Hulser 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (811) comment rss

  • On the post: Internal Fight Within The ABA Over Position On SOPA

    Hulser ( profile ), 05 Dec, 2011 @ 12:53pm

    SOPA disappears in a puff of logic

    ?Dedicated to Theft of U.S. Property.?

    Well, as we all know, copyright infringement isn't theft, so none of this applies to online piracy of digital goods. Problem solved!

  • On the post: India Says Google & Facebook Should Prescreen All User Generated Content To Stop Jerks

    Hulser ( profile ), 05 Dec, 2011 @ 10:48am

    No good option

    The end effect in this case, would almost certainly be the end of any kind of user-generated content system in India. Is that really what Sibal wants?

    There are three possibilities...

    1) He doesn't know the end effect this would have in spite of his position as Minister for Telecommunications. In other words, he's clueless.

    2) He knows the end effect and therefore knows it will never come about. In other words, he's grandstanding.

    3) He knows the end effect and doesn't care. In other words, he wants to go back to a time when a few gatekeepers, including the government, controlled communication.

  • On the post: Why Does The Government Fear Free Speech?

    Hulser ( profile ), 22 Nov, 2011 @ 08:25am

    It also cuts another way

    Based on the title, I thought they were going to reference the "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." line.

  • On the post: EU Commissioner Kroes: Copyright Is 'A Tool To Punish And Withhold'; New Business Models, Not More Enforcement Needed

    Hulser ( profile ), 21 Nov, 2011 @ 12:30pm

    The *people* should be the center, not the artists

    We need to go back to basics and put the artist at the centre, not only of copyright law, but of our whole policy on culture and growth.

    While I agree with the general principle that we shouldn't lock ourselves into the current IP model, I think the mess we have today with IP is a direct result of the hyper-focus on the artist over the interests of the population as a whole. The artist should not be at the center of any country's IP policy. Not only is it too easy for content industry to corrupt the system in the name of the artists, the system was not set up for the benefits of the artists. Benefiting the artists is a means to an end, not then end itself. Should we do our best to maximize justice for artists under any system? Sure, but this is a secondary goal, not central goal.

  • On the post: How Other Parts Of The World View SOPA

    Hulser ( profile ), 21 Nov, 2011 @ 09:30am

    Irony alert

    Not that there aren't countries who agree with the sentiments expressed by the Voice of Russia and Al Jazeera, but it's too bad we won't know about those unless there was some kind of leak of dipolatic cables...like the ones that were released by Wikileaks...which had its source of funding cut off in the same way that SOPA would allow.

  • On the post: House Judiciary Committee SOPA Hearings Stacked 5 To 1 In Favor Of Censoring The Internet

    Hulser ( profile ), 15 Nov, 2011 @ 06:18am

    Strategy

    Hopefully Google will realize it's being played and react accordingly. My strategy would be to present myself as a representative of a coalition of companies, tech and non-tech, who are against SOPA. Downplay Google's concerns and drop the names of those companies like Visa, Facebook, Twitter who oppose the bill. Whenever they ask about Google, use the standard politician's trick of answering the question that you wish they'd asked instead of the one they actually asked. Reply with example after example of how other companies and the public would feel the negative effects of this law. Don't let them make it about just Google.

  • On the post: Luma Labs Discontinues Popular Product Line After Competitor Gets A Patent… Despite Prior Art Going Back Over A Century

    Hulser ( profile ), 14 Nov, 2011 @ 10:34am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: If they were aware it was pending, why didn't they fight it?

    Hindsight is 20/20

    You don't need 20/20 vision to know there's a good chance the patent office is going to fuck something up. You pretty much just need to not live in a cave to know that.

    It's simple, really. Luma Labs bet that the patent office would do their job. From what we know, they bet that the money it would take to put together a protest wasn't worth the risk. They either overestimated the cost or the patent office's competency.

  • On the post: Luma Labs Discontinues Popular Product Line After Competitor Gets A Patent… Despite Prior Art Going Back Over A Century

    Hulser ( profile ), 14 Nov, 2011 @ 10:25am

    Re: Re: If they were aware it was pending, why didn't they fight it?

    I might cost $65 to file, but how much does it cost to have a patent attorney draw up the protest?"

    I'm sure the total cost would be more than $65, but it seems like they did the bulk of the work in researching the prior art which would be required to contest the patent. Given how broken the patent system is, this might not have helped, but at least they would have done their due dilligence.

  • On the post: Luma Labs Discontinues Popular Product Line After Competitor Gets A Patent… Despite Prior Art Going Back Over A Century

    Hulser ( profile ), 14 Nov, 2011 @ 10:04am

    Re: Re: If they were aware it was pending, why didn't they fight it?

    The cost to fight a battle you shouldn't have to fight is meaningless....

    I have to disagree here. Sure, in principle Luma Labs shouldn't have had to do anything. But I don't think that they were standing on principle. I think they either had misplaced trust that the patent office was competent at their job or didn't know about the procedures to contest a pending patent. In either case, if I had any investment in the company, I'd be highly pissed off at their management and legal counsel. There's no mistaking that the patent system is broken. But if all that's standing between you and losing one of your products is 65 bucks and submitting the research you've already done, the only sensible thing is to contest the patent.

  • On the post: Luma Labs Discontinues Popular Product Line After Competitor Gets A Patent… Despite Prior Art Going Back Over A Century

    Hulser ( profile ), 14 Nov, 2011 @ 09:47am

    Re: Re: No Standards for Innovation

    By Mike's definition of innovation, the Apple product is incredibly innovative and fresh. It's the sort of innovation we should all be lining up for!

