Christopher Weigel 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (137) comment rss

  • On the post: CreativeAmerica Copies Content To Support Anti-Copying Bills

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2012 @ 12:17pm

    While generally I'm heavily opposed to copyright infringement litigation...
    In this case, I advocate a policy of "live by the sword, die by the sword".
    Sue that astroturf into oblivion.

  • On the post: Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against eBay Because Of The Way Its Auctions Work

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 06 Jan, 2012 @ 07:11am

    Second-price auction

    Ebay's model is an example of a second-price auction.

    The major advantage of second-price auctions is that they encourage a bidder to bid their "true valuation" of a product. I.e. if I am willing to pay $20, I have motivation to insert that as my bid.

    A first-price auction, on the other hand, makes it so the bidder has motivation only to bid minimally above the person below them.

    It's a classic game theory problem and the second-price auction is better for both the buyer (no sniping required) and the seller (again, no sniping)

    TL;DR, this is a stupid lawsuit.

  • On the post: German Court Decisions Make Everyday Use Of The Internet Increasingly Risky There

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2012 @ 10:07am

    Wouldn't Facebook have to shut down completely, for fear that someone violate an author's copyright by posting a quote?

  • On the post: DOJ: This Case Has Nothing To Do With Puerto 80; Now Here Is Why Puerto 80 Is Guilty

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 30 Aug, 2011 @ 10:19am

    Re:

    I think the government is claiming something resembling the following:
    The domain was used to commit a crime, but Puerto 80 is not the criminal in question. Instead, they're simply providing the vehicle that some criminals (and many legitimate users) happen to employ in the course of their activities.

    Granted, this a completely weird way to go about stopping criminals. In real-world terms, it seems roughly analogous to the following:
    I ride a city bus on my way to commit murder.
    Therefore, the city bus was used in the process of committing a crime.
    Therefore, the government seizes the bus.

  • On the post: Concord PD Hits For The Cycle: Lemonade Stand + Camera + Wiretap Law

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2011 @ 11:31am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Oops, double post.

  • On the post: Concord PD Hits For The Cycle: Lemonade Stand + Camera + Wiretap Law

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2011 @ 11:31am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    1) It's rights, not "rights".
    2) Seriously, you're implying it's militant to give away lemonade and record the conversations you have? Weird... I thought "militant" actually had a defined meaning.

    Specifically:
    mil?i?tant   [mil-i-tuhnt]
    adjective
    1.
    vigorously active and aggressive, especially in support of a cause: militant reformers.
    2.
    engaged in warfare; fighting.

    Since it doesn't look like anything about this event fits that definition, except the gentleman who committed assault... perhaps you're talking about him? After all, your entire statement of entitlement and militant behavior seems much more applicable to the so-called "president" than it is of the peaceful protester... in which case I agree wholeheartedly.

  • On the post: Sony Admits That Playstation Hacker Got Tons Of Info, Including Passwords

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 27 Apr, 2011 @ 03:18pm

    Re: Too bad for Sony

    "Judging by all these comments an entire organization is under fire once again and most likely because a handful of their many people failed"

    Judging by all these comments an entire organization is under fire once again and most likely because their corporate policies make them as user unfriendly as possible

    FTFY. Sony has a history of stupid, customer-damaging moves, this is par for the course with them. Hopefully this one actually will come back and severely bite them in the ass.

  • On the post: Sony Admits That Playstation Hacker Got Tons Of Info, Including Passwords

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 26 Apr, 2011 @ 03:56pm

    I wonder...

    What's the typical cost to a company, in terms of class action damages, for failing to adequately protect user data in this manner?

    Just thinking - if they were required to pay each victim (potentially every person who's ever purchased a PS3) $200, which I figure is a reasonable if not slightly small number to pay for this sort of irresponsibility...

    Well, they've sold, as of Dec 31 last year, 47.9 million PS3s. So that's, ignoring 2nd-hand sales, 9.6 billion in damages.

    ...Sony made $893 net income in Q3 2010...

  • On the post: The Emperor's New Paywall

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 29 Mar, 2011 @ 03:08pm

    Hmm

    Maybe we're all looking at this wrong - maybe it's not actually a paywall, it's just a really poorly advertised scheme for soliciting donations.

    That's pretty much the only explanation I can come up with...

  • On the post: Some Free Letter-Writing Advice For America's Toughest Sheriff

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 21 Mar, 2011 @ 11:54am

    Re:

    Hardly "random". Eventually, sitting here saying over and over again "hey, Craigslist is getting shit from law enforcement for facilitating their jobs" gets old. So no, not random, and very tech-relevant.

