Lachlan Hunt 's Techdirt Comments
Latest Comments (69)
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On the post: NBC, BBC, Travel Channel: Not Guilty Of Racketeering For Asking People About Ideas For TV Shows
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On the post: Nevada Politician Pitches $25 Passes To Let You Speed
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 09 Sep, 2010 @ 06:12amThe problem with speeding is not only that people are travelling too fast to handle the speeds, there are also problems created by having vehicles on the same road travelling at vastly different speeds.
On most highways, the difference in speed between vehicles is generally +/-5km/h around the specified limit. By allowing some cars to optionally travel up to 25 miles, or 40km/h, faster, you suddenly have a situation where you'll either have cars rapidly and unexpectedly approaching from behind and either slamming on their breaks to avoid hitting you, or whizzing around. That does not create a safe driving environment. -
On the post: If You Don't Get The Matching Brand Paper Towel Out Of A Dispenser In A Restroom… Is That Trademark Infringement?
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 16 Aug, 2010 @ 06:01amNot at all. The brands I've seen on paper towel dispensers don't match any of the brands of paper towel I see in supermarket. My assumption was that paper towel rolls just fit any of the standard size dispensers, and the companes that made them were largely independent from each other. But the paper towel/toilet paper I find in public restrooms is usually some cheap and crappy no-name brand anyway, even if the dispensers themselves are good.
It's definitely not a trademark violation though. If the company had a contract with the venue to provide the paper to go with the dispenser, then it could possibly break the contract. But if the dispenser was sold separately with no such contract, and the company happens to offer paper that the venue doesn't use, then tough luck. That's called competition. -
On the post: Startup Holds Nose, Pays Up To Intellectual Ventures To Get Patents It Needs In Patent Fight
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 03 Aug, 2010 @ 08:04amThe problem is absolutely not with IV, and I fail to see how you can accuse them of making the situation worse. Sure, they're running a business and making money from what they do, but they're in the business of selling defensive patents to companies that are already being attacked.
The real problem is with the broken patent system, and with the trolls who abuse it for offensive purposes. Blaiming a company that exists to help out another company to improve their defence, is really blaming the wrong party. -
On the post: Are Geographic Restrictions On Content Obsolete?
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 12 Jul, 2010 @ 03:48amGeographic restrictions haven't made sense for the past 15 years or so, ever since DVDs came out with those stupidly unnecessary region codes. They make even less sense on the internet and are absolutely obsolete.
The problem, and the reason for their persistence among the entertainment industry, is a combination of price discrimination, localised royalty collection agencies for each country, and continuing to work along side old network distribution deals, particularly with local TV networks where networks demand monopolised internet streaming alongside their TV monopolies. But such restrictions don't make sense anyway, even for TV programs; particularly live broadcasts, on the internet.
Take, for example, the world cup, or even the olympics, where streaming was done by some broadcasters, with regional restrictions limited to their own respective countries. The major problem with this is that if, for example, someone happens to be in a foreign country, where the local broadcast is in a language they don't understand, there is no ability to legally obtain a stream from your home country, in your own language. (I ended up bypassing these restrictions with a VPN to get the olympic streams from Australia; didn't bother for the world cup, cause we lost fairly early on) -
On the post: Death At A Funeral Leads To Lawsuit In A Courtroom
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 08 Jul, 2010 @ 05:35amWhat Wedding?
"...about an embarrassing thing (where her clothes were stripped off) that happened to her at a wedding in Jamaica which was caught on film..."
The article in THREsq says this happened at a funeral, not a wedding, which suddenly makes this whole article make a little bit more sense. I was wondering how getting stripped at a wedding had anything to do with someone dying at a funeral. (I haven't seen either film, so I have no idea what the actual plot is; I'm just assuming someone dies while at a funeral based on the title.) -
On the post: Apple Sued For Copyright Infringement Because Third Party App Has Someone Else's Bird Sounds
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2010 @ 04:48amRe: Re: Recording Copyright
Lawrence, the recordings done in a studio are copyrighted. The issue of who holds the copyright, whether it be the studio, the artist, recording company, or whatever, is an entirely separate issue to the question of whether recordings themselves can be copyrighted.
