The Giving Tree... In The Age Of DRM
from the well,-that-was-quick dept

by Mike Masnick
Mon, Sep 26th 2011 10:07pm
Filed Under:
drm, giving tree, sharing, shel silverstein, xkcd

by Michael Ho
Mon, Sep 26th 2011 5:00pm
Filed Under:
boarding, coffee, crayons, measurements, monte carlo
Companies:
southwest
by Mike Masnick
Mon, Sep 26th 2011 2:38pm
Filed Under:
copyright, criminal copyright infringement, matthew smith
Companies:
ninjavideo
"If it was up to me, I'd give away the next album and put it on every handset that I can put it on, to get that scale," he said. "You can't be scared to fail. Sometimes we're going to get big results, and sometimes you learn a lesson, make an adjustment and move on."Of course, some will immediately point out that since it's not up to him, such comments are meaningless. He can say that and "pander" to fans, even if he doesn't really believe it. But, of course, there's no reason to believe he doesn't mean it. And in an era when so many top musicians are being pressured to toe the industry line about how evil "free" is, it's certainly nice to see one of the biggest (if not the biggest) pop stars in the world, and her management, recognizing publicly that the business model these days isn't in selling music directly.
by Mike Masnick
Mon, Sep 26th 2011 12:28pm
Filed Under:
criminals, fans, guns, movies, phones, pre-screening
The better part is after we gave up our phones, another security guard waves a metal detecting wand over us and we had to empty our pockets on any hits. My friend has a license to carry a firearm and was carrying - we thought this would be a problem (it's a center city Philadelphia theater), but no, he didn't care about his loaded handgun. Apparently a cameraphone is the bigger threat to a movie that will be publicly released 2 hours after we step out of the theater. Of course the DVD screener has been available on usenet for 3+ months.
by Mike Masnick
Mon, Sep 26th 2011 11:25am
Filed Under:
$30, movies, studios, video on demand
Companies:
directv
The service is part of an attempt by studios to harness pay-TV as they seek new ways to sell movies and counter shrinking DVD sales. Few customers will purchase the premium rentals unless the quality of the movies improves and the price comes down, White said in an interview.Of course, the studios forced that price because they're petrified of pissing off the theater owners (who were already pissed off), because the big studios still think that the "movie business" is defined solely and completely by how well a film does in the theaters on its opening weekend. The theater owners, at the same time, don't want to have to compete and actually improve the quality of their service -- so they whine and complain any time the studios do anything to make accessing content outside of the theaters any easier.
“They’re priced too high for consumers,” White said. “We didn’t choose that price, but that’s where the studios forced us to be.”
by Mike Masnick
Mon, Sep 26th 2011 10:26am
Filed Under:
cyberstalking, domestic violence, rhode island
Police say the 15-year-old Barrington boy met a 16-year-old girl while taking classes this summer and they started to talk through Facebook.There are a whole series of issues here. While the text of the messages hasn't been revealed, the fact that the judgment is based on the girl "feeling uncomfortable" leaves open a wide range of possible abuses. If I feel "uncomfortable" about comments on Techdirt, can I really have the police investigate and potentially send someone to jail because of it? Even the RI representative who wrote the law says that this use is "not what she envisioned." However, she then says it's okay because "the law might stop it from happening to someone else."
But police say the 16-year-old felt uncomfortable when the messages started getting inappropriate.
Police started the investigation in July and now they've charged the minor with cyber stalking, which is now punishable under the domestic violence prevention act.
by Mike Masnick
Mon, Sep 26th 2011 9:23am
Filed Under:
copyright, lobbyists, protect ip, senate
Companies:
copyright alliance
The exhibit is an opportunity to showcase for lawmakers and visitors to the U.S. Capitol Complex the importance of copyright to creators across America, by focusing on people behind the lens, sharing stories about the images, and helping viewers understand the investment and commitment made by photographers capturing our nation’s many stories.I'm curious if the Senate allows such other totally biased parties to set up exhibits like that during debate on other bills. How about pharmaceutical lobbyists setting up an "educational" nursing station in the Senate, just to show the "importance" of protecting pharma. And I'm sure the banks would love to set up an "educational" bank vault in the rotunda during Wall Street reform hearings. How could anyone in the Senate see such a biased effort as being okay?
by Mike Masnick
Mon, Sep 26th 2011 8:07am
Filed Under:
nyc, nypd, pepper spray, police, protests, video evidence
The Police Department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said the police had used the pepper spray “appropriately.”Of course, accounts in that same article from one of the women who was sprayed (who wasn't arrested) suggests a different story. While admitting there were some "rough" people there, she says that she and the folks around her had done nothing to cause the police to single them out with pepper spray. Furthermore, the folks at USLaw.com have more information including an additional video taken by one of the pepper-sprayed women. While right as the pepper spraying happens the camera is facing away from the action, and there was a lot of screaming and activity a bit earlier, it's hard to see how anything anyone did in that area provoked the sudden spraying:
“Pepper spray was used once,” he added, “after individuals confronted officers and tried to prevent them from deploying a mesh barrier — something that was edited out or otherwise not captured in the video.”
by Mike Masnick
Mon, Sep 26th 2011 7:08am
Filed Under:
4th amendment, california, jerry brown, privacy, smartphone, warrants
by Mike Masnick
Mon, Sep 26th 2011 5:33am
Filed Under:
monkeys, randomness, shakespeare, virtual monkeys
"Not only did the monkeys produce nothing but five pages consisting largely of the letter S, they began by attacking the keyboard with a stone, then proceeded to urinate and defecate on it."So there's that. But let's see the virtual monkeys do something a little more advanced before we cheer them on.
Explore some core concepts: