MS Calls On Kids to Stop Thought Thieves 709
theodp writes "Microsoft is calling all UK kids aged 14-17 to enter its Thought Thieves Competition. Remember kids, finalists must agree to formally license all intellectual property rights in their film on terms acceptable to Microsoft. And don't forget to download your free Thought Thieves Poster!"
Please kids don't steal (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Please kids don't steal (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, now that I've come up with the idea, no one else can do it, lest they defeat the spirit of the Thought Thieves competition.
Re:Please kids don't steal (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll start the list.
Stac Electronics [base.com]
Burst.com [windowsitpro.com]
Borland [about.com]
Caldera over Dr. DOS in UK [google.com]
This is almost a job for Michael Moore....
Re:MOD STORY +5 Iron (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not just Microsoft (Score:3, Funny)
Basically, they'll be including stickers on their new products that say "Don't Steal Thoughts."
Re:It's not just Microsoft (Score:5, Funny)
Think Different;
Otherwise you're Stealing from us.
What you said is so true... (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyway, I used to be the kind of person who hated SW piracy to death (to name some "evil thievery" thing) - until i met REALLY poor people. And this was in 92, Linux was simply out of the radar. I realized that sometimes the law was evil.
People grow, kids stop being naive. When they mature, they'll realize not everything's black and white.
Re:What you said is so true... (Score:4, Insightful)
Haven't you noticed that slapping somebody will get you prosecuted, while starting a war on false pretenses and killing tens of thousands of people gets you re-elected?
Haven't you noticed that international corporations have no patriotism, but expect us to send our poor to fight and die protecting their resources and markets?
Haven't you noticed that rich industries write their own laws and buy Congressmen to rubber-stamp them?
Haven't you noticed how Microsoft openly flaunts the law by outspending and outwaiting the government prosecution until political conditions are more favorable? How they build a vast empire on the ideas of others and then pretend that re-using ideas is stealing?
Oh get to the youth. (Score:5, Informative)
Just took 20 years longer than 1984.
First grade classroom, two years from now (Score:5, Funny)
I'm speechless. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I'm speechless. (Score:5, Insightful)
Copyrights, patents and other non-tangible goods are a complicated topic, but if you can dictate the terms which are used in the discussion, you've almost won, as far as the general public is concerned.
Oh, I hope you got the memo: It's "Thieves" now. "Pirates" have too much of a romantic connotation (thanks MPAA!).
Re:I'm speechless. (Score:5, Funny)
That explains it... (Score:4, Funny)
Ah!
So that's why all the anti-Microsoft sites seem to display correctly in Firefox.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I'm speechless. (Score:5, Insightful)
Why not join them?
(a) Because there are pleasures to be had even in making their lives difficult. You can't always stop people treading on you, but you can hurt their foot.
(b) Sometimes the impossible can happen. Look at the Ghandis of the world. The will to rebel is latent in all the "mind-numbed" consumers - it just needs some ignition. If you wake up one person with your resistance, then there are two people resisting. And between you, you might encourage another two. And so on, and so forth. You don't have to destroy your opponent - you just have to make them give up.
Re:I'm speechless. (Score:3, Insightful)
The technology to tell what someone is thinking may never exist. All the same, the notion could prove useful to MS. Just let a generation grow up that will accept the notion of thoughts as property. You could "own" the ideas that constitute an operating system, say, and l
Re:I'm speechless. (Score:5, Insightful)
What can protected is the material product that results from an idea - and that only against 'product cloning'. If you want to be the first in the game you have to be the first and you have to use your lead to remain the best if you want to stay there. So the market should be.
Which makes MS's attitude not only belligerant, but cowardly.
Re:I'm speechless. (Score:3, Informative)
You would be thoughtless. (Score:3, Informative)
It leads to cebreral pralysis.
Its is not sustainable.
It is not implementable.
It is not workable.
The entire civilization, the species, possibly all life, is based on sharing.
The "commons" form of intellectual sharing merely asks that you acknowledge the sources of your knowledge. That is called being a knowledgable and erudite human being.
Microsofts' form of 'pay for use' of an idea IMMEDIATLY put at any one who is not as 'rich' as a Bill Gates at a disadvatage.
