http://www.techdirt.com/ Easily digestible tech news.... http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130420/00321822776/why-dojs-decision-to-not-read-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-his-miranda-rights-is-terrible-idea.shtml#c1485 Mon, 22 Apr 2013 08:05:29 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130420/00321822776/why-dojs-decision-to-not-read-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-his-miranda-rights-is-terrible-idea.shtml#c1485
Then again, when there are 9000 cops and military roaming the streets perpetuating irrational fear, the fact that people were technically allowed to leave their homes becomes a moot point.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130308/17332722270/avid-gamer-minnesota-vikings-punter-chris-kluwe-does-math-how-much-eas-simcity-debacle-cost-ea.shtml#c87 Mon, 11 Mar 2013 06:00:41 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130308/17332722270/avid-gamer-minnesota-vikings-punter-chris-kluwe-does-math-how-much-eas-simcity-debacle-cost-ea.shtml#c87 were more than an anti-piracy measure? What if they actually did design a game that was so stupidly complex, that it couldn't be contained in our mere mortal quad-core rigs with some general-purpose calculations offloaded to the GPU?

You know what then?

Then it would still be a completely unsustainable product design.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20121206/00250721255/rather-than-punishing-moviegoing-texters-why-not-provide-incentives-them-to-put-down-their-phones.shtml#c150 Fri, 21 Dec 2012 04:53:01 PST http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20121206/00250721255/rather-than-punishing-moviegoing-texters-why-not-provide-incentives-them-to-put-down-their-phones.shtml#c150
"Economics is the study of incentives." -Dr. Steven D. Levitt

"One of the areas of economics I'm most interested in is focused on economics." -Mike Masnick]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120807/00073319950/join-us-thursday-conversation-with-rob-reid-author-year-zero-plus-augusts-book-month.shtml#c66 Tue, 7 Aug 2012 19:41:07 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120807/00073319950/join-us-thursday-conversation-with-rob-reid-author-year-zero-plus-augusts-book-month.shtml#c66 mind copyright reform if it happened tomorrow, but in the long-term my work's not done until the whole thing's either gone or so radically altered that it's not even recognizably "copyright" anymore. So maybe your Pirate Party doesn't have a problem with copyright, but New York's certainly does.

Also, I've never quite found the opportunity to ask this, but what the hell is the NC clause doing in the NSH's license? Really? Do we seriously expect we'd be losing out on licensing fees without that? Or that somebody's going to release knock-off copies? Or that we'd actually have the resources to take somebody to court for doing anything we disapproved of? Nina, if you're reading this, back me up here.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120622/12535019438/disappointing-famed-copyright-rogue-danger-mouse-sues-home-depot-pizza-hut-over-copyright.shtml#c64 Fri, 22 Jun 2012 16:30:07 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120622/12535019438/disappointing-famed-copyright-rogue-danger-mouse-sues-home-depot-pizza-hut-over-copyright.shtml#c64 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120316/12522618142/this-american-life-retracts-entire-episode-about-apple-factories-after-mike-daisey-admits-to-fabricating-parts-story.shtml#c393 Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:25:16 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120316/12522618142/this-american-life-retracts-entire-episode-about-apple-factories-after-mike-daisey-admits-to-fabricating-parts-story.shtml#c393 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120309/03304118042/drone-attack-how-we-might-willingly-embrace-surveillance-society.shtml#c33 Fri, 16 Mar 2012 02:30:31 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120309/03304118042/drone-attack-how-we-might-willingly-embrace-surveillance-society.shtml#c33
Although with their potential to be operated anonymously, and the size of the micro-drones, I wonder if that's even doable.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120302/12571517965/band-tells-fans-to-boycott-its-albums-saying-its-label-doesnt-pay.shtml#c541 Mon, 5 Mar 2012 12:40:00 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120302/12571517965/band-tells-fans-to-boycott-its-albums-saying-its-label-doesnt-pay.shtml#c541 implying it, but not saying it. It's like getting around a gag order by saying, for example, "I'm not allowed to talk about my settlement with Acme Inc., so on a completely unrelated note, once upon a time there was a big corporation called Shmacme Shmincorporated, and (etc.)"

They can lawyer their way out of that easily.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120207/01283517677/sopa-strikedown-aftermath-old-media-cannot-tell-narrative-one-million-people.shtml#c785 Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:09:13 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120207/01283517677/sopa-strikedown-aftermath-old-media-cannot-tell-narrative-one-million-people.shtml#c785 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070222/002451/perhaps-its-not-entertainment-industrys-business-model-thats-outdated.shtml#c8506 Thu, 9 Feb 2012 10:31:51 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070222/002451/perhaps-its-not-entertainment-industrys-business-model-thats-outdated.shtml#c8506 You're buying the experience of going to the movies. Or the ability to have the convenience of a DVD. Or the convenience of being able to listen to a song on your iPod. And, in many cases, it's not just one thing, but a bundle of things: the convenience of being able to hear a song in any CD player, combined with a nice set of liner notes and the opportunity to hear a set of songs the way a band wants you to hear.

