Prenda, prenda, prenda... (hat tip to Jan Brady). What... you thought I'd lead with something else? Ohhhhh, fine!
So here we are at the end of another week and what a week it was. We started off Monday with April Fool's Day and there were a couple of fools to be found. How Viacom expects the judge to keep a straight face when blatantly misconstruing the clear regulations in the DMCA is beyond me. And NATO... WTF? As a home based employee, I'm lucky if wear pants on any given day. There's no way your run of the mill "hactivist" is going to wear a uniform. Of course, the biggest tease of the day has to go to Mike's reminder of the looming appearance by Prenda Law in Judge Wright's courtroom. After that article posted, I barely got any real work done as I was scouring for other opinons. Of course, that drove me to follow Popehat on Twitter which turned out to be one of the best decisions of the week.
Tuesday started out with a hint of the logical disconnect to come with a follow-up story about Paul Hansmeier and his attempt to branch off as a professional Class Action Objector. I'm beginning to believe he's gotten to the point where he really believes the words coming out of his mouth are true - a scary proposition. Of course, we didn't have to wait too long for the extinction-level event to take place. Prenda showed up, plead the fifth and left - all in less time than it takes to get a pizza delivered. They pissed off the judge and gave me (via Ken/Popehat) my favorite phrase of the week: incandescently angry. Ken White's analysis was, to put it mildly, also a great read. We now get to wait for the delivery of what we hope to be a nuclear (but well reasoned) response. Of course, that agony ended up being tinged with anger at seeing how Congress is planning to debate CISPA behind closed doors. A government of the people, by the people and FOR the people? Not lately...
Wednesday gave us a follow up to a prank from Monday which led to my 12 year old son asking "Why are people so stupid?" Even in 6th grade, he understands enough basic chemistry to know what that is. Of course, in our panic driven environment these days (if you see something, say something), you have to wonder if it was an inevitable outcome. And speaking of outcomes, does anything think this could possibly have a good one? Of course, predictions seen on Techdirt could never come true, could they???? We also had the USPTO offering a final rejection of an Apple patent that Samsung supposedly infringed. Since the case is still rattling around the courts, who wants to bet this adds another 2-3 years to it's duration?
On Thursday, I had a combination of family and work matters intrude, but did manage to catch what turned out to be my Favorite Techdirt Comment of The Week. In a follow-up story to DMCA takedown by Prince, Mike posted a link to the video in question and an analysis of why it was Fair Use and how the takedown should have taken that into consideration. Of course, we had a few copyright trolls show up to which reader S. T. Stone gave a rather comprehensive reply, garnering a First Word. Trolls being what they are couldn't let it rest, but S. T. Stone came back with a second, just as eloquent and insightful response. Well done!
Nothing like finishing out the week with a little insanity where the EFF helpfully points out that based on public statements from the DOJ, it's illegal for a 12 year old to read the New York Times online, but perfectly fine if he reads the print version. Cue the dog with the tilted head/WTF? look on it's face. And of course, how can we have a week without the entertainment industry telling us how we're doing it wrong? Wait... I know... I've got the perfect solution to the music industry financial crisis - bands just need to sell ads to be placed in the middle of their songs!!! All they have to do is take their own advice now and we'll all be saved. Yay!!! Something tells me they're not going to listen though. Oh well - back to waiting for Judge Wright's incandescently angry order... :-)
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Another week gone and another chance for everyone to see Techdirt through someone else's eyes. While I may not be as prosaic and prolific of a commenter as some of the regulars, I hope you find some common threads in what I found poignant this week on Techdirt.
We start with the new research report from Floor64, The Sky Is Rising. While regular readers here were not surprised at the results, my first thought was how to get big content business to read and, more importantly, understand the salient points put forth. As usual, the comments ran back and forth over the standard arguments, but for me, the one from Janis stood out as an indicator of things to come where creators are no longer required to be massively successful in order to earn something from their efforts. As for the rest of the day, we had some of the all too typical indicators that the major content studios are going to continue acting like spoiled toddlers. Color me surprised... NOT!.
Tuesday morning had an article from Glyn Moody that hit close to home. Until my division was spun off and sold late last year, I was a programmer for LexisNexis (LN is a subsidiary of Reed-Elsevier). Despite my desire for the company to prosper so I could continue to receive a paycheck, the Elsevier publishing division was always one I delighted seeing in decline. I firmly believe that, as a whole, mankind is better served through open and shared research. I, for one, hope this latest boycott and alternative publishing effort succeed. Of course, following that, we had more examples of clueless content owners and their overblown sense of entitlement.
Wednesday brought some stark reminders of just how broken our current system of government really is - especially that last one. Think about it - a Senator who is doing what he can to FIX some of the very serious problems in this country is being attacked for doing his job? We really need to get out of this "R vs. D" mentality and focus on the individual issues. If only we could get people to realize that you can agree with someone on one thing and disagree with them on everything else. Madness, I tell you!
