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Warezed SoundForge Files In Windows Media Player
Posted by
timothy
on Fri Nov 12, 2004 07:43 PM
from the let-the-bsa-sort-it-out dept.
from the let-the-bsa-sort-it-out dept.
An anonymous reader writes "German PC-Welt magazine reports that Microsoft used an illegal copy of SoundForge 4.5 (Google translation) for editing Wave files shipped with Windows Media Player. You can check that yourself by opening any file in the [Windows location] \Help\Tours\WindowsMediaPlayer\Audio\Wav\ folder in notepad or other editors of your choice and looking at the last line. There you will find a reference to SoundForge 4.5 and also a user called 'Deepz0ne' who happens to be one of the founders of an audio software cracking group called Radium."
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Warezed SoundForge Files In Windows Media Player
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Lessons to learn (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Lessons to learn (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Lessons to learn (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Lessons to learn (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Lessons to learn (Score:4, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Wednesday August 03 2005, @09:23AM)
Re:Lessons to learn (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.ferion.net/ | Last Journal: Monday May 06 2002, @02:16AM)
Wouldn't a hypocrite be the best person to get advice from? I mean, I'd pay more attention to a smoker telling me not to smoke than a non-smoker.
Re:Lessons to learn (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you miss his point. Yes, pirating Windows is wrong and illegal, even if Microsoft uses pirated software. That's because "hypocricy" doesn't have legal standing. But it does have standing in the realm of public opinion. Nobody would particularly cry for MS if they claim that they're loosing money to piracy. (Not that anyone would cry for MS now, we just cry because of MS.) It's a credibility thing. There's a difference between doing something that's wrong and feeling bad about it.
Personally, I hope it makes the "powers that be" realize that piracy by private corporations for profit is more harmful than piracy for personal use at home.
Re:Lessons to learn (Score:4, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Tuesday June 26, @08:41AM)
Well its certainly illegal - wrong is debatable.
That's because "hypocricy" doesn't have legal standing
It doesn't have a spelling standing either
Re:Lessons to learn (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.notfud.com/)
I beg to defer! It's Radium's software, not theirs!
Re:Lessons to learn (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://rzbx.org/)
You then went on the attack, claiming all the beautiful rights that corporations throw around in the court room. Your the one failing to realize something. It is that people are rebelling based on moral reasons as much as they are on financial ones. It is no accident that Microsoft has such large sums of money. This is NOT success we should be proud of. It means the economy is inefficient, noncompetitive, and has the ability to create various problems such as social ones. You may not understand this, but some do. I could go on. Instead I will say one last thing, consider the possibility your wrong about what others have convinced you is right. Just because it is on paper, does not make it right. We should follow the law, but understand that we need to fight laws as often as the corporations do to create more innovative ones.
Re:Lessons to learn (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://theonion.com/)
Re:It is wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.haeleth.net/)
Yes, but so does "of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession" (Lev. 25:45). Yup, you have a biblical right to enslave tourists' children. Or, in other words - not everything the Old Testament says is suitable as a handbook of modern morality.
More to the point, blanket statements like "thou shalt not steal" are only meaningful if you define "steal". Let's not have the whole "is copyright infringement theft" flamewar again, please - just please acknowledge that even among people who do consider copyright infringement to be theft, most people would at least consider the possibility that purchasing one copy of Windows and installing it on two computers is not exactly in the same (im)moral league as bank robbery.
Re:Lessons to learn (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Lessons to learn (Score:5, Insightful)
Mohandas Gandhi
The implication is that everyone has committed some offense against some other person in his or her lifetime. If the only form of justice available were retribution, then the entire population of the world would be savaged. Imagine the torments you would have to undergo if every single wrong you have ever done in your life had to be repaid in kind.
I believe another famous religious leader had something similar to say about the idea of justice as retribution:
He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. John, 8:7.
Justice as retribution is only ever advocated by hypocrites, because all of us have committed offenses against others.
The real lesson (Score:5, Insightful)
Have you tried getting management to buy the software required for a project? At times it's damn near impossible. You have a deadline and your request is moving at the speed of bureaucracy. Finally you say *fuck it* and get the damn software. This becomes a vicious circle when management asks, "Oh you didn't need us to buy this software before why do you need it now? Just do what you did before."
