On Tuesday 15 November 2005 06:35, Dean Hamstead wrote: > here here > > is [mandatory full disclosure] likely to happen though? > > Dean
Just maybe, but we will have to fight for it. As I've already suggested, it's a common-law property right; but right now, too few people care about it for anybody to be able to enforce it {UK, Aussie and US legal systems all work on a 'might makes right' basis}. The typical response I've had when trying to explain how Open Source works is "Well, it's a fantastic idea, politically; but I'm not a programmer, so what good is the source code to *me*?" Or, worse, "But it's easy enough to get Windows and Office without paying for them, doesn't that mean Microsoft still lose out?" Something needs to happen to -make- people care about their rights. The Sony rootkit case, when it comes to court, will present a great opportunity to raise awareness of how consumers' rights are being cynically trampled upon by manufacturers who care only about making money and not about the people who helped them make it in the first place. The next release of Microsoft Office, with the usual proprietary file format lockdown shenanigans, will present another excel-lent opportunity {"Why can't I open this spreadsheet that my friend sent me?"}. It's my bold assertion that "cheap" graphics cards start out fundamentally identical to their high-end brethren, but selected features are disabled by modifying the firmware and driver software. {It's conceivable that even the amount of heat generated by the card would be controllable through software alone: CMOS logic gates only produce heat when they change state, and if fewer gates are changing state and/or they are doing so less often, then less heat will be generated; hence a simple lump of metal will do the job of cooling a cheap card, where an expensive one with the same processor might need a fan.} It would be evident from studying the "secrets" which an owner of such a card is rightfully "in" on, how this is being done; manufacturers are hiding behind the dubious legal fiction of "intellectual property" to conceal their duplicity. -- AJS delta echo bravo six four at earthshod dot co dot uk -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]