Unfortunately, work intruded most severely on Thursday, but there were two standouts. First, I took great joy in seeing that Redbox is once again standing up to Warner Bros. and their ridiculous attempts to treat consumers like cattle. I often wonder if Hollywood will ever realize that people want to be entertained, but in a manner that fits their budget and time frame. All these machinations to alter how people spend their entertainment dollars isn't going to change that one bit. Of course, much like Chosen Reject, I find this fight fascinating and hope to see some updates down the road. On the flip side, it was distressing to see yet another politician ignoring his oath of office to defend the Constitution. Regardless of opinion or even how much of a potential jerk he could be, Josh Fox had a right to record the proceedings. This is another one that I will be trying to find some follow-up on.
Ahhh, Friday. End of the week for many and a day we spend looking forward to the weekend. First up is actually a comment from Suja where a minor replacement made for, in my opinion, a much more accurate set of statements. Next, we had Capitalist Lion Tamer warning reminding us just how close to a police state the US has become and that it's not likely to get better until it's too late. The portions noting the "War on Drugs" and the corresponding comments below reminded me of the first part of an anti-SOPA post on another blog I read:
The so-called war on drugs is a joke. A sick, sad, stupid joke. It didn't get rid of drugs, it didn't reduce drug use, or drug smuggling, or drug violence, or drug related deaths. It didn't, in fact, do a damned thing. All it does is keep a lot of law enforcement types employed chasing their tails.
While his language can be a bit rough around the edges, he has a rather succint way of putting things and is usually writing from personal experience. Finally, of course, what kind of a consumer would I be if I didn't at least mention the
Super Bowl. It's nice to see someone speaking up about the ridiculous overreach of the NFL. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go practice my 12oz curls and 5 yard dash (to the bathroom) for Sunday's game when I watch it on a friend's 60" flat screen.
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Popehat roundup of relevant posts
You must have missed Ken White's roundup of the discussion. With respect to the "public safety exception", it appears that may have been around since 1984 according to this former public defender.
Ken's roundup is worth checking out for further discussion of the topic.
tl;dr version: Yeah, probably a bad idea but far from "fatal" to any eventual case.
Re: Re:
Sometimes, this makes me wonder if it's not the governments fault. Much like a child in an abusive family can grow up to be an abuser themselves, our government running roughshod over our civil liberties for a decade plus have left people feeling somewhat powerless - or bullied. How have the powerless respond? By attempting to increase the power they have. Whether that's engaging in a road rage game of chicken a fellow motorist who cut you off, shooting up a populated area, or terrorizing fast food workers because they didn't make your sandwich the "right" way, it's all an attempt to exert more control. A lot of people are able to deal with it, but as the "bullying" continues by the government and even major corporations, the problem could just get worse and worse.
I know, it's wayyyyy out there as a theory and it's not even really that good, but I still think it's an interesting thought experiment.
Re: I have an idea how to fix this
I have a better idea. Just point out that under the guise of cybersecurity, the ATF get access to all Facebook comments about guns. That should set off the 2nd Ammendment crowd and this thing will get dropped in a heart beat...
/Food for thought
Re: Re: Re:
Ooops - looks like I left something out which caused you to make false assumptions. Let me rephrase something and see if it helps you at all:
Any creative product created by any "author" in my lifetime will never be available to me outside of copyright for use as a base or starting point to build something new.
Of course, you would have us believe that the original creator still deserves a major cut of any profits from the new work. You believe that the 2nd generation work couldn't possibly exist without the first. The point you're ignoring is that the 2nd creator puts just as much if not more effort into the 2nd generation work. If you disagree, then stop being a hypocrite and demand that the Ray Charles estate donate their proceeds to all the people Ray copied to become a star.
Re:
I love how you leave off the part of the Copyright Clause that says the way to promote the progress is to grant exclusive rights to authors. No doubt you'd erase that from the Constitution if you could. Best just to pretend it's not there, right?
I love how you leave off the part of the Copyright Clause that says "for a limited time". No doubt you'd erase that from the Constitution if you could. Best just to pretend it's not there, right?
Of course, I'm sure you'll reply that current copyright is limited. I disagree. While in the scope or frame of all of human history, life+70 is limited, but in terms of a single human lifespan, it's not. Any creative product created by any "author" in my lifetime will never be available to me outside of copyright. As far as my perspective is concerned, that's an infinite restriction, not "limited".
Re:
Seen on Fark recently: PETA... Proudly Euthanizing Thousands of Animals
And the link associated with the post goes to their official filing with the state of Virginia how they killed almost 90% of the animals they took in...
http://www.vi.virginia.gov/vdacs_ar/cgi-bin/Vdacs_search.cgi?link_select=facility&form= fac_select&fac_num=157&year=2012
So some intrepid Farker took the time to compare PETA to other humane/animal rescue outfits in VA and came up with this interesting post:
From the link, PETA Virginia's stats: 1,877 animals taken in, 1,675 euthanized, about 90%
Looking at the same source, for all humane societies (including PETA): 10,143 animals taken in, 2,519 euthanized, about 25%
That means that for non-PETA humane societies in Virginia, you're looking at 8,266 animals taken in and 844 animals euthanized, about 10%.
Why does PETA have a 90% euthanasia rate while the rest of the humane societies in Virginia combine for a 10% rate?
