....
Think about how many people actually go to the polls and vote for a particular candidate simply because he or she is affilitated with a particular party.
Or how many women voted for Al Gore in 2000 because they thought he was "sexy". And that was actually polled...
How many people vote a particular way simply because their parents vote that way, or because some puffed up hollywood actor tells them to??
With the exception of Amazon.com being a private business, and thus the site being private property, the "Mob Democracy" idea sounds a LOT like voting here in the US... Sorry, but it does. Most people vote without having even an inkling of what the positions of the candidates are, what the issues are, or what electing a particular person will mean in the long run...
This happened in a year where a drunk-driving North Dakota politician who killed a person got off with a hundred days in jail.
:\
True... and that one was just unbelievable. If it had been you or I, one of us would be rotting in jail for several years over that wreck. But he is a "popular representative" and was "so very remorseful"... sigh... just goes to show that money and power can get you pretty much anything.
Perhaps car stereos should be illegal too, aren't they potentially just as dangerous? What if you hit someone while fiddling with the air conditioner, is that just as bad? If not, why not?
Apples and Oranges. The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but in this case, are not similar enough to compare. The guy wasnt fiddling with the DVD player. IF in fact it was on, (and while that has not been proven yet, BUT they DID say that the player was wired to come on and show the LCD screen when the car was turned on) if it was on, the wreck happened because he was watching it... not fiddling with a knob or two.
Listening to the radio, while using SOME brain function (unless you are listening to pop or boy bands), does not involve visual acuity. However, playing a DVD in a dashboard mounted player DOES require concentration visually on the screen. Personally I thought the whole idea of a video screen in the dash like that was just dangerous in and of itself. A really stupid idea, and I cant wait to get my own...
Aren't cars the real problem?
No, the problem, and I think you get this, is People. Not just Americans, or Eruopeans, or Asians, or whatever. People. In this day and age (especially in America) people feel that they don't need to be responsible for their own actions. People blame everything under the sun, except for themselves when something bad happens.
There is a very small and dwindling groups of people who still believe in personal responsibility, and unfortunately, that is a trend likely to continue as the US Govt steps in wiht all sorts of rules and laws "for our own good".
I think maybe only politicians should be allowed to drive. They should be allowed to drunkenly swerve onto the sidewalks killing pedestrians, and for the rest of us, running a stop sign should be punished by having the accelerator foot chopped off.
O'Dowd thinks that unfriendly countries will attempt to hide intentional bugs that the Open Source community will have no chance of finding
...for all of about 15 minutes... but by then someone will have released a patch.
He's right. The Open Source community will not find these "terrorist bugs"...
The only way I could see this happening would be through apps... but if ANY military groups were to use random apps without checking them out first, then they probably get what they deserve.
The main things to worry about would be the kernel, driver modules, x.org, and the rest of the things that make up the "Core" functionality of Linux. And those have such stringent (usually) controlls over what goes into the actual released product that the possibility of that sort of rampant code corruption is negligent...
Then again, this was never about facts or truth...
he did it all for the nookie... tha nookie...
Whenever something even remotely spinnable happens in one of these cases, SCO is there with a prepared press release that is sent out to the media almost immediately.
Its now 4PM EST so they have had a few hours to come up with SOMETHING, but their website only has two PRs so far today... one about a new release, and another about a partnership with Ericom.
Maybe even they dont know how to spin this one...
SCO provides much wanted recreation ...to my busy days. These guys are down right funny, when it comes to how they are running their business.
/dev/random /dev/zero /dev/null and watched a machine slowly eat itself to death. Anyone can rm -rf the root, but start removing devices and much hilarity ensues...
Ahhh, yes, SCO does provide an enticing diversion from the mundane daily life that pays my bills. I dont know what I am going to do when this is all over... I will actually have to start working again.
And RE your sig:
-x-x-x-x- Are you as bold as me ? I have done a rm -rf / and watched a system slowly die..
I have rm -f
Tomorrow it will be, build you own monitor out of an old mirror and a commodore 64.
Damn, I wondered why my latest pr0n downloads looked so bad. I thought I was just pulling from the wrong usenet group.
Here is what I sent to them, for curiosities sake. If I get a reply, I will post it as well:
I would like more information regarding your action against Red Hat. As a share holder, I find it a bit confusing as to what prompted this action. The restatment makes little to no difference on their bottom line, as the did not misreport any erarnings. The restatment merely takes the number from one column and moves it to a different columns. The dip is stock price is due to the market's normal reacivity to announcements of this sort, from any company whatsoever.
