Mighty Buzzard's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
from the short-and-sweet dept
It's been a heck of a busy month or two for copyright. We've had SOPA and PIPA. We've had the organization of a grassroots campaign against them. We had a significant number of serious heavyweights of the Internet join in. And now we have nations around Europe bailing on ACTA over protests of their citizens.
My question is, why? Why do we have to see stories like this:
Over 70 different groups, including many who were central to the January 18th online protests against SOPA, have put together a letter asking Congress to put a halt to any attempts to further expand intellectual property laws.
The movie industry has one main lobby that they can put all their weight behind. So does the recording industry. Why don't we have one?
And why are these yahoos still supporting bills that they know are poison? I thought they were supposed to be realizing that it wasn't Google lobbying that stopped SOPA/PIPA.
Anyway, those aren't necessarily my favorite Techdirt stories of the week but they are the ones that made me think the most. I consider that a bigger win than a good chuckle or a burn on Righthaven.
Re: Re: 12345
What the shit?
Re: 12345
"...everybody in the car so come on let's ride, to the liquor store around the corner."
Sage advice in these times.
Re: Re: May be record time for a Techdirt anomaly fizzling.
He doesn't hate it. He absolutely luuuurves it. Trolls need an audience for their hobby or it's just them pointlessly being a dick all by themselves.
Re:
They would have already had that rude awakening if it weren't for this one holdup. We can't agree which of the bastards will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.
Re: Re: Common MMO problem...
By the time their software goes out of copyright, everyone who even remembers that it existed will be long dead.
Re:
Convince her the Congressional Way, pay her.
Re: Re:
I'd say closer to 50 years. I don't think they're efficient enough to do it in 20.
(untitled comment)
Eh, I'm not particularly upset by this request. With a colo server or two, it's quite possible to commit any number of crimes within the borders of a nation that you've never been to physically and have no one acting as a representative in.
Good on Dotcom for finding the loophole but, last I checked, we were big on paying attention to unintended consequences around here and leaving the law as it stands has plenty of them.
There are plenty of unintended consequences to be had to saying all US laws apply to any company with any hardware located in the US too though. This mess needs some very careful wording to straighten out.
(untitled comment)
Yesterday via Twitter:
@NathanFillion "@PirateKnits:Captain, looking to unload illegal hats. pic.twitter.com/fR1V0wJA9b" You got a job? We'll do it. Don't much care what it is
(untitled comment)
tl;dr Don't selv-censor because this kind of stuff should never be shown, self-censor because this is not the kind of stuff we want to be known for showing.
Re:
I don't really give a happy damn if it entirely kills their market. That's capitalism. Provide something worth paying for or GTFO.
If they're stand-up businessmen, they'll do like you suggest and build their business around providing value on top of what's available for free. If they're douchebags, they'll try to go the legislative protection route. If they're idiots, they'll keep doing the same thing and go bankrupt.
I honestly don't care which they pick aside from the legislative protection route. If they succeed, they get fat wads of cash for being useful to society. If they fail, someone else will be happy to take our money in their place. As long as there's no protectionism going on, everyone who's not either bloody stupid or a greedy fucktard wins.
Re:
The Xerox Star was the first personal computer released with a mouse in 81. The Apple Lisa came along in 82, I think, as the second one to include a mouse. The VIC-20 hit the shelves in 80.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Unless you've somehow been literally getting tangled up in your mouse cable (how would you even manage that?) you're coming at it from a strictly aesthetic standpoint. Aesthetics can be nifty but they are by definition not useful.
Re:
It's slow. It's cumbersome. It's not even on the same order of magnitude of precision as a mouse. It can't even begin to compare with the keyboard in range of input.
It's a gimmick that may prove useful in some limited ways but that's all.
Re: Re:
Okay, I'll grant you that not having to take the mouse apart to clean it was a big improvement.
Wireless though? Unless you have a specific need for it, all you get is a slightly less responsive mouse that now needs batteries. I'll even be nice and count the "oooh, shiny and new! must have!" crowd under specific need.
(untitled comment)
There've been exactly three useful innovations as far as the mouse is concerned since it was invented.
Everything else is either changing how it plugs into the computer, cosmetic, or extra features that approximately five people in the world find useful.
I'm not saying that it can never be improved upon. It's going to damned near take divine inspiration though because the humble scroll mouse is very close to perfect for its job.
Re:
That's a good sign. You're not that far off from realizing nothing they say is in any way true and should they actually keep a promise it was simply a coincidence that someone paid them to.
(untitled comment)
No thank you. When I buy a book, I take the book, you take the money, and there ends the entirety of our interaction.
I'm not interested in interactivity of any kind in my books. Not even if it saves me a few bucks on shitty books that I'd DNF. I don't care for my books to report anything back to anyone for any reason.
Re:
When Microsoft started using it? Not so much. It did get ruled generic later though which is why everything is either Microsoft Windows or just Microsoft now.
Re:
Not referring to computers, it hadn't. That's a crucial bit of factage there.