http://www.techdirt.com/ Easily digestible tech news.... http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120730/07013919879/google-doodles-obvious-nod-tosome-gamesor-something.shtml#c328 Thu, 2 Aug 2012 12:51:54 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120730/07013919879/google-doodles-obvious-nod-tosome-gamesor-something.shtml#c328 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120305/02351917976/louis-vuittons-international-tour-trademark-bullying-runs-smack-dab-into-upenn-law-school-who-explains-trademark-law-return.shtml#c27 Tue, 6 Mar 2012 06:36:08 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120305/02351917976/louis-vuittons-international-tour-trademark-bullying-runs-smack-dab-into-upenn-law-school-who-explains-trademark-law-return.shtml#c27
"Lastly, the artwork clearly is a fair use under 15 U.S.C 1125(c)(3)(A), and a parody protected under 15 U.S.C. 1125(c)(3)(A)(ii). See also Loius Vuitton Malletier vs. Haute Diggity Dog, LLC. 507 F.3d 252 (4th Cir. 2007)."]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120130/21512217594/author-jonathan-franzen-thinks-that-ebooks-mean-world-will-no-longer-work.shtml#c26 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:57:33 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120130/21512217594/author-jonathan-franzen-thinks-that-ebooks-mean-world-will-no-longer-work.shtml#c26 Jump forward 50 years when e-books are the norm and some newer technology (whatever that may be)is looking to replace them

Maybe nobody will care about e-books 50 years from now, but I do ... Someone worked really hard to make the language just right, just the way they wanted it. They were so sure of it that they spent countless hours typing it out, editing it, moving paragraphs from here to there before they finally hit the save button and made the read-only copy available to the masses. So for a literature-crazed person like me, it's just not permanent enough.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120120/16562717497/hollywood-unions-now-that-you-lying-hacking-thieves-have-won-can-we-set-new-conciliatory-tone.shtml#c26 Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:59:59 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120120/16562717497/hollywood-unions-now-that-you-lying-hacking-thieves-have-won-can-we-set-new-conciliatory-tone.shtml#c26 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120118/22275617465/mocking-blackout-reactions-is-too-easy-lets-learn-them-instead.shtml#c325 Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:36:37 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120118/22275617465/mocking-blackout-reactions-is-too-easy-lets-learn-them-instead.shtml#c325
I don't think I've ever laughed this hard while reading Techdirt. Nice job Mr. Carab.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120118/12072517457/gallery-sopa-blackout-protest-screens.shtml#c563 Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:12:21 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120118/12072517457/gallery-sopa-blackout-protest-screens.shtml#c563
http://hackaday.com/2012/01/18/stop-the-internet-blacklist-legislation/]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120104/04065517272/class-action-lawsuit-filed-against-ebay-because-way-its-auctions-work.shtml#c23 Fri, 6 Jan 2012 05:53:11 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120104/04065517272/class-action-lawsuit-filed-against-ebay-because-way-its-auctions-work.shtml#c23
You go to a traditional auction house because you've seen an item you're interested in. You go to the auction with a predetermined maximum anount of money you're willing to spend on that item. As the bidding starts, you don't bid that maximum amount right away, you bid the minimum possible and only increase it when someone else has out bid you. If things work out in your favor, you've purchased the item for much less than what you have set as your maximum bid for that item.

Here's another example, you participate in an auction over the phone, speaking on the phone with a representative from the auction house. You start bidding on an item and tell the person on the other end of the phone, who is submitting your bids for you, that you don't want to bid more than a certain amount for this item, but you tell the person to keep bidding for you as long as the current bid is below that maximum amount. Again, if things work out in your favor, you've purchased the item for much less than what you had set your maximum bid to.

It seems to me that this is exactly what ebay is doing. When in an auction house, the seller has no idea what I have set my maximum bid to, so when I purchase the item for less than my maximum the seller is none the wiser that I was willing to spend more than I actually did. Just because ebay provides a means to set your maximum, it in no way suggests that this amount is the actual bid. The actual bid is the increment set for the auction above the previous bid.

Hopefully the judge will have the common sense to see right through this and dismiss the case right away.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111223/17271217185/vw-will-block-blackberry-email-when-people-are-off-work-isnt-that-when-its-most-useful.shtml#c670 Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:50:32 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111223/17271217185/vw-will-block-blackberry-email-when-people-are-off-work-isnt-that-when-its-most-useful.shtml#c670 "The idea is to keep employees from feeling chained to their smartphones, and to send a message to bosses that it]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111224/01241417189/godaddy-desperately-reaching-out-to-try-to-win-people-back.shtml#c12 Tue, 27 Dec 2011 07:40:41 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111224/01241417189/godaddy-desperately-reaching-out-to-try-to-win-people-back.shtml#c12 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111223/17271217185/vw-will-block-blackberry-email-when-people-are-off-work-isnt-that-when-its-most-useful.shtml#c44 Tue, 27 Dec 2011 07:34:58 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111223/17271217185/vw-will-block-blackberry-email-when-people-are-off-work-isnt-that-when-its-most-useful.shtml#c44 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111221/17561617164/mapping-out-revolving-door-between-govt-big-business-venn-diagrams.shtml#c829 Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:52:24 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111221/17561617164/mapping-out-revolving-door-between-govt-big-business-venn-diagrams.shtml#c829
Someone who goes looking for work in Congress will most likely have gotten educated in political science (why the hell its called a science is beyond me).

