Blaktron's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
from the with-a-tribute-thrown-in dept
When Mike asked me to write this weeks favorites post, it was a week like any other. The TSA was harassing the innocent over something ridiculous, another patent troll was suing over using WiFi, and another collection society unilaterally raising fees simply because they can.
It wasn't all bad news at the start of the week, with the US Supreme Court refusing to hear ASCAP's golden case, and let stand that downloading music does not require an extra fee, just to them. Brazil drafted a fairly decent looking framework for internet rights, although who knows if that will go anywhere. And a former MPAA PI spilled the beans on a bunch of stuff we all know is happening, but cant do anything about.
Wednesday started out with Princeton University fighting back against the academic journal monopoly on what should be freely available human knowledge, but went downhill from there with the reports on the Hadopi program going into full swing, the RIAA pissing on the 4th amendment, and the MPAA revelling in the theft of content from the public.
But then, everything changed and the unthinkable happened. The tech industry lost our first genuine hero. I know everyone is probably sick of the reflections on all the ways Steve Jobs changed our world, but Mike gave me the soapbox, and now I'm going to use this opportunity to highlight some important lessons the last 36 years have taught us. Brilliant innovation comes in many forms, only a few genuine geniuses can ever predict what the future can hold, and even that genius is going to be working 90 hours a week for years and years before he can change the world. But change the world he can and, love him or hate him, when Steve spoke, history shook. No one in my lifetime has changed the world over and over again like Steven P. Jobs. I sit here using a product that exists because even after he was laughed out of every bank and VC in northern California, he still knew that every man, woman and child on planet earth deserved a computer, and we owe so much to him. I'm a Windows/Android 'fanboy' personally, but even if you hate iPhones and patent suits, I would like you to take a moment to think about what your life would have been without the Apple II and the Macintosh. I promise you it would be dimmer.
Since that fateful moment Wednesday evening, which I believe I will remember as my parents remembered Kennedy's assassination, there have been more stories on the ridiculousness of our "Intellectual Property" situation here, with a judge doubling the royalties in a patent case for "lack of respect" for the patent system. I mean, how could you not respect such unilateral, undemocratic decision making in the courts? Even stupider is Astrolabe (no name jokes, even though they write themselves) claiming it owns the copyright on Timezone data. Really? I wonder what the Royal Observatory has to say about that, seeing as if you can copyright that data, a lot of folks owe them about 350 years of royalties.
The week capped off with the news that France had outlawed mod chips. Which made me wonder: "People still use mod chips? So many better ways to pirate games today…" Then the controversial charitable donation by Microsoft, where they can give away a billion dollars and people STILL criticize them for that. Unbelievable. But anyway, still more unbelievable is that someone thinks it is possible to copyright a 500 year old painting (or a picture of that, and nothing else). Also, politicians in Norway thinking that censorship is the answer to entertaining their people. Really? Because people have traditionally always loved censored art. I just don't understand why taking things away from your customers is a good way to sell them something. I'm no salesman, but when I buy a car, the shifty stranger trying to get my money doesn't try to take it by telling me all the things he refuses to give me. Maybe they need more used car salesmen and less lawyers down there in California, but that's not for me to say.
It's been a hell of a week in the tech world, and the world seems a little less bright without Jobs in it, but at least his innovative spirit lives on, in the computers we type on and the phones we swipe on. Rest differently, Mr Jobs, since we all live differently because of your touch. Thank you for the PC, the GUI, the computer-animated feature film and the idea that being a geek can be cool.
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I work for a major research university, and as staff I dont even have to turn over anything I create while on the job, so I'm pretty sure we wont be trying anything like that with students... I think its less notable than you think Mike, and I think universities should get credit for that. Every private sector job I've had has wanted to own my work creations, but the public sector does not.
Re: Re: and
This is the point most people miss. Steam *IS* bullshit DRM, its just invisible to the User (which is why we dont consider it such), but it meets the technical 'requirements' for all the DRM out there.
Re: Edison the pirate.
Read the Trusted Computing memo from 2002 and realize that we owe the modern workings of the world to Gates. Without that memo (and MS changing total direction on the head of a dime) for the fact that ecommerce works, that email is relatively secure, and that intellectual property can exist at all on a computer.
