Egregious abuses of copyright law

For those of you that don’t read Slashdot, which is probably a relatively small number. There is an article, linking to this Wired Blog about notetaking in class. I’ll let you decide how you feel about this on your own, but I am as equally troubled by the profiting off of students who are too lazy to go to class. Yes, it is a good market, but college is expensive enough as is, and I fail to see how this long drawn out argument will directly help students learn.

-Eddie

The downsides of Open Source Software

Recently I was asked to drop some songs into a Philips Gogear m3 player for my cousin. I’m going to imply that all the music was acquired legally, for various reasons. For this blog post, you will see why I make the implication.

After assesing the physical state of the player, I figure it would be a simple drag and drop via USB. Mounting the drive proved troublesome and I got this output from dmesg | tail

[17180988.752000] sde: assuming drive cache: write through
[17180988.772000] SCSI device sde: 3951360 512-byte hdwr sectors (2023 MB)
[17180988.776000] sde: Write Protect is off
[17180988.776000] sde: Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
[17180988.776000] sde: assuming drive cache: write through
[17180988.776000] sde: sde1
[17180988.780000] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sde
[17180988.780000] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0
[17181002.176000] FAT: Unrecognized mount option “flush” or missing value
[17183741.120000] FAT: Unrecognized mount option “flush” or missing value

Some research showed that there was a program called OpenGoGear, to help with these sorts of issues. I tried to install the .deb file and there was an issue extracting the file. My next attempt to install from source gave me a dependency issue. An attempt to fix the dependency showed I needed ANOTHER, uninstalled library. At this point I gave up because dependency hell is not for me.

And then I plugged in the brand spanking new ipod-mini-touch-screen-video-toaster-in-a-pocket. My computer was unable to figure out what to do with this player. FAIL. If hardware companies want my money (and for that player, it requires lots of it), then I need a reasonable guarantee that it will be compliant with my software. Attention Apple: It’s an mp3 player. It lets you play music. Not the arm codes for a nuclear device. There is no harm in taking 3 days out of a 6 month development cycle to guarantee that your players are Linux friendly. Get over yourselves.

And then I see this gOS system being sold at Wal-Marts all over the United States. It’s an Ubuntu derivative, but that doesn’t make it Ubuntu. From my understanding, it has many non-free components out of the box. Also, it was my understanding that Canonical was in talks with Wal-Mart to get Ubuntu installed on the computers, but it appears that one didn’t go through. So, we have a tiny, tiny company profiting from a (in all likelihood, deliberate), deployment of Linux to a large retailer where the demand far outweighs supply. We can expect this company to grow by leaps and bounds however.

And in the news, I read about the MPAA using Xubuntu to run toolkits on university networks and sniff out p2p traffic. Tax dollars should not be spent to support the MPAA’s business model, versus that of technology’s pursuit of enabling content to the people. Legal or otherwise. Of course, when 60 million Americans are using p2p, then the issue becomes not ‘is there downloading?’ but ‘how do we fix this?’ I am proud of my stance against the MPAA because it seems obvious to me that there is no possible way their organization can fix what they perceive to be a problem.

The problem extends beyond p2p and downloading. It extends to the very spirit of software libre. Simply using GNU/Linux is not enough to change the world’s mind about computing. Look at the struggle of the community between mp3 support and freedom. It is obvious that those who believe in the fundamental awesomness of computing are not the ones who necessarily dictate the direction computing will take. Because the MPAA uses toolkits to protect proprietary content and formats, they are violating the spirit of free and open source software, regardless of which distribution they developed their software on. “Show us the code” is not enough, because the implications and implementation of the code are what matter. The code may be the most basic part of the computer, but the latter is what will vibrate through society, which is what makes the MPAA’s actions so unsavory, and why I am proud to oppose their actions. I don’t care what organization you belong to, when you take my hard work and effort to support an open and free society, and use it for a restrictive action, I will stand against you.

My final point is this: If you develop open source/free software/copy left content, there is no guarantee that the uses will be ones you agree we. Law and opinion are thankfully two different fields, with some overlap, but in this case, I would like to see more freedom and less protectionism.

