tebee 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (30) comment rss

  • On the post: More People Waking Up To The Troubling Implications Of The Gov't Taking $500 Million From Google

    tebee ( profile ), 31 Aug, 2011 @ 11:56pm

    Lets start calling a spade a spade

    I think the problem is the words we use to describe what is happening here. Why don't we stop saying that this quasi-judicial forfeiture is a "nonprosecution agreement" and call it a Government bribe to avoid prosecution.

    Of course the problem is that then people might realize that the next step down this road is a shake-down not by the government itself, but by the government's officials. Welcome to the world's newest banana republic.

  • On the post: Legally Bought Some Books Abroad? Sell Them In The US And You Could Owe $150k Per Book For Infringement

    tebee ( profile ), 18 Aug, 2011 @ 10:55am

    Do you have to sell a book to be breaking this law?

    Surly by this reasoning mere possession of the unauthenticated item is copyright infringement. All the people who have been sued for illegal music are not trying to sell it just happen to have in on their computer.

    So all those people who had bought books overseas could now be sued for hundreds of thousand of dollars of copyright infringement.

    I feel sorry for every second hand bookseller in the US. How can they do business without risking vast fines if the don't check the status of every book they sell?

    I know they say these bad laws will never be used in that way but as Mike has said on here, governments and corporations seem willing to try to crush the individual when it suites them.

  • On the post: Did The AP Claim Copyright On Public Domain NASA Pictures?

    tebee ( profile ), 27 Jul, 2011 @ 04:37am

    Is it just Legal paranoia ?

    It may just be they are scared s*itless about being sued for missing out a copyright attribution. I don't think anyone's going to get into legal trouble for falsely putting a copyright notice on a public domain photo, but do it the other way round and you could be in deep and expensive trouble.

    Any legal types out there can say if is this actually illegal and who is likely to sue them if so?

    Or it might just be creeping IP-itis - It's a photograph and therefore it's IP so must belong to someone.

  • On the post: Prop Wars: Can Paramount Prevent People From Offering Up Plans To 3D Print Movie Props?

    tebee ( profile ), 30 Jun, 2011 @ 01:25pm

    Hey! here's a version under a PD licence

    Someone has already loaded a public domain licensed version to the Thingverse that anyone can download. I wonder f they'll try and take that one down too.

    http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:9744

  • On the post: Doctor Plans To Appeal Ruling That Said Complaining About His Bedside Manner Was Not Defamation

    tebee ( profile ), 30 Jun, 2011 @ 02:59am

    You know who's effect....

    I think Dr McKee needs an introduction to my friend Ms. Streisand .

    I have this feeling he may not have heard of her, but will be getting to know her very well soon.

  • On the post: 'Go The F**k To Sleep' Accused Of Copying Imagery

    tebee ( profile ), 24 Jun, 2011 @ 08:40am

    But you can't copyright a style

    Seems to me a bit like the artistic equivalent of those old "look and style" cases.

    As the picture is not the same as the original but has a similar style are they trying to say the style itself is copyrighted ?

    If so them many aspiring art students and in the deep do-do's - most artists start out copying other peoples work that they admire, indeed, one of my friends got an report from his tutor that said "wants to be an illustrator, knows which illustrator he wants to be"

  • On the post: Yes, Multiple People Come Up With The Same Joke; It's Not 'Stealing' And Not Even Copying

    tebee ( profile ), 07 Jun, 2011 @ 10:48pm

    Just suppose copyright in jokes did exist

    Can you imagine a world were there first person to use a joke did get the rights to it? Everybody else would have to pay a toll to use it.

    Pretty fast the world would become a humourlessness place as everyone would be scared to tell a joke in case someone else had said it first and they would get sued for using it.

    So why exactly do we think Patents foster innovation?

  • On the post: Belgian Appeals Court Says Google Must Pay Up For Linking To Newspaper Websites

    tebee ( profile ), 09 May, 2011 @ 03:36am

    Well if I was Google, which sadly I'm not, I would just add something to the search results so that every time people searched for something that would have resulted in a link to these sites said " we have found additional links that would probably be of interest to you, but due to the court action of Copiepresse are unable to display them". A bit like they do now for DMCA takedowns.

    I'm sure eventually Copiepresse will get fed up replying to people asking why they are so stupid, who knows, maybe they will even see the errors of their ways.

  • On the post: If You're Unhappy With The Prostitute You Hire, Perhaps Don't Call The Police… And Then Sue The Escort Company

    tebee ( profile ), 01 Feb, 2011 @ 01:27pm

    Interesting from an economic point of view

    I'm just intrigued that the sex costs less than the lap dance...

  • On the post: A Copyright Lawsuit Over Dinosaur Bones

    tebee ( profile ), 14 Dec, 2010 @ 05:54am

    Hasn't the copyright expired yet?

    Since when did the copyright term become death plus 65 million years?

    Seriously though, I thought you couldn't copyright a 3-d object unless it is contains some original artistic elements , like a sculpture or a building.

    A casting is a copy in itself, there's nothing original about it, it may need some technical skill to make a good copy but I did not think that was copywritable.(is that a word?)