Google Lifts The Veil On Copyright Takedowns: Reveals Detailed Data On Who Requests Link Removals
from the data-data-data dept
As part of Google's ongoing Transparency Report efforts, today the company has released a whole new section on copyright takedowns, containing a huge amount of information on the many takedown requests Google receives. It focuses specifically on the takedowns for search links, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them add other areas later. As you may recall, we were among those who were victimized by a bogus takedown, and a key post about SOPA that we had written was missing from Google search for about a month.The new transparency platform lets you dig in and see quite a few details about exactly who is issuing takedowns and what they're removing from search. It's using data since last July (when Google set up an organized web-form, so the data is consistent). It may be a bit surprising, but at the top of the list? Microsoft, who has apparently taken down over 2.5 million URLs from Google's search results. Most of the the others in the top 10 aren't too surprising. There's NBC Universal at number two. The RIAA at number three (representing all its member companies). BPI at number five. Universal Music at number seven. Sony Music at number eight. Warner Music doesn't clock in until number 12.
It's also interesting to hear that these reviews catch some pretty flagrant bogus takedown requests:
At the same time, we try to catch erroneous or abusive removal requests. For example, we recently rejected two requests from an organization representing a major entertainment company, asking us to remove a search result that linked to a major newspaper’s review of a TV show. The requests mistakenly claimed copyright violations of the show, even though there was no infringing content. We’ve also seen baseless copyright removal requests being used for anticompetitive purposes, or to remove content unfavorable to a particular person or company from our search results.It's good to see Google catch these, as plenty of other sites would automatically take such content down, just to avoid any question of liability. Of course, it doesn't catch them all. Some get through -- as we ourselves discovered a few months ago. That led us to wonder if this tool could drill down and find the details about takedowns targeting Techdirt,
Either way, this is really fascinating data and an interesting platform, shedding some significant light on just how often copyright holders are trying to take links out of Google, who's doing it and who they're targeting.
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Filed Under: data, dmca, takedown, transparency
Companies: bpi, google, microsoft, nbc universal, riaa, sony music, universal music, warner music
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This is awesome.
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Techdirt
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I just learned about 24,129 new sites to check for free media!
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Also of note...
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Microsoft
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My disgust with MS grows almost daily
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Idea for Google
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...welp time to fap!
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Re: Idea for Google
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Re: Techdirt
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Re: Also of note...
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Re: Microsoft
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Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
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shows off the business of takedown subcontracting
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Should'nt be to difficult with your programming background, i mean, web addresses tend to be unique, so there's your constant right there, and the hard part, the database, you seem to already be working on......sooooo?
Now, obviously your listening, otherwise i'd just be some grandios qwack, who thinks every major corporation reads my comments, beacuase i mention you by name
Hahaha......i made me laugh
anyhow ......google...... chop chop
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If they can't find a better use for their money than this they deserve to go out of business.
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Re:
And I'd like to see flying unicorns that excrete magic fairy dust.
But I think we are both out of luck since these reports deal with reality and not completely made up fantasies inside our own minds.
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Interesting
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Re: Re: Also of note...
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Interesting
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Re: Re: Microsoft
I doubt it. Everyone now knows if you download a free version of Office creepy green guys will emerge from your photocopier and take your computer.
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google itself
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Re: Re: Also of note...
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copy the information
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Re: Re: Microsoft
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Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
Kidding +1
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Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
Good for you! If you need reinforcement, just look at Microsoft's history. Believe it or not, they're arguably better behaved now than they have been since the very beginning.
I think you will find, with one exception, that it's actually very easy to get away from Microsoft. For the most part, the alternatives are even technically superior!
The one exception is when it comes to gaming, and even that is easier than ever before and getting easier all the time.
But, really, if you're into the sorts of games that require Windows, then you're probably supporting companies that don't behave better than Microsoft anyway. So long as you're OK making that concession, you may as well just keep a Windows partition to play your games on and go non-windows for everything else.