I'm not saying this is good or bad, this is just the way it happens. Management holds no accountability because it's their job to be a dumb ass. Being a dumb ass isn't illegal and saves the company money. They didn't pirate the software, some peon did.
Re:The real lesson (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://erik.hollensbe.org/blog/)
It's easy to blame it on the managers, but the developers don't help by inflating the problem, promoting the piracy of software where an actual demo would have been more fruitful.
Dev: "Hey, I signed up for a demo of this. I put your email address in the form."
Manager: "Ok."
(2 weeks later)
Dev: "I need this whiz-bang feature that the demo doesn't support. I won't be able to continue until I get it working."
Manager: "Write up a PO and put it on my desk."
Often times, that'll get you software by the end of the week. It's worked for me many times... Where as the alternative (which I have done), normally gets the response, "we already have it, why do we need to buy it?".
Re:The real lesson (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.gfunk007.com/ | Last Journal: Saturday May 27 2006, @04:33AM)
To which the answer is simple. "It's your computer boss, you're responsible for what's on it."
Re:The real lesson (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, you put it in e-mail? All POs must be in writing and put in the blue inbox bin.
Oh, you put it in the blue bin? We are putting all POs in the red inbox bin.
Oh, you put it in the red bin? All that goes in the shredder. All POs must be faxed.
Oh, I'm out of paper? Why didn't you send it by e-mail?
What the hell are you doing sending registered mail to my home address? You can't expect me to work during my off hours.
Re:The real lesson (Score:5, Funny)
(http://operagost.com/ | Last Journal: Monday May 01 2006, @12:08PM)
Re:The real lesson (Score:5, Funny)
(http://operagost.com/ | Last Journal: Monday May 01 2006, @12:08PM)
Re:The real lesson (Score:5, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Wednesday January 31 2007, @02:25AM)
I thought this was crazy until you revealed that this was a defense contractor. They have good reasons (government paranoia) to forbid unauthorized hardware and software installs. I used to work at a company whose only customer was Lockheed Martin and which was in fact formed by Lockheed Martin. (They form little companies for themselves like this so they can pay crappy wages with no benefits for doing work that doesn't require a classification. The concept of a company with a single customer comes quite naturally to these people.) When I did work in the actual Lockheed Martin facility I had an escort badge. Every time I needed to take a piss, they walked me down the hall and waited outside the bathroom.
I'm surprised you didn't get fired for plugging in a weird keyboard. They canned me for opening a telnet session one day and sending an email home saying I'd be late.
Re:The real lesson (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.nodomain.org/)
The situation: Deadline for $500,000 contract in two days. Really hard to find memory leak in the code (only happens when there's >5 simultaneous users so you can't single step it). 3 developers had spend the last week trying to find it.
We'd put in a request for Developer Studio the previous month - the request had to be a 10 page report on why we needed it (heck, it's only $1000!).
I went to the manager. Stated that there was no way we could beat the deadline without some software to help us (it would be hard even with DS, but impossible without it). His response... "There's no money for it. Can't you pirate it?"
Penalties for missing the contract deadline by over a week amounted to over $10,000.
I'm glad I left that place...
Re:The real lesson (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://davecheatham.com/)
Why don't you pirate it, Mr. Manager Man?
Don't put up with violating the law, or even violating company policy, to get around stupid-ass restrictions that are keeping you from doing your job. Stand firm and complain continually about the policy failure. If your company has a process to make suggestions or complain about policies, use it exactly how you're supposed to. When asked why you don't hit deadlines, pull out documentation of how this policy hindered you and you couldn't get it changed.
We, the workers, need to stop putting up with this crap. Either they give us the tools to do our job (Or let us go get them.), or we're just going to stand there and point out they've hired us to do a job and not given us the tools. Don't go and get the tools in violation of company policy.
A friend of mine got in a similiar sitution recently. It seems, he's on the IT staff of a company, and they'd adding computers. Well, for some completely idiotic reason, the electricians wire the network. So he put in a work order for eight drops in this room, and, three weeks later, when they came in, only two of the drops actually worked. So he's talking about what he's going to do, is is he going to get a hub and have reduced bandwidth to this important machines, or maybe stick some of them in another room until another work order goes this, or maybe, against the rules, take off the faceplates of the jacks and try to fix the wiring, or what, and I just stare at him.
