[Smoketoomuch]

WARNING! Long post ....

Originally posted by JackSpratts
even if copy protected cds get better - and they will - i foresee relatively inexpensive analog to digital sound converters popping up all over the place, perhaps incorporated into the sound cards themselves that back feed to hard drives, and in so doing negate all cd based copy protection schemes.
- js.

How true! I think they are digging their own grave - even while its a "new" technology, it is rather a step backwards. mp3 and CD writing made it possible to make a playlist of the music I have and listen to it whenever and wherever I want. In fact this was a possibility for decades (with tapes for instance), technology just made it easier. Now all is taken back - theoretically of course. If you already own a good CD writer and have clone cd, and if you use linux, you even may not have noticed that a CD is copy protected, since most CD burning frontends use cdparanoia - if you had a good drive of course. I have a 8x4x32 LG, a bit old, so it might be that it would not work... Another interesting thing is that they might claim that cdparanoia infringes upon DMCA since it circumvents copy protection technologies. However, cdparanoia exists for some time, and is licenced under GPL - so legally speaking, it is impossible to hold DMCA against it. It is not even designed to circumvent copy protection, it is just the way it works, and it is the intellectual property of the Open Source community, so it is protected by intellectual property laws. Strange paradox, isn't it?

Access to information, the free flow of information is the basis of a democratic society, yet right now, I (and EU citizens) have access to information US citizens don't:

It (DMCA) has come to the forefront once again for two reasons. First, Red Hat recently issued a security patch for the Linux kernel. Unfortunately, due to the DMCA's provisions, company officials believe they cannot explain to U.S. citizens what the patch does. A European Web site (www.thefreeworld.net/ non-US) will divulge the information to non-U.S. citizens but will deny access to Americans. Explaining the problem might violate the DMCA and leave Red Hat exposed to possible prosecution.

http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op...28opsource.xml

Acquiring that information theoretically makes you violate the laws of your government. I think this is not good. And this is not an isolated example either....

Originally posted by JackSpratts

it won't be stopped. sure a country can make it illegal but that just moves it underground and across the borders and creates a serious advantage in technology for the countries where development continues.
- js.

Yeah, those who read EFF newsletter might know that it is already happening. What I was not aware of is how actually this already happens/happened : take for example the cell phone market:

So now you know why capital has deserted the PC software business. Nothing goes in, and nothing comes out. It's a monoculture every bit as sterile as America's cellphone business, which takes its cue from Qualcomm, a company with superb technology which almost from day one made sure it would be a backwater, thanks to its obnoxious licensing practices. (Phones here are years behind the rest of the world: have you tried buying a Bluetooth-enabled CDMA 1X phone? You can't. Because there isn't one.)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/27913.html

This article dealed with the current DoJ settlement of Microsoft. Now you may have noticed that I often mention Linux. I just want to make one thing clear: I don't mean to push it. It is simply that it is the OS I use now, I don't know about XP, and forgot most things about win98 (took me 5 minutes to figure out how to format a floppy last time ) I am all for free choice: you like XP - use it! I think it is a good piece of software - it is based on NT kernel - and from what I seen from debates (not flame wars, but serious debate among programmmers), it is not inferiour in any way to the linux kernel, moreover, Microsoft undoubtedly made an excellent desktop for XP, and various linux desktops are just beginning to catch up with it. Nevertheless, the ideology of Open Source and linux is very similar to the ideology of p2p, and it is at least an interesting technology for even those who don't intend to use it - and making its existence known is not a bad thing. Licencing policiy is an entirely different issue, but I assume it is irrelevant for most of us - unless, of course, you are running business and might expect occasional visits from BSA.

You may wonder why I wrote this apology... I often find myself defending my choice of using linux, which is amusing to some extent, since I never flamed someone for using Windows - not becuase I'm diplomatic, but because its all about choice - and the freedom of choice has a higher priority to me than pushing "linux for everyone". And I only tried to convince those people to try it out, who already use Windows in linux fashion - editing registry and ini files to tweak it. In fact, I know that my roommate never did, and perhaps never will do such things, yet he became interested in linux (his desk is near mine) : it was me who told him: I'm not sure that it is a good choice for you, but OK, read this manual (100 pages with lots of pictures, beginning with "how to use the mouse") and if you are still interested, I'll do what I can to help you. Of course, he never read that (its a 2 hours read), so we let the matter to rest.

Now the reason for this long linux/windows rant: I wanted to prove how the DoJ settlement is bad for EVERYONE. It is yet another nail in the coffin of free competition in US. You use XP? You like it? Then it is in your interest as is in mine to have a good competition on the desktop market - it would drive microsoft to compete on the quality of its software - since it cannot compete on prices with Linux. Linux just reached a 4,9% share on the desktop market, and Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer already made an announcment of Microsoft's doubling its efforts to improve its products. The bigger the competition, the better Windows will become ...

"Linux is a serious competitor," said Ballmer. "We have to compete with free software, on value, but in a smart way. We cannot price at zero, so we need to justify our posture and pricing. Linux isn't going to go away--our job is to provide a better product in the marketplace."
...
And IBM, arguably the No. 1 player in the Linux market, promotes Linux to big users, but does not actually sell Linux: "It's weird! IBM says 'Hey British Aerospace! Buy Linux.... From SuSE."

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-959112.html

The first part can be taken as a kind of confession - need to justify our posture and pricing ... have to add value - meaning... its unjustified? OK, but imagine how Microsoft software would imporve if Linux's share on the desktop market would be 20% instead of the current 4.9? And the current DoJ settlement just made it a lot harder for competitors - be it linux or any other initiative - to reach that. However, EU did not accept the ruling, meaning that Microsoft would have difficulties here in becoming monolithic - leading exactly to what JS said (in a different context though) : "...creates a serious advantage in technology for the countries where development continues."

Although most the reception of the DoJ settlement was pessimistic (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/35/27950.html) , there is an interesting article of how Microsoft might have won this fight but might loose the battle on the long run. If you are interested, read this article:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/27921.html

Bye.