  • On the post: Does An Impartial Jury Mean An Ignorant Jury? Can Barry Bonds Get An 'Impartial' Jury?

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 18 Mar, 2011 @ 08:33am

    Re:

    "Can you imagine that appeals when someone is found guilty and they later find out that evidence not presented was added into the jury room?"

    You mean "Can you imagine when the jury actually gets to see *all* of the evidence without filters?"

    Yes, I can, and it's beautiful. I'd much rather gather information from many diverse sources than from simply 2 biased ones.

  • On the post: It Took The NY Times 14 Months And $40 Million Dollars To Build The World's Stupidest Paywall?

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 18 Mar, 2011 @ 05:50am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    ...What?

    Were you high when you wrote this? Because it sounds like you were high when you wrote this.

    And please, do enlighten how you "built" the internet, like it's some sort of magical faerie dream land. The Internet is, by and large, a creation of the masses - My creation just as much as yours. And considering the jumble of components, ideas, etc. that went into building it, claiming there's some sort of grand "future" that's inevitable rings a little hollow.

    And drug-induced.

  • On the post: It Took The NY Times 14 Months And $40 Million Dollars To Build The World's Stupidest Paywall?

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2011 @ 07:09pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    What makes Techdirt different is:

    1) They have actual reporters on staff who follow things up and actually get new information for stories. Further, as a specialized website, each of those reporters probably qualifies as a subject matter expert in the field they're reporting on.

    2) They don't treat writing as a "collective" and understand that 2 mediocre writers (one writing, one editing) don't make one excellent writer.

    3) They actually write their own content, they don't just copy it from other sites.

    Yes, they use other websites and such. But they pay for that privilege. It's just that it's Attention instead of Cash (which, again, through advertising is about the same thing)

    It's sort of hard to compare that to New York Times, which is a relic of a bygone era and very rarely does it's own proper "reporting". Unless you really want to claim that every independent writer they contract because he happens to live in an area of interest is the pinnacle of journalistic excellence?

  • On the post: It Took The NY Times 14 Months And $40 Million Dollars To Build The World's Stupidest Paywall?

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2011 @ 12:07pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    See, here's the thing. The internet is not, in fact, "free" for people. That's a misconception and precisely what drove the NYT (amongst others) to this massively ill-conceived paywall.

    We, the common users of the internet, pay with our attention. We pay attention to the website, and therefore the ads on the site. If said ads are well built, we might even pay the owners of the ads with real money.

    Vice-versa, the owners of said ads pay the owner of the site (in real money) for some portion of the attention they've collected from us. In this sense, content websites are nothing more than middlemen, trying to set up meetings between users and advertisers.

    Buried in that is the reason why this paywall won't work. The amount of money these middlemen will be able to get from users is piss-poor compared to the amount they can get from advertisers.

    Put another way, 100000 people who regularly visit your website (and pay nothing) are probably worth considerably more to your bottom line than 100 people who are stupid enough to pay for your content. It's the reason why newspaper printing operates at a loss.

  • On the post: Even WIPO Realizing That Copyright Law May Have Gone Too Far

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2011 @ 03:25pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Widespread piracy creates an incredibly fair business environment that is short term good (for the people pirating) and long term good for those producers who are capable and willing to adapt.

    Fixed that for you.

  • On the post: Why Google's Street View WiFi Data Collection Was Almost Certainly An Accident

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 03 Mar, 2011 @ 04:33pm

    Re: Bias Detector

    Do you really have nothing better to do than run around necro'ing old and forgotten posts with stupid conspiracy theories?

  • On the post: Full Affidavit On Latest Seizures Again Suggests Homeland Security Is Twisting The Law

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 03 Feb, 2011 @ 03:54pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Question @ Joe

    Sufficiently important my ass.

  • On the post: A Lesson In Venn Diagrams… And Who Gets Paid To Touch Your Junk

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 29 Dec, 2010 @ 02:02pm

    So... why not just stop calling it a Venn Diagram? It's a fully functional graphic aside from that point.

  • On the post: Dutch Anti-Piracy Group, With MPAA's Help, Able To Grab 29 US-Hosted Domains… With No Trial Or Notice

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2010 @ 11:53am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Funny how you still haven't answered my question.

  • On the post: Dutch Anti-Piracy Group, With MPAA's Help, Able To Grab 29 US-Hosted Domains… With No Trial Or Notice

    Christopher Weigel ( profile ), 15 Dec, 2010 @ 08:05pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Ah, right, you're going with the whole "I'm a jackass" philosophy camp.

    The better question - If you think someone committed murder (but have no proof and have not subjected it to due process) is it ok to shoot them?

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