BeachBumCowboy 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (45) comment rss

  • On the post: The Things You Learn When You Send A Freedom Of Information Act Request About What The Gov't Knows About You

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 28 Feb, 2012 @ 07:10am

    Re: Paranoia

    And better funded too!

  • On the post: The Things You Learn When You Send A Freedom Of Information Act Request About What The Gov't Knows About You

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 28 Feb, 2012 @ 07:08am

    Paranoia

    Just because you're paranoid, that doesn't mean the government isn't even more paranoid.

  • On the post: USTR Claims TPP Has 'Unprecedented' Transparency, But It Won't Reveal The Details Unless You're A Big Industry Lobbyist

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2012 @ 08:12am

    Unprecedented

    The only thing unprecedented from the USTR is the amount of outright and open hypocrisy.

  • On the post: IFPI & Other Lobbyists Tell Parliament That ACTA Protests Silence The Democratic Process

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 16 Feb, 2012 @ 09:27am

    Point of view

    It all depends on your point of view. From the IFPI and RIAA point of view modern democracy has developed into economic formula to be manipulated. Corporations spend money to get legislators elected, corporations get closed door access to policy makers, legislators pass laws benefiting those corporations, corporations profit from their investments into legislators.

    To IFPI and RIAA, the anti-SOPA and anti-RIAA crowds aren't acting in a manner that fits their democratic reality. The crowds should by their own legislators and let them "compete" with IFPI and RIAA in that way. They can't "compete" if there is single entity to compete against.

  • On the post: How Much Is Enough? We've Passed 15 'Anti-Piracy' Laws In The Last 30 Years

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 15 Feb, 2012 @ 12:20pm

    Sneak in an amendment

    Perhaps the public can have a congressional staffer sneak the following line into the upcoming payroll tax compromise.

    "All bills and legislative acts enacted after 1975 are hereby repealed."

    Oh wait, the public doesn't have a six figure job laying around to give to the staffer when he gets out.

  • On the post: Newspaper Boss Says Newspapers Need More Money… Because New Media Steals & May 'Destroy Civil Society'

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 10 Feb, 2012 @ 07:22am

    In 1953 Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451, a novel about a dystopian future that most readers thought was about censorship. In 2007 Bradbury claimed the book was not decrying state sponsored censorship, but instead was rallying against the evolution of the new forms of mass media, television and radio, and the effects they had on the populace. The fictional state was just acting on behalf of what its populous wanted.

    So, here's an idea for all the novelists out there, or maybe today it would be independent videographers. You can create a future where the evil masses of people use the Youtubes, Pandoras, and Amazons to reach the populous. And the protagonists are underground corporatists fighting the status quo by trying to lock up all of the videos, music and literary works in their secret boardrooms, regain the huge profit margins and restoring the natural order of things.

    Yet the futuristic state acts to protect the interests of the many against the greedy few. Now that would be a great work of fiction.

  • On the post: PolitiFact Trashes Lamar Smith: Says His Claims About Economic Impact Of Piracy Are Flat Out False

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 07 Feb, 2012 @ 01:42pm

    Facts

    Hey Lamar,

    Facts remain facts even if you choose to ignore them.

  • On the post: The NFL Issues Takedown For Chrysler Super Bowl Commercial

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2012 @ 01:40pm

    Don't mess with Eastwood.

    The NFL better watch out. Clint just might go all Dirty Harry on them. I guess they are feeling lucky.

  • On the post: Hey Advertisers! Stop Believing The NFL's Lies About Trademark Law And Call The Super Bowl The Super Bowl

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 03 Feb, 2012 @ 09:47am

    Game watching party

    Hey Techdirt,

    You are all invited to come watch the great athletic event held once a year, roughly 7 weeks before the vernal equinox, played by large athletic males of the teams representing persons who love their country, as well the unusually large persons living in the 3rd largest state of the union of former colonies located in North America. This year said contest will be be held in the capital city of the state admitted on December 11, 1816 to said union, inside the domed sports arena named after a regional manufacturer and distributor of automotive oil, additives, and lubricants.

    We will be watching said contest on the large viewing apparatus designed and constructed by the leading electronics maker from the southern most country of the Korean Peninsula, with service provided by the cable provider recently separated from the large conglomerate media company with interests from magazines, to movie studies, and recently Internet providers. It should be a good time with food provided by various crispy tortilla manufacturers and fried spicy chicken wings traditionally associated with a Northeast city located along the border of the two northern most countries of North America.

  • On the post: Major Media Owning SOPA/PIPA Supporters Whine That They Had No Way To Have Their Message Heard

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 23 Jan, 2012 @ 11:48am

    Series of Tubes

    I heard there's this new fangled technology that let's you reach millions of readers, listeners and viewers quickly and at a low costs. It's got something to do with a "series of tubes." If you don't have it I think you need to call your plumber.

