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Comment Re:GPL Violation? (Score 1) 504

by TwilightXaos (#32166340) Attached to: Can Employer Usurp Copyright On GPL-Derived Work?

My question to you is how are you able to possess code subject to the GPL yet deny your employees access to the source code?

This is just a thought, and IANAL so I could be completely wrong here.

What if the organization, eg CorpInc, took software released under the GPL and made modifications to it. Then they installed the modified versions to their own computers. The modified version is clearly under the GPL, because it is a derivative work. However is CorpInc required to give it's employees that use those computers the source to the modified version? If they are, then by the terms of the GPL the employees can give the source, and binaries, to others.
Businesses

AP Will Sell You a "License" To Words It Doesn't Own 340

Posted by kdawson from the almost-as-ironic-as-disappearing-1984 dept.
James Grimmelmann performed an experiment using the AP's form to request a license to use more than four consecutive words from one of their articles. Except that he didn't paste in words from the (randomly chosen) article, but instead used 26 words written by Thomas Jefferson 196 years ago: If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea. The AP cheerfully charged him $12 to use Jefferson's 26 words. Both Boing Boing and TechDirt have picked up the story so far. Grimmelmann adds an update to his blog: the AP has rescinded his license to Jefferson's words and issued a refund for his $12. They did not exhibit the grace to admit that their software is brain-dead.
Microsoft

The Hidden Cost of Using Microsoft Software 691

Posted by kdawson from the badware-tax dept.
Glyn Moody writes "Detractors of free software like to point out it's not really 'free,' and claim that its Total Cost of Ownership is often comparable with closed-source solutions if you take everything into account. And yet, despite their enthusiasm for including all the costs, they never include a very real extra that users of Microsoft's products frequently have to pay: the cost of cleaning up malware infections. For example, the UK city of Manchester has just paid out nearly $2.5 million to clean up the Conficker worm, most of which was 'a £1.2m [$2million] bill in the IT department, including £600,000 [$1 million] getting "consultancy support" to fix the problems, which including drafting in experts from Microsoft.' To make the comparisons fair, isn't it about time these often massive costs were included in TCO calculations?"

Comment Re:That's pretty standard (Score 1) 303

by TwilightXaos (#28018047) Attached to: Wolfram|Alpha's Surprising Terms of Service
The entire page is copyrighted by Wolfram. Compare with this example:

It may not surprise you that the line of perl code
print "Hello, world!\n";
"prints the message Hello, world!"(Swhartz & Phoenix, 2001) And the fact that it appears in a book, the text of which is copyrighted by O'Reilly Media, Inc. Which reserves all rights to the work should not surprise you either.

Schwartz, Randal L., & Phoenix, Tom. (2001). Learning Perl (3rd ed.). Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media.

Comment Re:There's already proof that this can't work (Score 1) 310

by TwilightXaos (#27288629) Attached to: Microsoft Unveils Open Source Exploit Finder

Because the majority of crash-inducing bugs don't result in security vulnerabilities, there can be a fair amount of internal debate when they're discovered during development.

a repeatable tool that takes a look at a crash

Both of the above quotes indicate that the tool does not determine when a program will crash. It only analysis the crash after a tester/developer has found a bug that makes the program crash.

This is not the halting problem, but a more ambiguous problem of weather a specific crash inducing bug is a security risk, or just a bug.
Networking

Cisco Mulls Adding Verbal Interview To CCIE Exams 117

Posted by Soulskill from the polygraphs-and-mind-melds-to-follow dept.
Julie188 writes "Here's a new idea to stop certification test-taking cheaters; Cisco is considering introducing a verbal interview portion to its CCIE lab exams across the world. Cisco confirmed that it is running a pilot in its exam lab in Beijing, China that involves candidates taking a 10-minute verbal interview as part of their lab exam. Cisco said that if the pilot is successful, the interview could be introduced as a requirement for CCIE Routing & Switching candidates worldwide. The company has been running the pilot since August."
Music

Managing Last.FM's "Mountain of Data" 139

Posted by Soulskill from the because-it's-there dept.
Rob Spengler writes "Last.FM co-founder Richard Jones says the biggest asset the company owns is 'hundreds of terabytes of user data.' Jones adds, '... playing with that data is one of the most fun things about working at the company.' Last.FM, for those who have been living on Mars for the last two years, is the largest online radio outlet, with millions of listeners per day. The company surpassed Pandora and others largely due to its unique datamining features: 'Audioscrobbler,' the company's song/artist naming algorithm, can correctly determine a track even with tens of thousands of false entries. Jones says sitting on that much data has even helped police: 'thieves listening to music on an Audioscrobbler-powered media player have helped police in the US, UK, and other countries track down users' stolen laptops.' Does sitting on a mountain of data make Last.FM powerful enough to start making a stand against the record industry? CBS certainly thinks so — they bought the company for £140 (~$200) million last year."

Comment Re:Roddenberry (Score 4, Insightful) 356

by TwilightXaos (#26169563) Attached to: Majel Roddenberry Dies At 76

We shall honor the dead how we wish.

Perhaps you need to lighten the fuck up.

Lame and rude? Like she cares now.

Do you seriously think she wouldn't laugh at these jokes, if she were here?

If that is the case, then I am glad she is gone. Those that can't laugh at themselves are the poorest souls, and life in it's wonder is lost on them; death is better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ&feature=channel

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