Re:I'm speechless. (Score:5, Funny)
Unfortunately, this means you lose [catb.org]. Sorry.
Re:I'm speechless. (Score:4, Interesting)
GP compared MS propaganda to nazi's, he didn't compare YOU (or pro-MS
The godwin point is reached when you're so out of arguments that you have to rely on the worst ad-hominem attacks (comparing your oponents to the worst kind of suckers ever) to try to make a point...
Re:I'm speechless. (Score:3, Funny)
This whole thing is rather hilarious... (Score:3, Insightful)
I think Godwin had something to say about this... um, oh nevermind.
Re:This whole thing is rather hilarious... (Score:3)
Re:Enough!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't you think that this trivializes the real holocaust just a bit?
The holocaust, was logically made trivial by it's own zealot like insistance in media and social passing as to what evil and horror amounts to when compared to other attrocities at the very same time.
May I be the first to say:
Don't get angry when som
Lame. (Score:5, Insightful)
Talk about poorly labeled.
Oh well. Nothing surprises me anymore. I just hope kids remain indifferent enough that they don't buy into this. What's unfortunate is that I think - if they get to these kids early enough - they'll change their attitudes for life. Kind of like those school programs that convince second graders that their parents are evil if they smoke and that they're alcoholics if they have a glass of wine.
Re:Lame. (Score:5, Interesting)
I had the same worry up until a few years ago. I was on a bus in London and some kids wanted to tag the bus. However, Britain being the camera society that it is they would have been caught on film.
Two of the girls staged an argument on the stairs and blocked the view of the camera. The boy sneaked up behind them and tagged the stairs. Even though it was an act of vandalism it revived my faith in human nature and I had a Jurassic Park like moment "life will always find a way". Yeah, I think the kids will be fine...
Re:Lame. (Score:3, Insightful)
Didn't Leibnitz and Newton come up with similar ideas and methods of calculation for Calculus - independently, and at about the same time? And they didn't steal....
Re:Lame. (Score:3, Insightful)
This really plays to the immature mentality of young children, who tend to be very selfish. Imagine a child finds a marble (or something children like) on the floor, and a friend asks if they can look at it; a young child's response would typically be "No! Mine mine mine!", wouldn't it?
I suppose that's because kids
This just in... (Score:3, Funny)
Some advice (Score:5, Insightful)
So start earlier. I recommend early childhood, age 4-6. I recommend showing movies to those kids where "thought thieves" are evil, dark figures that, preferably, linger under kids' beds. You'll make very powerful subconscious fears your ally that way.
Alternatively, start later. Most teenagers and students will really like the idea of sharing thoughts, and software, and music, and they will only part with it when they enter business life and get a chance to make money themselves by stopping to share. I recommend offering every potential free software/open source developer a large amount of money if they license their stuff to you, exclusively. If that doesn't work, offer them a job at Microsoft, and pay them well. Very well. You might be able to stem the tide that way.
But seriously, I don't think you will. There have always been developments in history that were so natural and unstoppable that it made those who tried to stop them extremely funny to look at. You're in the process of becoming such a comic figure, Microsoft.
Re:Some advice (Score:5, Insightful)
I would say the school system has already done half of the job for Microsoft.
Re:Some advice (Score:5, Interesting)
How about this [usatoday.com], "One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released today." 112,003 high school students were surveyed, that doesn't seem like too small a population to me.
Re:Some advice (Score:3, Insightful)
I think that it's very likely a large number of those students were simply ignorant. When asked whether they support X or Y and they don't know much about either, then you'll get a lot saying Y just because they want to answer something. It'll be based on snippets of debate picked up from others, vague reactions to current news stories and confusion of issues (e.g. invasion of privacy of public figures, exposure of government agents, etcetera). I'm not saying that the ignorance is not a huge problem, in so
Re:Some advice (Score:3, Insightful)
Basically, I don't think they see the link between the decline of the media and the
Re:Some advice (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-01-30- students-press_x.htm [usatoday.com]
One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released today.
