Links 15/07/2008: No More Solaris for Salesforce.com, New Migrations to GNU/Linux
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2008-07-15 10:40:41 UTC
- Modified: 2008-07-15 10:40:41 UTC
GNU/Linux
Qt/KDE
- Chinese educational handhelds get Qt
- KDE Commit Digest: Issue 114
Global keyboard shortcuts for applets, and an Amarok and "python expression" runner in Plasma. A Java test applet and various interaction improvements in Plasma. Simple network and CPU monitors in the system-monitor Plasmoid. Initial import of PeachyDock, a Plasma-based alternative panel.
F/OSS
OpenOffice.org
SaaS
Abuse of Rights
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Throwing Money at Lawyers Can't Stop Us (It Never Did)
- Even just trying to censor things can result in the opposite of the desired outcome
- BetaNews Has More or Less Died After Experiments With LLM Slop, Is Linuxsecurity Next?
- It doesn't seem like BetaNews knows what it's doing, let alone what it talks about
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- When Abusive Law Firms (Working for Microsofters Against Us) Assert That Someone Writing in Social Media About Himself is Confidential Information
- There was no reason to throw "GDPR" into 2 SLAPPs; they know it, but the goal was to increase the cost of a Defence and lessen the incentive to challenge the SLAPPs
- Microsoft Attack Dogs Against Watchdogs and Guard Dogs in Software
- Last year Microsofters hired attack dogs or "guns for hire"
- Slop Cannot Replace Domain Expertise
- All this "AI" hype (it's not even intelligence, it's all a misnomer, as many of us have insisted all along) will fizzle and be written off as a failed experiment
- IBM's Fresh 'PIPs' (Action Before Layoffs)
- At times like these, even once-reputable employers resort to PIPs and other procedures/tricks for denial of workers' rights
- Microsoft is a Problem Not Just for Denmark
- Every country should consider what Denmark is doing, why Denmark is doing it, and then do the same
- The Slopfarms' Self Detonation
- If more sites like BetaNews go under, then maybe we can still salvage some of the Web
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 14, 2025
- IRC logs for Saturday, June 14, 2025
- Links 14/06/2025: FDA Changes Priorities, Cassette Data Storage From The 1970s
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 14/06/2025: Steam Next Fest and Thoughts on Gemini
- Links for the day
- Site/Datacentre Maintenance Next Week
- speed things up
- Bulgaria: GNU/Linux Near 10%
- The Bulgarian market seems to be changing
- I Never Spoke to BetaNews. But BetaNews Wants to Ensure I Never Will, Either.
- Sometimes just the reluctance to talk about it can say a great deal
- Online Search or Large Search Engines Aren't Working Anymore
- business models that directly compete with interests of Web users
- Holidays and Breaks
- I've hardly taken any long breaks since I got married
- Danish OpenDocument Freedom
- "year of Linux"
- Links 14/06/2025: Wars and L.A. Distortion Effect
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 14/06/2025: Historic Ada Design and GeminiSpace.Club to Expire
- Links for the day
- Links 14/06/2025: India Plane Crash and Middle-Eastern War
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 13, 2025
- IRC logs for Friday, June 13, 2025
- Gemini Links 13/06/2025: (Not)virtues and Project Yeet Broadband
- Links for the day
- Links 13/06/2025: Journalists Targeted by Cracking, China-Japan and Israel-Iran Tensions Grow
- Links for the day
- Links 13/06/2025: US Reduces Nonessential Staff at Baghdad Embassy Ahead of Strikes in Iran, Invasion of California Debated
- Links for the day
- X11 is Free Software
- Whether you agree (e.g. on politics) with the person/s forking it doesn't matter
- The More Time Passes, the Better Our Advice on Social Control Media Seems
- At the end of the day, any platform you do not control yourself is working for someone else
- Twitter (X) is Dying, Now It's Just Like a Mafia-Type Operation of the Man Who Does Nazi Salutes in Public
- a form of extortion
- UK High Court Blasts Brett Wilson LLP for Misusing "GDPR" After Failed Efforts to Censor Critics Using 'Libel' Claims
- No wonder this firm is rapidly shrinking
- Recent Blunders in Microsoft GitHub (e.g. Slop-Generated Bug Reports or GPL Violations 'as a Service') Taking Their Toll?