The problem is that once those in Congress who have been educated in poly-sci have shown that they're willing to make backroom deals for certain industries (they have no background in that industry other than greasing palms with it) when their tenure in Congress is up they tend to move into that industry, in an upper management decision-making role.

On the other side of the coin, most people who end up in upper management roles in big industry have not been educated in the specifics of that industry, they have been educated in "business" in general, and for the most part, if they had to make decisions that would affect their product directly, their product would fail (they leave those decisions to the people educated in the specific field). When they see a need to sway legislation in their favor to stifle competition, and lobbying alone isn't netting the results they desire, they themselves run for office, in order to help the industry (or specific company) that they left, many times remaining on the board of said company.

That is how the revolving door begins, once their tenure is up in one, they move to the other, then back, lather, rinse, repeat. These people are not educated in the nitty gritty details that make their particular industry function, they are upper management whose job function is generic and can be moved from one industry to another with no noticable difference, from the recording indusrty, to the movie industry, to big pharma, to big oil, so on and so on. And that is why your analogy, and your argument in general is an epic FAIL!]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111027/13280716540/what-exactly-makes-pop-up-mall-pop-up-mall-second-though-who-cares.shtml#c80 Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:54:23 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111027/13280716540/what-exactly-makes-pop-up-mall-pop-up-mall-second-though-who-cares.shtml#c80
*sits back watching the coin just roll in*]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111026/03100716519/justice-department-wants-to-be-able-to-lie-response-to-freedom-information-requests.shtml#c465 Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:11:46 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111026/03100716519/justice-department-wants-to-be-able-to-lie-response-to-freedom-information-requests.shtml#c465 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111021/17042416460/amtrak-lets-you-surf-web-while-traveling-dont-try-to-read-anything-about-gay-people.shtml#c748 Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:40:10 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111021/17042416460/amtrak-lets-you-surf-web-while-traveling-dont-try-to-read-anything-about-gay-people.shtml#c748
Because where I work they are so overly opposed to social networking sites twitter is blocked, as well as facebook. But because the people in charge of setting up the filters have no idea what their doing Mike's article about Nintendo was blocked because the word Twitter was in the title.

I did a simple test and it turns out that here at my work if you type the word twitter into google and hit the search button, all the results are filtered as well.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111012/01492316316/verisign-seeks-greater-power-to-help-law-enforcement-around-globe-censor-websites-they-dont-like.shtml#c71 Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:20:54 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111012/01492316316/verisign-seeks-greater-power-to-help-law-enforcement-around-globe-censor-websites-they-dont-like.shtml#c71 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111008/01551016266/student-journalists-sue-community-college-ridiculously-high-fees-open-records-request.shtml#c166 Wed, 12 Oct 2011 06:18:03 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111008/01551016266/student-journalists-sue-community-college-ridiculously-high-fees-open-records-request.shtml#c166
Oh, and it didn't cost us a penny for paper or printer consumables, we delivered the emails on a DVD. Thousand's of dollars to perform this request? Yeah right, I WISH I made that much money. I wouldn't have to work any more.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111007/02570316246/no-one-wanted-to-pay-30-in-home-movie-rentals-so-now-universal-will-try-60.shtml#c778 Fri, 7 Oct 2011 14:29:41 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111007/02570316246/no-one-wanted-to-pay-30-in-home-movie-rentals-so-now-universal-will-try-60.shtml#c778 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111007/02570316246/no-one-wanted-to-pay-30-in-home-movie-rentals-so-now-universal-will-try-60.shtml#c702 Fri, 7 Oct 2011 14:00:02 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111007/02570316246/no-one-wanted-to-pay-30-in-home-movie-rentals-so-now-universal-will-try-60.shtml#c702
Oh really?!

Well here is an example of theaters doing something Mike has been saying they need to do for a while now, offer a better experience, part of the CwF+RtB concept.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/08/nj_theaters_to_be_redesigned_t.html

How about theaters offering "dinner and a movie" all under one roof without having to leave your seat.

Kinda dispels YOUR AC point!]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111007/02570316246/no-one-wanted-to-pay-30-in-home-movie-rentals-so-now-universal-will-try-60.shtml#c661 Fri, 7 Oct 2011 13:53:23 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111007/02570316246/no-one-wanted-to-pay-30-in-home-movie-rentals-so-now-universal-will-try-60.shtml#c661 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111007/02570316246/no-one-wanted-to-pay-30-in-home-movie-rentals-so-now-universal-will-try-60.shtml#c20 Fri, 7 Oct 2011 10:42:29 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111007/02570316246/no-one-wanted-to-pay-30-in-home-movie-rentals-so-now-universal-will-try-60.shtml#c20