/Things that make you go hmmmm....
Re: Re: Re:
In Connecticut after 2011 the power companies started to care a little bit. With two major power outages just a couple months apart, the legislature stuck their nose into things and passed a law about penalties if more than 10% of their customers are out for more than 72 hours. For the last 2 years, they've actually been trimming and clearing lines. That's pretty much what prompted me to think of the idea.
Granted, a similar idea would be for follow up after a major storm. Since they're travelling the streets, have them report downed trees, wires, etc. Tie it in with a GPS location and perhaps a picture upload (via cell) and utility response time could increase dramatically.
Re:
If only the postal service with it's fleet of trucks that visit nearly every physical address in the entire country multiple times per week could be used in other ways. I mean, it's really too bad we don't have GPS units they could attach to them so that mapping companies could get really accurate GPS locations for addresses. Or if only someone could invent a camera system that you mount to the roof of a vehicle to take pictures of the road to get a street level view for mapping directions. And what local municipality could possibly want a service to report road and highway issues like serious potholes in the northeast or roads washed out in the southwest. And, of course, there's no way a power company would want to license a fleet like that to help get a complete survey of their power lines looking for dead/weak trees and obstructions. I doubt even a communications company like AT&T or Comcast would want that either.
Such a tragedy...
Re:
And I'm sure that he got whatever sickness from Juan Epstein too...
They could have at least....
Ya know... those lobbyists should have at least spoofed their IP addresses before posting... :-)
Re: Re:
Yeah, but I already trademarked using the word "their" for situations when used in place of "they're" and based on your previous post, you need to pay up... peasant :-)
Re: Hmm.. Not really.
Reading comprehension is a wonderful thing:
Especially troubling is that, as TorrentFreak reveals in the latest post on this, at least Verizon's responses will apply to businesses as well.
And from the TorrentFreak article itself:
Finally, TorrentFreak also confirmed that the alerts outlined above will also apply to business customers.
In other words, for Verizon customers, it won't matter if you have a residential or business account. 4-5 ACCUSATIONS (whether true or false) and poof - no more viable Internet connection.
Vote
For those interested, here's the officially recorded vote:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&a mp;session=2&vote=00236
Publicity rights...
This will certainly be fun when someone's random celebrity shot from the streets of LA gets used as an ad and a publicity rights lawsuit filed. That's sort of the point raised by non-user Wil Wheaton in his blog. He doesn't use the service, but does he now have to worry about how people around him use it? Of course, he also admits he's not likely "big" enough for it to be a concern for him, but that he knows people for whom it will be.
Should be fun to watch corporate IP grab run headlong into entertainment IP grab... lol
Re:
You think it was bad in the media? You should see what it's like "on the ground". I live within 15 miles of the school and had to disconnect for a good portion of the weekend. The rampant speculation, fear mongering and general bad information was hard to deal with. So many people spouting so much crap.
I'm just glad my kids were able to handle a rational discussion of what happened and aren't falling into the general atmosphere of panic that seems to be surrounding the area. Heck, just this morning schools in another town were put on lockdown because of a "stranger walking with a rifle". Turned out to be an umbrella. Imagine that - a guy carrying an umbrella on a rainy day...
You missed a point too...
It's obvious most of the people posting that drivel were NOT looking to protect creative work, but instead trying to prevent the use of their personal info for marketing purposes. They used copyright because they are starting to realize just how massive and scary weapon it has become. In their panic over the fear that Facebook might do something "evil", they jumped on a bandwagon. Too bad it was full of crap... lol
Kay: A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.
Re:
This is a point that we keep making and they keep ignoring. Most movie studios won't stop to consider it either. If you put some real numbers behind it, it's even more obvious though:
- Price for 1 adult ticket at local movie house = $13
- Snacks because I'm not a sneak and buy there = $7.50
- Gas to and fro = $1 (I live close by)
So, for ~2 hours of entertainment + ~10 hours of conversations with friends, I have to spend $21.50. Of course, I could spend just $19.99 in the Blizzard store and get the WoW Battle Chest and a full month of game time which would yield dozens of hours of entertainment along with dozens of hours of conversation with friends. Hmm... which is the better deal? Even better, if I wasn't all that interested in the movie, I can wait until it comes out on TV and watch it for free.
So why again does a $100 million movie budget count?
Important to remember
The deeper point here that gets lost in the lack of merit in this suit is that if the copyright maximalists succeed, this will become a very common occurrence. For every suit the entertainment conglomerates file, they'll be defending a dozen as more and more people subscribe to their version of "copyright". Makes you wonder if they'll go screaming to Congress to get the changes backed out at that point. I doubt it, but you never know.
I wonder...
This makes me wonder if the reviewers have paid for an appropriate license to discuss the music in the first place... or if an enterprising musician has considered that angle yet... lol
LMAO...
Good luck getting ANY publicly traded company to look beyond next quarters financial statements. With a fear of "shareholder lawsuits", HFT systems and a shareholder preference for short term profits over long term investment, it's doubtful any company would be willing to risk a long-term approach to growth.
/just one guys opinion