Re: Re: Re: Sadly the exact opposite is almost always true.
Ugh, even your interpretation of history is wrong. Both Jobs and Gates got the idea for a GUI from Xerox at similar times, but Jobs actually got the inner workings of the mouse for free, which Gates had to steal from Jobs. Also, MS started writing code for the Altair, and they didnt even start working with Apple until Jobs needed to license BASIC.
History, its awesome.
Re: Re: What about the twins?
Zuckerberg was a psychology / comp sci student, specializing in social technology. The very notion that a couple of sports majors (sorry, law) came up with the idea for facebook is retarded. The only idea that was even theirs was exclusivity, which has been gone since late '06. Friendster and Hi5 were doing the Winklevoss idea back in '03 (minus the Harvard connection *wink wink*)
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"I'm curious as to how exactly this would work. I think there are lots of companies that would love to sell games online. However, this could be really, really difficult to work in practice, and create some problems, depending on what the overall goals are. It would be nice, of course, if you could come up with a perfect system to sell games online, but getting people to pay without getting anything can often be much more difficult in practice than in theory."
-- Everyone but Valve, 2002
Re: Re:
Why? What if an open standard ends up costing more than a closed one (which they frequently do). This is the same open-source vs closed-source software debate, where each has its advantages and disadvantages, but blanket decisions to use one or the other are ALWAYS wrong. The best tool for the job should be used, not the one that 'feels best'.
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Right. RF standards are the old ones (TCP for example). The FRAND standards used include MPEG, FAT, 802.11, x86 etc. Find me a processor architecture that is royalty free, and then start talking.
Re: De minimis or not...
The idea that a single function or line of code can be copywritten is fundamentally flawed. Its like saying someone can copyright a word or a sentence. I can understand a copyright on an entire program if its complex enough, but single functions?
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They think Piracy is destroying all business, so more competitors piracy = faster dying competitors in their minds.
Little do they know they are only helping to put their competition in front of prospective buyers....
Re: Re:
Actually, a more accurate way of looking at it than 'theres is plenty of legitimate content on TBP', is that there is NO content on TPB, legitimate or otherwise.
Re: Re: Re:
Apple claimed there are 500 000 iOS developers in the US. Thats actually true.
And I think Apple lies more than most, just not about that.
Re:
OK. Seeing as there are MANY more tech companies than movie studios and recording companies, each of them employing a geometrically higher number of workers, I would say thats a fair estimate. I know in most countries, high tech outnumbers entertainment more than 10 to 1 (mostly because the US has a near monopoly on world-wide entertainment products).
Although the Entertainment industry does employ a sizeable number of lobbyists, which might be the data you're looking at.
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I think a better way to put it is: "On the supply/demand curve, the studios are trying to restrict supply instead of increase demand."
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As corporations the label's first (and only) responsibility is to their shareholders, this is clearly set forth in common law. Why they get away with pretending any different is beyond me. This responsibility puts them at direct odds with artists they represent, and makes it a corporate responsibility to withhold monies from artists.
This is the world we live in...
I'm pretty sure...
.. the most egregious threat to air traffic safety is putting the TSA in charge of it.
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Mike, you know this meets the textbook definitions of 'cyber-bullying' I've seen bandied about in your insane country... better watch yourself ;)
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Ummmm no? If my reply comes across as angry to you, you are missing the actual target of that anger, which is Ubisoft. I thought it was a good article when I wrote my first response, I was highlighting the fact that always on DRM is a bigger problem than just requiring a pingable connection to Ubisoft, but needing a robust, open connection to even work.
Re: Re:
Damn, no I did not. My apologies Zach, good article.
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It actually does more than ping a DRM server Mike, and thats an important distinction. It actually authenticates with an encrypted handshake, which means you can't play under lots of network conditions outside of the player's control. For example, you wouldn't be able to play on any connection only allowing port 80, like many public internet connections like hotels and libraries.
Also by even setting up such a service, Ubisoft most likely has another internet-facing server with access to a database containing customer information, which would be just another place where hackers could potentially steal data.