Tony E 's Techdirt Comments
Latest Comments (13)
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On the post: Sports Radio Blowhard Blowhards After Parody Twitter Account
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On the post: David Letterman And Joaquin Phoenix Discuss Fair Use As Letterman Threatens To Sue
Tony E ( profile ), 24 Sep, 2010 @ 09:50pmIs this article a hoax?
I kind of feel like this article and others covering this story are trying to make news where there is none. There was clearly a bunch of joking around going on. Letterman laughs and says "he's a good kid" at the end of the clip as is fades out.
No, the mention of fair use "and such" doesn't really mean he was seriously pursuing a lawsuit at any point. It seems like Dave was just getting him back and intentionally trying to make him squirm. I don't really even feel like Phoenix's squirming was very genuine. -
On the post: HDCP 'Master Key' Found? Another Form Of DRM Drops Dead
Tony E ( profile ), 20 Sep, 2010 @ 09:13amBill's apology
Bill's "apology" is on his website as follows:
*I made a comment on a popular tech blog that there wasn?t a single master key. My comment was incorrect. At the time, I did not properly understand the nature of the hack, and I did not make the distinction between master keys that are actually present on client devices by design (a la DVDs and CSS) versus those that are designed to exist only within the confines of the root-of-trust facility (DCP in the cast of HDCP). However, the author of this blog piece also failed to make that distinction and generally under-researched and mischaracterized the hack, in his usual fashion. For that reason, I won?t name the blog or author. -
On the post: That Whole Watch An Ad To Get Content Thing? Patented… And The Patent Holder Has Been Suing
Tony E ( profile ), 02 Oct, 2009 @ 12:40pmSue the USPTO
Seems like all these companies that are getting sued over these ridiculous patents should band together and sue the USPTO for allowing these patents that essentially cause them to get sued.
I know this sounds a little bit like conspiracy, but maybe this whole thing is a racket set up by the gov't. Maybe they are allowing all these ridiculous patents to go through so they can collect all the fees and taxes that go along with filing for a patent, lawsuits, etc.
Just throwin it out there... -
On the post: Congress Moving Forward On 'P2P' Warning Law
Tony E ( profile ), 01 Oct, 2009 @ 07:11pmJust contacted my rep
I just used washingtonwatch.com to find the email for my rep and sent her a message about it. Hopefully this doesn't go through, we don't need the RIAA legislating our software. As far as I'm concerned, we don't need the RIAA at all (as I'm sure most of the rest of the Techdirt community feels).
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On the post: Part Of The Reason To Buy Is Actually Asking For Money
Tony E ( profile ), 30 Sep, 2009 @ 02:07pmShe sounds like a badass
Amanda Palmer sounds like such a badass. Where are the rest of the badass ladies these days? I like her style. Instead of saying "I'm sorry for offending you with my talk of monies" she comes right out and says "Look, I didn't mean to hurt your marketing-sensitive ears and eyes, but we don't 'market' here, we sell music and music accessories."
I recently emailed AT&T something along the lines of "Why can't you, a giant cell company, offer service at the same price as Boost even though they are relatively tiny compared to you?" (Sorry, I know this sounds like advertising. I apologize.) Frankly, I'm sick of paying them for what I feel is very poor service.
Anyway, I got a marketing response rather than a human response. "We offer rollover, we offer 3G, we offer free back rubs for long term customers blah blah blah" It was this long, inane description of everything I already don't care about. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm glad the artists have to be their own 'marketers' now, because I'm sick of the candy-coating that goes with professional marketing. It's not $14.95, it's $15!
Amanda Palmer, keep on being a badass!
[end rant] -
On the post: Musicians Are Never Just About The Music
Tony E ( profile ), 18 Sep, 2009 @ 09:42pmMaybe it's the love of the music...
...that drives these musicians to be self-marketing businesspeople. [For the tl/dr crowd, skip to the end] You've got your musicians that do it part time (have a day job), you've got your musicians that "sell out" and make the music they're told to, and you've got musicians good enough to do what they want and still make money.
Musicians that do it part time either aren't good enough at the business side, aren't good enough at the music side (or both), or aren't willing to sell out to let someone else handle the business side.
Those that sell out are, I think, viewed as being in it for the money. Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that, but the integrity just isn't there. To some people the integrity is important, and I tend not to support artists that don't have integrity. (Side note: this isn't me making a judgment on these artists or their fans. If you like music that I consider to have no integrity, too bad for me. At least you enjoy it.)
The musicians that are good enough to do what they want either have a label behind them (that they have to fight with and make compromises with like doing ads or compilations) or they have to be their own manager and promoter.
Here's where I'm going with this long, rambling post: the title is "Musicians are Never Just About the Music." This struck a chord with me (bad pun, yay!) because I have this naive, fairy-tale notion of artists with integrity (I also believe in people who don't like to lie, zombies, AND unicorns!) Blah blah blah, point is that maybe the ones who are willing to make calls, schedule their own gigs, answer emails, blog comments, Twitter, Myspace, etc. (be their own manager) are the ones with the most integrity. So I guess what I'm saying is that these are the musicians that are MOST about the music.
