maclypse 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: House Of Representatives Bans Spotify Because P2P Tech Must Be Evil!!

    maclypse ( profile ), 02 Feb, 2013 @ 07:54am

    While many raise a good point that spotify probably doesn't belong on a secure system - that's not the amusing part, nor even the point.

    The amusing part, and indeed the point, is the RIAA (p2p enemy number one) saying the following about a p2p system:

    "These services are safe and secure, and assuring access to them not only respects the contractual relationship users may have with these services, but also achieves an important public policy goal of promoting legal, safe digital providers,"

    This makes it kind of problematic to continue claiming that p2p is the end of the world and the devil incarnate. It just doesn't add up.

  • On the post: House Of Representatives Bans Spotify Because P2P Tech Must Be Evil!!

    maclypse ( profile ), 01 Feb, 2013 @ 07:42pm

    "P2P is evil, unless it's our P2P, in which case it's the dog's bollocks."

    Ain't we lucky that these lobby groups run the country?

  • On the post: Google's Other Bad Idea: Offering 50 Million Euros To French Newspapers [Updated]

    maclypse ( profile ), 01 Feb, 2013 @ 09:27am

    Re:

    It's worse:

    https://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20130123/11101721766/google-decides-smartphone-market-share-is-more-important-than-net-neutrality.shtml

    Beginning to look like it's time to shut down everything Google in all of France, make sure the public knows why it's happening, and wait for the public outrage to be aimed at the ISPs and the newspapers.

  • On the post: Two More Politicians Claim Video Games Are The Real 'Problem'

    maclypse ( profile ), 31 Jan, 2013 @ 10:12am

    Re:

    Think of it like this:

    Option a: Games are the problem! Movies are the problem! Whatever is the problem! This is about blaming things, and it's EASY.

    Option b: People, society and politics are the problem. This requires critical self-reflection. This requires politicians and indeed the population to shoulder the blame. This requires you to accept that maybe, just maybe, YOU are a part of the problem. This is HARD, and for politicians it's probably also career suicide.

  • On the post: Two More Politicians Claim Video Games Are The Real 'Problem'

    maclypse ( profile ), 31 Jan, 2013 @ 10:06am

    Re: Well, once again

    Try "Kerbal Space Program". In development but very playable, very popular, teaching you all kinds of interesting things about the laws of physics. It's fascinating to see people discuss whether or not "the Oberth effect" is big enough to make a gravitational slingshot viable around a small celestial body such as the moon.

    Just because the big studios focus on "action blockbusters" doesn't mean everything is like that. There's a lot of really good, and very ususual games out there, but most studios cater to the lowest common denominator and make shooters "because that's what people want" and to a large extent they are right. This isn't much different from the movie industry in that respect.

    Now and then, an independent developer makes everyone go "Huh!?" by doing something completely outside the box and being massively successful. Minecraft and Kerbal Space Program are good examples of games that don't involve guntoting massacres. Sometimes even the big shooter-studios do that: remember "Portal"?

  • On the post: Two More Politicians Claim Video Games Are The Real 'Problem'

    maclypse ( profile ), 31 Jan, 2013 @ 09:54am

    Re:

    Indeed.

    Just look at how fucking perfect the last generation came out... they are no strangers to murder, rape, sexism, hate, or war. In fact they are doing their best to eliminate all civil rights. Clearly something to strive for. We should al be like them.

  • On the post: Dangerous: European Courts Considering Requiring Search Engine Filters Over Embarrassing Content

    maclypse ( profile ), 31 Jan, 2013 @ 12:25pm

    Yet more demands that search engines stop searching. Again, it's a matter of convenience: instead of going after the person that actually commits a crime (and in this case I use the term loosely), you blame the search engines for finding it.

    It may be easier to blame google for finding "illegal" images or copyrighted material than it is to blame the people posting it on the internet in the first place, but this doesn't make it right to blame google - just convenient.

    Of course this also leads to the next question: how is google or any other search engine supposed to know what material to block? Manually review every piece of content the engine finds, and manually compare it to every ruling from every court in the entire world, as well as every copyrightholder in the world? That sounds impossible. DMCA-like takedown notices then? Surely no one would abuse that...

    Isn't it time to stop blaming search engines for everyone elses fuckups?

  • On the post: Police Department Rewards Officer Caught By An Online Pedophile Sting With Full Retirement Benefits

    maclypse ( profile ), 30 Jan, 2013 @ 07:14am

    Re: This is why I have a poor opinion of cops in general.

    Indeed. It's hard to look at an officer and think "good cop" if thay fail to show outrage that fellow officers are getting away with things that would see most people in jail for years.

    Want to serve the public trust? Then stop covering shit up!

  • On the post: Police Department Rewards Officer Caught By An Online Pedophile Sting With Full Retirement Benefits

    maclypse ( profile ), 30 Jan, 2013 @ 07:09am

    Re:

    Agreed.

    Holding cops to a higher standard signifies a society of laws.
    Holding cops to a lower standard signifies a police state.

    Sad.

  • On the post: US Still 'Warning' Antigua That It Better Not Set Up Piracy Hub, Even As WTO Gives Approval

    maclypse ( profile ), 30 Jan, 2013 @ 07:30am

    WTO, UN, Geneva convention... pick an international forum, document or agreement and it's the same thing all over, and it's not exactly a new thing:

    "Our way or the highway."

    Even when vetod in the UN, the US still gathered its laughable coalition of the willing and went to war. Everyone has to do what the US says, and the US doesn't have to do anything that anyone says. Old news.

