http://www.techdirt.com/ Easily digestible tech news.... http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130416/11521022726/rep-steve-king-because-boston-bombing-may-have-been-done-immigrant-we-should-block-immigration-reform.shtml#c51 Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:24:21 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130416/11521022726/rep-steve-king-because-boston-bombing-may-have-been-done-immigrant-we-should-block-immigration-reform.shtml#c51 How is it that we elect people like this to represent us?Because our elections choose the people who are good at getting elected, not the people who are good at governing.
Enact severe term limits; evict the career politician!]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130415/20282222716/new-jersey-lawmaker-proposes-legislation-to-ban-games-with-mature-content-public-places.shtml#c119 Tue, 16 Apr 2013 06:50:27 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130415/20282222716/new-jersey-lawmaker-proposes-legislation-to-ban-games-with-mature-content-public-places.shtml#c119 confounding 'cyber' babble.

Instructor: "See, right there in that line you assigned this value to all the variables. Is that what you meant to do? Maybe you should think about how to complete this function without breaking 3 other ones."

I'd be really interested to see some runtime debugging on proposed legislation, maybe understand the ramifications before rolling it into production. Something tells me that most bills wouldn't pass a preliminary syntax and type-check.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130407/21003122619/eric-holder-american-library-association-wikipedia-are-americas-worst-porn-enablers.shtml#c260 Tue, 9 Apr 2013 08:15:33 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130407/21003122619/eric-holder-american-library-association-wikipedia-are-americas-worst-porn-enablers.shtml#c260 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130406/18105622612/sen-feinstein-says-congress-ready-to-take-action-to-rein-violent-video-games.shtml#c103 Tue, 9 Apr 2013 05:49:48 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130406/18105622612/sen-feinstein-says-congress-ready-to-take-action-to-rein-violent-video-games.shtml#c103 http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20130328/16172422503/wal-mart-wants-store-customers-to-deliver-packages-to-online-shoppers.shtml#c341 Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:19:55 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20130328/16172422503/wal-mart-wants-store-customers-to-deliver-packages-to-online-shoppers.shtml#c341 more consumer options in those Industries, bypassing the stranglehold of a single gatekeeper entity that sought to control all aspects of distribution. I'm against monolithic entities forcing consumers into a corner by eliminating choice, not against efficiency and innovation.