For the tl/dr crowd: Maybe the musicians that act as their own label (do their own managing and promotion) are truly those that are most "about the music." -
On the post: Recording Industry Helps Rapper/Single Mom Get A PhD, Though It Tried To Weasel Out
Tony E ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2009 @ 05:55pmWarner Music did no good.
If they fought to not have to pay for her schooling though they had a contractual agreement, they did no good. They lived up to their word after trying to break it--repeatedly. I realize that the point of the article isn't to make Warner Music look good by any means, but saying that they did any good is sort of a bastardization of the notion of "doing good."
Doing good means doing the right thing for the right reason, and they tried to do wrong but got caught. Warner Music basically "did good" to save face and most likely a hell of a lot more money than they would have by continuing to fight her.
Way to do the right thing, Warner! -
On the post: Does Google Need An Ombudsman?
Tony E ( profile ), 03 Mar, 2009 @ 12:11pmIt's a Conspiracy!
This reminds me of a conspiracy theory that I heard. So Google is secretly a government-owned company that's collecting data on the people that use Google services. I don't know much more about the theory than that, but I assume that they're going to be using this data for evil or something...?
A little more on topic: it couldn't hurt their image to be somewhat reachable. I think those who feel that such a team would be overrun with complaints aren't looking at the situation realistically. I mean obviously they'll be overrun with complaints, but you certainly don't have to respond to them. There's no obligation to respond to the BS, so it seems like a pretty simple solution to ignore it and focus on real issues. -
On the post: Phishing Scammer Gets Seven Years
Tony E ( profile ), 18 Aug, 2008 @ 11:21amSeems a bit backwards
To me, it seems like giving first-offense rapists 3 years and a password stealer 7 years is saying "we'd rather you rape someone than steal some passwords." However, I'm not trying to turn this into a rape discussion, but it just seems... off.
Anywho, I'm glad that this did happen. The sentence doesn't seem HIGHLY unreasonable, though (like many have said) you'd think it were super harsh when compared to rape.
Also, to the "I take great exception" poster. You sound like a prison guard or a cop or something. Not everything deserves 20 to life. We are tiny cogs in this huge society, and the last thing anyone wants to do is cooperate with another person without some kind of benefit. You shouldn't be at all surprised that people are committing crimes to "get ahead" when you can't even get someone to hold the door for you in public.
Prison isn't supposed to be punishment, anyway, it's for rehabilitation. Oddly, I really have never seen that aspect of it. -
On the post: Infrared Spy Plane Leads To Police Officer's House Getting Raided Over Poor Insulation
Tony E ( profile ), 06 Aug, 2008 @ 07:41amThis is a great example.
I believe there was another post in which all the Commenters were debating the merits of the phrase 'if you aren't doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to fear,' regarding lack of privacy, government snooping, etc.
This is a perfect example. It seems as though she's got nothing to fear, but the police seemed to (incorrectly) think so. It appears that she didn't get in trouble but I really hope she was more pissed off about this than "honest mistake, mate." Not only was she harassed by the police, but she worked with and knew them.
Also, this is a great example of some lying authorities. "We are going to, get this, scan your house FOR FREE to see where heat may be leaking. Also, we are going to check for other things (for free, too!) but you don't need to worry about that unless we raid you. For free!" -
On the post: ER Doctors Warn About Walking While Texting; When Will We Start Seeing Laws?
Tony E ( profile ), 31 Jul, 2008 @ 12:42pmA Lack of Surprise
I was anything but surprised when I clicked the link in the update for this article. I live in Illinois, and I just can't wait to see this hit the opinion section of my local paper. I mean honestly, I can agree that this is a problem, but I don't think a new law is a good solution. We need to stop making up fines for everything bad we do, because, and I know this might sound paranoid, but police (as well as the rest of the gov't) already have enough reasons to harass people. Maybe the idea of putting signs up at crosswalks isn't a bad idea, but it seems unnecessarily costly. If we, as intelligent and creative humans *ahem*, can't use technology to save us from (ironically) technology, then we might as well quit using it. Let's use our GPS capabilities to tell our phones when we are about to cross a street so the phone can print the message "LOOK UP!" if we happen to be texting. In fact, with all the facial recognition advancements, we could just make phones so they "know" when you're looking at them. Yeah, I know that sound ridiculous, and it does to me, too. It sounds as ridiculous as making it illegal to walk and text at the same time. Maybe, just maybe I'm walking and texting because I'm walking towards a bomb I have to disarm for someone and at the same time texting a doctor what he could use to save Batman from a deadly poison. Or maybe not.
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On the post: Italy Wants To Put Google Execs In Jail Over Uploaded Video
Tony E ( profile ), 25 Jul, 2008 @ 04:15pmJust one thing...
This is like suing a business for getting tagged with racist graffiti.
TIL who Mike Francesa is
I don't follow sports ball, but this guy is a treasure. The continued stories of people streisanding, you have to wonder if their PR people haven't caught on or if these cases are the 0.1% that are slipping past said PR people. Sometimes I can't believe the amount of stories I see that involve people calling attention to their own personal secrets.
Or does Francesa actually think that he's big enough that he can stop someone from parodying him with even a weak threat like that?