Top dogs want to protect the status quo, not allow younger more agile dogs the freedom to take their place. That's what the patent system is really about.
i agree. microsoft is like any other big company trying to protect it's monopoly status. however, cory doctorow wrote in his novel "someone comes to town, someone leaves town" about confusing slow moving with evil:
we're hardly nimble. Moving a Bell is like shifting a battleship by tapping it on the nose with a toothpick. It can be done, but you can spend ten years doing it and still not be sure if you've made any progress. From the outside, it's easy to mistake 'slow' for 'evil.' It's easy to make that mistake from the inside, too.
keep in mind that this is a quote from a sci-fi novel and not a textbook, but the idea is that large incumbents, especially those with monopolies, are not necessarily preventing change, nor are they truly incapable of embracing change, but rather that they are too slow moving in their progress for us to see them actually changing.
i'm not saying that it's true, just that it's an interesting take on the idea. even if it is true, and that the big incumbents will change eventually, i think that innovating quickly and effectively is still more important than letting old dinosaurs live out the last of their days.
Imagine if your a network administrator running a virtual server on your network. Someone then manages to force you to wipe your server (by holding a gun to your head, threats, whatever) leaving you without a major compononet of the network.
it's already illegal just about everywhere to threaten someone, doubly so when a gun is involved. it doesn't matter what you tell a person to do at gunpoint, holding someone at gunpoint is illegal just about everywhere.
if this case really did involve real world menacing or coercion, why isn't that the charge and conviction instead of the virtual theft?
tricking someone in a game into doing something stupid is not illegal, if anything it *might* be a terms of service violation.
does this mean we can press charges against spawn killers? how about we try team killers for treason? that one will be funny to watch since in the US it carries the death penalty.
this is the danger of unintended consequences. so if there is some sort of game server failure and you have to roll the world back two days, does that mean i have a case for theft since my two days are now gone?
a virtual world belongs to it's creators, and those creators should handle these issues, not the real world police.
the "big" bust last week wasn't big at all. it wasn't even a good start. it was barely a decent day's work.
the storm and kraken botnets have nodes that number in the several hundreds of thousands to millions. i'll bet they lose 50,000 nodes a day and pick up at least that many if not more each day to replace them.
when it comes to spam, we are all out gunned and out numbered by orders of magnitude.
these are networks of compromised computers that are 2-3 times the size of google. think about that for a second.
google is rumored to have between 400,000 and a million servers. losing 35,000 nodes wouldn't hurt google for more than a couple of minutes, so why do you think it would affect spamming in the slightest?
members of shadowcrew, carderplanet, and couterfietmarket were turned by the feds a few years ago and smaller busts were made. in my opinion, the feds should keep the sites up and running and target individual criminals with low profile busts.
like all high profile busts of big websites, the members scatter and form smaller groups that are even more underground.
the most conservative estimates of the kraken and storm botnets are in the high hundreds of thousands and some believe that they might number in the millions.
celebrating taking down 35,000 bots in "the war against spam" is like high-fiving your team for showing up to practice.
sure, it's good to show up for practice, just like it's good to take down botnets, but don't start the champagne toasts just yet.
the internet detects censorship as damage and routes around it. that's why china can't block access to sites it doesn't agree with, and why countries try and fail to block access to youtube.
so you can convict all the people you want. all that will do is cause people to take more care to hide their identities and move their hosting to countries with friendlier hosting services when they engage in that sort of business.
this sends more american money overseas which only hurts our economy and does absolutely nothing to stop the spread of materials others may find objectional.
it will make people who peddle kiddie porn and the like that much harder to catch. thanks a lot and i am sure "the children" thank you as well.
All these gun supporters talk about the right to bear arms, but they forget about their right to stand up against a corrupt government. Why isn't that happening? When did every one become such sheep?
i agree. you should say that slowly and clearly into the clock radio by your bed and someone from the NSA will be by shortly to discuss it with you.
Question: What is the difference between a network player and a an iPod, provided no sharing is supported?
i imagine that it's based on the [tortured] logic that uploading music to the internet [regardless of it's intended use] is illegal.
just like the satellite radio that lets you record to mp3s that you can't move off of the radio that had the music industry up in arms a year or two ago, the industry thinks that mp3s should be illegal and is using cases like this against products and services like these to move the law in that direction.
that's what the *AA's of the world want. just shut it down and let the users defect to multiple services. spread the blame around making it harder for *AA's to monitor and police them.
On the post: Government Misusing Trademark Law To Stop Biker Gang
you are all missing the real issue here
why does a biker gang need a registered trademark?
are there issues with other gangs that can't be settled with chains and bats and boards with nails driven through them?
WTF?
On the post: A Business Relationship Built At The End Of A Pointy Stick Isn't Much Of A Relationship
Re:
i agree. microsoft is like any other big company trying to protect it's monopoly status. however, cory doctorow wrote in his novel "someone comes to town, someone leaves town" about confusing slow moving with evil:
we're hardly nimble. Moving a Bell is like shifting a battleship by tapping it on the nose with a toothpick. It can be done, but you can spend ten years doing it and still not be sure if you've made any progress. From the outside, it's easy to mistake 'slow' for 'evil.' It's easy to make that mistake from the inside, too.
keep in mind that this is a quote from a sci-fi novel and not a textbook, but the idea is that large incumbents, especially those with monopolies, are not necessarily preventing change, nor are they truly incapable of embracing change, but rather that they are too slow moving in their progress for us to see them actually changing.
i'm not saying that it's true, just that it's an interesting take on the idea. even if it is true, and that the big incumbents will change eventually, i think that innovating quickly and effectively is still more important than letting old dinosaurs live out the last of their days.
On the post: Dutch Kids Convicted For Stealing Virtual Magic Amulet
Re: Oh i fear for the world
On the post: Dutch Kids Convicted For Stealing Virtual Magic Amulet
Re: Peter's post
On the post: Dutch Kids Convicted For Stealing Virtual Magic Amulet
Re: From a gaming perspective it may seem odd.
it's already illegal just about everywhere to threaten someone, doubly so when a gun is involved. it doesn't matter what you tell a person to do at gunpoint, holding someone at gunpoint is illegal just about everywhere.
if this case really did involve real world menacing or coercion, why isn't that the charge and conviction instead of the virtual theft?
tricking someone in a game into doing something stupid is not illegal, if anything it *might* be a terms of service violation.
does this mean we can press charges against spawn killers? how about we try team killers for treason? that one will be funny to watch since in the US it carries the death penalty.
this is the danger of unintended consequences. so if there is some sort of game server failure and you have to roll the world back two days, does that mean i have a case for theft since my two days are now gone?
a virtual world belongs to it's creators, and those creators should handle these issues, not the real world police.
On the post: Scammers Run A Trucking Company With No Trucks
Re: Supposing...
and get sued for infringing on a vague patent on some business process?
nah, better to get in and get back out before the big time criminals and their lawyers show up.
On the post: No Spam Decrease, Despite The Big Spam Bust
35,000 bots is insignificant
the storm and kraken botnets have nodes that number in the several hundreds of thousands to millions. i'll bet they lose 50,000 nodes a day and pick up at least that many if not more each day to replace them.
when it comes to spam, we are all out gunned and out numbered by orders of magnitude.
these are networks of compromised computers that are 2-3 times the size of google. think about that for a second.
google is rumored to have between 400,000 and a million servers. losing 35,000 nodes wouldn't hurt google for more than a couple of minutes, so why do you think it would affect spamming in the slightest?
On the post: EFF, ACLU Ask News Networks To Stop Sending DMCA Takedown Notices On Political Videos
fix the DMCA? yeah right.
too many people need the DMCA to shutdown criticism, dissent, and satire for it to be changed in any meaningful way.
On the post: Security Theater In Action
you have to exploit the vulnerability first
so when standing there and pointing at the flaw doesn't prompt action, then sometimes you need to go a step further.
why not smuggle whatever it is that you want to smuggle on to the plane and film yourself holding it during take off then upload the video to youtube?
On the post: UK Ruling Says Authorities Can Force You To Hand Over Your Encryption Key
Re: Re: Re: Re:
and just access your backups like ppl should already be doing..
no, no, no, ftp is a plain text protocol. why go to all the trouble of wiping your hard drive just to pass your data thru the internet in the clear?
even if you encrypt the data prior to transmission, the clear text protocol will reveal it as an encrypted file.
use only encrypted protocols like SFTP or SCP. on the wire they look just like ssh sessions, since that it really what they are, FTP tunneled via ssh.
On the post: Massive Stolen Credit Card Number Site Shut Down
this isn't the first sting, just the biggest
like all high profile busts of big websites, the members scatter and form smaller groups that are even more underground.
On the post: Huge Spam Ring Shut Down... But Will It Make A Difference?
35,000 bots? yawn.
the most conservative estimates of the kraken and storm botnets are in the high hundreds of thousands and some believe that they might number in the millions.
celebrating taking down 35,000 bots in "the war against spam" is like high-fiving your team for showing up to practice.
sure, it's good to show up for practice, just like it's good to take down botnets, but don't start the champagne toasts just yet.
On the post: What Are 'Community Standards' When It Comes To Obscenity Online?
too much worry
so you can convict all the people you want. all that will do is cause people to take more care to hide their identities and move their hosting to countries with friendlier hosting services when they engage in that sort of business.
this sends more american money overseas which only hurts our economy and does absolutely nothing to stop the spread of materials others may find objectional.
it will make people who peddle kiddie porn and the like that much harder to catch. thanks a lot and i am sure "the children" thank you as well.
On the post: Patent Lawsuit Silly Season: TechCrunch Sued For Patent Infringement After Critical Blog Post
Re: What would happen if...
why do you hate america? with that kind of thinking you might as well burn the american flag and punch your mother in the uterus that bore you.
On the post: When Even The Simpsons Make Fun Of E-Voting Machines...
lawlz
diebold accidentally leaked the results of the election a couple of months ago.
On the post: Even Senators Who Want Stronger Copyright Laws Are Worried About ACTA
Re: Time for an uprising
All these gun supporters talk about the right to bear arms, but they forget about their right to stand up against a corrupt government. Why isn't that happening? When did every one become such sheep?
i agree. you should say that slowly and clearly into the clock radio by your bed and someone from the NSA will be by shortly to discuss it with you.
On the post: EMI Lawsuit Against Michael Robertson Dismissed... But Continues Against MP3Tunes
Re: Why don't they get it?
i imagine that it's based on the [tortured] logic that uploading music to the internet [regardless of it's intended use] is illegal.
just like the satellite radio that lets you record to mp3s that you can't move off of the radio that had the music industry up in arms a year or two ago, the industry thinks that mp3s should be illegal and is using cases like this against products and services like these to move the law in that direction.
On the post: Radio Companies Try To Force Satellite Radio Devices To Play HD Radio Too
Re:
the values and goals of the republican party are vastly different than the democratic party.
the republicans are owned and operated by the telecommunications and oil industries.
the democrats are owned and operated by hollywood and trade unions.
as you can see, they are completely different.
On the post: Germany Says P2P Company Must Proactively Monitor Content For Infringement
quit mincing around and shut it down
On the post: Why Won't The MPAA's Lawyers Identify Themselves?
don't tell my mom
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