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Re: Re: Idea for Google
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Re: Re: Re: Microsoft
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Seized by Homeland Security?
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Semi Proof Against the Trolls
No, maybe, good idea but wrong reasons? What are your thoughts guys?
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The 1%
Now do you really think it is 1% or less because all the other stuff is LEGAL????
Trust me, if the owners of all the other stolen content could afford it, they would do the same thing.
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So, perhaps ever take-down notice should be accompanied by a $35 fee. If $35 is inconsequential to private individuals then surely it is not too much for big corporations to pay. Processing claims probably costs at least that much, so the search engines and other third parties still would not be making money on the fee.
Honestly, it does not seem fair to me that someone should have to pay to defend their copyright (the violator should pay if found guilty), but the IP industry has already set the standard for how the system works by requiring people to pay a non-refundable $35 fee to protect their innocence.
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Re:
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[Condensed Background:]
The majority of servers are just computers running standard Linux or Windows or Unix with server software (basically software that responds to search and up/download requests from clients such as your browsers, keeps stats, and does various other things). The files are in standard directories (the word "folder" is the same thing as directory - it's just a metaphor for the technically illiterate majority) using one of several standard directory structures (ext3, ext4, FAT32, NTFS, etc.).
In the old days of internet file hunting (eek: 10 years ago!!), google (and the others) could be used to search for a directory listing, since those listings used standard strings (so searching for "index of" and "love" would show scads of directories of scads of sites (the indexes were called "dexes" by the cognoscenti and there were whole open forums teeming with postings of finds from searchers - I used to visit one daily) with a file with the word "love" in it. There is a no-search keyword or some such in HTML that websites were supposed to use and search engines were supposed to obey, but both sides often ignored it or weren't even aware of it
File hunters also used google (and others) with techniques like trying/guessing typical directory names such as "media", "mp3", "audio", etc....)
Of course, eventually the MAFIAA hired someone with a clue(yeah a guy they once hired by accident) and caught on and I believe google was shit on royally, but I don't know what happened.
The funny part is that the spammer/slime-merchants had caught on to that years before. So they put these strings (like "index of") into every one of their trllions of spam pages along with a trillion other typical search terms (they were usually in hidden text, so google would find it but you didn't see it in a standard browser display unless the spammer was a totally brain-dead lazy fucker (some are) and didn't hide it.
[end of Condensed Background]
A takedown should ONLY EVER apply to published links. If google is putting unpublished links into their results, then google should be sued into oblivion for privacy invasion by the site they (never should have) linked to.
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"Unknown" - The reporter entered a URL that was in an invalid format.
Anyone want to take a guess as to whether this represents process hacking or just stupid people making requests? I wonder how many "The Internet"s they got...
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Re: Semi Proof Against the Trolls
Why does thepiratebay get all their love and attention in the media when they aren't even the worse offender. =P
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AND
requests for site takedowns
Right direction i guess
But, didnt know you could check how many requests by law enforcement made on google accounts, hell, i didnt even realise google where giving out our data, thats fucked up google, i dont care how you try to rationalize it, oh, im, pretty sure your being pressured somewhere, but its still fucked up
in future ill be looking out for companies whos policies specifically and contractually, protect a users right, WITHOUT FUCKING QUESTION.
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Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
Windows IS a compelling OS. It's compelled me to try Slackware, Debian, RedHat, Ubuntu, Solaris, and even OSX...
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Re:
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Re: Re: Techdirt
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Re: Re: Techdirt
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http://(pirates...oh arrr).se/torrent/4535425/Windows_XP_Professional_SP3_-_Activated
First result
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Re: Re: Re: Also of note...
Now there's a sexy name
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Re: Re:
.....ahhh shiiit
fap fap fap
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Re:
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Re: Idea for Google
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Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
No problem, just get an XB... oh wait, get a PS... dang, Sony's just as bad. I don't think you can really do much hardcore gaming without supporting MS or Sony. I'm not an expert, but I haven't heard of a lot of serious-gamer type games for Nintendo, Mac, iOS, or Android. You kind of have to choose if you're going to just play more casual (still fun but different) games, or embrace the dark side.