    And what definition is that? Getting a patent for putting a speaker on a belt clip is exactly the kind of thing that Mike points out as ludicrous. Are you thinking of some other Mike?

  • On the post: CA Governor Lets Police Search Your Smartphones At Traffic Stops

    Hulser ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2011 @ 07:31am

    Misleading headline

    "CA Governor Lets Police Search Your Smartphones At Traffic Stops"

    As I understand it, the issue is whether the police can search someone's cell after they've been arrested, not just during a traffic stop. I'm not saying that what they're doing is OK, but based on the headline and all of the text of the post, it makes it sound like the cops are demanding that people hand over their cell phones when they get pulled over for speeding or having a tail light out.

  • On the post: As Expected, Alternative DNS Systems Sprouting Up To Ignore US Censorship

    Hulser ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2011 @ 05:50am

    Department of Redundancy Department

    As Expected, Alternative DNS Systems Sprouting Up To Ignore US Censorship

    I put my PIN number in the ATM machine the other day and then it asked me for my VIN number too. Maybe there was a problem with NIC card or the DNS system.

  • On the post: Did ICE 'Pirate' Its Anti-Piracy PSA?

    Hulser ( profile ), 10 Oct, 2011 @ 10:39am

    Re: Fair use for non-profit and sovereign immunity is enough.

    "Fair use" applies even to your opponents, remember.

    Whoosh! You really missed the piont, didn't you? It's not that fair use doesn't apply here. It's that ICE is being hypocritical and not applying the same rules to themselves that they apply to others.

    Let me break it down for you in simple terms. ICE siezed the domains of web sites which were using music sent to them by the record companies. The evidence justifying the siezures was basically that the music being used was not owned by the web sites. But when ICE basically does the same thing -- uses copyrighted material not owned by ICE -- now it's OK?

    And yes, you're allowed to use copyrighted material if you have permission from the owner. Obviously. The problem is that ICE doesn't appear to care that the web sites actually had permission? (Wouldn't you think you'd have permission to use a song if the company who owns the song sent it to you and asked you to use it on your site?)

  • On the post: Apparently The Creative Class Is Dead Because No One Works At Tower Records Any More

    Hulser ( profile ), 10 Oct, 2011 @ 10:27am

    La la la la!

    According to Timberg, the creative class is disappearing.

    Isn't it obvious that what he meant was that the creative class is disappearing in the literal sense because they are no longer visible? If I go to the mall and the book and record stores have gone away, that must mean that no one is selling books or music any more. If you can't see it, that's anecdotal proof right there that it must not exist. Simple logic!

  • On the post: Did ICE 'Pirate' Its Anti-Piracy PSA?

    Hulser ( profile ), 10 Oct, 2011 @ 10:01am

    Re:

    isn't it still likely that they used it by permission?

    You mean like the tacit permission to use recordings given by the record companies to the web sites siezed by ICE?

  • On the post: Lacoste Asks Police To Stop Norwegian Mass Killer Anders Breivik From Wearing Its Clothes

    Hulser ( profile ), 12 Sep, 2011 @ 11:18am

    Re: Oedipus

    Doh. Thought I hit reply. Ignore this one.

  • On the post: Lacoste Asks Police To Stop Norwegian Mass Killer Anders Breivik From Wearing Its Clothes

    Hulser ( profile ), 12 Sep, 2011 @ 11:17am

    Re:

    And if he was wearing a TD t-shirt that would be just fine?

    Who said it was "fine"? Certainly not Mike. What he did say was that by making the request to the police in the hopes of reducing the bad publicity of a mass murderer wearing their cloths, they actually brought about the exact opposite effect and spread the bad publicity to a global scale. A subcategory of situational irony that in these here parts we call "The Streisand Effect".

    One can certainly understand why a company might not want its logo appearing on the clothing of someone like this murderer.

    This may be a bit harsh, but it's this kind of simple-minded thinking that leads to big media to tilt at the piracy windmill instead of focusing on how to make money in the new marketplace because "stealing is wrong". If what you're doing is having the opposite effect as what you intended, then you're doing it wrong.

  • On the post: Lacoste Asks Police To Stop Norwegian Mass Killer Anders Breivik From Wearing Its Clothes

    Hulser ( profile ), 12 Sep, 2011 @ 11:16am

    Oedipus

    And if he was wearing a TD t-shirt that would be just fine?

    Who said it was "fine"? Certainly not Mike. What he did say was that by making the request to the police in the hopes of reducing the bad publicity of a mass murderer wearing their cloths, they actually brought about the exact opposite effect and spread the bad publicity to a global scale. A subcategory of situational irony that in these here parts we call "The Streisand Effect".

    One can certainly understand why a company might not want its logo appearing on the clothing of someone like this murderer.

    This may be a bit harsh, but it's this kind of simple-minded thinking that leads to big media to tilt at the piracy windmill instead of focusing on how to make money in the new marketplace because "stealing is wrong". If what you're doing is having the opposite effect as what you intended, then you're doing it wrong.

  • On the post: Can Someone Block Google From Passing Along A DMCA To ChillingEffects?

    Hulser ( profile ), 02 Sep, 2011 @ 08:07am

    Re: Re:

    I'm sorry you failed to phrase your troll accordingly.

    That wasnt' a troll. That was sarcasm. Wait, maybe you knew that wasn't a troll and you are being sarcastic. A double reverse sarcasm troll? OK, now I'm confused.

  • On the post: ISP Sued For Revealing Info On US-Based Critic Of Thai Laws

    Hulser ( profile ), 01 Sep, 2011 @ 07:41am

    Re: The King and I?

    But don't ALL countries do this, USA included?

    Sure, but the distinction is that in the US it's legal and in Thailand it's not. Kind of a big difference, huh?

Next >>