As a shareholder, and as someone who is qualified as part of this class, I find it odd, and a bit disconcerting at the speed at which this was filed. I dare say that no one actually came to you asking for a mass tort suit, but here it comes anyway. Sadly, your firm seems to me to be nothing more than opportunistic lawyers intent on making a large fee from the settlement of class action suits.
Of course, I could be wrong, and I always stand waiting to change my opinions of people and situations, should an incontrovertable arguement be presented to me.
Therefore, my challenge to you, is to convince me otherwise. I have read the documents you have provided regarding this case, but have yet to be convinced that I should join this venture. As I see it so far, the only people who really benefit from litigation of this nature are the lawyers themselves, with the many plaintiffs recieveing a paltry share of the settlement.
So please, enlighten me. Convince me. Change my mind. That is my challenge to you. Are you up to it?
I dont know, but just very simply, I am one of the people who does alpha and beta testing of SuSE/Novell linux, and if what I have seen so far is any indication, they have a LONG way to go before they can honestly claim any top 5 spot.
:)
Admittedly, YaST is a MUCH better installer than it used to be, and it is fine as a system configuration tool as well, but there are just so many little things that dont work right, and too many issues in the release cycle that are just plain annoying. BUT they are definitely getting better. I would almost dismiss most of my beef with them as integration pains as Novell takes the reins.
Oh well, more power to them, I wish them well. We need more major linux players in the distro field (and no, Debian doesnt count, as it is not an enterprise OS).
What linux needs, is a few more Red Hats or SuSEs in the enterprise OS market. Make competition between Distros increase and we will get better underlying OSs, even better development and innovation than we have now, more hardware vendors will start creating drivers, or releasing specs so that OSS developers can create drivers, more companies will take up Linux as their OS of choice, and so on and so forth.
Right now we have a good start, but we really need more to get the momentum going. I would love to see another major player in the field, it would make MS sweat just that much more
The timing was appropriate 2-3 years ago. Actually, the original should never have passed in the form it was in.
The whole thing was railroaded right through the senate and house, through the oval office, and straight up our asses, along with civil rights, liberties, and basic common sense.
It was pushed through faster than probably any law has been in the past, with little to no discussion or regard for possible consequences...
Things may have changed, but in the past, in the US at least, Dell's customers called Dell support for any issue. The Dell Tech determined if the call was a Linux issue or a Hardware issue. Then, if it was a hardware issue, the customer was handled by the Dell tech. If the issue was a Linux issue, the customer was forwarded to Red Hat's tech support.
That was a few years ago, and since then, Red Hat has had some big changes in their support model, and Dell has sent all its tech support to India, and brought parts of it back again, so YMMV.
Sorry, but I am failing to see where this is either cool, tech, neat, different, or even anywhere remotely newsworthy.
Sorry, but I was a little disappointed. I went to the site expecting to find perhaps some hardware hacking info on the iTrip for boosting its output, or something like that... but come on now... has slashdot really gotten to the point where "if you pull the antenna out of the case, your signal will improve!"
I mean, really. That whole thing did not take any bit of genious, or even the slightest bit of creativity. Geez... thats what the iTrip is for. Broadcasting... and it isnt the best around for that either... there are better version, and in fact, you can even get fm broadcaster kits with a good deal more transmit power than the iTrip has...
But still, I dont see whats so special here. They are using an iPod and an FM broadcaster to do exactly what they were meant for... nothing new or special here.
Maybe just a slow news day or something...
YES!!!! Let's say I take a movie at home and rip it from a DVD - essentially the same process as what this kid is doing. Am I a criminal yet? No!! It's only when I take action and DISTRIBUTE that copy that I am doing something wrong.
Still no. It is not the same. If you take a DVD that you bought and rip a copy, there is some degree (for now, at least, unless the MPAA gets its way) of fair use backups. If you rip that DVD and then sell copies, you are a pirate. However, the grey area, which still hasnt been concluded yet is whether or not purchasing a DVD == ownership of that copy of the movie, or purchasing a DVD == ownership of the media, with permission to watch the contents under certain circumstances (no public showings, etc).