The survey
Re:Some advice (Score:4, Interesting)
Say you spend an hour talking about the tenets of free speech, and how the freedom to criticize elected officials is guaranteed by the Constitution. Then the student goes home and watches an hour of TV news, pumping fear-stories about "There is a website publishing pictures that could help terrorists attack us!" (cryptome.org) and "One website claims that the Microsoft software you use could be insecure and get you infected with a virus! What?! These people must be crazy!" (slashdot.org).
Maybe they run a story about how a group of people dared - dared, since questioning the government is now officially unAmerican - to confront Republican Senator Bill Frist while he was parked illegally, buying shoes next to a known Democratic lobbying organization's headquarters. And it's the protestors who are being criticized, nevermind the fact that the Senator is parked illegally, or that he chose to shop right next to his opponents' HQ. No, the story is that "poor Bill Frist got protested." Damned "liberal" media again!
Or they show video footage of people in a "Free Speech Zone," with a subtle comment about how those protestors are really are getting riled up, maybe they're violent, thank God they're caged up inside the chain-link fence of the "Free Speech Zone." And that video clip of people in a "Free Speech Zone" negates what you tried to impart to your students, the fact that the entire United States of America is a free speech zone, that the term "Free Speech Zone" didn't come about until the Bush administration, and that you don't necessarily need a permit to assemble peaceably.
Perspectives can be altered. Easily. Especially in younger minds. I hope that by age 17, most Americans have developed enough critical thinking skills to make their own determinations, but at 14, I'd bet that most teens base their decisions upon what their parents say and what they've learned to be the "popular opinion." And popular opinions don't come from the History Teacher.
I'm not a teacher by profession (though I'm happy to impart knowledge about any topic with which I'm familiar, anytime, to anyone, of any age) - I don't have it in me to do that day in and day out - but I have enormous amounts of respect for those who are.
The Thought Police! (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, to be a 14-17 year old British boy (Score:5, Funny)
I wonder if they'd like my entry "GPL Wars: Revenge of the Linksyth".
"Anakin, don't use that code! It's a trap!"
Re:Ah, to be a 14-17 year old British boy (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Ah, to be a 14-17 year old British boy (Score:4, Interesting)
Starts with black screen and text fades in reading "Imaging working for hundreds of hours..."
Screen fades to a coder sitting at a linux box with the sudo source code on the screen. Screen fades back to black.
Text fades in "Finally completing it". Screen fades to display of coder falling back with a sigh of relief. Screen fades to black.
Text fades in "Giving it away for Free".
Screen fades to linux machine running Firefox uploading sudo to sourceforge.
Screen fades to black and fades in text "15 years later... " Text fades out, fades in picture of Slashdot story of MS patenting sudo, story of MS trying to patent the internet again, story of Amazon one click patent. Screen fades to black, fades in text "Only to be told YOU could be sued because companies have "stolen" your idea and patented it." Screen fades to black and fades in text "No software patents. No monopolies on ideas."
Newton (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft only have got where they are today by standing on the shoulders of giants - people who were free with their (highly insightful) thoughts. Don't they remember this?
I shudder to think how progress would get held back if each individual jealously guarded their thoughts from each other. This campaign sends entirely the wrong message.
Re:Newton (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft have gotten where they are today by climbing over the dead bodies of giants...
Re:Newton (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Newton (Score:5, Insightful)
Dear <appropriate representative>,
Microsoft's "Thought Thieves" campaign has convinced me that Microsoft has officially gone nuts and is a danger to progress and the society as a whole. I implore you to consider proposing governmental action against Microsoft while they still haven't indoctrinated our youth with their twisted opinions. The past has shown what propaganda is capable of and I fear for the future of the United States/the European Union/our country if Microsoft continues to mess with our children's heads.
Sincerely,
<name>
This was the first thing that came to my mind when I read about Microsoft's latest scheme.
Hmm, with a different wording it might be possible to drive German politicians into a frenzy over this. After all, we're still scared of the 1930's repeating; with subtle Nazi comparisons it might be possible to use German politicians to generate some bad publicity for our least favourite 300 pound gorilla.
Any German Slashdotters who want to mess with our beloved "representatives"' heads?
Re:Newton (Score:4, Informative)
Google for that quote... true or not, there is a fairly widespread allegation that it was sarcastic, used in a letter to a bitter rival.
