http://www.techdirt.com/ Easily digestible tech news.... http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/17321623162/released-video-silva-beating-shows-his-last-moments-video-actual-beating-still-missing.shtml#c794 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:54:20 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/17321623162/released-video-silva-beating-shows-his-last-moments-video-actual-beating-still-missing.shtml#c794 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/11301723178/amazon-wants-to-sell-fan-fiction-with-it-originator-fanfic-author-all-sharing-profits.shtml#c202 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:54:11 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/11301723178/amazon-wants-to-sell-fan-fiction-with-it-originator-fanfic-author-all-sharing-profits.shtml#c202 How is this different to traditional publishers?

It's not one bit different. But because it's a tech company Masnick thinks it's cool.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20130510/00083123031/cool-new-platform-supporting-artists-patreon-jack-conte.shtml#c159 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:53:42 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20130510/00083123031/cool-new-platform-supporting-artists-patreon-jack-conte.shtml#c159
Look guys, most music and movies are made with expectation of getting money, and copyright is simply common law recognition of who made it and attempt to see that those persons and no others get the rewards. Copyright IS crowfunding. You wouldn't need Kickstarter in the absence of commercialized piracy such as Megaupload! "File hosts" break the connection between fans and creators, besides break the law in getting money from works they didn't produce.

And now supposed "patronage", eh? This is even less likely to work because breaks the direct connection between product and paying: eventually patrons are going to wonder why they're paying. -- You can't compete with free when it's your own product! If you encourage free distribution without some moral hook then most people will take it for free. You might as well just stick to traditional copyright that's been proven for over a hundred years.


"a blog like ours that produces a bunch of content every day," -- HA! Talk about self-aggrandizing! You re-write from what others did last week! That's EASY. -- Just try offering some real world solutions rather than gushing over the latest scam or your endless complaints.



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01:51:30[b-602-3]]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130514/10391523084/vp-joe-biden-believes-theres-no-legal-reason-government-cant-slap-sin-tax-violent-media.shtml#c614 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:53:32 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130514/10391523084/vp-joe-biden-believes-theres-no-legal-reason-government-cant-slap-sin-tax-violent-media.shtml#c614
I am tired of playing games with constant violence and blood in them, yet I can't strip my characters down without someone crying tears about it. One thing about the sex though I don't like how this nation constantly puts the female up as this big-breasted creature and that's the ONLY way a female body is suppose to look like.

Lots of love for the D and F cups, lots of hate for the B and A cups.

This is why I love South Korea and Japanese games the most. They give me what is lacking severely in western titled games. Seriously though we need to get over sexuality being this very voodoo thing. Face it, teen pregnancies or whatever are happening. Without the video-games.

Video-games are NEVER the cause for any real-life trauma. So we need to stop blaming inanimated objects for the actions of whack-jobs in the real world, who's actions have existed before the creation of video-games by other kooky or evil people.

Murders have always happened. A video-game does not cause or is the blame for murder. Same with rape. Rape has happened video-games do not cause rapes.

If the game industry would stop being such whimps, we would see more meaningful plot-twists and truly adult-themed topics in games. But if the audience can't handle anything that isn't sanitized to the great beyond, then we'll continue to stay in the idiot bubble. And the 'games are only for kids' crowd that is plaguing the market.

We're STILL stuck in the big huge Nintendo era of censorship.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20130510/00083123031/cool-new-platform-supporting-artists-patreon-jack-conte.shtml#c155 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:53:26 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20130510/00083123031/cool-new-platform-supporting-artists-patreon-jack-conte.shtml#c155 crowdpatron system. In the very old days, under patronage, one rich dude would pay an artist to produce works for him. With the Internet, individuals can pay a small amount to support their favorite artist, but add many individuals together and you potentially have an artist making a decent living via ongoing payment for production.