However, when the kid walks into a privately owned theater and copies a movie there, it is stealing, plain and simple. He paid, in his ticket price, for the priveledge of coming into the owners theater to view a movie that the owner has paid money to be able to screen. The kid DIDNT buy the movie reel, the theater is. He is watching someone elses property, on someone elses screen. Not his own. So, he is still stealing, plain and simple. There is no logical arguement against this.
When you go to a movie you are ALREADY usign a recording device - your brain!! You can make drawings based on what you see, or renact it in play-doh. Arguably the quality may even surpass that of a hand-held camcorder.
Tell you what, you go to a theater with a handi-cam, and film a new release. When you get caught, try convincing your lawyer to use the "My brain is a recording device" defense. Your lawyer will laugh at you, as will any judge, jury, etc. That is a poor defense. For that matter, whats to stop me from looking at the design of a can of coke, then turning around and making my own soda and putting it in cans or bottles bearing artwork that I drew from images in my recording device (brain) that happens to look almost exactly like the Coke artwork? Again, still stealing, and Coke's lawyers would have me for breakfast...
Here's an analogy. Let's say I go to a gas station, and get gas. Would you arrest me for driving off without paying before I leave? There's no way to be certain of intent, and for that reason alone this should NOT be a crime.
Nope... and again, two different things. If you come to my gas station, and pump gas with your car, you are allowed to do so without pre-paying because you have the intent to PURCHASE THAT GAS. When you walk into that theater, you buy a ticked for the priveledge (not right, because you have no rights to be able to see that movie, and the theater has every right (within reason) to not let you in) of seeing that movie. However, when you walk into that theater, it is implicitly understood (again legally by any average person) that you paid to view the movie there, NOT to copy it with a camcorder to take home and do who knows what.
Lets say I rent a room in your house for a week.
Now lets say you came home and found me in your bedroom, with my pockets full of whatever jewelry you own, any cash laying around, and say a bag full of your DVDs and whatever else you happen to have laying around. Am I stealing? By your definition, no, because you say no one knows the intent. However, it has been legally supported ad nausem that it IS stealing, regardless of wether or not I have actually left the premesis yet. Again, it comes to what a "reasonably person" would believe. And claiming, in the rented room analogy, that I wasnt stealing anything, even though I was caught with your most expensive stuff in a bag, is laughable. The same applies in this case. Even if the kid was going to go home and watch it over and over on his own, and not show anyone, or share it with anyone, it is STILL STEALING. If I take a candy bar without paying for it, and dont tell anyone, take it home, and eat it all by myself, I STILL STOLE THE CANDY BAR.
Your argument is eactly the ki
I don't like movie pirates either. But this kid - what crime did he commit?
Ummm... how about attempting to pirate a movie via camcorder?? So are you really saying that you dont like movie pirates, but have no problem with them BEFORE they distribute pirated movies??
did he sell the movie to anyone else? No.
Did he even distribute the movie elsewhere? No.
Well, no shit. He got caught BEFORE he had a chance to sell or give away copies.
In fact a (lame) defense he could use is time-shifting - saying he rather wanted to take a nap during the movie, and watch it later - or make a funny video from some footage (parody). How woud that be any different from what was done?
I doubt it. The nap defense is just too lame. And you have no rights as to time-shifting in RE movies in theaters. Your ticket is good for one showing only, at the appointed time, in the appointed theater, on the appointed screen. Not two days later.
And Parody is fine... THAT could conceivably be a good defense, HOWEVER, given the circumstances, it probably wouldn't hold up either. Plus, to make that one really work, you would have to show that the kid has a history of making video parodies of various movies, etc etc...
What would happen if I took a camcorder into the theater, and turned it on without a tape inside. Is that a crime?
Not in and of itself... HOWEVER, it would lead you to some really embarassing moments as you try to explain why you have a powered camcorder in a theater, tape or no... besides, most modern digital camcorders also take memory sticks for digital stills. Besides, the theaters have stated that recording devices are not allowed. Period. So you would be wrong, they would be right, Irregardless of your intent.
What if I use the focus controls to record the guys head in front of me instead of the movie. Is that a crime, just because I'm in a theater?
See above.
I hope this kid can turn the tables on them and sue them for a horrendous amount of money for slander.
For what? How has he been slandered? HE WAS CAUGHT WITH A CAMCORDER RECORDING THE MOVIE!!
