So, no new laws, please. The ones we have hurt enough.
So I wonder if the lesson to corrupt lawmakers is this: hurry up and pass a law that does not do what The People want it to do. Then when The People get so upset about that law not working that they demand no new laws be passed (rather than fix the laws), the corrupt lawmakers can throw their hands up and say, "Hey, The People insist I make no new laws. So, you know, from now on I'm only doing what The People want."
I'm not sure Chip is talking about government laws, but rather the natural laws common in fair trade, such as supply and demand. (Chip, correct me if I'm wrong.)
I was referring to a more natural market driven kind of law myself. Government laws normally are the cause of more problems and/or just create extra hoops to jump through.
While I have a very strong opinion on the political topics, I'd like to propose that we take this elsewhere.
===Jac
Really? I thought this was all leading up to a proposal to build a giant brain composed of P2 chips to solve the world's problems. That would bring this thread back on topic! :-)
Really? I thought this was all leading up to a proposal to build a giant brain composed of P2 chips to solve the world's problems. That would bring this thread back on topic! :-)
What was your line of business and how did the DMCA make it untenable?
Writing books.
The safe harbor provisions create an environment where -- file lockers as an example -- can set up business that reward pirates to post infringing works. Since it's "user contributed" the file lockers are themselves immune from prosecution. They make money with ads, or more commonly by charging a fee for faster access to the material. From this revenue they pay their uploaders. Megaupload was a notorious example of this, making about a half a million dollars a day.
There are so many file lockers, ebook harvest sites, tubes, and others that pirate digital content, it is impossible to police them all. Only the biggest rights holders can effectively fight them, with full time staff and lawyers. So you read about how the MPAA has taken this or that action, but in fact the bulk of the content on these sites are from much smaller publishers and even individual authors, who lack the means to stem the tide.
A blowbacks of open source of digital content is very similar to what Chip encountered. If you try to feed your family by coming up with ideas and writing about them, *how* that living is made has now been stripped from you. You are not allowed to make this very basic of human choices -- your work will be copied anyway. You must settle for tangential income, where you have to pretend you're not trying to make a living. Or worse, apologize for trying. With many of the most well-known open source hardware projects, the income derived from it is quite often shrouded in secrecy. There's something wrong with that.
I do sympathize with hard working authors. However it's not clear to me if regulations like the DMCA help or hinder their plight. Historically 99% of all authors, musicians and such have made a meager living. Meanwhile, in the same time frame as the DMCA, the author of the "Harry Potter" books has done very well.
This is a problem that capitalism cannot fix. We may want to close down the internet and keep everyone in a straight jacket so they cannot copy anything unless they pay. Which is of course totally against the "freedom" that capitalism advertises for all of us. Alternatively we might think of a communal effort to reward the creative. But hey, that's a pinko subversive idea.
What to do?
With many of the most well-known open source hardware projects, the income derived from it is quite often shrouded in secrecy. There's something wrong with that.
I have no idea what you are talking about. Do you have an example in mind?
Parallax for example has recently embraced "open source". That is very cool. But for sure it only goes as far as tools and compilers etc. The Propeller chip design itself is not on the table.
I don't want to hijack Chip's thread. If you're truly interested, start a new thread, and I'd be happy to help you understand the issues.
Gordon,
I would like to hear what you have to say about the ebooks and pirating issue, etc., and I'm sure there are many people on this forum that would love to learn from your experiences. Has someone started a new thread for this? have I missed it?
If a new thread was not started, would you please start one?
I found these drawings we had done for some trade-show-booth artwork for the Propeller. They depict how computing could be, and how it actually is these days.
We had a 3rd panel that showed a dog on a flying bike with propellers whirring underneath. I can't find that one.
Awesome illustrations!! The bottom one (laptop version) is what they've given me for work but it only needs to run Outlook, instant messenger, Eclipse(for Java), Toad (for Oracle), Komodo(for Perl), Dreamweaver, conferencing collaboration software, IE, Firefox, multiple puTTY session and a test Apache instance....but it does have 32BIT Win 7! It's REALLY speedy!!