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On the post: Apple Sued For Copyright Infringement Because Third Party App Has Someone Else's Bird Sounds
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 25 Jun, 2010 @ 04:42amThere's nothing wrong with claiming copyright on recordings of wildlife sounds. As far as copyright is concerned, that's no different from recording the sound of anything else.
There is a lot of creative skill and effort involved with getting the equipment set up in a way that captures the specific sounds in an effective way, and in filtering out unwanted background noise. How is this any different from a photographer claiming copyright over a photo of wildlife?
Although, I agree that Apple should not be involved at all. They are just a service provider, and so the correct way for the copyright holder to deal with this issue is to file a DMCA takedown notice with Apple and/or take up the issue directly with the developer. -
On the post: UK Regulators Allow BBC To DRM Its Content
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 17 Jun, 2010 @ 05:40amThe problem with this bogus DRM claim is that the actual video stream is still unencrypted. They're relying on licensing terms agreed to by vendors who are then given the Huffman tables to deobfuscate the EPG. Existing hardware that can receive the transmissions can still quite happily access the video content, and the EPG is not at all needed for recording the program, although it can perhaps help with some automatic timers.
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On the post: Dear Rupert: Before Putting Up A Paywall, It Helps To Have Your Staff Check The HTML
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2010 @ 06:26amWho cares?
This article is just a pathetic attack against the Times Online and Rupert Murdoch's paywall plan (although I certainly don't agree with the paywall). This is obviously just a mistake that slipped through without being noticed, which can and does happen occasionally. But so what? Who cares?
It certainly has nothing to do with their paywall attempt, and so trying to link this trivial mistake with that one is just silly. I suggest you focus on real issues, rather than hunting for issues where there aren't any. -
On the post: CSIRO Wants To Expand Its WiFi Tax: Sues Mobile Operators
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2010 @ 08:16am"CSIRO's WiFi patent and the hundreds of millions of dollars it sucks from companies doing actual innovation"
You're implication here seems to be that the CSIRO isn't doing any actual innovation, which is not the case at all. The CSIRO does actually do a lot of real research and innovation in a lot of areas.
However, I do think it is extremely unethical for them to be suing other companies over patents, given that they are a tax payer funded organisation whos research should be done for everyone's benefit, not just their own.
So, while the CSIRO is not your typical patent troll, they are certainly behaving like one with their extreme aggression used to enforce their patents. -
On the post: Police Just Guessing When They Can't Clearly Read License Plate In Red Light Camera Photos
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 28 May, 2010 @ 02:42pmThey're supposed to be able to narrow down partial matches by looking up the make and model of the vehicle that is registerred to matching number plates.
For the case illustrated in the video, they should have been able to find a set of partial matches based on the visible digits "7598 ?S". I assume they can also determine other information like the state in which the vehicle is registered based on the design of the plate.
They can then find all the vehicles that match those criteria, then narrow it down by the type of vehicle. So it's hardly a guessing game. It just seems like in this case, that last step somehow went a bit wrong. I guess maybe the offer who sent the ticket confused the description of a trailer with that of a semi-truck. -
On the post: Effort Underway For Defensive Patent Pool For Open Source Developers
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 11 May, 2010 @ 05:08amIt's not really clear how the whole patent pool network will function. The article says that it's a distributed network, rather than a centrlised pool. But then it's not clear what it really means to join or to leave.
Does a company implicitly join the pool if they announce that their patent portfolio is under the licence? Or do they need to register with some centralised registry? If so, then I can't see how it can be called distributed. If not, then it would be impossible to keep track of who is and who isn't in the pool at any given them, let alone keep track of when companies join and when they leave.
IMHO, the only way this could potentially work is for it to be an irrevokable licence that applies to all patents in the owners posession at the time they make the declaration. They could, at any time, cease applying the licence to future patents they acquire, but that shouldn't revoke the licence from prior patents.
But the idea of making it so that companies can't pick and choose which patents to licence probably won't work in practice. If companies want to do that with this system, they could just set up a separate patent holding company and assign the rights for that patent to that company. So even if that special patent holding company licences all of its patents under the licence, it won't stop the original company from retaining patents it wants to keep.
So it basically becomes a way for companies to throw out their old, useless patents while still retaining, and possibly threating others with, the patents they still consider valuable. This is then no effectively different from what other companies, like IBM, have done with their prior royalty free licence to a limited selection of patents. -
On the post: As If On Cue, Sony Sued For Making PS3 Less Useful
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 30 Apr, 2010 @ 01:13amLegal Issues?