It's funny you should mention Newton's statement as being positive. I'm currently reading "Science: A History 1534-2001" by John Gribbin which suggests that his comment was in fact a barely disguised personal attack. It written in a letter to a scientific competitor, Robert Hooke, who had complained, correctly, that Newton was not giving him proper credit for his discoveries. Newton's response that he had seen further by "standing on the shoulders of Giants" was intended to rule out Hooke, who was famously short and hunchbacked. This is not 100% accepted history but it does seem to fit in with Newton's general demenour and behaviour.
Apparently other people said it before Newton if you want to quote someone who actually meant it.
Copyright Infringement Is Not Theft (Score:3, Insightful)
No one can own an idea.
If you want to claim you own data, keep it private. Once you sell it to me, it is mine, to keep or to give away.
Copyright is immoral. If you tell me a story, you do not have the right to tell me that I cannot repeat it. Everyone has the right to say what is on their mind, regardless of who first thought of it. The mere act of creation does not give you any special rights to tell other people what they can do with their property.
This is part of a pattern of major IP holders brainwashing children,
there needs to be an alternative voice in the classroom.
Re:Copyright Infringement Is Not Theft (Score:3, Insightful)
I grow tired of repeating this to nimrods: GPL would not be needed if copyright didnt exist. It is a purely defensive construct, cleverly using the enemy's own most potent weapon by turning it against him. Abolish copyright and GPL will go away having done its work.
Here come the thought police (Score:5, Interesting)
Songs that get stuck in my head , many many ideas , Songs i remember
I occasionaly hum a tune thats most likely copyrighted
I have an idea that may already be patent.
When you start labeling copyright/patent infringment Thought theft then your walking on a really dodgy line. it really does sound incredibly facist
We should be teaching children to share and help others , instead we are teaching them suspicion and greed
I really hope alot of kids send MS vidios depicting facist states Abusing its citizens in some cyber punk future where your thoughts are monitored
as it was the first thing that came to my mind when i heard thought thieves
Wow, that's pathetic (Score:3, Funny)
terms acceptable to Microsoft? (Score:3)
Microsoft Propaganda Art (Score:5, Funny)
http://freetodd.org/MS-Poster.gif [freetodd.org]
This poster was stuck up all over my San Diego, California college campus.
Re:Microsoft Propaganda Art (Score:3, Informative)
What really happens in a UK university is that someone with broadband downloads a torrent of it and gives copies to anyone who wants one. No student in their right mind would actually buy it - it's (still) too bloody expensive. I would imagine it's similar in the US.
HEY! No fair! (Score:5, Funny)
H
Video submissions, eh? (Score:4, Funny)
How about we steam the labels off all of those and mail em to Microsoft?
Re:Video submissions, eh? (Score:3, Insightful)
However, blanking out the first portion of the tape till you get to a juicy bit might be a good idea. So they don't just turn it off when they see the opening title and credits..
Haha (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously you can't brainwash 14-17 year olds its too late by then, at this age they are already burning CDR's, smoking behind the wall and trying to use the colour laser to print fake ID's and £5 notes for the local off-license! Ah the good old days, when VCD's where as easy to come by as that slutty girl in your class, and everyone was discovering sharing, memories... Kids these days with their Napsters and Torrents, they have it easy!
If Microsoft seriously wants to brainwash then they're going to have to aim for the 8 year olds or lower. Do some classes where kids make macaroni and glitter pictures and then someone takes them and pretends they made them and then beats the kid to within an inch of their lives while playing Beethoven too loud, now that's brainwashing!
Irony (Score:5, Interesting)
All I can say is wow. Considering MS is the biggest stealer of ideas in history, the multiple levels of irony in this article make that Alanis Morissette song (or more precisely the fact that the song isn't ironic at all) pale in comparison. This can't be real. Would Microsoft be this dumb? Nah, I don't believe it. Good hoax though...
Re:Irony (Score:5, Insightful)
Setting: prehistoric man, living in a cave. Gork has the idea of rubbing two sticks together to make a fire. He finds that fire is indeed warm, and it is very comfortable to sit near it. The fire keeps him warm during the cold night.
