http://www.techdirt.com/ Easily digestible tech news.... http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/10401723156/if-you-think-you-should-actually-own-products-you-bought-now-would-be-good-time-to-call-congress.shtml#c666 Tue, 21 May 2013 13:26:07 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/10401723156/if-you-think-you-should-actually-own-products-you-bought-now-would-be-good-time-to-call-congress.shtml#c666 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/10401723156/if-you-think-you-should-actually-own-products-you-bought-now-would-be-good-time-to-call-congress.shtml#c597 Tue, 21 May 2013 13:15:39 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/10401723156/if-you-think-you-should-actually-own-products-you-bought-now-would-be-good-time-to-call-congress.shtml#c597 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/10401723156/if-you-think-you-should-actually-own-products-you-bought-now-would-be-good-time-to-call-congress.shtml#c399 Tue, 21 May 2013 13:02:35 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/10401723156/if-you-think-you-should-actually-own-products-you-bought-now-would-be-good-time-to-call-congress.shtml#c399 make a point before anyone can refute it. You've been asked once by Chosen Reject, and now I ask you again. Support your claim. If you can't, your statements on this subject are meaningless.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20130508/06065623001/new-hope-how-going-free-to-play-brought-redemption-to-star-wars-mmo.shtml#c371 Mon, 20 May 2013 08:17:59 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20130508/06065623001/new-hope-how-going-free-to-play-brought-redemption-to-star-wars-mmo.shtml#c371 MULTIPLAYER online). If only a very few are playing, the game becomes almost impossible to play because you can't find anyone to play with (almost all the content worth playing needs multiple people to experience it--especially endgame content and PvP). With every MMO I've played, the main reason I quit was the lack of decent people playing at the time of day I was playing it. Those 'freeloaders' are providing a service in the game by creating a large player base which makes the game more valuable to the ones who are willing and able to pay. This is why their revenue doubled. At the rate things were going, if they didn't go f2p the game would have been dead in a year (and it's kinda hard to get any profit from a dead MMO).

The same is also true in any online game--the more players you have, the more value your game has for your players.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130516/15445423110/framework-copyright-reform.shtml#c668 Fri, 17 May 2013 13:53:55 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130516/15445423110/framework-copyright-reform.shtml#c668 right to compensation--this leads to attempts to legislate protection for failing business models and monopolies. Copyright should only provide a limited window of opportunity for compensation--in the form of exclusivity. This allows for the consumers to choose what business model they want to support, and stops the content providers from trying to dictate the market to the exclusion of anything else. In any healthy business model it is the consumer that dictates how it should function not the provider. Why should content distribution be any different?]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130515/14032223097/uk-recording-industry-looks-to-censor-more-sites-with-no-trial-conviction.shtml#c279 Thu, 16 May 2013 08:55:19 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130515/14032223097/uk-recording-industry-looks-to-censor-more-sites-with-no-trial-conviction.shtml#c279 goalposts!]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130515/14032223097/uk-recording-industry-looks-to-censor-more-sites-with-no-trial-conviction.shtml#c273 Thu, 16 May 2013 08:50:06 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130515/14032223097/uk-recording-industry-looks-to-censor-more-sites-with-no-trial-conviction.shtml#c273 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130515/14032223097/uk-recording-industry-looks-to-censor-more-sites-with-no-trial-conviction.shtml#c262 Thu, 16 May 2013 08:44:18 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130515/14032223097/uk-recording-industry-looks-to-censor-more-sites-with-no-trial-conviction.shtml#c262 First they came for the pirates,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a pirate.

Then they came for the hackers,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a hacker.

Then they came for those who disagreed with the governments abuses,
and I didn't speak out because I didn't disagree with the governments abuses.

Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.One of these days, you will come crying about due process for you--you better hope there's someone left that gives a crap about you.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130513/11270823061/once-again-top-downloaders-are-top-spenders-according-to-uk-govt-study.shtml#c879 Tue, 14 May 2013 10:32:17 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130513/11270823061/once-again-top-downloaders-are-top-spenders-according-to-uk-govt-study.shtml#c879 Yes, yes, Blue. Everyone who comes to Techdirt is here ONLY to see YOUR comments, of course.Well, they are good for a laugh...or at least a chuckle...at the sheer stupidity people are capable of.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130513/11270823061/once-again-top-downloaders-are-top-spenders-according-to-uk-govt-study.shtml#c859 Tue, 14 May 2013 10:28:36 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130513/11270823061/once-again-top-downloaders-are-top-spenders-according-to-uk-govt-study.shtml#c859 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130513/11270823061/once-again-top-downloaders-are-top-spenders-according-to-uk-govt-study.shtml#c815 Tue, 14 May 2013 10:25:17 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130513/11270823061/once-again-top-downloaders-are-top-spenders-according-to-uk-govt-study.shtml#c815 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130513/11270823061/once-again-top-downloaders-are-top-spenders-according-to-uk-govt-study.shtml#c760 Tue, 14 May 2013 10:08:07 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130513/11270823061/once-again-top-downloaders-are-top-spenders-according-to-uk-govt-study.shtml#c760 customers are screaming out for services they can pay for...fixed that.