It's really questionable what are the actual legal grounds for the law suit? What law does the plaintiff think has been violated? Sure, it's unfair for Sony to forcefully remove such a feature, but unfairness does not equate to being illegal, nor does it necessarily qualify as grounds for compensation.
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On the post: UK Shop Refuses To Make Prints Of Digital Photos Because They're 'Too Good' And Must Infringe
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 06 Apr, 2010 @ 05:38amClearly, we need safe harbours for print shops so that they are exempt from any liability. It is completely unreasonable for anyone to think that a shop clerk would ever be able to judge which photos are being printed with or without permission from the copyright holder, and the idea that professional-looking photos are more likely to be infringing is ludicrous.
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On the post: RealNetworks Agrees To Pay $4.5 Million In Legal Fees To Hollywood Over RealDVD; Gives Up
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 04 Mar, 2010 @ 03:24amWhile I agree that it was stupid for the MPAA to sue Real for this product, I also think the product would have been a complete failure from the outset. As you're aware, there are plenty of other DVD ripping tools widely available for free that do everything that RealDVD could do, but without any of the restrictions. So I don't know what Real hoped to achieve with it's worthless product. Seriously, who wants to pay for a product that is, by design, more restrictive than the free alternatives?
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On the post: Intellectual Ventures Lending Its Patents To Members To Sue Others
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 03 Mar, 2010 @ 11:30pmRe: Re:
Mike, I meant that you largely ignored it within this particular article. The fact that you've covered it previously is irrelevant to my point.
I agree with you that patents suck and we would be better off without the entire system. But the reality of the situation is that we're currently stuck with it and companies like Verizon are forced to take whatever defensive measures they can against aggressors. And as is so often the case with patents, the fight fire with fire approach is sadly the most effective defense, despite being a costly exercise.
Why shouldn't Verizon and IV in this case do whatever they can to work together to defend against TiVo's attack? By saying that IV shouldn't have stepped in to help Verizon out with a patent to counter sue TiVo, then you're basically saying that Verizon should have been left suffer the consequenses while TiVo - the real evil party - gets a nice payout.
At least this way, TiVo gets a taste of their own medicine, and I hope TiVo suffers big time for their initial aggression, and learns not to be so aggressive in the future. -
On the post: Intellectual Ventures Lending Its Patents To Members To Sue Others
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 03 Mar, 2010 @ 01:53pmMike, you seem to have largely ignored the fact that TiVo struck first and instead tried to place all the blame upon Verizon. Clearly, Verizon is doing this as a defensive measure. TiVo shouldn't have sued Verizon in the first place, and most of the blame should lie with them for being so aggressive. I would have much more concern about this if Verizon had taken an offensive position with this borrowed patent.
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On the post: Would A Moron In A Hurry Be Confused By The Difference Between A High School And A Pickup Truck?
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2010 @ 02:59amThis is a clear case of not only trademark infringment, but copyright infringment. It's clear that the designer of the schools logo has simply copied the Dodge logo, removed the border and the word "DODGE" from below, and given it to the school. That is highly unethical behaviour from the designer.
If the designer had instead drawn the ram differently, then that would be fine. There's no problem with both the school logo and Dodge's logo being Rams. The problem here is the blatant copying that has occured.
And I don't buy the argument that this is simply free advertising for dodge. It can give the false impression that Dodge is somehow affiliated with the school, such as a sponsorship deal. -
On the post: Is Spotify Looking To Enable CwF+RtB For Musicians?
Lachlan Hunt ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2010 @ 07:40amYes, Spotify has a lot of benefits, but they are not without problems. The major problem I have with it, and why I cancelled my subscrption to it, was because the use DRM and force you to apply software upgrades as soon as they're released by not letting you play your music until you do. On mobile devices, where you don't always have access to wifi connections or good mobile data plans, this is not always convenient, and I got screwed over by this policy once already.
Having a website up asking for ideas is not a bad thing. It's a great way to get feedback from their viewers. But normally with this type of thing, they have terms and conditions that clearly state that by submitting your idea to them, they have the right to use it. It's pretty stupid submitting an idea to them, thus granting them permission to use the idea (not that permission is really needed anyway), and then suing them over it.