What part of that did you not understand? Even given all your arguements, he was caught with a tape onto which he had been recording the movie. He wasnt recording the guy in front of him, nor the girl in the next seat over. He was recording the movie. Sorry, but that is piracy, plain and simple.
I am simply amazed at how downright stupid people can be sometimes. It is not like this kid was just minding his own business. He was stealing a movie from the theater.
For those of you with the big brother analogies... bullshit. If I were a theater owner, and I had to pay the price they pay for movies (and belive me, theaters make little to no profit from the movie itself after they pay rent on the film, pay the royalties to the MPAA, etc etc), I would have beat the kid silly for doing that. I would have taken out a leather strap and whipped his ass. Theaters dont make that much money off the films themselves. They make the most money off the popcorn, drinks, candy, hot dogs, nachos, etc. They make a percentage of box office recipts, but the majority of that goes back to the MPAA and the studio that produced the film. They have every right to sit there with night vision goggles, just as they have every right to put 3 employees in every row of the theater during a movie to do the same thing. Its just that night vision goggles are cheaper.
Theaters are also private property. If you dont want them watching you (and not you in specific, but the audience in general) dont go. Wait for the DVD, rent or buy it, adn watch it at home. But when you go to a theater, you are in their home, so the house rules apply.
I see nothing wrong with what they did here. That kid was just stupid enough to get caught doing someting illegal. Tough shit for him. People like him are part of the reason (eve
Well, if it makes you feel any better... I didnt mod you down ;)
:(
But yes, and the one thing I have been in favor of all along is community based wireless networks. I submitted an ask slashdot a good while back asking if anyone had experience in either setting up and running or at least belonging to a co-op wireless service.
I could see a good potential market there for locally owned, co-operative internet services. The community purchases the incoming lines (maybe a single t3 for the entire community in some cases) and everyone who participates pays an equal share for the rent and upkeep and such...
That was rejected by the editors tho...
But you do, in that case have a valid point, but I would wager that rather than do one or the other, people should do both... fuss at the FCC and keep on them to monitor and enforce their own rules, AND look for, support and propose alternatives...
If you are truely a licensed Amateur AND a slashdot reader, then you have no excuse whatsoever to actually go and RTFA.
If you had done even a modicum of research into this, you would know that what the ARRL and others are complaining about is BPL or PLC in europe that uses the HF spectrum for transmission. Over long unshielded agind powerlines, this == big fscking antenna. Hence the bleed, and RF issues ensue.
They have also stated (the ARRL and others) repeatedly that they have no problem with BPL itself. They have problems with the power companies that are trying to roll this out to make an extra buck or two. I mean, lets face it, many power companies have problems just keeping the power going, let alone BPL... and to have to handle interference complaints as well?
But in any case, the people who are against BPL, as I said, are against the version that uses the HF spectrum. Not just parts of the HF spectrum, but the ENTIRE HF spectrum from around 3 to 30+MHz. They support other means readily, such as the BPL system that was being developed in the desert that used gigahertz transmission frequencies instead of HF freqs... or the aforementioned fiber wound around the power lines, and some companies ALREADY have cable wound around the powerlines that they use themselves.
Heh.. Go read the PDFs for a better idea of what is going on. Honestly, it really doesnt look like an issue of IP portability so much as continued access to a particular netblock.
." much doom ensues for UCI.
From the plantiff's affidavit part 1:
"If UCI were to leave NAC on short notice (e.g. the 45-day period provided for in the contract in the event NAC raises rates) and NAC refused access to the existing IP addresses supplied by NAC until new addresses were secured. .
But the point is, he is not asking to take the IPs to another company... he is asking for use of the IPs until he has time to aquire IP space from a different host.
Basically, he is suing to keep his IP space from being shut off during the move.
I still dont agree with it personally, but it makes a little more sense after reading the papers relating to the case.
You are correct, except on one count... IP addresses are VERY like phone numbers. The only problem is that people dont seem to understand that. Personally, I was against number portability from the start.
Think about what you said about IPs and phone numbers. All phone numbers are exactly like IPs in that they route from one network to another, to a subnetwork to a machine(phone) or gateway(PBX).
With a class C, for example, you have WWW.XXX.YYY.ZZZ with in simple terms, WWW being the big network, XXX and YYY being subnets of that WWW network, and ZZZ being the individual machine or gateway, or NAT box, or whatever.
