Agreed. If people work overtime, the boss should do everything possible to support the team.

I'd also like to add that in this day and age, there really isn't much need for developers to work over time in the office. If managers want developers to work extra time, they should be OK with them doing it on their own terms. If the developer prefers working in the office, then great. But many developers (particularly the more senior ones) have families. Letting them go home, have dinner with the family then work later in the evening will help productivity.

I suppose there are some situations where working in the office is required in order to be productive, but with all the advances in networking technology it's more rare.

Normally, I'd suggest that your boss read Peopleware, but that's probably how he got on this kick because (as I remember), this issue is addressed there. Apparently, there have been studies that show that people are less likely to find "shortcuts" to problems. It's funny though, that one of the main points there is that developers need a quiet environment to be productive.

For me, I tend to agree that almost all types of music reduce my abilities to solve problems. For repetitive stuff, like writing documentation or maybe certain types of specs, it's fine for me. But YMMV.

However, that doesn't mean that a boss should create rules like he's trying to do here. He has a small penis, almost for definitely. He's flexing his muscles. It might be better for him to identify employees that are having trouble and work with them 1-on-1 to come up with a plan to address the issues. There will be more than 1 issue for some...and less than 1 for others. So a case-by-case basis is the best approach. But that's too much work and it doesn't prove to everyone that his penis is actually "quite big".

At various points in my career, I've been a manager. So I understand your manager's problem, but he's making it worse (for the record, my penis is "average sized"). A better approach might be to talk to each developer individually and bring it to their attention that listening to music has been shown to decrease productivity (provide them with something to read about it) and ask them for their thoughts. Also ask if they'd be willing to give it a try. That approach may work in a group too. If the developer is unwilling to give it a try, then maybe they are a problem.

Now, noise in a cubicle environment is a huge problem. Get creative about it. This is actually an opportunity for you to take a leadership role. Maybe developers could work at home for part of the day. Maybe the company could spring for noise canceling headsets.

Wow, you really do seem to enjoy disagreeing. I'm not sure why you question my open-mindedness. Obviously I have preconceived notions, but I did/do want to understand the other side of the story. Not really thanks to you, since your comments aren't really constructive, but there have been many well thought out responses.

Calling people ignorant seems to make you feel smarter. Have you consulted a therapist lately? You paint the picture of a self-conscious nerd always trying to prove to others that he's smarter and more logical than they are. That's probably holding you back in life.

But I'll let you have the last word on this. I'm sure you'll find something to call me ignorant about. Fire away.

Did they ask that people who use their (your?) site respect copyrights? If they did not, then that helps form my opinion. Do you need absolute certainty to form opinions? Or just absolute certainty before you'll bite the hand that helps you get free stuff?

Well, I admitted that it was speculation. Pointless and groundless are the words you're using to make yourself feel smarter. But it's also speculation on your part to say that they've behaved ethically in the whole matter.

Regarding the irrelevance of the DMCA outside the US, well I know people wish that the US didn't have influence over the governments of the world. The world may be a better place if we didn't. They may regret their (your?) position. We'll see.

People certainly seem to enjoy the intellectual property that come out of the framework of the US economic system. So in some senses, they want the goods but without the restrictions that helped produce them.

All very good products. I use Firefox and Linux and love them both. But keep in mind that Firefox started out life as a commercial product (Netscape Navigator). It was open sourced after it got rolled over by a monopoly. Linux is a better example, but it's taken a very long time to reach the levels of success that it's seeing now. You could also argue that Linux isn't innovative in a technical sense (hopefully that comment doesn't start an OS war).

Hopefully you'd agree that Firefox and Linux both benefit from copyright protection. I mean, without it, what's to stop a company from completely ripping off all the important/good code from those products and putting them into their products and giving no credit whatsoever?

I don't think that, but I do believe that progress/innovation happens faster with copyright protection.

First a groundless assertion, now irrelevant.

I don't know the people who ran the site. I don't know what their intentions were (neither do you, I suspect), but from an outsider's perspective it looks like their intention was to support copyright infringement. Since I don't know their true motivation, I can look for clues. The word "Pirate" appears in the name of the site. That's suspicious to me. Is it a baseless suspicion? Perhaps, but to me it's incriminating. Probably doesn't help their court case all that much either. Let's just say that their lawyers probably wouldn't advise them to put that word in the name.

Was there anything on their site that discourages copyright infringement? I really don't know, but I somehow doubt it (definitely could be wrong here). I seem to remember reading an article that said their web site bragged that they couldn't be prosecuted. Suspicious to me (speaking as someone who isn't a lemming disciple).

Hmm. Blatant lie. Odd choice of words. Maybe you think I misunderstand the situation. But a lie?

Are you saying that they don't know that it facilitates the copying of copyrighted materials? Or maybe you're programmed to reject all things that indicate a conflict in your strict moral code.

Of course you knew what I meant. It is copyright infringement. So I shall rephrase since you did not understand the intent of my original question. Why is making it easy for people to infringe on copyright ethical?

If you're saying that there should be no copyright protection at all, I'd ask you to ask yourself what kinds of works (movies, music, software, etc.) would be produced in that world? Copyrights are a financial incentive for people to create works that are capital intensive. It's one of the things that keeps economies growing. Maybe you don't want economies that grow. At least you'd have a consistent position then.

I wanted to see the other side of the story. The "my kids can't eat" comment was a different way of saying that "I can't make a living if everyone infringes on my copyright." That seemed obvious to me, but maybe not to someone who's in a disagreeable mood (others interpreted it in the way in which it was intended).

So, I truly wanted everyone with an opinion they feel strongly about to respond. I've read every comment and tried to understand the author's perspective and rationalize it with my own. I know, trying to see things from someone else's perspective is something that can get you banned from Slashdot so I should probably stop.

I usually don't post to Slashdot because nothing good comes from it, but I saw this as an opportunity to understand what others are thinking on this. I viewed it as completely insane that TPB is getting any support, especially from a group of people (Slashdot readers) that commonly builds software. Even the people who write open source software should want copyrights to exist in order to prevent companies from taking the code they worked hard on and profiting from it. It's a two-way street, after all.

What I saw in a number of the responses was ignorance on how copyrights benefit innovation. I mean, it's possible that I'm the one who's wrong on that front, but I've read a couple of books on economics and that was one of the takeaways.

I also see now that some people are supporting TPB because they hope that it leads to improvement in copyright laws. While I might not agree with the tactics, I can respect the goal and that maybe that's the only way real change comes here. At least there's some moral justification there.

So yes, I clearly have an opinion on this and it came through in my post/question. But I wouldn't have posted it if I didn't want to understand other people's perspective.

The answer to your question is pretty simple, really. It's really asking why copyright law exists in the first place. It's there so that companies have incentive to create things that cost a lot up front to make. If you had an idea that was innovative and would change the world, but would require you to take a year off in order to build it. Would you do it? Without any copyright protection people would be less likely to do it.

Think about all of the things that would not have been created without the company (or person) who created them having copyright protection. People get mad when the rich get richer, but really the only way they get richer is if we enjoy what they produce. If you take away copyright protection, how many good movies in the history of movies would get created? How many software products get written? Not many.