-Eddie

/me laughs out loud

This article has to be one of the worst piece of garbage I have ever read. This is neither a good piece of journalism, a strong and logical personal opinion, or a LEGAL basis for doing using proprietary software

This is the fact that to play a DVD or use WMA/WMV files I have to install codecs that are technically illegal to use.

Why is it illegal to use, Mr. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, IF THAT IS YOUR REAL NAME? Why does your article bitch and moan about this point without asking any hard hitting questions? Does it have something to do with restrictive licensing, the fight for open formats and free software? Giant media corporations who consolidated their power while manipulating politicians/the law to protect their backward ass way of ‘entertaining’ the masses? Region encoding?

Mark Shuttleworth said something along the lines of “I would love to work with Microsoft but I can’t because of their current stance on DRM.” Okay, so this quote is close to anything he said, but you get the general idea.

Free software is great in isolation, but as soon as you have a situation where you’re trying to integrate it with modern proprietary file formats, the idea falls apart at the seams.

Well this is true, but you forgot to ask why again! Proprietary file formats are defective by design. How can you expect free software and non free software to have a tea party and pass cookies while Microsoft spreads FUD about GLPv3 and Gobuntu is getting rolled out? Software doesn’t work in that real. There will never be a lolcats picture that says ‘Im in ur Linux, playing ur .mp3s. I don’t think I know anyone that WANTS to support proprietary garbage, non free file formats or DRM. It’s more than just licensing costs, which themselves are a major issue.

For me, this is a pretty good reason to keep giving my money to Microsoft (or Apple, I’ve started giving money to Steve Jobs lately) rather than making a switch to Linu

This line takes the cake however. LET’S GIVE OUR MONIES TO LARGE CORPORATIONS WHO RESTRICTED OUR CHOICES FROM THE START, FOR THE PURSUIT OF MASSIVE WEALTH BECAUSE THEY WILL ALLOW US THE GIANT BENEFIT OF ALLOWING US TO CONTINUE TO USE DRM. Give me a fucking break. Are you serious. ‘Thank you masta, for not beating me’ is how I read this. Look at the massive failure of Windows Vista, of trying to use old Windows file formats (we ALL remember the nightmare that was the WordPerfect file fomat), of the recording industry suing it’s fans because the fans wont pay them enough.

No thank you. I refuse to perpetuate the cycle of broken software and outdated business models.

-Eddie

Music/GPL

I saw this article about Q101, a local “radio rock” station somewhere. I say radio rock, because that is the only general styles of rock which they play, and exclude many other good styles, not because I got hit in the head and forgot how to use syntax. NOTE: This article is somewhat slanted and slanderous, which seems to distract from the overall message.

In short,

D-Ubuntu

So Dell is going to sell computers pre-loaded with Ubuntu. Whooptie-Doo. While this is great for Ubuntu in the short term, I’m not convinced that this will benefit the Linux/FLOSS community as a whole.

Anyone can load Ubuntu onto a computer. Throw in a live cd, hit restart, and hit ’start/install’. Click the mouse 6 times or so and whoooosh! Freedom.

The charm and magic behind Ubuntu, in my short experience with it, is the conversation that goes on before the cd is booted into the computer. Media engulfs everything, and computers are a part of that media, but it is people who make the OS. That’s the meaning behind ‘Ubuntu’. Simply buying the hardware with a guarantee that the OS will recognize it is not enough for me to be content.

Will the BIOS information be Open Source? How does Dell handle the M$ FUD campaign if it comes back up? Will Dell fund Ubuntu as a token of good faith, for the licenses which they won’t waste time messing around with. Will the offer Xubuntu/Edubuntu/Kubuntu pre-installed as well? Video cards offer 7-D acceleration out of the box? Will Dell skip their policy of adding unnecessary pre-trial software/bloat to Ubuntu? DRM will be eliminated won’t it?

My stomach is telling me no.