Videos: I've been checking the Open Hardware Summit 2013 page - they say they are going to put stuff in the archives but I haven't seen anything show up yet.
I hate to criticize things, but to me the spinning propellers on the dog's bicycle appear to be spinning in the "wrong" direction. It gives me the sense the bike is running backwards.
Also, I would make those propellers a little darker in the body but keep them blurry-feathery near the edges to produce the illusion of their motion. As they are now, they appear like mere shadows, at least on my browser.
I don't really understand the intent of "We've built the chip that you should have had next." It seems like it would make more sense to say "We've built the chip that you should try next." or something like that.
Comments
So I wonder if the lesson to corrupt lawmakers is this: hurry up and pass a law that does not do what The People want it to do. Then when The People get so upset about that law not working that they demand no new laws be passed (rather than fix the laws), the corrupt lawmakers can throw their hands up and say, "Hey, The People insist I make no new laws. So, you know, from now on I'm only doing what The People want."
===Jac
That's what the SkyNet engineers thought, too :-)
===Jac
Jac, SkyNet has an office on Montague Expressway here in the valley. I'll take a picture later.
Writing books.
The safe harbor provisions create an environment where -- file lockers as an example -- can set up business that reward pirates to post infringing works. Since it's "user contributed" the file lockers are themselves immune from prosecution. They make money with ads, or more commonly by charging a fee for faster access to the material. From this revenue they pay their uploaders. Megaupload was a notorious example of this, making about a half a million dollars a day.
There are so many file lockers, ebook harvest sites, tubes, and others that pirate digital content, it is impossible to police them all. Only the biggest rights holders can effectively fight them, with full time staff and lawyers. So you read about how the MPAA has taken this or that action, but in fact the bulk of the content on these sites are from much smaller publishers and even individual authors, who lack the means to stem the tide.
A blowbacks of open source of digital content is very similar to what Chip encountered. If you try to feed your family by coming up with ideas and writing about them, *how* that living is made has now been stripped from you. You are not allowed to make this very basic of human choices -- your work will be copied anyway. You must settle for tangential income, where you have to pretend you're not trying to make a living. Or worse, apologize for trying. With many of the most well-known open source hardware projects, the income derived from it is quite often shrouded in secrecy. There's something wrong with that.
I do sympathize with hard working authors. However it's not clear to me if regulations like the DMCA help or hinder their plight. Historically 99% of all authors, musicians and such have made a meager living. Meanwhile, in the same time frame as the DMCA, the author of the "Harry Potter" books has done very well.
This is a problem that capitalism cannot fix. We may want to close down the internet and keep everyone in a straight jacket so they cannot copy anything unless they pay. Which is of course totally against the "freedom" that capitalism advertises for all of us. Alternatively we might think of a communal effort to reward the creative. But hey, that's a pinko subversive idea.
What to do?
I have no idea what you are talking about. Do you have an example in mind?
Parallax for example has recently embraced "open source". That is very cool. But for sure it only goes as far as tools and compilers etc. The Propeller chip design itself is not on the table.
Which sounds sensible to me.
— David Carrier
Parallax Inc.
Gordon,
I would like to hear what you have to say about the ebooks and pirating issue, etc., and I'm sure there are many people on this forum that would love to learn from your experiences. Has someone started a new thread for this? have I missed it?
If a new thread was not started, would you please start one?
We had a 3rd panel that showed a dog on a flying bike with propellers whirring underneath. I can't find that one.
I suspect they had some technical problems and maybe they only have recordings of part of the conference.
Videos: I've been checking the Open Hardware Summit 2013 page - they say they are going to put stuff in the archives but I haven't seen anything show up yet.
;-)
It's a real race sometimes. If it exists, it eventually shows up on these forums...
Also, I would make those propellers a little darker in the body but keep them blurry-feathery near the edges to produce the illusion of their motion. As they are now, they appear like mere shadows, at least on my browser.
Ken, you should put that pic on your home page - perhaps cut/paste with a smaller made in the USA.