    I'm just waiting for someone, somewhere to grow a pair and say "With all due respect, mr President, I think we'll try the highway." Preferably they should record said conversation, threats and all, and release it to the media at the same time.

    Honestly, the US owes everyone money, produces little to nothing of anything, and keeps shooting in all directions. If just HALF of the world's nations set up trade blockades against the US, the country would be in the stone ages within months. I don't understand why countries keep obeying a country that's quickly becoming morally, legally and financially bankrupt.

    Forgive me for going all Reagan but maybe it's time to "Just Say No!"

  • On the post: Martin Luther King's 'I Have A Dream' Video Taken Down On Internet Freedom Day

    maclypse ( profile ), 19 Jan, 2013 @ 03:42pm

    Re:

    I was thinking the same thing, but then I realised: we are not thinking like the maffia: "If Martin Luther King speaking to the public is automatically public domain, how can we argue that music or anything else performed at a public event isn't?"

    Anyone that argues that King's speech should be in the public domain, will have to face off against the every copyright group in the US who will desperately defend their ability to protect their own copyrighted material. We already know they will fight tooth and nail to avoid ANY exception to copyright, even at the expense of the deaf. I very much doubt they will act any different to this "exception".

  • On the post: Justice Department 'Complies' With FOIA Request For GPS Tracking Memos; Hands ACLU 111 Fully Redacted Pages

    maclypse ( profile ), 18 Jan, 2013 @ 02:00am

    I got a question: how long is the US citizens going to tolerate secret laws, secret procedures, secret interpretations of laws, and secret applications of all of the above - before the americans actually vote for "none of the above" and find a third party?

    The libertarians is starting to look pretty damn good about now, aren't they? At least they are neither democrats nor republicans and it'll send a message.

  • On the post: Australia's Spies Want To Put Members Of The Public At Risk By Using Them To Pass On Malware to Suspected Terrorists

    maclypse ( profile ), 18 Jan, 2013 @ 01:54am

    So basically, governments are no longer satisfied with backdoors into the cellphone networks and backdoors through encryptions, but now they actually want the legal right to hack citizens' computers without even an accusation of a crime? Sure. That won't end up abused.

  • On the post: Court Limits Bradley Manning's Ability To Use Whistleblower Defense

    maclypse ( profile ), 18 Jan, 2013 @ 01:32am

    Very true. This isn't about justice. It's about making an example.

  • On the post: GEMA Vs. YouTube Hits The Three Year Mark As Rate Negotiations Fall Through Again

    maclypse ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 02:35am

    Re:

    Pull youtube... It's an idea. Could be good for a larf.

    While they are at it though: pull the google search engine from every country where the press is demanding pay-to-link. See how well the newspapers do without google's "piracy".

  • On the post: 'Quantum Copyright:' At What Point Does A Legal Copy Become Infringement?

    maclypse ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 04:12am

    I' ve often wondered about this "jurisdictional issue", being a swedish citizen. We do have some pretty extensive rights (still, despite best efforts to have them removed), which includes making private copies of anything we buy - in any format we want. We even have the right to, for example, decompile our copy of windows, change the source code and then recompile it, to suit our personal needs.

    What happens when I bring my laptop through customs in the US? Will I be charged with copyright infringement, and hacking? Does the act of bringing your perfectly legal laptop with perfectly legal content with you on a vacation to the US suddenly amount to criminal activity punishable by several years in prison and outrageous fines, because the US doesn't approve of swedish consumer law?

  • On the post: Is The US IP System Really 'The Envy Of The World'?

    maclypse ( profile ), 16 Jan, 2013 @ 03:34pm

    "It makes you wonder: are the US systems for copyright, patents and trademarks actually envied anywhere around the world, except, perhaps, by lawyers who might profit off them?"

    Oh sure! We love the systems in the US! Just look at how us Europeans embraced the increased protections and more american way ACTA was giving us!

    Sure, admittedly the politicians were all for it (until the shit hit really the fan and no politician dared touch it with a ten foot pole. Even De Gucht slipped silently into the night in the end), but the public wasn't exactly thrilled...

  • On the post: UK Mobile Operator 3UK Filtering New Class Of 'Mature Content', Including Political Satire

    maclypse ( profile ), 16 Jan, 2013 @ 01:30am

    We already knew since before that in the UK, you weren't allowed to speak. I guess now it's also illegal to listen.

    The only silver lining about the state of censorship in the UK is that I cannot wait to see the people's revoltion - spearheaded by Mr Bean, wielding a teddybear and a golfclub.

  • On the post: Aaron Swartz Could Have Killed Someone, Robbed A Bank & Sold Child Porn & Faced Less Time In Prison

    maclypse ( profile ), 15 Jan, 2013 @ 03:27pm

    Re: The really amazing thing is...

    Well, see... murder, rape, assault, breaking and entering... all these things hurt citizens. Copyright infringement hurts large corporations.

    The government, regardless of whoever is currently in charge, are far more loyal to the corporations, than the people they are supposed to represent.

  • On the post: Anonymous Launches White House Petition Saying DDoS Should Be Recognized As A Valid Form Of Protest

    maclypse ( profile ), 12 Jan, 2013 @ 07:58am

    Re:

    Well, if you create a botnet, you are in fact hacking hundreds of machines belonging to blissfully unaware civilians. This is illegal, and always has been. I haven't seen anyone argue that this should be legal.

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