Grog is very jealous of Gork's fire, and steals one of the burning branches while Gork is not looking, so that he can have his own fire. He carefully takes the branch to his cave, and makes his own fire. Ironically, Gork's fire keeps burning...
Grog enjoys his new fire, and soon realises that it is also very good for preparing food. Grog roasts himself a good meal. Grok is enticed by the new smells, and cones to check it out. He sees Grog also has a fire.
Should he be furious and sue for patent infringement??? It took him a lot of work and time to figure out the proper way to rub two sticks together to make the fire. No, Grok tries the food and likes the roasting idea as well. He stays awhile and learns what Grog has been doing. Pretty soon, Grok is enjoying his own home-cooked meals by his warm fire, having benefited from Grog building on his idea. Both are happier and warmer because of the fire. Both have learned something new from each other, and both are better off for the sharing of ideas.
fastforward a generation, and they are swapping BBQ recipies..
--
Please steal this idea and work with it. And then share it with everyone else.
Re:Irony (Score:5, Insightful)
And so you are doing exactly what they want: spread the fallacy that "ideas" or "thoughts" can be "stolen". Even most IPR law scholars agree that "intellectual property" is something entirely different from physical property and that you can't "steal" it.
The natural rights doctrine (I "made" it so it's all mine and mine alone) does not hold in the world of immaterial creations. It is introduced by creating artificial scarcity using laws, which should only apply in cases where they have overall positive effects.
With their "How would you feel if ..." oneliners, Microsoft reaches out to the inner desire of many people to be able to get rich simply by being the first to think of something. It can however easily be reversed: "How would you feel if you worked 2 years on a computer program completely on your own and when you tried to sell it, all sorts of people would start asking money from you even though all they did was pay a patent lawyer to file some documents describing ideas they once had?"
Here is roughly what it sounds like in german (Score:5, Funny)
Erinnern Sie sich an Zicklein, finalists muß damit einverstanden SEIN, alle Rechte am geistigen Eigentum in ihrem Film auf den Bezeichnungen formal zu genehmigen, die für Microsoft annehmbar sind.
Und vergessen Sie nicht, Ihr freies Gedankendiebplakat zu runter-laden! Microsoft in errichness 2005 JAWHOL",
Sounds alot scaryer
Re:Here is roughly what it sounds like in german (Score:4, Funny)
"Remember the little goats"?
Re:Zicklein == kid (Score:3, Funny)
see dictionary.com
The real thought thieves (Score:3, Insightful)
it's *not* illegal to 'steal' thoughts (Score:5, Interesting)
This is the M.O. of slimy corporations and politicians everywhere--they are basically lying to people through their gross simplification of complex issues (see 'pirates are bad'), misuse of language (this competition), and outright lying (too many examples to mention).
What's next? 'Find the hidden pirate treasure on your parent's computer? '
To quote Orwell's 1984: (Score:3, Interesting)
"A handsome, tough-looking boy of nine had popped up from behind the table and was menacing him with a toy automatic pistol, while his small sister, about two years younger, made the same gesture with a fragment of wood. Both of them were dressed in the blue shorts, grey shirts, and red neckerchiefs which were the uniform of the Spies. Winston raised his hands above his head, but with an uneasy feeling, so vicious was the boy's demeanour, that it was not altogether a game.
'You're a traitor!' yelled the boy. 'You're a thought- criminal! You're a Eurasian spy! I'll shoot you, I'll vaporize you, I'll send you to the salt mines!'
Suddenly they were both leaping round him, shouting 'Traitor!' and 'Thought-criminal!' the little girl imitating her brother in every movement. It was somehow slightly frightening, like the gambolling of tiger cubs which will soon grow up into man-eaters. There was a sort of calculating ferocity in the boy's eye, a quite evident desire to hit or kick Winston and a consciousness of being very nearly big enough to do so. It was a good job it was not a real pistol he was holding, Winston thought."