  • On the post: How IP Laws Have Locked Up Martin Luther King's Brilliance

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 16 Jan, 2012 @ 03:15pm

    A dream

    "Paid at last! Paid at last! thank God Almighty, we are paid at last!"

  • On the post: It Is Time To Stop Pretending To Endorse The Copyright Monopoly

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2012 @ 10:26am

    Re: Credit to where credit is due.

    EDIT: doesn't create artificially.

  • On the post: It Is Time To Stop Pretending To Endorse The Copyright Monopoly

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2012 @ 10:25am

    Credit to where credit is due.

    Then, there are two kinds of moral rights - droits morals. There is the right for the creator to prevent any performance, derivation, remix, satire, etc. of a piece that they do not approve of, and there is the right for a creator to be credited as such.

    (I actually support this last right -- the right to credit. But does it really require legislation? The social, corporate and academic penalties for plagiarism are much higher than those of the law. Why is that particular law needed, then?)


    That last one, the credit, is the only actual scarcity that copyright does create artificially. Thus, it is the only thing that can actually be "stolen". Someone could take credit for other's work, and then claim it as their own.

    But Rick is correct that copyright, as conceived today, is very much unnecessary for this problem of protecting this scarcity. Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, Cervantes wrote Don Quixote, and Divinci painted the Mona Lisa. They got credit, and still have credit, for their works in a time long before the Statute of Anne.

  • On the post: Dear Congress, It's No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2011 @ 01:59pm

    Nothing New

    "I don't know how them fancy horseless carriages work. We better legislate that someone is waving a flag at all times in front of that auto-thing-a-majig so nobody gets hurt."

  • On the post: Actually, Jobs In Making Movies Are On The Rise, Not Falling

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 14 Dec, 2011 @ 03:09pm

    A good thing

    Jobs in the movie "theater" business are likely to be much lower paying jobs than those jobs in the movie "making" business. So the net effect is more people are making more money. Why does the industry need to be saved again?

  • On the post: What Other Websites Is The US Government Secretly Censoring?

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 12 Dec, 2011 @ 01:58pm

    Rights

    As George Carlin said, "We don't have rights in this country, we have privileges. Rights cannot be taken away. Privileges can."

    It is pretty apparent the Government is happy to take away our privileges when it suits the "Government's" needs. It is also apparent that most of the citizenry is content to let them do it.

  • On the post: What Other Websites Is The US Government Secretly Censoring?

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 12 Dec, 2011 @ 10:42am

    Other Websites

    I have personal knowledge of ALL the other websites the government has seized. They are...

    XXXXX.XXX
    XXXXXXX.XXX
    XXX.XXX
    XXXXXX.XXX
    XXXX.XXX
    XXXXXXXXXX.XXX
    XXXXXX.XXX
    .
    .
    .
    XXXXXXX.XXX


    The previous poster's comments have been redacted by ICE. For further questions please send correspondence to:

    US Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
    c/o MPAA and RIAA
    Disney World Headquarters
    1494 E Buena Vista Dr.
    Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830

  • On the post: How Do You Promote A Bad DRM Scheme? With A Bad Movie Of Course

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 22 Nov, 2011 @ 08:35am

    Batman and Robin...

    13% on the rotten tomato meter. At 44%, Batman Forever looks like Citizen Kane in comparison.

  • On the post: The Non-Existent 'Cyber War' Is Nothing More Than A Push For More Government Control

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 28 Oct, 2011 @ 12:13pm

    Re: This Communication Has Been Flagged

    Mike,

    Our Agent in the Ministry of Truth has obviously made errors in correcting the obvious historical errors in the previous post. He has been removed.

    Please correct all of the above errors or direct your readers to the latest Party communications regarding these matters. They may be found at the nearest Ministry of Truth. Failure to do so will require a thorough re-education program of yourself and your readers in addition to seizure of this website by our friends at NICE (Newest Information and Communication Enforcement).

  • On the post: The Non-Existent 'Cyber War' Is Nothing More Than A Push For More Government Control

    BeachBumCowboy ( profile ), 28 Oct, 2011 @ 12:03pm

    This Communication Has Been Flagged

    Tim,

    We have been monitoring your communications with the citizens of Oceania. It seems you have been either misinformed about the nature of the work performed by the Ministry of Peace. If you refer to the latest publications produced by the Ministry of Truth, you will notice that we have always been engaged in a Cyber War.

    While we are sure that this is merely a mistake on your part, we in the Party constantly strive to protect our Great Society from the dangers of the possible original ideas you are conveying that diminish the dangers of such a long standing war nor diminish the heroism our outstanding Cyber Warriors. To insure that this is merely a mistake on your part, the Ministry of Love will be at your door in 15 minutes to transport you to the nearest re-education center. Please remain on your couch in view of your Teletube until Love Agents arrive.

    Your friends at The Party

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