Calvin 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (58) comment rss

  • On the post: First Rule Of The New British Computer Society Is You Don't Question The BCS… Or It Threatens You With Libel

    Calvin ( profile ), 22 Jun, 2010 @ 05:38am

    Re:

    I spent about 30 years working in the IT industry, mostly as an independent consultant, I never considered membership of the BCS necessary to enhance my professional appeal or helping to progress my technical skills.

  • On the post: Digital Economy Bill: Proposed By The Unelected, Debated By The Ignorant, Voted On By The Absent

    Calvin ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2010 @ 02:06pm

    Re: Slander?

    Unfortunately anything said in the House of Commons is protected against court action.

  • On the post: The Fool's Gold At The End Of The iPad Rainbow

    Calvin ( profile ), 03 Apr, 2010 @ 01:25pm

    Re: Not quite the same as a CD

    'I like the idea of a simple device that I can sit on my coffee table, hold in my hands and read and not have to worry about crashes or power failures'

    I've got lots of those, they're called books

  • On the post: The Fool's Gold At The End Of The iPad Rainbow

    Calvin ( profile ), 03 Apr, 2010 @ 01:22pm

    Re: Not quite the same as a CD

    >

    It's been around for years, it's called a book

  • On the post: Hollywood Seeks To Kill Off 3D Golden Goose With Much Higher Prices

    Calvin ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2010 @ 10:55am

    Re:

    It will be interesting to see what this does to the DVD sales market.

    I can't see too many people upgrading to a 3d TV any time soon as most of them, like me, have only recently upgraded to flat screen.

  • On the post: Ubisoft's 'You Must Be Connected To This Server' Annoying DRM Servers Go Down

    Calvin ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2010 @ 07:58am

    Re: Found this

    I bought a shrink-wrapped copy of Half Life 2 a few years ago from PC World.

    When I entered the key to play the game it came up with a message saying that the key had already been registered to someone else.

    After several fairly fruitless emails to customer support I tossed the DVD and I've never bought a PC game using Steam again.

    My small non-contribution to support DRM.

  • On the post: Appeals Court Says Internet Content Should Be Held To Standards Of Strictest Jurisdiction

    Calvin ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2010 @ 08:03pm

    so does this mean ......

    That the judge agrees to the laws of whatever country the downloader lives in ?

    The internet is worldwide but I can't really see an American judge agreeing to the the rule of Sharia law for instance.

  • On the post: Intuit Lobbying The Government To Make It More Difficult To File Your Tax Returns

    Calvin ( profile ), 25 Jan, 2010 @ 03:20pm

    make the tax system voluntary

    Why not make tax contributions voluntary ?

    If everyone paid what they thought the 'government' services were worth, and there was a ban on government debt being greater than 20% of the tax take, then there would be an automatic brake on government overspending.

    Think outside the box for simple solutions to apparently complex problems.

  • On the post: Australia Moves Forward With (Weakened) System To Have Artists Paid Multiple Times For Same Artwork

    Calvin ( profile ), 03 Dec, 2009 @ 06:43am

    Architects as artists

    So I'm an architect and design a custom houses, can I call them art and have a cut of all future sales please.

  • On the post: Are The Record Labels Using Bluebeat's Bogus Copyright Defense To Avoid Having To Give Copyrights Back To Artists?

    Calvin ( profile ), 19 Nov, 2009 @ 09:34am

    A potential new model for copyright

    It seems to me that a lot of the problems with copyright occur when the rights belong to some corporation rather than the original creator of the work.

    Why not rewrite copyright law to ONLY allow copyright to individuals rather than corporations and to make those rights non-transferable.

    Therefore no selling, bequeathing or assigning those rights to others just individuals making money out of their creative efforts by licensing the use of their works to other individuals for a limited time.

    This would mean that copyright only lasted for as long as an individual lived and so the money for the creative effort would be automatically directed towards the creators not some faceless corporation.

  • On the post: If File Sharing Is Killing The UK Music Industry… Why Is The UK Music Industry Growing?

