SomeGuy 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (242) comment rss

  • On the post: Yes, You've Got Something To Hide

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 09 Jan, 2013 @ 12:43pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Not obvious enough, considering most of this thread was driven by him...

  • On the post: Yes, You've Got Something To Hide

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 09 Jan, 2013 @ 10:33am

    Re: Re:

    I for one think this guy is a troll, and you guys are giving him a feast.

  • On the post: Yes, You've Got Something To Hide

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 09 Jan, 2013 @ 09:19am

    Re: Re: Re:

    I'd go further and say it's OK for Google because they don't have Enforcement powers the way The Government does.

  • On the post: Valve Tries To Charge People Based On How Likable They Are: Trolls Pay Full Price

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2012 @ 11:58am

    Re: For TechDirt Comments

    I dislike the idea. I know that trolls can be annoying, but I think we'd lose a lot of quality discussion if we set up a system like you're describing. The mechanisms we have in place --such as public ridicule -- work well enough to keep them down to a low rumble, and I've seen a lot of though-provoking comments made in response to stupid troll comments.

  • On the post: Pinterest Updates Terms Of Service… And People Are Still Overreacting

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2012 @ 07:28am

    Why is it evil when a service provider does it, but not when an artist does it?

    I think you're right about their chicken-little'ing, but I also think you're misreading them. The crime isn't that they want to make money. The crime is that they're foisting all of the legal liability on to their users, so that they can rake in the cash and let "the little guy" take the fall when upset artist come calling about copyright infringement.

    As a prolific pinner I think that's a fair concern, but I don't think it's the problem everyone is making it out to be.

  • On the post: European Commission Blames Social Networks For ACTA Failure; Worried About Its Imminent Directive On Copyright Enforcement

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2012 @ 05:37am

    Response to: Chris From Poland on Mar 13th, 2012 @ 4:56am

    I think it's more likely that they don't want to admit that it's We The People who they're fighting with. That way they can still pretend that they represent us.

  • On the post: La La La La La: The Internet Routes Around Copyright Censorship To Restore Daria

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2012 @ 05:29am

    Re: odd hting about music in tv and movies

    "it is supposed to compliment it not be a main stay"

    It's not supposed to be anything more or less than what the creators intended it to be. Jurassic Park would tell the same story no matter what soundtrack you put on it, but it wouldn't be the one we all know from the theatres. Wizard of Oz has a very different feel if you watch it with the original audio versus dubbing in Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd, not Transformers). And if a show like Daria or WKRP in Cincinnati makes it a bigger part of what they're show is saying, they aren't doing it wrong.

    Some shows or movies might not use music as centrally as others, but that doesn't mean others don't (or shouldn't) use it as a centerpiece.

  • On the post: Publishing 2.0: Content Is Marketing, Profits Come From The Packaging

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 08 Feb, 2012 @ 04:13am

    Re: I'm in

    Seconded. There are benefits to both digital and physical books. Digital is great because I can carry my whole library with me on long business trips, or just about anywhere else I go. It's quick and convenient. But you can't put an ebook on a bookshelf or a coffee table. A huge portion of my home decoration centers around books, and I don't see that going away any time soon.

  • On the post: The Internet Wins: PIPA & SOPA Delayed

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 20 Jan, 2012 @ 08:42am

    Where do we go from here?

    OK, we won. The adrenaline dies down and life returns to normal.

    So how do we stay vigilant and make sure these bills don't return, or that someone doesn't add four words into some other bill that sneaks this through?

  • On the post: Hollywood Studio Execs Upset That President Obama Didn't Stay Bought; Insist They Won't Donate More

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 20 Jan, 2012 @ 08:35am

    "Bought"

    "When they buy a President, they like their President to stay bought, dammit."

    Actually, I'm pretty sure they were just licensing him. Did they check their EULA?

  • On the post: White House Comes Out Against The Approach In SOPA/PIPA In Response To Online Petition

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 16 Jan, 2012 @ 06:35am

    Re: Re: Re: Repeal the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act

    "People live almost twice as long now though."

    That's a gross misunderstanding of life expectancy numbers. A healthy person in the colonial era lived just as long as a healthy person does today. The "life expectancy at birth" was half of what it is today because of the high rates of infant- and child-mortality, due mostly to diseases we've learned to treat and cure.

    By the time most people were old enough to create something subject to copyright, they would have been expected to live to at least 65 or 75.

  • On the post: Jon Stewart Promises To Study Up On SOPA

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 12 Jan, 2012 @ 10:54am

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

    In my mind, censorship only applies if there was an ethical obligation to not censor or otherwise restrict the material. Commercial businesses and individuals have no such ethical obligation.