With a phone number, you have exactly the same.
WWW-XXX-YYY-ZZZZ is the typical phone number. We of course dont have to use the WWW or XXX on local calls because that is routed locally and is not needed (obviously different from IP addressing, but a minor point) but for any other call, the info is the same. WWW tells the telco to route your call to a particular country. For US numbers at least, XXX is the areacode which tells telco to route call to a particular area of a state. YYY then tells the local telco to route the call to a set of switches that handle an even smaller geographic or population area. ZZZZ is the individual machine code or gateway... telling the switches in the YYY exchange to send that call down cable A so that it connects to machine ZZZZ.
All exactly like IP addresses. Which is why this is distressing, and as you said so well, shows a very profound ignorance on the part of the court and the former customer.
Honestly, however, I really would expect ARIN to step in claiming international treaty breaches here (the IP standard is IIRC, technically an international treaty to handle internet data routing around the globe), or something of that nature to squash this.
But I would also think it important for NAC and anyone else who leases IP space to a company, ISP, or other entity to have it explicitly spelled out in writing that the IP space assigned is NOT the property in any way shape or form of the customer. Basically copy the ARIN TOS and add it to your own.
Umm... There is no June 30 pull out. It has been widely stated that coalition troops will remain in Iraq for at least a few more months, and now NATO is going to be sending troops in as well to train Iraq security forces...
The June 30 deadline was for transfer of control from the coalition to the interim Iraqi government. And THAT was accomplished YESTERDAY... a day before you wrote this. So actually, they beat the june 30 deadline by 2 days.
since process and business method patents are so freaking popular, why couldn't someone go and patent the business method of aquiring IP and Patent portfolios for the purpose of profit by licensing and profit by litigation...
I love Joss Whedon's shows. I have seen every Buffy and Angel episode, as well as Firefly before it got scrapped... this movie is someting I have been hoping for for a while, so when I found out it was going to be a reality, I was ecstatic to say the least.
:)
But now misgivings are starting to creep into my idle mind... is it just me, or does ANY movie with one of the Baldwins in it suddenly become B material at best? I certainly hope it doesnt happen with this one.
But take a look around the local video store, and see how many truely bad B movies that ALL of the Baldwin brothers star in... they are like Hollywood whores... anything for a buck.
Heh... maybe the Canadians will bomb them
Ack... mea culpa...
:)
Hope I spelled that right... I tend to reply conversationally to posts, and as that was regarding my country, I had assumed that people who aren't American would be savvy enough to understand what I was saying.
But to be sure, I was referring to American citizens... Although all you over in Europe and in Australia should consider lobbying your respective leaders to support things like this from time to time, as it seems that the EU and Australia have been basing your own copyright and IP related laws and regs on what America passes...
Not to say that is right, but it may help you keep things DMCAish out of your backdoors as well...
but then again, that is a matter of international politics, and I am Not a Politician...
No it doesnt.... this is something that Rep. Boucher has been working on for quite some time, and its been mentioned on slashdot quite a bit as well here, here, here, and here.
and that was just the top four in a search of old stories by score...
And you are correct, at least, in that this is a bold move, and definitely in the right direction. It is indeed a folly to think that media lobbies will just ignore this, which is why we ALL need to come together and slashdot congress both via email and snail mail to get things like this pushed all the way through.
And besides which, they may have almost unlimited funds, but we have unlimited bandwidth collectively...
Thats one of the nice things about Rick Boucher... I spoke with him before he was first elected, and he came across then, as he does now, as a politician who really is working in the interests of those he represents.
Mr Boucher is a very smart guy, and is usually very up to date on technology, and, as has been stated and shown here on more than one occasion, actually has a clue when it comes to technology and law.
I wish I still lived in VA so I could vote for him again. But either way, he is a nice guy who really does give a shit about the common person.
Oh great... what about those of us who took it in the ass thanks to outsourcing, downsizing, and the overall sorry state of the economy, and can barely afford a beat up Honda...
Aye... that sounds about right... all he really needed to do was go to the local bestbuy, or really any other big box retailer or any decent computer store and pick up an inexpensive cable router... cable router plugs into the cable modem, routes to the internal network. Most all now come with built in firewalling, web accessible configuration, NAT, etc... and you can pick them up for 35-45 dollars on average...