The problem is, piracy can handily compete with three out of four of these. Convenience of access is a losing battle, because pirates will always be able to make their services more convenient. They don't even need to be more convenient than the creator's option, they just have to be as convenient and free. (Also, theoretically you could have a movie theater which torrents everything that they screen and doesn't share revenue with the creators, but that's a bit of a stretch.)

So, convenience is a problematic way to look at it. But the experience of going to the movies is where you hit the nail on the head. Maybe not the experience in its current form, which is]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120131/23021017604/white-house-says-it-cant-comment-possible-chris-dodd-investigation.shtml#c609 Wed, 1 Feb 2012 10:37:40 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120131/23021017604/white-house-says-it-cant-comment-possible-chris-dodd-investigation.shtml#c609 not specifically requesting they do anything about it, just to comment on it.

Maybe that's better.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120116/11495217418/its-official-wikipedia-to-go-dark-wednesday.shtml#c412 Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:16:57 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120116/11495217418/its-official-wikipedia-to-go-dark-wednesday.shtml#c412 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120116/11495217418/its-official-wikipedia-to-go-dark-wednesday.shtml#c352 Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:15:12 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120116/11495217418/its-official-wikipedia-to-go-dark-wednesday.shtml#c352 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120114/09513217409/white-house-comes-out-against-approach-sopapipa-response-to-online-petition.shtml#c733 Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:58:20 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120114/09513217409/white-house-comes-out-against-approach-sopapipa-response-to-online-petition.shtml#c733 So, rather than just look at how legislation can be stopped, ask yourself: Where do we go from here? Don]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120104/10385317277/kopimism-approved-as-official-religion-sweden-file-sharing-now-protected-under-freedom-religion-laws.shtml#c889 Thu, 5 Jan 2012 00:23:50 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120104/10385317277/kopimism-approved-as-official-religion-sweden-file-sharing-now-protected-under-freedom-religion-laws.shtml#c889 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111223/10474517182/breaking-godaddy-drops-sopa-support.shtml#c415 Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:27:07 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111223/10474517182/breaking-godaddy-drops-sopa-support.shtml#c415 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110726/18175915271/dailydirt-can-education-ever-be-one-size-fits-all.shtml#c29 Tue, 16 Aug 2011 18:11:45 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110726/18175915271/dailydirt-can-education-ever-be-one-size-fits-all.shtml#c29
What about the students' mental health? The rate at which students learn, as measured by test scores, grades, etc. is hardly the whole picture. If a student gets through school with straight A's and anxiety issues, that's hardly prepared them for the real world.

I struggled in large class sizes throughout middle and high school, until finally transferring to a smaller school for my junior and senior years. Instantly, the more intimate environment helped me succeed, because the teachers and staff actually had the time and resources to give a crap about me.

It's just a shame that such things are only considered when they start affecting a student's grades. Just because somebody's testing well doesn't mean they're doing okay.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110614/02270614683/there-really-are-privacy-issues-out-there-facebook-using-facial-recognition-is-not-one-them.shtml#c185 Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:20:01 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110614/02270614683/there-really-are-privacy-issues-out-there-facebook-using-facial-recognition-is-not-one-them.shtml#c185
That's why I'm uploading and tagging myself in only photos in which I'm wearing a full-body animal costume. Just to fuck with the algorithm.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20110606/13065514568/oh-look-apple-copies-android-thats-not-bad-thing.shtml#c35 Mon, 6 Jun 2011 15:04:01 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20110606/13065514568/oh-look-apple-copies-android-thats-not-bad-thing.shtml#c35
Every inconsequential thing Apple ever announces is an earth-shattering, cancer-curing event to an enormous swath of the tech press. It's getting really, really tiring.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20110602/03463214518/would-people-stop-using-mobile-phones-if-more-evidence-shows-them-to-be-carcinogenic.shtml#c490 Fri, 3 Jun 2011 10:18:57 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20110602/03463214518/would-people-stop-using-mobile-phones-if-more-evidence-shows-them-to-be-carcinogenic.shtml#c490
Mobile phones output non-ionizing radiation. This is the type of radiation which has been found, time and time again, to not cause DNA damage, and therefore not cancer.

So, why is it that we're hearing that cell phones may have been found to be carcinogenic, but not about the fundamental new development in particle physics that non-ionizing radiation behaves differently than we thought? That's kind of a big deal.

If cell phones cause cancer, that would imply that perhaps a particularly intense shade of blue might also cause cancer. However, no such theories are being discussed in light of this news.]]>