rwmtest

I was pointed to a Linux-centric article that included the following section which surprised the person who pointed it out: Windows 10 will be the last desktop version of the operating system that once gave Microsoft dominance in the PC software market. After that, Windows will be offered on a subscription basis and run from the cloud, but this will not be a Microsoft-exclusive cloud. Internally, Windows will be virtualized within software containers running on Ubuntu. I'd like to parse this quote a bit, and offer some of my own interpretation. Last Desktop version The inevitable disappearance of the desktop operating system has been discussed for decades.  It is really a poor fit for the modern era.  Unlike their more thin mobile counterparts, desktop operating systems really only work well if you have a systems administrator on-hand to handle issues ranging from malware to multi-application compatibility.  System administrators, on the other hand, really want to centra...

I discussed Collective Societies in the context of this issue in a previous article .  While I started with them, I don't fault them for the battles we keep seeing.  Those representing collectives are just trying to keep these entities alive in a changing marketplace where their value is diminishing.   While this transition is good for authors and users alike, and is one that we should be encouraging, it will eventually lead to some redundant collective societies closing. The problem is that educational institutions have been propping up the legacy publishing methods that these collective societies are dependant on.  These publicly funded institutions have been throwing away taxpayer money at lawsuits and royalty fees which leave the sector (and often the country) rather than modernizing. Educational Institutions When you get past the superficial "authors vs teachers" rhetoric, you find a very different scenario. The most expensive collections of works fall into the ...

Anyone who follows copyright in the news will have heard the epic battles around educational fair use. To hear it from the perspective of those who represent collective societies  it is a battle between starving artists on one hand and thieving big business educational institutions on the other. To hear it from the perspective of educational institutions it is charities providing a public service trying to reduce costs to students and taxpayers any legitimate way they can. The problem is that both of these perspectives are wrong. This article is in two parts, with the second part addressing educational institutions . Collective Societies Collective societies don't "represent" creators, starving or otherwise.  They provide a specific business model service available to copyright holders, and compete in a marketplace that includes a wide variety of other business models available to copyright holders. Collectives don't "represent" creators in the sense that an...