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Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
If the alternatives seems have their own enforcement force that is nicknamed gestapo, able to sue many websites to take down stuff they don't like, and has connections with local police force who helped their gestapo enter and search people's house without warrant for "lost property". Really, are they any better to switch to if your reason to switch is based on company ethics?
Reality check of the day: pretty much all multinational big corps are evil so you really have no way out. If you *religiously* believe one company is ethically better than others, time to reevaluate your moral compass.
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Re: Re: Semi Proof Against the Trolls
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Re:
Can't wait till the next list comes out !!!
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So many of their pages don't seem to receive any complaints on Google. These numbers don't show how many notices the actual sites got. Notices are sent to the sites themselves far more often than they are sent to Google to remove search result listings.
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fast, cheap, good: pick any two
"Fast, cheap and good: pick any two."
The content industry has decided that it must optimize on "fast" and "cheap" in its systems for taking content (and websites) off the network. The content industry can no longer afford "good" i.e. accuracy.
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Re:
Watch Slashdot any time a story mentioning Google comes up. The first post is inevitably by some super-high UID who just signed up, ragging on Google and spamming on about Microsoft Research.
Exhibit A: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/05/18/227229/microsoft-wins-us-import-ban-on-motorolas-android-devi ces
kdps has exactly ONE post. That post has the same timestamp as the Slashdot article.
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Re:
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Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
Really? Can't say I recall ever seeing any sort of crackdown for sharing Linux distos. Just sayin'
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Re: The 1%
Please.
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Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
Based on personal experience, I have been able to get most any game I wanted to run under Linux using Wine, Dosbox or one of the console simulators. The only ones I couldn't get to work were because I don't have a super-duper graphics card on my laptop and they didn't run under Windows either.
(Like a dumbass I bought The Witcher Enhanced Edition without reading the box and there it sits all pretty on that shelf mocking me daily)
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Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
GWiz beat me to it, but... I didn't specify a particular alternative, but I thought it was obvious I was was talking about FOSS, which is 100% better than MS on these points.
Yes, all the multinationals are obnoxious, but that doesn't mean there's no way out. just don't use any of their products.
I find it interesting that you think the only viable alternatives are commercial products. In most cases, the FOSS alternatives are superior to the commercial offerings, and you don't have to support bad behavior.
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Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
Kindof. As Gwiz pointed out, the majority of Windows games can be run under Linux nowadays, but you're still supporting companies that behave badly.
However, there exists FOSS games that rival those of the types you mention. Not a huge number, but they exist are are very good -- and the number of them is increasing over time.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
That's excellent, I didn't know they were working so well these days. Entirely forgot to mention Linux, but apparently that could be a real gamer's alternative.
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Re: copy the information
Great idea. Maybe not even limit it to takedown requests, but all of google. Even the whole web, think big! Just make a big archive of the internet. Now, what to call it...
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Re: The 1%
It costs nothing, and doesn't require a lawyer, to file a DMCA notice.
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Re:
in future ill be looking out for companies whos policies specifically and contractually, protect a users right, WITHOUT FUCKING QUESTION.
Better look offshore, because no (reputable) US company is going to guarantee to protect your data against subpoena or other court orders.
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Re: fast, cheap, good: pick any two
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Re:
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Also of note...
Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
We usually referred to that as "Dating Miss Michigan" or "Spanking the monkey" in my youth.
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Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
You should try it. The operating systems are robust and some of the applications are amazing. I have little use for an office suite, but LibreOffice is excellent. The Gimp does most of the Photoshop-ish things that most people care about. Inkscape and Dia are pretty darn good. Then there's Wireshark, Bluefish, Miro, Zenoss, Subversion, Xapian, VLC, Scribus, and hundreds more. The problem these days isn't finding an application that does what you want: the problem is deciding which one to use, as in some areas there are many.
