Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 13th Apr 2009 21:41 UTC
Microsoft will soon start encouraging users running old versions of Internet Explorer to upgrade to the latest edition of its browser. People running IE 6 and 7 on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 will in the third week of April receive a notification through the Automate Update service that encourages them to upgrade their system to IE 8, Microsoft has said. This is not a hard sell, though. IE 8, released last month, won't start automatically installing itself on your machine - you'll have to opt in, by clicking the install button itself on the update message's accompanying screen.
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Member since:2007-02-17
Whose machine is it, anyway?
In the case of proprietary software, it is almost analogous to audio on a CD. You own the CD, but the content is, apart from a limited right to listen, not yours.
(Of course, the same can be said for FOSS. The authors own it, but since they only put limits on distribution, the use of it is practically unfettered.)
In the case of proprietary software, it is almost analogous to audio on a CD. You own the CD, but the content is, apart from a limited right to listen, not yours.
(Of course, the same can be said for FOSS. The authors own it, but since they only put limits on distribution, the use of it is practically unfettered.)
Given that the machine is my property, I would expect the right to determine what content I want to go on it. This seems to me to be a natural consequence of my property rights regarding the machine itself.
I don't expect to own rights to that content, since I didn't make the content, but I do however fully and rightfully expect to hold full authority over exactly what content I deem to have on the machine.
The appropriate analogy would be: I own the plastic of the CDs I purchase, I have purchased a right to listen to the content on those CDs, and I have an absolute right as a consumer and property owner myself (my equipment, remember) to decide exactly which CDs I do and do not purchase for my use with my equipment.
By the way ... I also expect an absolute right of ownership over any of my own original content that I may create using my machine. I do not waive any part of that right in the sense that it is unacceptable to me that the machine should keep my content locked up in obscured proprietary formats, thereby constraining my ongoing purchase decisions with respect to my own property.
Edited 2009-04-14 12:09 UTC
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Member since:
2005-07-06
Whose machine is it, anyway?
In the case of proprietary software, it is almost analogous to audio on a CD. You own the CD, but the content is, apart from a limited right to listen, not yours.
(Of course, the same can be said for FOSS. The authors own it, but since they only put limits on distribution, the use of it is practically unfettered.)