Then I say: The electricians didn't do their job. They probably don't know how to do it correctly, so it's not their fault, it's the fault of whoever put in such a stupid-ass rule, but still...the work order is not complete. Don't try to figure out a way around the rules. Go and tell them you're only able to do 1/4th your job, because only 1/4th of the work you need done (And was okayed to be done!) was actually done. If they want this to not happen again, they could actually let people who know how to wire a network cable run it, or at least put the ends on.
Because figuring out ways around the rules is not your job. If the rules are not correct, yes, you need to point that out, and maybe even suggest new rules. If management does not listen to you, it is not your job to do your work in violation of said rules. If they make you sweep with a shovel instead of a broom, by God, sweep with a shovel. Don't sneak a broom out when they aren't looking.
Of course, companies could actually start trusting workers again, and I'm sure some do. But if they did, you'd know, because you wouldn't have stupid procedures you need to work around in the first place!
Re:Lessons to learn (Score:5, Informative)
For instance, let's say I start a company, and that company's product ends up causing a lot of accidental deaths. Instead of the individuals that compose the company being sued, the company itself is sued, and money can't be taken from the individuals...just the company. It lowers the risk of starting a business by making sure that only the business itself can be financially destroyed, not the individuals behind it.
However, on the same token, every employee of Microsoft is a representative of Microsoft as a corporation. "Some dude who worked at Microsoft" who used a cracked copy of Sound Forge is a representative of the company, and by breaking the law, the entity of Microsoft as a corporation is responsible for breaking the law.
That's true but don't pretend it was intentional (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is people seem to be blaming Microsoft as though they willfuly ripped off Sonic Foundry (now Sony) to save some money. Please, Sound Forge is like $250, it's nothing to them. More likely, whoever was responsible for it, maybe not even an MS employee (they may have contracted this out) just liked SF and used it instead of whatever app they had licensed.
Still their responsibility to pay for it, but don't pretend it was them being evil. They don't monitor the every move of their employees.
Interesting counter question: How many OSS Windows apps are compiled using a warezed version of Visual Studio?
Re:That's true but don't pretend it was intentiona (Score:5, Informative)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Wednesday March 10 2004, @11:39PM)
Even if you have a legal copy of Visual Studio you should be doing your automated build process with the free tools anyway.
Re:That's true but don't pretend it was intentiona (Score:4, Insightful)
Yep, you can do that. But then you'll spend so much trying find a usable set of runtime libraries in that mishmash, and then figuring out whether you're actually licensed to redistribute them, you'll end up wishing you hadn't. (Each of the SDKs is cleverly packaged with different incompatible and irregular subsets of the Windows runtime libraries, just to make it so hard to figure out that you'll run out and buy their non-free development tools out of frustration.)
Plus, if you use any outside code at all, it will almost invariably assume that you have the MS IDE environment to build it. You're then faced with rewriting the build process for that code from scratch.
Re:That's true but don't pretend it was intentiona (Score:4, Interesting)
All the OSS Windows projects I've worked on (like the one I'm hacking right now) have gone to significant lengths to be compatible with MINGW32.
This is actually quite handy, because it means I can cross-compile from Linux. (Yup, I'm writing Windows code, but compiling it with a Linux compiler and testing it with WINE... ain't OSS great?!)
Re:That's true but don't pretend it was intentiona (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes; but the BSA, which is dominated by Microsoft, has no sympathy for that argument when a company is "audited" and found to be in violation of its licenses, when it's quite plausible that he company merely is poor at record keeping and most likely has actually paid for the licences; or left unused copies of software installed on machines when swapping hardware around, and so on. They still get the whole cavity search, perp walk and massive fine (or compulsory purchase to avoid such) treatment.
Re:BSA Audit? Plus, the redistribution of the outp (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.brynmosher.com/ | Last Journal: Monday August 27, @10:15PM)
Re:Lessons to learn (Score:5, Insightful)
Just imagine a small company where some guy runs a illegal copy of Windows XP. Sure they would be sued or threatened with it to pay the license fee plus something. Same procedure should be applied to MS.
Re:Lessons to learn (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Lessons to learn (Score:4, Funny)
That's only if the other players land on your hotel often enough...
Infringement of patent, not "stolen code" (Score:5, Informative)
A few angles... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A few angles... (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Sunday January 22 2006, @06:55AM)
The question it rasises is how much other stuff is in windows that has IP violations? The answer is: Nobody knows. Probably not even MS know, and a nobody else is in a position to analyse it. By the time it gets found and publicised, its been in the operating system for a long time.
Michael
Re:A few angles... (Score:5, Insightful)
And the answer it provides is that the idea that closed soure software somehow becomes magically free of stolen or infringing code is fallacious.
At best it provides the bliss of ignorance, but an ignorance difficult or impossible to correct.
KFG
Re:A few angles... (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.terranovum.com/ | Last Journal: Saturday February 07 2004, @07:53PM)
I am NOT an MS apologist but they were saying that the wav files shipped with windows media player were created and/or edited at some point with a warezed copy of sound forge. Not that warezed compiled code was shipped with windows...
ie; (no pun intended) this is like them compiling windows with a warezed version of Borland's compiler, not like distributing Borland's compiler.
Re:A few angles... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A few angles... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.onlinersvps.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday December 12 2004, @01:26PM)
Re:A few angles... (Score:5, Interesting)
I've managed to get out of the IT/Windows side of things and more into embedded development, but, once upon a time...
I do recall that there used to be an admin kit that could be installed with NT 4 (yeah, this goes back a ways) that included a "better" command line interface and some typical tools like vi.
For some now-forgotten reason I "stringed" the vi executable and on the inside it was vim [vim.org].
Much to my surprise (not) the "About" box listed only MS developers and MS version info -- not a word about the vim project.
So no, it's not the first or only time that MS has "embraced" foreign code without proper attribution.
Re:I thought copyright didn't matter (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.ministry-of-fun.com/)
Let's say the RIAA, led by Hilary Rosen, sued 13 year-old kids for thousands for copy infringement.
Then later on, we found out that Ms. Rosen's son had hundreds of BetaMax copies of video rentals in her home.
It is not outrageous, because her son infringed on copyrights. It is outrageous that Ms. Rosen holds some unknown kid to some higher standard than her own son. It would show that the copyright is not what she cared about, only suing 13 year-olds for thousands.
It's ok, MS has indemnified everybody (Score:5, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/~wowbagger/journal/87552 | Last Journal: Monday September 03, @08:07PM)
Best Friend! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Best Friend! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Best Friend! (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://alose.homelinux.net/ | Last Journal: Monday October 03 2005, @05:14PM)
BSA? (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Friday May 07 2004, @11:35AM)
-molo
Re:BSA? (Score:5, Interesting)
MiCRoSoFT (Score:5, Funny)
-GRAViTY pwns j00!
Re:MiCRoSoFT (Score:5, Funny)
Re:MiCRoSoFT (Score:5, Funny)
You're going to regret that when you turn 65 and you can barely understand English, let alone l33t....
A 1337 funny on "Jeopardy" (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.anotherblogger.com/)
Re:A 1337 funny on "Jeopardy" (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://flet.ch/)
Re:winwarez.jpg (Score:5, Funny)
i almost feel disappointed
Ummm.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:winwarez.jpg (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.citlink.net/~peacereigns/ | Last Journal: Wednesday April 12 2006, @08:07AM)
Engrish (Score:5, Funny)
Already times on the idea come
Really want makes me the article to read.
Naughty, naughty... (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.spreadfir...s&id=958&t=1)
So when does it stop being 'opinion' (Score:5, Interesting)
We bash MS, and get MS defenders countering with idiocy that makes it seem like it's all a battle of opinion over whether MS is a big bad company or simply misunderstood, or whether MS is a monopoly, or just highly talented, whether MS doesn't give a shit about IP rights while enforcing their own or they're just working within a business realm that they need to survive.
Sorry, It just keeps going on and on like this. MS using pirated software to develop & promote their media player. Indefensible from a company that professes to rely so much on IP, unless they're nothing but greedy hypocrites.
I'm going with the "nothing but greedy hypocrites" thanks
Re:So when does it stop being 'opinion' (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Tuesday November 26 2002, @07:28PM)
you could be right.... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.thebamboogrove.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday April 06 2005, @03:09PM)
Before you go running off all bitter and self-righeous, you might want to consider the difference between the coporate management and the average joe schmuck employee.
This isn't MS being hypocrites, it is an employee breaking company policy and bringing in outside sofware.