And the best part is: you can boot into these (operating systems and application environments) from CD/DVD/USB, try them out, and if you don't like them? Try another one.
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Re:
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Re: Re: Re: Microsoft
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Re: Idea for Google
Of course, this is also a good reminder -- as they note in the Google blog post -- that if you run a website, you should absolutely sign up to use Google's Webmaster tools, which will quickly inform you when one of your URLs are targeted by such a takedown, allowing you to easily file a counternotice.
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Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
You know what my problem with Linux is? Not the OS, not the shell, not the programs, it's the support. When I've had trouble figuring something out, I can probably count on one hand (maybe two) the number of times I've found a solution using the GUI.
I'm a programmer and comfortable with a command prompt, but it bothers me to have this great graphical interface that's almost useless because unless you can figure everything out on your own, you have to go back to the bash shell. Until people answering Linux questions start answering them in terms of the GUI rather than command line, Linux is going nowhere in terms of widespread adoption.
Just a quick example from the first page on a google search:
echo -e "blacklist bcm43xx\nblacklist b43\nblacklist b43legacy\nblacklist ssb" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
Your mom doesn't want to deal with that gobbledygook. I don't even particularly want to deal with it.
This is not directed at you, I'm just venting. :-)
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Re: Re:
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Re:
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Re: Semi Proof Against the Trolls
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Re: Re:
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Also of note...
the only kind of person i can see going with "hobbit polisher" would be your classic stereotype of the basement dweller who decided how to finish based on the roll of a d20
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Re:
The sheer volume shows that it is an impossible game to play and only the unreasoning think that infringing on peoples rights to free speech and due process should be struck out or severely curtailed in further futile attempts to prevent actions that no one has actually been able to demonstrate cause any problems for anyone.
Having ruffled feathers is not a problem.
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Re: Re:
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Re:
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Corporations should pay a non-refundable fee of $3,500 per takedown request, individuals should pay $3.50.
Fixed that for you.
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How suspicious...
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111122/04254316872/definitive-post-why-sopa-protect-ip-ar e-bad-bad-ideas.shtml
That's right, they claimed copyright over your Anti-SOPA post.
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Re:
Since about 1998.
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Re: Unpublished directories
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Re: Interesting
Anyway, thank you for pointing that out (and Techdirt too), I'm spreading the news.
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Re:
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Also of note...
Are you a basement dweller?
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Re: Re: Re: Semi Proof Against the Trolls
/sarc
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Re: Re:
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Re:
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Re: Re: Unpublished directories
Wish that were the case, but having my address shown to me during a while search, WHILE logged off, isnt encouraging
So they at least have a way to track and identify you, and you dont even need to be logged on, unless of course this is just some funtion of an allowed cookie, and im just blowing this out of proportion, which is certainly a possibility
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Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
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Re: How suspicious...
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Re: How suspicious...
Yes, we wrote about it (it's linked from the post above too):
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120223/15102217856/key-techdirt-sopapipa-post-censored-b ogus-dmca-takedown-notice.shtml
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Re: Microsoft
That's the first thing I thought...
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Re: Re: Re: Unpublished directories
While that is a legitimate concern, I don't understand what that has to do with which pages their crawler indexes.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
Right, the problem is the people who provide the community-based support (because if there's reasonable paid support for personal Linux users I haven't heard of it) are the same ones who think about things primarily in terms of the command line. And probably many of them couldn't care less how many people adopt Linux. I'll bet many would even prefer the masses stay away. And they do.
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Re: Re:
It still amuses me when people don't grasp the power of ignoring something.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
the list of 'install under wine and go' type games is... very limited.
you can Do it, it's just a major hassle if your attitude is less 'linux is awesome and i am awesome at doing awesome things on it and thus learn and understand this for fun' and more 'microsoft is made of suck and i just want to get stuff Done without using it's stuff.'
also, Wine and multiplayer often don't play well together. again, probably ways around this if you're technically inclined, but a major pain if not.