    Calvin ( profile ), 21 Sep, 2009 @ 05:11pm

    Re:

    I remember walking into a pub in the East end of London when I was a young lad back in the 60's. There was a group playing that I'd never heard of before and they were bringing the house down with their brand of rock.

    It was the first time I ever heard Status Quo play live.

  • On the post: UK Phone Buyers: Must Show Passport & Register In National Database

    Calvin ( profile ), 21 Oct, 2008 @ 04:18pm

    unitended consequences

    When this is implemented and all the mobile phone owners and their calls are logged does this mean that any mobile owner is just six contacts away from a terrorist ?

  • On the post: UK Phone Buyers: Must Show Passport & Register In National Database

    Calvin ( profile ), 20 Oct, 2008 @ 05:14pm

    getting from here to there

    What most of these government proposals forget is that they are not starting with a blank sheet of paper.
    There are already a huge number of mobile phone owners in the UK most of whom would not give up their details for a government database.
    A large proportion of those existing users don't have a passport or even a driving licence, (kids etc)
    A large proportion of those users have prepay phones and will not show up on any network as a customer (kids again)
    So just how are they going to populate this mythical database with any sort of accurate data ?

  • On the post: In Trying To Capture The Moment, Do We Risk Missing It Altogether?

    Calvin ( profile ), 02 Sep, 2008 @ 02:28pm

    video tourists

    My wife and I visited New Zealand and watched with some amazement as 30 or 40 tourists exited a bus and proceeded to run around, video cameras glued to faces, taking film of everything and anything. We speculated that they got home and had to look at all of their videos to see where it was they had been.

  • On the post: Microsoft Researchers Suggest Six Degrees Of Separation May Actually Be Accurate

    Calvin ( profile ), 05 Aug, 2008 @ 11:00am

    Self-selecting sample

    This is based on a self-selecting sample as it ONLY includes people with access to a computer.
    How many degrees do you think there are between yourself and a subsistence level individual dying of starvation in Africa ?

  • On the post: Newly Independent Pop Band McFly Gives Away Free CD With Newspaper

    Calvin ( profile ), 28 Jun, 2008 @ 01:52pm

    So if I understand the 'economics' argument presented here. If it costs me 10 zillion dollars to produce the new record and I choose to distribute it electronically then I ought to charge nothing for it because my marginal costs are zero.

    Perhaps I'm being stupid here but why on earth would I spend any money producing music if I couldn't have at least a chance of recovering my investment ?

    I'm not looking for a guaranteed return here, just a plain old capitalist chance of making a profit.

  • On the post: Cell Phone Tracking, Privacy, And Learning Not To Look

    Calvin ( profile ), 27 Nov, 2007 @ 07:50am

    I paid cash for my cellphone and I use a pay as you go plan which I top up with cash. They can record as many of my conversations as they like as they've no way of knowing who owns the phone. Oh and I change my phone every once in a while just to keep it private.

  • On the post: Chalk One Up For The Armchair Economists

    Calvin ( profile ), 05 Oct, 2007 @ 07:25pm

    making money from music

    I live in the UK and recently went to see 'Tegan and Sara', a Canadian duo, in Leeds. I looked in the local record shops prior to the concert and couldn't find a single one of their CD's on sale. The concert was a sellout, as were most of the other venues on the tour, yet the artists mentioned that their record company had put nothing into promoting the tour. All the fans were there because they'd found the music on the web and bought tickets the same way.
    Some of the discussion here seems to revolve around covering the cost of making the original recording if the digitized form is 'free'.
    Why not view concerts as a sponsored recording sessions ?
    Which will be the first venue to automatically record and digitize ALL artists that perform there and then use those recordings to promote both themselves and the artists, maybe both sound and vison.
    Until I retired a few years ago I would take short trips to the US to go to a particular concert because some of the artists I really enjoy don't tour Europe often enough.
    So if I'm prepared to pay a few hundred dollars to get to a concert how much do you think I'd pay for a live webcast of a concert ?