Re:you could be right.... (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Thursday March 15 2007, @12:56PM)
What difference? (Score:4, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Monday September 13 2004, @01:27PM)
When it's Microsoft's precious "IP" in question, there are no excuses. This is not speculation, this is not opinion, this is a trail of tears weaving back and forth across the country with literally thousands and thousands of people and business, big and small, who lost a few of their holograms, that can vouch.
When Microsoft has its pet army of jackbooted thugs (the BSA) "auditing" the daylights out of you (or your elementary school, or your police station, or your old folks home) they don't buy this excuse. It doesn't matter if you bought those 5 computers used and the seller didn't give you the stickers. It doesn't matter if some 2 week contractor who didn't even speak English warezed Office _and_ stole a box of white out, it's still your business' problem, guilty until proven innocent, "Civil and Criminal Penalties," $500,000 for each count, etc etc... You're still staring down the barrel of a devastating lawsuit or a "relicensing" on extremely favorable terms...
So yes, duh, absoloutely PLEASE run off and for the record we are not nearly bitter or self-righteous enough.
BSA audits (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Monday November 27 2006, @04:43PM)
What's with the (s)he? (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Monday January 06 2003, @10:36PM)
Re:Alternate explaination (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/)
No Meaning! (Score:5, Funny)
Tell me about it! I have that problem all the time, man.
Methinks machine translation is still in its infancy.
Seriously... (Score:5, Funny)
Off-topic me all you want, but what's the point of providing a Google translation of these things. It's like posting an article and expecting no one to RTFA.
Oh, wait...
Big Deal. (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.rubisoftware.com/)
Supreme Best Translation Number 1! (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.tlm-project.org/)
Yes, those damn systemverzeichnis! We all get very fuendig when dealing with them.
For listening to MP3s the Windows codec was correct, but it offered only limited Encodierungsfunktionen
Its a well known industry fact that lack of Encodierungsfunktionen causes loss of sound quality.
Then one sees first only letter salad
Mmmm ASCII salad. Goes great with chicken and a glass of red wine so I'm told.
That might only in talking moon for the Windows the Media Player responsible person
Ummm... moon wha?
The statement of Microsoft is still pending, times sees, what says Microsoft for this.
It's true! German Yoda does exist! And he's working for a PC magazine. I knew it!
Jobs Says Windows Users are Thieves (Score:4, Funny)
According to Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple: "The most common format of audio files on an windows system is 'warezed'." He appears convinced Apple will lead the way in Digital Rights Management and also believes Apple will steal a march on Microsoft in making the digital home a reality because Microsoft "doesn't have the volumes". "There is no way that you can get there with Microsoft. The critical mass has to come from the iPod, or a next-generation video device"
Perhaps not MS's doing. (Score:5, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Wednesday December 20 2006, @07:31PM)
You may run across more hits. That doesn't necessarily mean that the author of the software they came with used a cracked copy of SoundForge.
For example, the Digital Eel game "Dr. Blob's Organism" demo has the deepz0ne string in "powerdn.wav", but doesn't have it in any of the others. That makes me think they probably just grabbed a sound effect off of a (presumably) royalty-free sound effects library (CD/DVD/online), and that particular sound effect happened to be authored or modified in a warez version of SoundForge.
Similarly the mediaplayer sounds... whose are they, really ? Were they authored/modified by an MS Employee ? If not - where does MS's responsibility come in ? Do -you- check every asset you acquire in good faith belief to see if they may have been touched by a cracked piece of software ?
Re:Perhaps not MS's doing. (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Sunday November 21 2004, @01:09AM)
Re:metadata considered harmful (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://billposer.org/)
Not that your point about metadata isn't valid, but this isn't a typical metadata problem. The WAV format doesn't directly provide for strings indicating the program that created the audio. There is a "text" chunk in which you can put such information, but WAV files don't have to have such a chunk and they don't have any standard interpretation. Information about the file is usually placed before the audio data too. This stuff could be a text chunk placed at the end, but I suspect that it is actually included in the audio data chunk - a few odd sample values at the end will be undetectable to the ear. I can't tell for sure though without examining the WAV file, which I don't have since I don't have MS Windows. Maybe somebody could post a link to one of the files and we could find out.
Why is this "funny"? (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Tuesday September 12 2006, @03:31PM)
Interesting history of SoundForge/Sonic Foundry (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.msgeek.org/ | Last Journal: Tuesday August 23 2005, @08:30PM)
Fine way to thank him, MS. I hope Sony takes MS to the cleaners over this.