And yes, there's a fine line between efficiency and exploitation; but generally if you're screwing someone who depends on you, you've crossed over to the exploitation side.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20130328/16172422503/wal-mart-wants-store-customers-to-deliver-packages-to-online-shoppers.shtml#c196 Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:57:32 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20130328/16172422503/wal-mart-wants-store-customers-to-deliver-packages-to-online-shoppers.shtml#c196
I'll keep paying a premium to have my valuables brought by professional delivery-persons instead of the skeezy minivan that flings those pennysaver newspapers on everyone's front lawn.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130326/20073922475/internet-lawyer-charles-carreon-has-new-best-friend-hes-seo-expert-who-hates-anonymous-critics.shtml#c447 Fri, 29 Mar 2013 06:14:49 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130326/20073922475/internet-lawyer-charles-carreon-has-new-best-friend-hes-seo-expert-who-hates-anonymous-critics.shtml#c447
Seems like if you tried this stuff in a casino, you'd get your legs broke.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130328/05304422492/ea-labels-president-drm-is-failed-strategy-simcity-didnt-have-any-drm.shtml#c104 Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:23:59 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130328/05304422492/ea-labels-president-drm-is-failed-strategy-simcity-didnt-have-any-drm.shtml#c104 I am sure we shall never see any form of DRM in your games moving forward. Who wants to take bets on that one?
Too bad I won't find out if they do or not, since I'm done giving EA money.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130320/16033322402/motion-picture-association-cloud-is-threat-to-us-best-response-is-censorship.shtml#c415 Thu, 21 Mar 2013 08:33:17 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130320/16033322402/motion-picture-association-cloud-is-threat-to-us-best-response-is-censorship.shtml#c415 looking facilitates piracy. Shield your eyes people, here comes the MPAA with a rusty spoon trying to reduce infringement.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130319/18061522383/charles-carreon-claims-first-amendment-right-to-make-vexatious-legal-threats-without-consequence.shtml#c321 Thu, 21 Mar 2013 04:47:31 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130319/18061522383/charles-carreon-claims-first-amendment-right-to-make-vexatious-legal-threats-without-consequence.shtml#c321 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130320/03244622387/rep-gohmerts-record-stunning-technological-ignorance-is-broken-rep-gohmert.shtml#c418 Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:01:10 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130320/03244622387/rep-gohmerts-record-stunning-technological-ignorance-is-broken-rep-gohmert.shtml#c418
They'd be more likely to build a gigantic multimillion dollar facility in the Utah desert to surreptitiously collect and store the information themselves. Pay Google; HA!]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130312/09325722298/nielsen-finally-realizes-that-tv-viewers-are-cord-cutting-calls-it-interesting-consumer-behavior.shtml#c277 Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:39:29 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130312/09325722298/nielsen-finally-realizes-that-tv-viewers-are-cord-cutting-calls-it-interesting-consumer-behavior.shtml#c277
And the only reason I'm not in the "cord cutter" group is that Comcast charges more for Internet alone than it does to bundle it with "Limited Basic" cable in my area. Do they have a metric for that?]]> http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20130311/01344922277/government-might-want-to-legalize-phone-unlocking-unfortunately-it-signed-away-that-right.shtml#c373 Wed, 13 Mar 2013 04:37:45 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20130311/01344922277/government-might-want-to-legalize-phone-unlocking-unfortunately-it-signed-away-that-right.shtml#c373 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130307/14574822243/simcity-backlash.shtml#c305 Fri, 8 Mar 2013 06:09:36 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130307/14574822243/simcity-backlash.shtml#c305 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130307/14574822243/simcity-backlash.shtml#c217 Fri, 8 Mar 2013 05:59:55 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130307/14574822243/simcity-backlash.shtml#c217 http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20130304/16271422195/librarian-congress-shoots-back-white-house-over-phone-unlocking-were-just-doing-our-job.shtml#c985 Wed, 6 Mar 2013 05:48:51 PST http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20130304/16271422195/librarian-congress-shoots-back-white-house-over-phone-unlocking-were-just-doing-our-job.shtml#c985 http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20130304/16271422195/librarian-congress-shoots-back-white-house-over-phone-unlocking-were-just-doing-our-job.shtml#c163 Tue, 5 Mar 2013 06:45:47 PST http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20130304/16271422195/librarian-congress-shoots-back-white-house-over-phone-unlocking-were-just-doing-our-job.shtml#c163
That's like saying you can't re-use a canvas and frame that contains a copyrighted painting, even if you own this copy completely. Illegal to get rid of the copyrighted part of your property? That's insane.

Once you've sold a copy of something you don't own it any more. You own the right to copy it, but not that particular copy, and you have no say in what happens to it.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130214/10011321971/chubby-checker-sues-two-companies-500-million-over-wang-measuring-app-downloaded-84-times.shtml#c166 Thu, 14 Feb 2013 12:25:00 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130214/10011321971/chubby-checker-sues-two-companies-500-million-over-wang-measuring-app-downloaded-84-times.shtml#c166 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130214/10011321971/chubby-checker-sues-two-companies-500-million-over-wang-measuring-app-downloaded-84-times.shtml#c161 Thu, 14 Feb 2013 12:23:24 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130214/10011321971/chubby-checker-sues-two-companies-500-million-over-wang-measuring-app-downloaded-84-times.shtml#c161 started selling them on Amazon.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130212/18515621957/florida-lawmakers-try-to-stop-subsidizing-videogames-send-that-money-to-hollywood-instead.shtml#c60 Wed, 13 Feb 2013 07:59:21 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130212/18515621957/florida-lawmakers-try-to-stop-subsidizing-videogames-send-that-money-to-hollywood-instead.shtml#c60