"With those children, he thought, that wretched woman must lead a life of terror. Another year, two years, and they would be watching her night and day for symptoms of unorthodoxy. Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and everything connected with it. The songs, the processions, the banners, the hiking, the drilling with dummy rifles, the yelling of slogans, the worship of Big Brother -- it was all a sort of glorious game to them. All their ferocity was turned outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals. It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children. And with good reason, for hardly a week passed in which The Times did not carry a paragraph describing how some eavesdropping little sneak -- 'child hero' was the phrase generally used -- had overheard some compromising remark and denounced its parents to the Thought Police."
It's good that I don't have children..
Re:To quote Orwell's 1984: (Score:5, Insightful)
SWEET! (Score:3, Interesting)
Moral rights (Score:3, Interesting)
My understanding of this last phrase is that they give up their right under UK law to be named as the author of the film. So Microsoft could pass off the film as their own production, without mentioning the real author.
Of course it's not theft if you sign your rights away voluntarily.
Alternative contest (Score:3, Interesting)
£2000 is not that much, we can match that
OK, I've opened my big mouth now. Anyone else?
Throwing Stones (Score:5, Funny)
"So how would you feel if you saw your hard work being passed off as the property of someone else?"
Gee, I don't know, maybe you could ask the guys who wrote the BSD stack?
Who si the thought thief here? (Score:5, Insightful)
Thought Thieves is about people stealing and profiting from your creation or innovation. Think about it: how would you feel if you saw your hard work being passed off as the property of someone else? What would you do?
ALSO from the website:
I will formally licence, on terms acceptable to Microsoft, all intellectual property rights
in my film and agree to waive all moral rights in relation to my film if requested to do
so.
I mean.....WTF!
Bounties Legal Confusion (Score:5, Insightful)
There is another aspect of this particular "bounty hunting" campaigne that is fascinating, disturbing, and possibly original. Namely, it is deliberately rewarding and encouraging people to MISUNDERSTAND the law about copyright, patent, and "ideas."
Would such bounties be acceptable if they encouraged other kinds of legal misunderstandings? For example, many people may erroneously believe "it is legal for me to download anything that appears on the Internet." Imagine if some large company provided similar bounties for films like this:
"Stop Illegal Harassment! Illegal harassment is when some person or company threatens you to stop doing something, even when you are doing nothing wrong. It sounds like science fiction, but it happens all the time. Some people and companies are contacting individuals who download things on the Internet and threatening them. How would you feel if your brother gave you a copy of the book he just finished reading -- and the publisher came and threatened you for 'stealing' the book? What would you do? We want to know."
Yes, the example above glides easily between different issues and concepts. But so does the Microsoft announcement, as it talks about "stealing thoughts" one moment -- and then asks how you would feel if people stole the *results* of thought, work, and effort.
In either case, it is frightening that it is so easy to start the equivalent of a vigilante campaigne that plays on -- and encourages -- people's confusion about the law. Even more frightening is that such campaignes may be perfectly legal.
Here is an idea for an entry to the competition (Score:3, Funny)
Pickup your child's Thought Thieves Pod today (Score:3, Interesting)
A farm truck pulls up outside of your kid's school, chock full of football size pods, and school administrators hand them out to the little children. Then, they walk them into the gymnasium, where they are told to lie down with their pod for a nap.
when they wake up, they're obedient, EULA-ized little drones, and in the podding process, have divulged their little grade school p2p supernodes [districtad...ration.com].
This was in yesterday's NTK... (Score:3, Informative)
Schools (Score:3, Funny)
No seriously it happened before you can even remember.
Some child psychologist circa 1975 said they should STRESS sharing in kindergarten, we got programs where children were told to share toys and got less toys than kids, teachers stressed that lending toys when you weren't playing with them was good behavior and praised us for it.
Microsoft's initiative is indeed attacking the source, they're just too late.
Their next initiative: don't lend billy your toy truck when you're not using it and he'll buy it from you for big $ thus making god happy!
Re:Don't bash them on this one (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe you're right, those kids will learn the most from their own mistakes.
Re:Don't bash them on this one (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Don't bash them on this one (Score:3, Funny)
... like some 14-to-17-year-old isn't able to fake THAT - I mean, they do it all the time for notes so they can skip school. It's not like they're Arnold Horschack.
At least the Brits now have a place to send all your coasters and AOL CDs - collect:
Re:Don't bash them on this one (Score:4, Funny)
Screw a PDF (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft Thought Thieves? Aren't they the ones usually stealing ideas from other companies? I can't think of one innovative and original piece of software from Microsoft.
