You can't claim that Washington is just a tool for big industry and then claim that it's not.
The patent system supports those who get in early, because it impedes new entrants from innovating. TD had an article here to that effect about a week ago.
Whilst most of us won't be programmers, knowing a bit about how these things work can help us all.
Reading through all of this, I've been thinking of the judge in the Oracle vs. Google java kafuffle. The judge was a programmer and still writes code. When the lawyer for Oracle said some dinky little function was obviously stolen, he knew enough to call him on it.
Knowing enough about something that you can call BS in situations like that is a good thing. It keeps people honest. He may never build the next great thing, but who cares? He can buy it when the specialist comes up with it.
Actually, us in networking (which includes, yeah, companies selling Internet access) do use megabits all the time. Witness wired Ethernet speeds (10 megabits/s, 100 megabits/s, 1 gigabit/s, ...), wireless speeds (54 megabits/s, 150 megabits/s, 300 megabits/s, ...), and many many others.
It also makes sense technically: the fundamental unit of information being transfered is the bit, not the byte.
... which is why you shouldn't be bothering with all those esoteric terms. They're too easy to obfuscate.
A byte is traditionally 8, 16, 32, or 64 "bits" (1 or 0). For multiples, we tack on "Systeme International" (SI) prefixes. "kilo" == 1,000 (eg. 1000 meters in a kilometer). "mega" == 1,000,000.
A kilobyte is 1024 bits, *because* 'echo "2^10" | bc' ==
1024 (which is close to 1,000). Similarly, a Megabyte is 2^20 bits or 1048576.
I used to recommend Apple. Nowadays, no. However, I agree with you. Apple likes its Universe locked down so it can have the control it believes it needs to support and protect its customers and its cash flow. People who buy Apple either don't care or appreciate it. Nobody's holding a gun to their heads to buy into the walled garden, and it's none of our business if they want to.
Now that said, they may have their free speech, but everyone else also has the right to just click 'report' and block anything that's too offensive, which seems like a good compromise.
Especially so since it's not really blocked. It's just hidden. Click on it, and it un-hides. Very civilized, I think.
Do you realize that everything you've written here tends to "out you" as a closet homosexual? "Methinks the lady doth protest too much ... and all that. There's nothing wrong with it, I guess, but you might consider seeing a psychologist to help you deal with your denial problem. Just a suggestion, and have a lovely day. :-)
My guess is that you are a clueless freetard, running two copies of BT at the same time and seeding your favorite gay twink porn as fast as you can to get social standing points in your forum of choice ...
Cogent argument that. :-P News for you: some of us advocate boycotting all that crap and refusing to bother consuming anything from IP maximalists. We want them to go out of business, not give us free stuff.
"As he points out, patent trolls have cost the US economy significantly more than terrorist attacks."
He was doing good until this statement. Mike, you have said yourself that money out of one part of the economy (say people not buying music) really doesn't hurt the economy because the money gets used for something else. In this case, the lawyers get paid, they pay their rent, they pay their employees, and so on. The economy isn't "hurt" as it's a neutral thing. The money goes to A or B.
It might be more correct to say that SOME companies have suffered individual impact by having to pay these things. But the economy as a whole? It's still there, still intact.
First, would you rather have your hard earned cash support someone like Johann Sebastian Bach or Britney Spears? You see no difference between i) paying someone for something you want and ii) simply throwing money into a fire?
Second, this never ceases to amaze me. From time to time, Mike's posted interesting comments wrt ACs and their behaviour, with which I generally agree. Some of them do use their anonymity for good, and we should welcome their efforts.
Then there's stuff like this. It's 7:34 AM, you roll out of bed (trying desperately to not wake up wifey, 'cause $deity knows you don't want to listen to her at this time of day), pour a cup of coffee, scratch a few itches, fire up the computer and web browser, then head off to TD ..., and post that. Why? Well, you'd rather be poking sticks in random strangers' eyes, but that's illegal and might get you beaten up, so this's the next best thing.
What did it add to the sum of human existence? Nothing. Why bother? Because Mike has this web forum thingy that lets you. And it beats getting poked in the eye with a stick.
You have nothing better to do but poke people in the eye at 7:34 in the morning for no discernable reason?
The mistake Mr Schneier is making, of course, is that those 500 extra deaths are non-terroristic deaths.
Remember that old ST:TOS episode where they beamed down to a planet that was in the middle of a war? No bombs were heard, no casualties seen, and people just showed up at the disintegration chamber when the computers computed them to be "hits." They were appalled when Kirk destroyed the disintegration chamber, forcing them to accept the reality of warfare.
The TSA has outsourced terrorism casualties to the road network, where they ought to be. :-P
What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux.
You're just showing your ignorance. All the Gnu userland software in the Universe would be worthless until a kernel showed up making it usable. Linux and the *BSDs did that. Some of it was then ported over to commercial *nix. Gnu's Hurd is still not usable, last I heard.
I'm a fan of RMS for many things, and slobber thankfully for gcc, but RMS is wrong on this one.
Great artists steal - but they don't copy. They steal the vibe, the feeling, the aesthetic, but they don't just copy.
I know it's hard for you to understand Mike. Maybe one day, when you create something worth stealing... you will understand!
Why was this comment "flagged by the community"? It's no more foolish or offensive than most of the rest of the copyright maximalists' troll posts here.
As for the AC's comment, which "copy" did you mean, the noun or the verb? You can copy, after which you will have a copy. It appears Dustin (Svbtle) gets this (belatedly). Why don't you? Nate (Otvse) didn't steal anything. He built upon an idea that was out there. I'd think that's a good thing. We're all richer from both their efforts. Dustin may now take Nate's ideas and build upon them. Should Nate complain about that?