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Re: Seized by Homeland Security?
random blogs aren't.
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Re: The 1%
Why should anyone?
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Re:
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UMG took down my video too, fair use be damned!
Queens Of The Stone Age: The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret
Tool: 46 & 2
Ill Niño: I Am Loco
barely audible in the background, demonstrating how sucky the display of my (back then pretty expensive) Panasonic car stereo was: dead slow, 30 chars max, some characters missing, some cut off after special chars.
Now, please watch it at Vimeo and tell me what kinda (financial) harm UMG could possibly suffer from this fair use clip, especially compared to the harm of yet again looking like complete jackasses for taking it down?
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Re:
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
This isn't something unique to Linux, by the way. I've seen numerous things on OSX that would need a command prompt fix, and there's no end of Windows solutions that involve hacking the registry and other things that would be daunting to a newcomer.
This is essentially the problem with demanding things for free. As an old saying goes - you can have it cheaply, functional or quickly - pick two. Navigating clueless users through relatively simply tasks can be frustrating, and it's something that most of us who started their careers as helpdesk monkeys will avoid if there's not a much needed hourly wage attached.
It's been a while since I've looked, but I think that you get first party support included if you buy a retail boxed version of a major distro, and I don't believe most major distros will have problems supporting home users for most tasks if they buy a support contract later. I suppose it depends on what you're trying to do, etc, but I believe it's possible.
Maybe you've just hit upon a niche market? GUI-only solutions for common Linux problems? Hmmm...
By the way, from what I can see, the "gobbledygook" you pasted above seems to return the contents of a file then uses those contents in another program, which is run as a different user. It's a quick and easy command in the command prompt (you'd just copy and paste it without having to understand it), but imagine how many clicks, copying and pasting into different windows a GUI would probably need. Whoever provided that solution chose to give a single command rather than spend 2 pages guiding the user through every button. Whether you like it or not, that's the mindset for volunteers providing solutions free of charge...
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Re: Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
Out of curiosity, where are you seeing this? Most modern distros don't require any such thing for anything other than advanced configuration.
"The Linux gearheads don't care because they apparently have a superhuman Rainman ability to remember most of the parameters for every program!"
Apparently being the operative word. Virtually every command line program has some documentation installed, and you can usually see a listing of the available parameters by typing --help after the command. Nobody remembers everything, but an experienced user will be able to remind themselves or discover required parameters quickly.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Semi Proof Against the Trolls
/sarc"
Hes not talking about the site, hes talking about the torrents that have been there for years, and suspecting the ip address of its peers
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Also of note...
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Re: Re: Semi Proof Against the Trolls
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
Yeah, I think that's about what I said. ;-)
What you're essentially asking is that people who are able and willing to provide support free of charge during their spare time forget most of what they know so they can navigate a newcomer through their first Ubuntu install's GUI rather than provide a solution which they know will work in seconds.
Exactly. And this situation is not a problem, per se. It just limits the reach of Linux. Like I said, some people care and others don't. I'm frustrated because I'd like to see Linux become a powerful competitor to Windows.
there's no end of Windows solutions that involve hacking the registry and other things that would be daunting to a newcomer.
Sure, but if there's a way to do it in the GUI, you can find that answer. That's not always the case with Linux.
I think that you get first party support included if you buy a retail boxed version of a major distro, and I don't believe most major distros will have problems supporting home users for most tasks if they buy a support contract later.
That's good. I hope that becomes more widely known. I may look into it myself.
By the way, from what I can see, the "gobbledygook" you pasted above seems to return the contents of a file then uses those contents in another program, which is run as a different user.
Yes, I know it does that (I operated a Linux machine strictly command line for about 3 years), but it's complete nonsense to almost everyone.
imagine how many clicks, copying and pasting into different windows a GUI would probably need.
