David Good’s Techdirt Profile

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  • Mar 13th, 2013 @ 10:08am

    He paid for this...

    I love how his tirade is over a show that is on cable tv - oh wait, he actually bought comic books, too. So he not only paid for his cable tv or netflix viewing, he actually spent money on the comics as well.

    Walking Dead is on cable TV. It's not easily consumed unless you've paid money for the right to see it on AMC. So I have difficulty with the idea that we should censor something that has a pay wall around it already.

  • Nov 16th, 2012 @ 8:04am

    I use high speed every day

    I work from home, doing tech support for a software company. I use high speed internet every day for my job because I use screen sharing software to see customer's computers and it takes a lot of bandwidth to use it. I can always tell when a customer has high speed and when they don't, the people that don't have a severe lag loading the software and even for simple mouse clicks.

    Sure, maybe the everyday use of super high-speeds wouldn't be apparent, but 15 years ago everyone was saving software installers on their hard disks in case they needed them again. Today we just redownload the latest thing. Did anyone envision that 15 years ago?

    What will we be doing with our computers in 5 or 10 years that we can't begin to envision today? We need to continue to support those innovations with infrastructure.

  • Aug 21st, 2012 @ 10:13am

    Wait, really?

    Did anyone bother to tell the CBS lawyers that they copied Big Brother from a Dutch television show from 1997? That three years before Big Brother aired on CBS there was prior art in Europe? Doesn't seem to me CBS has much to stand on in this lawsuit.

    For that matter, why aren't George Orwell's descendants suing CBS?

  • Nov 4th, 2011 @ 7:59am

    No, this is more like recipes

    This is like how recipes are treated under copyright. You cannot copyright a recipe, but you can copyright a cookbook or collection of recipes. That is probably how porn will work out - you cannot copyright a position because prior art exists. But you can copyright the combination of a script, footage, etc.

  • Aug 3rd, 2011 @ 5:13pm

    (untitled comment)

    Legislation in the past has been so specific that when new things were invented, it failed to take new technology into account.

    Therefore, when "hacking" and "identity theft" legislations were enacted, they were intentionally broad, to cover things that had not yet been invented. Unfortunately, this means people playing "jokes" with no real victim are made into felons.

    By this legislation, if I let my niece send farmville gifts to herself using my facebook, she could be charged with a felony. I agree, that's ridiculous. But it's the law, and it's law enforcement's job to execute the laws our legislators write.

    So if you think the legislation enabling this to be a felony sucks, you need to contact your legislators.

  • Aug 3rd, 2011 @ 5:01pm

    Inappropriate? Creepy? Maybe.

    Well, the fact that it was in school and the footage was surveillance cameras says it won't go far. That means the footage belongs to the school. He showed it to other teachers? Well, wouldn't it be infinitely creepier if he didn't? I mean, let's take doctors for example. If a doctor is examining a patient of the opposite sex, I believe they are required to have another person present (such as a nurse). So, I think it would be worse if the principal watched the video by himself.

    The comments were inapproprate for sure, but I don't know if he should lose his job.

  • Jul 25th, 2011 @ 9:34am

    (untitled comment)

    It's not clear to me, did Sony expect their insurer to cover losses or penalties related to them being sued in the aftermath of the hacking? Or was Sony expecting the insurer to pay for the system upgrades to fix the security holes that was Sony's fault? Or did they expect Zurich to pay for their income loss for the month they had the network offline?

  • Jun 29th, 2011 @ 9:49am

    (untitled comment)

    She knows this isn't a children's book, right? Children aren't going to Barnes & Noble and buying this book. Adults have to perform that task. If children have access to the book, then that's bad parenting.

  • Jun 28th, 2011 @ 9:07am

    First ammendment

    I think the bigger issue here is that the DMCA blatantly violates the First Amendment. It's sort of like the law restricting the export of encryption software, but if you print the algorithm on a T-shirt you can walk across the US/Canada border with no problem while wearing it.

  • Jun 28th, 2011 @ 9:02am

    Don't forget...

    Don't forget to credit Techdirt for hosting your post, or Mike for creating Techdirt. Or wait, maybe you should credit the inventors of the Web technology. Should you credit the creator of the canvas on which the Beethoven portrait was painted? What about the instructor who taught the artist?

  • Jun 27th, 2011 @ 8:23am

    It comes down to money

    A company like Telstra has investors, and if it doesn't, it has clients who have investors. By agreeing to censorship and potentially opening themselves up to retribution, they risk the stock prices of their investors should the hacking have an impact.

    So while their backpedalling may seem like they are scared of hackers, it's as close as they are going to get to saving face in the light of the possibility that a decision based on PR could affect them in the pocketbook.

  • Jun 7th, 2011 @ 11:31am

    Bye bye Taiwan

    I'm thinking this will result in a few things.

    1. Apple and Google will close online marketplaces from being available in Taiwan.

    2. A seperate store will be opened that will have a smaller selections of apps that can have trial versions implemented, a subset of what is available on the full store.

    3. Public outcry will reverse the ruling altogether.

  • May 23rd, 2011 @ 10:24am

    (untitled comment)

    My mom was a musician and piracy didn't kill her. Leukemia did.

  • May 19th, 2011 @ 8:44am

    Perhaps if it was optional?

    Maybe instead of requiring this, if there was some sort of privacy certification from a private organization or the state, like "Certified to be Privacy Safe". Then in order to receive the certification, said site would have to meet whatever the default criteria was - like having privacy on by default.

    But I think requiring social media to be private by default would be onerous and unenforceable.

  • May 18th, 2011 @ 1:35pm

    Carry laws

    Apparently in Pennsylvania it's legal to open carry, but in "cities of the first class" such as Philadelphia, a license is required. The officer was apparently ignorant of that.

  • Apr 4th, 2011 @ 10:44pm

    Re: Google search

    I'm inclined to agree. Any time I've searched for torrents, Google has not been the ideal search engine for me. I usually use another product.

    But that's not saying the article is inaccurate. It's just saying that it was proven badly.

  • Mar 14th, 2011 @ 12:37pm

    Binary

    This fascinates me because it's how binary is converted to decimal. It makes me think that instructors who come from a computer age realize it is a better way to teach multiplication and at the same time prepare students for working with binary.

  • Mar 14th, 2011 @ 12:22pm

    Math mistakes

    Easy. No one pays attention to a result that is favorable. Why recheck your math when the result is what you were expecting?

    Rechecking your result would be an additional expense and we all know the TSA is a low-bid organization.

  • Mar 9th, 2011 @ 11:04pm

    Ridiculous

    This is very straightforward. Unless he had a contract stipulating otherwise, Ainsworth did the work for hire, so Lucas owns the property.

    There's no evidence Ainsworth created the costumes independently then sold them to Lucas. Lucas hired him to specifically make them. So Ainsworth does not own the copyright on the costumes or merchandise. It all belongs to Lucas, who hired Ainsworth to make them.

  • Jan 26th, 2011 @ 11:22pm

    Re: do not track feature

    Most? Really, I am interested in what your definition of "most" is. A quick glance at Wikipedia reveals there are literally dozens of web browsers, and those are just the ones currently available. And what, 7 of them are listed as having "privacy" features? Oh yeah. That is soooo most.

    Wait, let's limit your comment to modern browsers (I'll be generous). Private browsing wasn't added to Explorer until IE8, wasn't in Firefox until 3.5, wasn't in Chrome until version 4. I don't want to go into how many people are using mobile browsers (God knows what's being passed over those connections), or how many people continue to use Opera on their Wii because they have no choice.

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