Re: Exploitation
Worse than that, scholarships aside, these students pay to be students.
Re: Re: Re: TechDirt totally out of touch about how much patents pay for innovation
The patent system supports those who get in early, because it impedes new entrants from innovating. TD had an article here to that effect about a week ago.
Re: Re: Send DOJ to IL to help this guy!
The guy in Illinois is breaking an unconstitutional Illinois law.
Re: Valve approach
Reading through all of this, I've been thinking of the judge in the Oracle vs. Google java kafuffle. The judge was a programmer and still writes code. When the lawyer for Oracle said some dinky little function was obviously stolen, he knew enough to call him on it.
Knowing enough about something that you can call BS in situations like that is a good thing. It keeps people honest. He may never build the next great thing, but who cares? He can buy it when the specialist comes up with it.
Re:
Actually, Debian prefers we use jigdo which is a lot like torrents but even easier on repos. It works pretty well.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Sorry, 1024 bytes.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
... which is why you shouldn't be bothering with all those esoteric terms. They're too easy to obfuscate.
A byte is traditionally 8, 16, 32, or 64 "bits" (1 or 0). For multiples, we tack on "Systeme International" (SI) prefixes. "kilo" == 1,000 (eg. 1000 meters in a kilometer). "mega" == 1,000,000.
A kilobyte is 1024 bits, *because* 'echo "2^10" | bc' ==
1024 (which is close to 1,000). Similarly, a Megabyte is 2^20 bits or 1048576.
So endeth the lesson. :-)
Re:
No they can't. They spent it all on bailouts to The Too Big To Fail, wars, and sold the rest to China.
Re:
Scapegoat. If I were Chinese, I'd be firing up the ICBMs. "How dare the US blame this !@#$ on us?!?"
Re: Re: Re: Sanity people...
I used to recommend Apple. Nowadays, no. However, I agree with you. Apple likes its Universe locked down so it can have the control it believes it needs to support and protect its customers and its cash flow. People who buy Apple either don't care or appreciate it. Nobody's holding a gun to their heads to buy into the walled garden, and it's none of our business if they want to.
Re: That's right, I said 'enogh'
So, you're not Australian?
Re: Re: Re: Not an "Anonymizer" server.
I wonder how you manage to get away with using Mixmaster in this day and age. Doesn't some company that makes food processing machines own that? :-)
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Especially so since it's not really blocked. It's just hidden. Click on it, and it un-hides. Very civilized, I think.
Re:
Haters gotta hate. Thanks for sharing. :-P
Re: Can we drive a
Do you realize that everything you've written here tends to "out you" as a closet homosexual? "Methinks the lady doth protest too much ... and all that. There's nothing wrong with it, I guess, but you might consider seeing a psychologist to help you deal with your denial problem. Just a suggestion, and have a lovely day. :-)
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Cogent argument that. :-P News for you: some of us advocate boycotting all that crap and refusing to bother consuming anything from IP maximalists. We want them to go out of business, not give us free stuff.
Poking figurative sticks in random strangers' eyes.
First, would you rather have your hard earned cash support someone like Johann Sebastian Bach or Britney Spears? You see no difference between i) paying someone for something you want and ii) simply throwing money into a fire?
Second, this never ceases to amaze me. From time to time, Mike's posted interesting comments wrt ACs and their behaviour, with which I generally agree. Some of them do use their anonymity for good, and we should welcome their efforts.
Then there's stuff like this. It's 7:34 AM, you roll out of bed (trying desperately to not wake up wifey, 'cause $deity knows you don't want to listen to her at this time of day), pour a cup of coffee, scratch a few itches, fire up the computer and web browser, then head off to TD ..., and post that. Why? Well, you'd rather be poking sticks in random strangers' eyes, but that's illegal and might get you beaten up, so this's the next best thing.
What did it add to the sum of human existence? Nothing. Why bother? Because Mike has this web forum thingy that lets you. And it beats getting poked in the eye with a stick.
You have nothing better to do but poke people in the eye at 7:34 in the morning for no discernable reason?
[Wow, is TD slow this AM!]
Re: 500 Deaths Per Year
Remember that old ST:TOS episode where they beamed down to a planet that was in the middle of a war? No bombs were heard, no casualties seen, and people just showed up at the disintegration chamber when the computers computed them to be "hits." They were appalled when Kirk destroyed the disintegration chamber, forcing them to accept the reality of warfare.
The TSA has outsourced terrorism casualties to the road network, where they ought to be. :-P
Re: I'd just like to interject.
You're just showing your ignorance. All the Gnu userland software in the Universe would be worthless until a kernel showed up making it usable. Linux and the *BSDs did that. Some of it was then ported over to commercial *nix. Gnu's Hurd is still not usable, last I heard.
I'm a fan of RMS for many things, and slobber thankfully for gcc, but RMS is wrong on this one.
Re:
Why was this comment "flagged by the community"? It's no more foolish or offensive than most of the rest of the copyright maximalists' troll posts here.
As for the AC's comment, which "copy" did you mean, the noun or the verb? You can copy, after which you will have a copy. It appears Dustin (Svbtle) gets this (belatedly). Why don't you? Nate (Otvse) didn't steal anything. He built upon an idea that was out there. I'd think that's a good thing. We're all richer from both their efforts. Dustin may now take Nate's ideas and build upon them. Should Nate complain about that?