These are not even close to all the issues which will come out from the deal however. This is not everything that will come out however, just the ones that a Linux n00b can think of at 2am.

-Eddie

This is bad news

In a conversation with my buddy Justin, he told me that he was running Windows Vista, blah blah. Of course he got it as free as in cost.

This is from MSDNAA, the M$ project to provide M$ software to universities for minimal (reduced) cost. Then they can tweak the code slightly, but of course it is NonGPL. Worse yet, this is a partnership they have with my old college, which runs windows exclusively. I know this because their servers always failed.

My response is not a real response. It is a question. Where is the Linux/Ubuntu equivalent. Why isn’t RedHat or Canotical not setting up similar programs? If there are, and I’m not aware, let me know. I sign up for the promotion of freedom in all it’s forms.

“MSDN provides the easiest and most inexpensive way to get the latest M$ software…” Give me a break. Here is why I use Linux: It works. The architecture/commands are logical. It’s free. It’s free. The community rocks when I have an issue. It’s free. It’s free.

In other news, Flourish is around the corner and Admiral_Chicago is coming in for the conference.

Keep it free. -Eddie

Did I mention I love the RIAA?

In response to this release from them.

One point I notices right away was this quote: “Moreover, our focus on university students is not detracting from our continuing enforcement efforts against individuals using commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP) accounts to engage in this same behavior. Indeed, we have asked ISPs to participate in the same new process that we have implemented for university network users.”

Isn’t that a conflict of interests? Since when have the lawyers of major record labels been in the business of regulation of the Internet. Although everything is fair is corporate business though. I don’t see a trade group having real legal status to sue people however. Is this being done in civil court, where the admission of evidence is weaker? This is why civil court cases, such as the O.J. murder trials differ from criminal murder trials. Anyone see the issue here?

Later:

Suckers Intl. Has Gone Public…

Microsoft wants photo DRM

I’m not even going to blog about this one, seeing as how obviously bad of an idea this is. Instead I’ll just quote Dillinger Four.

“I’m so sick that we’re surprised/ Everytime we’re shown that power corrupts/ Thump our chests at the man on the screen/ Cursing the green/ Tell ourselves that enough is enough…

Another day/ Another dollar/ Another way to live with a life so intolerable”

-Fireside Chat from the album Situationist Comedy

“We’ll take what’s left and we’ll sell it/ As little souvenirs, of what before was here/ You know once we’ve done it and we’ll do it, we’ll do it again”

-Music Is None of My Business from the album From God.

Great band, terrible company.

why?

In… 6 hours, a subsection of the paper on stem cells is due to my Biology group with my work. My particular topic is the argumentation for/against stem cell research, from a moral and academic perspective. Those two sections are the most common viewpoints and arguments, though the topic can be analyzed existentially, biologically, philosophically or from a Utilitarian viewpoint, among others.

In doing my research I stumbled across a company: StemCells, Inc. Aside from the obvious creepyness of this company, I couldn’t help but wonder what they were all about. The Inc. states that they are a company, and yes, they are a corporation. Their goal is to develop stem cell technologies, patent and trademark them, lastly entering into contracts with third party companies. Proprietary humans, this is exactly what we need.

I support stem cells on a purely academic level. If you look at the number of stem cells being left to die or killed because they are not needed for research (federal funding is a problem), or simply stored infinitely… Compare that to the potential gains and it seems like a pretty solid deal. True, nothing HAS come of stem cell research yet, but I’m a pollyanna idealist, so I’ll pretend otherwise.

Here is what is troubling me, a line from the company info:

An important element of the Company’s stem cell discovery program is the further development of intellectual property positions with respect to stem and progenitor cells.

….WHAT?!? No! Bad company! NO Intellectual property! Further research shows a heavy interest in IP, copyrights, licensing right etc.

Simply put, this company is evil. It’s not their fault.

The United States Supreme Court ruled in Dodge vs. Ford (1926? I forget the date) that corporations have no LEGAL RIGHT to be ethical in any way shape or form. In fact, their primary and sole obligation is to increase the stockholders’ profit. Ethics are then, illegal. This ruling is the basis of modern capitalism, the structure to which Microsoft, ATI, and countless companies adhere.