Once the studios or any of their shills start using terms like 'pirate', 'piracy', 'theft', or 'stealing', it usually means they are not going to listen to what anyone says. It's the modern day version of someone yelling out 'heresy' during the conversation--a clear indication that any meaningful discussion of the issue can no longer take place.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130507/01074822975/gaijin-entertainment-demands-gaijincom-which-predates-them-doesnt-infringe-their-trademark.shtml#c459 Tue, 7 May 2013 13:43:07 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130507/01074822975/gaijin-entertainment-demands-gaijincom-which-predates-them-doesnt-infringe-their-trademark.shtml#c459 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130507/01074822975/gaijin-entertainment-demands-gaijincom-which-predates-them-doesnt-infringe-their-trademark.shtml#c457 Tue, 7 May 2013 13:32:38 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130507/01074822975/gaijin-entertainment-demands-gaijincom-which-predates-them-doesnt-infringe-their-trademark.shtml#c457 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130426/14134922855/jaron-lanier-gobbledygook-economics.shtml#c116 Mon, 29 Apr 2013 06:07:23 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130426/14134922855/jaron-lanier-gobbledygook-economics.shtml#c116 It is one thing to sing for your supper occasionally, but to have to do so for every meal forces you into a peasant's dilemma: The peasant's dilemma is that there's no buffer. A musician who is sick or old, or who has a sick kid, cannot perform and cannot earn.Why should being an 'artist' be different from any other line of work? I've yet to see any job that doesn't have this 'peasants dilemma'. If you take more than an extremely limited amount of time off at any job, do you still get paid? Some jobs--like commission based sales--are even worse, don't work--don't get paid.

It always amuses me that the defenses for a failing business model are insulting to the very people they are trying to convince that it has to be this way or civilization will collapse--or something.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130408/02163322621/more-details-revealed-patent-lawyers-demanding-1000-every-worker-companies-using-scanners.shtml#c261 Tue, 9 Apr 2013 06:38:19 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130408/02163322621/more-details-revealed-patent-lawyers-demanding-1000-every-worker-companies-using-scanners.shtml#c261 ]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130408/02163322621/more-details-revealed-patent-lawyers-demanding-1000-every-worker-companies-using-scanners.shtml#c147 Mon, 8 Apr 2013 20:43:12 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130408/02163322621/more-details-revealed-patent-lawyers-demanding-1000-every-worker-companies-using-scanners.shtml#c147
Of course this patent is complete shit and so obvious that it would probably get thrown out, which is the reason they aren't suing the manufacturers of these scanners--they don't want to have to go to court against someone with a well funded legal team. This is why it looks like they are targeting smaller businesses and giving the ones that complain the advice to talk to a patent attorney. That advice would probably be something along the lines of--"You could probably win, but it might take a million plus dollars to do it. It's better to just give them the $100,000 they want so they'll go away".]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130408/12161722625/hilarious-ridiculous-networks-threaten-to-pull-channels-off-air-if-aereo-dish-win-lawsuits.shtml#c519 Mon, 8 Apr 2013 15:45:05 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130408/12161722625/hilarious-ridiculous-networks-threaten-to-pull-channels-off-air-if-aereo-dish-win-lawsuits.shtml#c519 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130403/16412622564/copyright-as-censorship-university-threatens-own-faculty-with-copyright-infringement-campus-survey.shtml#c165 Thu, 4 Apr 2013 08:36:36 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130403/16412622564/copyright-as-censorship-university-threatens-own-faculty-with-copyright-infringement-campus-survey.shtml#c165 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130403/16412622564/copyright-as-censorship-university-threatens-own-faculty-with-copyright-infringement-campus-survey.shtml#c153 Thu, 4 Apr 2013 08:33:02 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130403/16412622564/copyright-as-censorship-university-threatens-own-faculty-with-copyright-infringement-campus-survey.shtml#c153