Does anyone remember (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.marktaw.com/)
Good times.
What other apps store my username in their files? (Score:5, Interesting)
Software authors/distributors should be required to disclose exactly what personal information is distributed in files which are created with that product. As much as I like to stick it to M$, Sonic Foundry, now Sony, is the one I'm concerned about here.
Re:What other apps store my username in their file (Score:4, Informative)
(http://mrspeaker.webeisteddfod.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday February 06 2005, @10:56PM)
I used to use SoundForge4.5 Radium release (having since bought SF5 and 6) and I checked out some old files that I sampled in to 4.5.
In wmpaud5.wav on WinXp the last bytes are: LISTR INFOICRD 2000-04-06 IENG Deepz0ne ISFT Sound Forge 4.5;Sound Forge 4.0In my samples from 4.5 I had: LIST0 INFOICRD 2000-01-09 ISFT Sound Forge 4.5
And on 5.0 and 6, there appears no plain text meta info.
Re:What other apps store my username in their file (Score:4, Informative)
(Last Journal: Saturday January 29 2005, @02:22PM)
Not the first time... (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe they need to look at how hard it is to purchace software within Microsoft. "Not invented here" is no excuse.
Mettalica too ! (Score:4, Funny)
And guess what, all the Mettallica [slashdot.org] tracks were made with a pirated copy of Sound Forge. Bastards!
Murphy(c)
Maybe they bought the .wav's? (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://vsxgen.sourceforge.net/)
In other news... (Score:4, Funny)
(http://null.set/)
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was quoted as saying, "Well, we consider this a valid liscencse enforcement practice, so I guess we have to put up with it. We're just glad noone ran 'strings' on our TCP/IP stack for 'Regents of the University of California.'"
Search Microsoft!! (Score:3, Funny)
Search Microsoft's offices and sieze all computers as evidence. After they are inspected, they can be returned unharmed with no damage done.
We must protect the intellectual property that drives our economy. Any minor inconvenience this causes Microsoft is certainly well justified.
Re:Correction to original article (Score:5, Informative)
Odd, the tool "required" on my laptop was notepad. It did the job just fine.
Re:Not a big deal really (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Good test for GPL? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not a big deal really (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not a big deal really (Score:5, Insightful)
proof you have no sense of humor (Score:3, Funny)
(http://circletimessquare.com/)
hover over it with your pointer... go ahead, i'm waiting
see what the pop up text says?
it says "It's funny. laugh."
do you understand the fucking concept? do you really?
because i don't think you do
i assert to you that unfunny negative asocial "article appropriateness" trolls like yourself second guessing the editors can do, and are perhaps doing, more damage to slashdot than any editor with a trigger happy post button ever can
capisce asshole?
learn to laugh
no, really: learn to fucking laugh
HA HA HA
>:-/
Re:Nice going TImothy (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.ke5fx.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday May 20 2003, @02:09PM)
Re:Not a big deal really (Score:3, Funny)
(http://www.thebamboogrove.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday April 06 2005, @03:09PM)
YOU DENY IT! Why do you deny it? Who said that there was a huge warez-using portion of MS iceberg, hmmm? The article didn't mention it. You seem awful defensive!
What kind of name is fzammette? Is that some sort of 'cover' or 'alias'? Why do you post under an alias, fzammette? Who do you work for? WHO DO YOU WORK FOR!
Re:Not a big deal really (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not a big deal really (Score:5, Interesting)
MS stole code, they've done it before, and they're doing it now. Given how Ballmer likes to pretend he's some sort of champion of individual IP-holder's rights, he shouldn't have a problem making this "error" right.
Instead, it's more likely this will take a lawsuit.
What makes this newsworthy is the same thing that makes Limbaugh's drug use news. It's not so much that he's a druge addict (although there is a group of the public who likes public scandal), but it's that he condemns other drug users to jail, but demands leniency for himself.
If MS wants a pass on this, then they should lighten up, remove XP activation bullshit, whatever. Otherwise, to hell with them.
Re:Not a big deal really (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://www.alioth.net/ | Last Journal: Monday November 19, @06:27PM)
Re:Yeah right (Score:5, Informative)
(http://desicritics.org/ | Last Journal: Tuesday March 02 2004, @03:37PM)