No, it’s a water game.
How do I download the encrypted files so I don’t have to download them the day of kickoff?
Right-click and hit “Save link as” (Firefox) or “Save target as” (IE), then put the file where you’ll find it easily.
While I’m inclined to agree, the GDC has known to make people eat their words. So keep dreaming, but be sure to keep some ketchup around.
- Sunny G.
It could be carpeted but there is no guarantee. I hope you are right though or my teams prototyping goes to waste.
We (the Technokats) do not want to cause trouble with FIRST. We post past year’s information to inform people of the past. Hence the history project. The current manual contains secret (until kickoff) information. Our past manuals don’t contain any secrets (to my knowledge). So i believe it is fine that said material from our history is posted. If FIRST would like us to remove our information than we will happily comply.
That’s a good attitude to have in general. A couple comments:
Firstly, if you ever do get asked, the decision to comply or not is of course yours to make. But irrespective of that choice, make FIRST (or any organization for that matter) go on record with their rationale: ask them specifically what they don’t like, and what laws and moral principles they believe you’re violating. Although it may cause them some minor annoyance, it will have at least two much more valuable effects. It will make sure they understand what they’re asking (people are often utterly and fundamentally mistaken about copyright—this will make them do their homework and thus improve their internal practices). It will also allow others in the community to judge the validity of their argument (if they make bad arguments, they deserve constructive criticism—again, it puts them on the path to doing things right).
And if you feel even slightly adventurous, present them with a claim of fair use, and see what they say. While we all like FIRST, and doubt they’d ever use copyright as a bludgeon for silencing dissent, criticism or anything else they find objectionable, there exist organizations that make weak copyright arguments in an effort to stifle discussion or strengthen their business positions. By being reasonably firm with FIRST, you’d help set an example (change the culture, if you will) indicating that dubious legal threats are ineffective against an informed populace.1
Secondly, it’s important not to confuse secrets with copyright (and I don’t think you necessarily made that mistake). Although trade secret law exists, it’s not really applicable to a situation where FIRST posts something and says ‘don’t open this yet’. Government secrets are something else, but they’re not relevant here either. Secrets in general have no protection at all. And something is only a secret until it’s revealed—so don’t worry at all about whether secrets might exist in the old manuals. Information kind of wants to be free…
1 The morality of that plan is subject to other factors—there’s absolutely a limit to making an example out of them, even with softball questions like “why isn’t this a fair use for purposes of scholarship, research or teaching?”
ok i’m not the brightest one when it comes to computer stuff so ,how do you down load the encrypted version of the rules?
'Nuff said.