Of course my problem is not Capitalism or money (actually I prefer a mixed model form of economy) but companies such as this. Companies which use DRM or other such forms to restrict culture. A company which pays lip service to human growth/advance and looks at their bottom line at the end of the end. There is a good scene in Fight Club about this where one of the main characters (the one who WASN’T brad pitt) is explaining his job.

Simply, he does a cost/benefit analysis of his company’s exploding tires, and considers the interest of his company above the lives of humans. Scary stuff, but real people do it everyday. Life doesn’t have to be a movie for a company to destroy human life.

The fact that Stem Cells Inc. literally does cost/benefit analysis with human life is just scary. I don’t know if I can support stem cell research anymore, quiet frankly.

“The Company also intends to pursue a series of non-exclusive agreements whereby third parties would have access to the Company’s cells for use in gene discovery and use, drug discovery and screening, and diagnostics. StemCells has outlicensed some of its technology to BioWhittaker, Inc. and Stem Cell Technologies, Inc. for research purposes.”

Yea…. give me a break.

-Eddie M. Disgruntled scientist

GAH GFDL

After reading the response Freddy (Admiral_Chicago) left on my post about (Free)dom, I was inclined to post about my preference for the CC, NC license that I use. Please note that this will be the last time I will speak publicly on the issue, or at least make it the main focus of my speaking.

My qualm with the GFDL is not that I like DRM or that I want to restrict anyone to read or see my work. Far from it. Thank you all you Chicago Ubuntu readers who have no choice but to put up with me on the planet. If you want to honor me, by all humble means, I would love for you to do so. My problem, as an author, is that I simply cannot let someone else edit my work. Par my understanding, anyone can modify the work as they see fit.

This is unacceptable in my opinion. I am working on a piece right now (beta) called ‘Chicago, winter nights. Typical night” with the following line:

Cold weather (holiday) lights
pinpoints
of life a the late nights, darkened by steel and photophobic concrete.

The point of focus ‘a the late nights’ is on the fence in my mind. I’m not even sure if this was intentional (that is draft #2 by the way), if it is a typo, if I mean to write ‘and the late nights…’ or ‘(ahhh!) the late nights…

To agonize over a sentence for a full hour, is a very trying mindframe. For someone to come along and change my work, and tell me that my sentence is wrong, is not my idea of freedom. What if I want to sell my work and have to jump through 50 loopholes to do so? Obviously it’s not impossible to do so, but that is a concern of mine. A big one regardless of the basis/legitimacy that it entails.

I’m not against derivative works either. If someone wants to change my story around and release it under the GFDL or CC that is fine. If you try to copyright it, we may have issues. I understand the point that Lawrence Lessig was trying to make in Free Culture about how copyrights and DRM are crippling society. I’m not trying to stop anyone, I just want my own contributions to be highlighted, because as I stated above, it is hard work. I will release a free version of any books I write, or of anything I publish. No DRM on anything I write, you will be allowed to distribute freely. To quote Ian Mackye, “I would rather have 100 people hear my songs then have 100 bucks in my pocket”.

I know Stallman is not after me, I know that it’s the best intentions going into the GFDL, yet I can’t support it, because it has too large a focus on the public domain and too small a focus on the author.

“You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute.” No I won’t. But if I had wanted a co-author I would have sought their help. I didn’t, so please don’t edit my text. I’ll even release all my notes, drafts and rewrites of a piece, but I refuse to release my hard earned license to someone who has done nothing to deserve it. If someone wants to quote me, or make a derivative work in the GFDL, they can, but for my purposes, CC, NC is the way to go.

As always, thanks for reading. If anyone wants to read “Chicago, winter nights. Typical Night” I have two things to say. I have no idea why you would, since I don’t think I’m too hot an author, and let me know where I can contact you so I can send it to you. Hopefully, this is the last I hear about the issue.

-Eddie Martinez

CC, NC