- Put bluntly, if you still use Microsoft GitHub, then you're slave to Microsoft
- American Imperialism and Microsoft Plagiarism
- Techrights will therefore do what Microsoft does not want it to do: it'll write even more about Microsoft
- When They Have Nothing Left to Help Advance Abusive Litigation for Microsoft People... Other Than Throwing ~500 Pages of Someone Else's Work Into a PDF
- Microsoft is having a very tough year
- The Price of Exposing Corruption in Poland (and Elsewhere)
- It's easier to participate in corruption than to merely do the right thing and oppose it
- Slopwatch and Yet More Holes in 'Secure Boot' (as Usual!), Promoted Inside Linux by the Man We Are Suing
- Today's Slopwatch will be short
- Gemini Links 13/06/2025: People You've Left Behind, Life Update and OS Changes
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 12, 2025
- IRC logs for Thursday, June 12, 2025
Comments
RyanT
2008-07-15 13:38:45
http://somethingmild.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-make-software-agreeable.html
Was wandering what you thought about it, and if it is right/good enough, maybe you could include it in a future links section.
Roy Schestowitz
2008-07-15 19:41:51
I've just included a link to this. It's also up for discussion in USENET and in http://digg.com/linux_unix/How_To_Make_Software_Agreeable http://tech.propeller.com/story/2008/07/15/how-to-make-software-agreeable/
Saul Goode
2008-07-15 20:20:59
I haven't read your piece in detail yet (I will do so this evening), but it seems well-written and addresses a growing concern with regard to licensing of copyrighted works.
I tend to disagree with the presumption that the existence of a licensing agreement excludes the concept "sale/purchasing". While the courts have occasionally been inconsistent, for the most part they (U.S. courts, anyway) recognize a one-time payment in exchange for use of the software as being a "sale", regardless of any verbiage included in an EULA or other license. A recent court case supporting this "quacks like duck" interpretation is the one involving Ebay sales of Autodesk software [1]. To summarize the decision, a EULA can not trump the laws of copyright in the case of a "sale" of a copyrighted work.
Another recent case which might be interpreted as supporting your position (assuming my basic understanding of your position is correct) would be the Blizzard World Of Warcraft lawsuit against the "Glider" bot [2]. However, I think the distinguishing characteristic of this case is that -- and correct me if I'm wrong -- WoW is a subscription service (not a one-time fee) and as such is more of an ongoing lease arrangement. At least I hope that this distinction was critical to the otherwise worrisome decision.
I hope that as further litigation is resolved, the courts will continue to interpret the "first sale doctrine" as valid and that if a company wishes to have their EULAs recognized as lease agreements then it must not employ "sales" of their software. Those parts of EULAs which would grant the copyright holder more prerogative than the exclusive rights delineated in copyright law should be considered invalid.
I look forward to perusing your article in depth and apologize if I have misinterpreted your position on the issue. It is certainly an issue which warrants further scrutiny and discussion.
[1]http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080523-court-smacks-autodesk-affirms-right-to-sell-used-software.html
[2]http://www.davis.ca/en/blog/Video-Game-Law/2007/02/26/WoW-LAWSUIT-OVER-BOT-SOFTWARE
RyanT
2008-07-15 23:42:51
If anyone wants to discuss further, I'll put my email here:
theamazingjanet@hotmail.co.uk
Not my main account, as this is public, but still. I look forward to the in-depth responses, and yes, Saul it seems you've gotten my position correct.
I might elaborate in future, which will most likely go down the path of the likes of the GPL and propriatary models purely becoming applicable to development, and only being extended in fringe cases, and the standard model of ownership being the common/middle ground. Even if not agreed upon by some, it would certainly be more agreeable than the licensed proprietary model (I hope).
RyanT
2008-07-15 23:44:34
Roy Schestowitz
2008-07-16 17:27:51