--
Fairfax Underground [fairfaxunderground.com]: Fairfax County, VA public message board
Re:Screw a PDF (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Screw a PDF (Score:3, Informative)
They did have a patent. IIRC though it was for their hardware dongle that increased the amount of compression in some way. Don't know if it was on the software. In either event, having a patent still doesn't help you when large companies are able to hold it up for years while you hemorage funds to the blood sucking attornies.
"Maybe there's something to this whole idea of patenting software after all. Sure,
Screw another PDF (the first one) (Score:3, Informative)
sorry to respond to my own post
but yeah, I really hate pdf for tiny stuff like this
--
Fairfax Underground [fairfaxunderground.com]: Fairfax County, VA public message board
Re:Screw another PDF (the first one) (Score:3, Informative)
They've got a jpeg thumbnail. The PDF is supposed to be for printing. Unfortunately, the PDF is just a jpeg image ; the line art and fonts are all rendered at fixed resolution, so they loss all the benefits of the PDF format (smooth scalable graphics and type). It's a little odd to see MS using PDF format, but at least they didn't put it a BMP.
Re:Screw another PDF (the first one) (Score:3, Interesting)
Ar they much, if any, smaller? PDF has pretty good compression. I just zipped a few random PDFs and they were less than 1% smaller than the original. Possibly it's to fuck with non-Windows users, or Google which indexes PDFs on the web. But it does indicate a rapprochement with Adobe; also the new OTF font format, which combines Adobe's Type 1 and the MS/Apple Truetype. I've heard installing recent Ado
Re:Screw a PDF (Score:5, Insightful)
This is how they want to legitimize the whole software and "business method" patents, extending copyrights into eternity and a whole bunch of other gimmicks invented to make benefit from "owning" thoughts.
What MicroSoft is looking for.... (Score:3, Informative)
Its widely accepted by those in the know that young people are more daring and creative and as such old Bill Gates is of course looking for solutions regarding intellectual property and software patents.
Its a dual edge sword, they want both to know how to better get away with the works of others while also wanting to better know how to protect what they have stolen, from other taking it back.
They are looking for excuses to contin
In other news.. (Score:5, Funny)
In further other news, Bill Gates has announced that Linux is unexist. Purge all memory of "Linux" from your brains now to prevent being labelled a thought criminal!
Re:In other news.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In other news.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:In other news.. (Score:4, Funny)
Kierthos
Subversion (Score:5, Interesting)
A little movie about a small company that comes out with some cool new technology, and wants to give it out for free because they feel it will better mankind. A few months after its out it is quite popular in its niche and they are doing well from their ideas, they get a letter from a big company "Letigisoft" saying they infringed on a software patent of theirs. Our heros don't have much money for a legal defense, so they scramble. They know they can't keep their product functional and remove the infringing bit, they can't charge license fees, or afford legal costs. Plus, the patent claims being made are obviously very questionable, but they don't have the legal resources to prove that. Any attempt to go about against "Letigisoft" burries them in paperwork, and onerous disclosure requests that expose all their company's ideas to Letigisoft. So they end up with no choice but the close up shop. A year later "Letigisoft" develops a similar product and charges a lot for it.
So do something like that with nice production values so the judges will have to watch it. Let it develop slowly, so at first you might not realize that its such a David getting crushed by Goliath sort of thing. Make them all confortable by giving them exactly what they want.
Big companies who want all this IP fascism have to realize that they need to be careful what they ask for, because it works both ways, and they just might get what they want.
Re:Hoax? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Contest over (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Contest over (Score:5, Informative)
Apple paid to be "inspired" by the xerox GUI [mackido.com]
Re:Sort of relevant, but wrong (Score:5, Informative)
Bill Gates is pretty much admitting to 'Thought Theft' there: Microsoft wouldn't even have their flagship product line if they hadn't taken the idea of the GUI from Xerox and Apple.
I guess these days, Microsoft is Xerox, and some darn kids are nicking their TV now.
"sounds like science fiction" (Score:3, Funny)
Because the idea was lifted from 1984!