__/ [ [H]omer ] on Tuesday 24 April 2007 20:08 \__
> Verily I say unto thee, that Doug Mentohl spake thusly:
>
>> 'Let sleeping Oggs lie - it's a music file format without support or
>> hope'
>
> "Hope" for what ... conquering planet earth?
>
> The mindset of some people really amazes me. They simply cannot grasp
> the concept of there being projects out there that exist for their
> own sake, as a means of facilitating choice, for those who want a
> greater degree of Freedom.
>
> It seems that Schofield thinks that everything is just a commodity, to
> be bought and sold, and that "success" is purely a financial
> consideration, measured by how much damage it does to others.
>
> I'm sure Schofield would gleefully welcome the prospect of Microsoft
> adopting the Ogg format; bastardising it with closed, non-interoperable,
> non-standard extensions; patenting the technology, re-licensing it under
> a proprietary licence, charging extortionate licence fees, and then
> using that technology to completely annihilate every company and
> organisation that dared to offer an alternative, by abusing their power
> to make clandestine deals with it's "Mafia" associates.
>
> Would that then qualify it as a "success" in Schofield's opinion?
>
> Is that what it takes?
>
> If so, then count me out. I'd rather starve in the gutter than sell my
> soul to the Devil.
>
>> 'Ogg still carries potential risks, because there is no guarantee
>> that it doesn't infringe someone's patents'
>
> Oh here we go. The classic "FUD" angle.
>
> Watch out people, you *might* be criminals. LOL!
>
>> 'And if a correctly licensed MP3 isn't safe, how safe is Ogg? It has
>> never been tested in court.
>
> Hey, the legality of potatoes has never been tested in court either,
> better not buy a bag of chips, you might be put against a wall and shot.
>
> "Tested in court" my arse.
>
> The world is full of malicious opportunists who will take any opening to
> extort money to feed their greedy habit. What are we to do ... sit
> around and do nothing, never again create anything for fear of litigation.
>
> Or perhaps our learned friend believes that the future of mankind is a
> world in which we are all full-time, professional litigants; arduously
> defending patent rights from one opportunist, whilst feverishly
> prosecuting another for violating our own. Forget manufacturing,
> engineering, or any of that old fashioned "creative" nonsense. Why
> bother wasting time trying to earn a living through productivity, when
> one can merely live in a courtroom pointing an accusatory finger at all
> and sundry.
>
>> I am and always have been strongly in favour of open file formats, so
>> I wish Ogg well'
>
> Attack vector #1 of the Trolls' handbook: "I like, honest, it but it
> really sucks".
>
> Not that Schofield is really a Troll, but he does seem to be easily
> influenced by them, and Lord knows there's plenty of "influencing" going
> on at the moment. The FUD machine is burning at full throttle.
>
>> http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/insideit/story/0,,2060078,00.html
>
> They do some reasonably good articles, but on some topics it's obvious
> that they just don't have a clue.
You'll make Schofield hate Doug even more. But I agree with every word you
say. Similar examples:
"Well, everybody can download Flash, so it's okay for us to build a
Flash-only Web site"
"S/he probably has Microsoft Office, so I'll send over an Excel file"
"We think we can trust IE and 90% of the bank's customer will have IE tied
[illegally] to their O/S, so we can parse HTTP headers and just reject all
browsers that are not IE"
"Everyone pirates Windows here, so it's okay for me to do it as well"
"Installing more software in Windows slows it down, so I'll just stick with
the semi-baked application Microsoft has prebundled"
"Many employees use Microsoft Outlook, so we need Exchange as our mail
server"
[...]
--
~~ With kind regards
Roy S. Schestowitz | "No, I didn't buy that from eBay"
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
3:05am up 10 days 2:33, 5 users, load average: 0.03, 0.23, 0.27
http://iuron.com - Open Source knowledge engine project
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