ShowEQ Box for Sale?

[sniper]

Hey did you see someone is trying to make money by selling a showEQ PC!!

http://www.playerauctions.com/listings/details/index.cfm?itemnum=1018050814


Whats up with that!

[Cryonic]

Another day, another scammer trying to profit from a gpl'd program. I like the part where he doesn't guarantee that the developers of SEQ will continue to support it.

[BlueAdept]

That just plain sucks...

[fryfrog]

not really against the GPL to sell a computer with GPL software on it. i believe he is required to provide the source code (or a link to where it can be obtained for free) but other than that, there is nothing technically wrong with this.

i think i clicked on the link a while ago, but can't remember anything about it... sure, its morally ... ummm, can't think of a good word so just "morally wrong". bastards :)

[RSB]

He/she is providing a service to those to lazy to do it for them selves. The GPL clearly states that someone can charge a resonable amount of money for the cost of packaging GPL software. Here instead of a CD they provide a whole computer.

RSB

[fryfrog]

maybe if this guy sells his shit, its time for me to augment my income! i could certainly use a few extra bucks a month, and there is NOTHING i like more than building up a computer, installing an os and getting it running...

either that or get a job as a systems builder or something :)

[sniper]

Hey Fry,

Looks like you might be in business, someone bought it buy it now..

haha

[Dedpoet]

I see this getting really ugly the first time SEQ has a new cvs commit and a_linux_newbie_01 can't do his cvs update. How much is his shiny new EBay box worth then? Will the guy who sold the box support updates? My guess is a big NO.

-Dedpoet

[high_jeeves]

Ofcourse, by selling it, he is really opening himself up to a Verant ass-whuppin...

--Jeeves

[Dedpoet]

"Oh yeah, and when you show up for your court date, please remember to bring the list of all the people you sold that EULA violating software to. Thanks a bunch." --Verant

[RavenCT]

Bah! HA! HA! HA!

Take a look at this!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2015764720

He he he, so much for his selling the box already setup and configured to go! :)

[fyodorst]

ok thats really funny LMAO

[sniper]

Well, I especially like the part where he says anyone in the world could email him and request the script for setting up ShowEQ. So I email'd him...


Wonder if I'll recieve a Script free of charge or if I'll be ignored...


we'll soon find out..

[casey]

not like its that big a deal

popping this out of the top of my head,

get


#!/bin/bash
cd
cvs -d:pserver:[email protected]:/cvsroot/seq -z3 co showeq
cd showeq
make -f Makefile.dist
CC=gcc-3.0 CXX=g++-3.0 QTDIR=/usr/lib/qt-gcc3 ./configure
make
make install


update


#!/bin/bash
cd ~/showeq
cvs -z3 update
make -f Makefile.dist
CC=gcc-3.0 CXX=g++-3.0 QTDIR=/usr/lib/qt-gcc3 ./configure
make
make install

[sniper]

I just wondered if he would really send it, and he did.

[Mr Guy]

Bah legal trouble my butt. HE never agreed to the EULA. He's not an end-user.

[fryfrog]

yeah, i don't think there really IS anything illegal about selling a linux computer with some applications installed on it. especially if you are smart (or you don't actually play eq). say, maybe you use your parents or a friends house as the mailing address and stuff. showeq is NOT illegal, end of story. if it was, varent WOULD have shut it down. you have the right to sniff your own packets on your own network, afaik.

and to make it even more fun (and easy to sell) you could include excalibur as well! then you can sell to the eq + daoc, daoc or eq people equally :)

personally i think i'm probably to lazy and poor to do this sort of thing. i can't even figure out a secure way to ship it and make sure you get money. if they pay with a cc, they could just cancel it (same w/ paypal, etc...) and i doubt they would want to send a money order or what not... i wonder how COD works?

[Cryonic]

Actually they could pull the DMCA trick out of their legal hat if they wanted to. Since they encrypt the packet stream, it is technically illegal to reverse engineer the algorithm to break into the stream. I'm guessing they haven't done so yet due to the flack they would take.

[fryfrog]

as i was writing that, the dmca kind of poped into my head... but i think that you are allowed to sniff traffic on your own network. course, if anyone here is a lawyer who deals with this type of thing... their input would be welcome...

does that mean a virus writer could get a trademark or something, write a virus that encrypts its traffic then anyone who decrypted it to defeat it would be held accountable to the dmca?

i hate the dmca and that new one they are trying to pass.

[Mr Guy]

I'm not a DMCA expert by any means, I would think though it would be simple to get around that by providing a simple script on the system that automagically downloads the libeq.a

Then you wouldn't be providing anything that violates the DMCA, you would just advise them on where to get it.

[Mr Guy]

Also, my understanding is we DON'T reverse engineer the algorithm, we just exploit a weakness in it to decrypt it. Is that the same thing, DMCA-wise?

[cbreaker]

Be that the problem, simply not including libEQ.a would take care of that. Additionally, you could provide a link to it.

The problem I see with sniffing a network is the same as "stealing" cable television.

When does the signal become "yours" and when does it remain "theirs"?

When the cable company sends all their channels to my house, once the signal is IN my house, who can tell me what and what I can't do with it?

Unfortunately, you CAN get in trouble for using such signals that are not intended for your use, whether they are in your home or not. I believe the same would be true for network traffic. Different medium, same idea.

Selling ShowEQ is an overall BAD idea. And I don't care if the boundaries of legality are pushed in stopping it; I just want to use SEQ and I don't want some ass trying to make a buck to fuck that up.

-cb

[high_jeeves]

There's also the big difference between doing something illegal, and being sued for doing something illegal.. Fortunately the sourceforge (VA Linux actually, if I remember correctly) guys stepped up when Sony came knocking on the ShowEQ door...

The Sony lawyers could make this guys life very difficult, without ever having to even begin to deal with the merits of a case...

--Jeeves

[cbreaker]

True. I'm willing to bet that nothing will be done against this dude though.

And I'm sure that the reason his past auction was banned was because the folks at eBay don't want to be sued for posting something controversial.

-cb