That's another problem. Some GUIs don't have all the functionality programmed into them, or it's poorly done, because the developers figure you can always just use the command line. I would love to see them take an attitude of if you're going to make a GUI at all, make sure it does every task the program is capable of. Ideally in an intuitive manner, but that might be asking too much. :-)
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Also of note...
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Re:
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+1 point to Linux
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Re:
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
Sometimes I forget that I am an "old school" gamer. Messing with all the memory settings and multiple boot systems and whatnot for DOS games was the norm. Switching to Linux was just another learning experience for me. Actually, the ability to play most all of my old games I had sitting around on one system (along with my growing dislike of Microsoft too) is why I switched.
Linux is getting more user friendly all the time for gaming. PlayOnLinux automates a lot of the Wine stuff for newbies. I don't use it personally, but it looks promising.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
Anytime I haven't been able to find documentation on something, a well worded Google search usually finds something on a user forum pretty quickly.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
Your google fu must exceed my own, because I rarely come up with anything other than "paste this into the command line:"
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
Anyway, that might be exactly the kind of problem where you really do still need to use the command line. Drivers are still an issue with Linux, and will continue to be so long as so many manufacturers either can't or won't create their own Linux drivers and/or don't release the required information for the community to develop their own. Anyone who's spent time talking users through a device manager problem where Windows Update doesn't instantly find the required driver will know that a GUI solution isn't necessarily easier, either.
But, this is also the kind of problem that most people won't come across once the OS is installed and running. On a day-to-day basis, most people will not need to use the command line at all. Sure, some will, but sometimes people need to drop to the command line in OSX or even recovery mode in Windows if the problem is severe enough.
I understand your point here with this particular issue, but is it really something that will affect the majority of problems, or only people with problems caused by incompatible equipment and the like?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
with native linux binaries, there's no futzing about to make it run, no hoops to jump through when $THAT_NEXT BIG_EXPANSION_PACK comes out and breaks the currently running install, no proprietary UDF-MS filesystem on the install DVD, no mysterious crashes that leave the wine process hung and in an unstable state, no performance hit due to system calls being run through the wrapper, ......
my money's just as good as Joe Wintendo's money. a shame game companies don't want it....
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
Your point is good, but what I wonder is how often it has to be an issue before the average user is frustrated with it? OTOH maybe I'm exaggerating and the average user is OK with pasting stuff they don't understand into a program they don't know how to use, as long as it solves the problem.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
my money's just as good as Joe Wintendo's money. a shame game companies don't want it....
Problem is, they know there are a lot of Joe Wintendos and even more Mike Waystations, John Wexboxes, and Steve Weeceegamers. They believe, correctly or incorrectly, that there are very few Linux gamers. This leads to a vicious cycle where there really are few Linux gamers because there aren't many good games for Linux, so studios don't develop for Linux because there's no market, etc.
I suspect it will take quite a long time of slowly building up an independent Linux game market before the major producers take notice. I mean even Mac doesn't have a great game market and I think that's a lot more popular than Linux, isn't it?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
It does, and drivers/games have always been the most problematic areas. I personally think that having products that allow games to run relatively easily on Linux will help, but I understand the problems with only having products native to Windows then played without "notifying" the developer.
One area that looks positive is the indie gaming scene - most of the Humble Bundle games have been available on Linux, for example, and Linux users tend to pay more on average. Perhaps that will help change the perception of the market.
"I mean even Mac doesn't have a great game market and I think that's a lot more popular than Linux, isn't it?"
The marketplace is growing, thanks mainly to Steam and Aspyr, as well as the generally increasing popularity of Apple products over the last few years. Hopefully that will continue. Hopefully similar companies will support Linux in the same way in the near future.
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Re: Idea for Google
It's in the article.. did you read more than half of it?
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Re: Re: My disgust with MS grows almost daily
/sigh of happiness and contentment
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