    But I don't think that's true. I think the ethics of a thing extends beyond Government vs Corporate, or even Public vs Private, and transcends discussions of legal vs illegal. Something can be ethical and illegal -- just make a bad law. And in the same way something can be unethical and legal! Philosophers have been talking about what is and is not ethical for millenia, so you'll have to excuse me if I'm not compelled by your dismissal that ethics doesn't play into it because it was a corporate entity doing so.

    By your line, we should have no problem at all with the fact that none of them are discussing SOPA. Unless you think that newscasters should be held to a higher standard of ethics than satirists.

  • On the post: WB, HBO Continue To Suck At Economics; New Policies Encourage Piracy

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 09 Jan, 2012 @ 09:20am

    Re:

    Do they think that Netflix is making money that ought to go to them?

    In short, yes. They (and others like them) have convinced themselves that all of the value is in their content, and they utterly ignore any value that someone else might add. If you make money and their product was somehow involved, you've stolen from them.

  • On the post: Cato Institute Digs Into MPAA's Own Research To Show That SOPA Wouldn't Save A Single Net Job

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2012 @ 07:51am

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

    I can, if I choose, spend 12+ hours a day rolling rocks up a hill. This is a lot of work, let me tell you, and has huge costs involved, such as lemonade, hamburgers, and sunburn cream.

    By your logic, because I did work and incur costs, I'm entitled to some monetary compensation. In reality, this is patently false. No one is required to give me money just because I did some work.

    The point others are trying to make is that if you do work and can't attract customers, that's your fault.

  • On the post: Hollywood Union Members Sign Petition Asking MPAA & Hollywood Unions To Stop Supporting PIPA/SOPA

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2012 @ 05:58am

    Re: Underwhelming

    "Torrents are the biggest economic problem in fighting piracy"

    'Fighting piracy' is the biggest economic problem in fighting piracy. With a small percentage exception, pirates are your biggest fans and strongest supporters -- you just aren't selling them what they want. Focus on making your product better and meeting the desires of your customers, and the piracy 'problem' will go away. 'Fighting piracy' just means throwing money at a symptom.

  • On the post: Hollywood Union Members Sign Petition Asking MPAA & Hollywood Unions To Stop Supporting PIPA/SOPA

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2012 @ 05:51am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: They're Afraid of Becoming Irrelevant

    I think you're misunderstanding the phenomenon. I think people want to BELIEVE that piracy works because it's profitable, but I don't think that's the case in reality. Piracy works because of underserved consumers. Piracy has existed for a very long time; the advent of the Internet and digital content has just made it more widespread and apparent. Piracy exists because people want to share content they like, and use content the in the ways and places they want. None of that will change if you cut the funding lines to a few websites. The pirates will sneakernet the content if they have to. It's not about money.

  • On the post: No, Sony Electronics, Nintendo And EA Have NOT Publicly Changed Their Position On SOPA

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2012 @ 09:55am

    Re: Re: Harder to boycott...

    I don't think I understand your argument.

    You start off by saying that Big Game Companies have been boiling us like frogs, which is generally true. But then you seem to say we have no choice because The Big Guys have already eaten all the smaller publishers, and if we don't buy their DRM'd crap they'll just stop producing anything.

    That simply can't be true. Either people refuse to buy sub-par or DRM'd games and The Big Guys die or bend their knee to the Consumer, or people don't refuse to buy the same and effectively reward The Big Guys. If their response to dying slowly is to "turtle up" and die quickly, then it's only a matter of time before someone else steps into the void. Video Games will survive even if Nintendo, Sony, EA, and the rest all die today.

  • On the post: Poll Suggests Americans Of All Ages, Political Positions, Locations… All Hate SOPA

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 19 Dec, 2011 @ 11:16am

    Re: Amazing...

    Because over the last couple of decades we've trained them to believe that the American people are ambivalent and despite what they may SAY they won't really DO anything about it. And the few that do can be marginalized and demonized and the big machine keeps on running.

  • On the post: OECD Says Countries Must Promote & Protect Global Free Flow Of Info Online; Irony Alert: US Cheers This On

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 15 Dec, 2011 @ 08:50am

    Re: Re:

    Nuke the planet from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

  • On the post: OECD Says Countries Must Promote & Protect Global Free Flow Of Info Online; Irony Alert: US Cheers This On

    SomeGuy ( profile ), 15 Dec, 2011 @ 08:48am

    Re: Re: Re:

    Wow, I guess I SHOULD have added a /s on the end of my post.

    Unauthorized content is still information, and it's almost impossible to make a distinction between the two -- certainly not without a massive effort, and almost certainly not in an automated way. The flow of unauthorized content is the "acceptable losses" or "collateral damage" of vigorously allowing the flow of ideas and information. Your business is not more important than freedom of speach; find some other solution to your problems.

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