This is better than the current regime in several ways. Most importantly it funds FUTURE work of an ARTIST's own creation, and does not extort money out of people for the PAST work of OTHERS.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/17321623162/released-video-silva-beating-shows-his-last-moments-video-actual-beating-still-missing.shtml#c786 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:52:13 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/17321623162/released-video-silva-beating-shows-his-last-moments-video-actual-beating-still-missing.shtml#c786 http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20130521/20101423164/att-says-you-can-use-any-video-streaming-app-you-want-just-as-soon-as-it-can-get-meter-running.shtml#c279 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:50:57 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20130521/20101423164/att-says-you-can-use-any-video-streaming-app-you-want-just-as-soon-as-it-can-get-meter-running.shtml#c279 http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20130510/00083123031/cool-new-platform-supporting-artists-patreon-jack-conte.shtml#c150 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:48:18 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20130510/00083123031/cool-new-platform-supporting-artists-patreon-jack-conte.shtml#c150 http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20130510/00083123031/cool-new-platform-supporting-artists-patreon-jack-conte.shtml#c138 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:47:04 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20130510/00083123031/cool-new-platform-supporting-artists-patreon-jack-conte.shtml#c138
That is a paywall.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/02350923170/new-bill-would-stop-patent-trolls-hiding-behind-shell-companies.shtml#c280 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:46:46 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/02350923170/new-bill-would-stop-patent-trolls-hiding-behind-shell-companies.shtml#c280
How can you possibly expect to sue someone for breaking a patent without actually a) declaring what the patent is (Microsoft pay heed!) and b) saying who has a financial interest (even if it is only to the court officials)?]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/02350923170/new-bill-would-stop-patent-trolls-hiding-behind-shell-companies.shtml#c271 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:44:11 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/02350923170/new-bill-would-stop-patent-trolls-hiding-behind-shell-companies.shtml#c271 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/11301723178/amazon-wants-to-sell-fan-fiction-with-it-originator-fanfic-author-all-sharing-profits.shtml#c199 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:44:06 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/11301723178/amazon-wants-to-sell-fan-fiction-with-it-originator-fanfic-author-all-sharing-profits.shtml#c199 The writers are writing the stories simnply for the love of the series/movie, without thought of profit

You don't think that profit motivation will change all that? All of a sudden you will have writers not really interested in the series will be cuing up to churn out material with the hope of a marginal profit.

Money changes everything.

The licensors (tv/movie studios) control the rights, so even if one of these fanfic stories prove good enough to adapt into an episode or film, the studio, not Amazon makes the money on it.

Incorrect. Amazon would hold the rights to the story, and they could then license it to the studio for development. There is nothing that says Amazon would be the ones making movies or whatnot. Why think so narrowly?]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/03160923172/chinese-hacks-google-database-surveillance-targets-highlight-how-dumb-technology-backdoors-are.shtml#c296 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:39:06 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/03160923172/chinese-hacks-google-database-surveillance-targets-highlight-how-dumb-technology-backdoors-are.shtml#c296 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/01382223168/new-york-times-tells-startup-it-cant-even-mention-ny-times.shtml#c920 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:35:15 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/01382223168/new-york-times-tells-startup-it-cant-even-mention-ny-times.shtml#c920 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/01382223168/new-york-times-tells-startup-it-cant-even-mention-ny-times.shtml#c917 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:35:08 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/01382223168/new-york-times-tells-startup-it-cant-even-mention-ny-times.shtml#c917 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/01382223168/new-york-times-tells-startup-it-cant-even-mention-ny-times.shtml#c909 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:33:03 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/01382223168/new-york-times-tells-startup-it-cant-even-mention-ny-times.shtml#c909
Fair use butthurts copyright maniacs. And no, this could be out of fair use - but you refuse to even countenance it unless it's you 'infringing'.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/22543223166/modest-proposal-going-piracy-neutral.shtml#c364 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:31:56 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/22543223166/modest-proposal-going-piracy-neutral.shtml#c364 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/01382223168/new-york-times-tells-startup-it-cant-even-mention-ny-times.shtml#c893 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:30:53 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/01382223168/new-york-times-tells-startup-it-cant-even-mention-ny-times.shtml#c893
Of course, some lorem ipsum might be safer, if less good as an illustration, especially if your point is precisely "we can generate this for 1% of the resources, why are you paying those cowboys?".

And I'll sympathise more with papers the day they pay people who feature in their stories for the stories they write. (Which of course would be wrong in many cases.)]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/11301723178/amazon-wants-to-sell-fan-fiction-with-it-originator-fanfic-author-all-sharing-profits.shtml#c191 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:25:43 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/11301723178/amazon-wants-to-sell-fan-fiction-with-it-originator-fanfic-author-all-sharing-profits.shtml#c191
Star Wars (unlike Star Trek) kept a tighter control on continuity and used already-published authors.
Trek (primarily Pocket Books) used fanfic writers and stated that, except for adaptations of movies & TV episodes, the stories weren't canonical.
Pity since some authors, like comics scribe Peter David, did first-rate material that deserves to be part of the overall Trek Universes (Yes, it's plural).]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/11301723178/amazon-wants-to-sell-fan-fiction-with-it-originator-fanfic-author-all-sharing-profits.shtml#c189 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:24:59 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/11301723178/amazon-wants-to-sell-fan-fiction-with-it-originator-fanfic-author-all-sharing-profits.shtml#c189
If it was instead a license or something similar, where Amazon was legally allowed to act as seller, but the author still retained all other rights over the story, I wouldn't consider that too bad of a deal, it's just as-is writers would basically be handing over the rights to their works for nothing more than the potential of profit in the future.]]>