Jay 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Adding Insult To Injury: Companies DOJ Says That China Hacked Now Facing Probes Over Failure To Disclose

    Jay ( profile ), 23 May, 2014 @ 07:07pm

    Who paid them off?

    Maybe I'm cynical, but this seems like a calculated move to expose a company that the DoJ doesn't view in high favor.

    Why go into this unless there was a benefit for them?

    The only thing that the DoJ seems to protect are large banks and I'm aware that some of the big banks have investments in metals and commodities.

    Could this be a favor for other corporations?

  • On the post: Ladar Levison Explains How The US Legal System Was Stacked Against Lavabit

    Jay ( profile ), 22 May, 2014 @ 08:45pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: How do we fix it?

    That's one of the many contradictions from right wing thinking...

  • On the post: The End Of Maximalist Copyright?

    Jay ( profile ), 21 May, 2014 @ 01:56pm

    Re: Re: Silly Humans...

    Not gonna work...

    The companies that want less copyright are too convinced of the maximalist point of view, even if it hurts their bottom line.

    If Pandora, Netflix, Google, etc were to rise up against Hollywood, it would be a very tenable relation of small businesses with a large number of conflicts in hoping to minimize Hollywood's influence.

    I'd consider the copyright position to be a Game of Thrones. There's plenty of people jockeying for position, and everyone is hoping not to be on the low end of the totem pole.

  • On the post: Congressional Reps Signing Sympathy-For-The-Cable-Industry Letter Received More Than Twice As Much Funding From Cable Lobbyists

    Jay ( profile ), 21 May, 2014 @ 06:41am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Oh look, he's back...

    The fox guarding the henhouse. But while focused on that, why ignore the immense pressie that can come from ground movements to cause the government to act differently?

  • On the post: Ladar Levison Explains How The US Legal System Was Stacked Against Lavabit

    Jay ( profile ), 20 May, 2014 @ 08:39pm

    Re: Re: How do we fix it?

    You mean the type of thinking that hasn't worked since Reagan?

  • On the post: Congressional Reps Signing Sympathy-For-The-Cable-Industry Letter Received More Than Twice As Much Funding From Cable Lobbyists

    Jay ( profile ), 20 May, 2014 @ 05:02pm

    Re: Re: Oh look, he's back...

    The US won't get those broadband capabilities until the monopoly rents of copyright infringement, monopolization of infrastructure, and this push for microtransactions on cable bills is stopped and people push for more competition.

    Breaking up the Comcast/TWC and other big monopolies could help, but so can breaking up other large companies that continue to poison the well of democracy for their own selfish agendas.

    This is truly ridiculous...

    Why should I believe that these companies need more money when they can't even give what they promised in the first place?

  • On the post: DOJ's Tone Deaf Criminal Charges Against Chinese Hackers Helps No One, Opens US Officials Up To Similar Charges

    Jay ( profile ), 20 May, 2014 @ 04:49pm

    ... Really?

    The DoJ went full retard...

    Never go full retard...

  • On the post: A Media Shield Law That Wouldn't Protect Glenn Greenwald Is Not A Media Shield Law; It's A Joke

    Jay ( profile ), 20 May, 2014 @ 02:32pm

    Really odd...

    It really doesn't matter about word technicalities here...

    "legitimate newsgathering" - is protected by the 1st Amendment

    "illegitimate" newsgathering - is protected by the 1st Amendment

    The plan is supposed to be that people have a right to talk about things that affect them in a free society.

    That bargain is over with and the people that made that commitment long gone. We're basically at the whip's end when so many people have ignored the lessons of what the 1st Amendment entails.

    If you can't protect someone's freedom to talk, their speech, it's not free. It comes at a cost. For those that care to report to the public, they have to know that they aren't being deceived. This law changes that notion. It moves to make the only speech, that of the government and its cronies.

    That is propaganda when people can't look at things objectively. Obviously, this can't be sustained. Love or hate the President, but this just seems like a very rough situation only going to get worse.

  • On the post: German Government Hires DC Law Firm To Threaten Its Own Parliament With Criminal Prosecution For Talking To Snowden

    Jay ( profile ), 12 May, 2014 @ 06:27am

    Re: This can't POSSIBLY backfire at all.

    Worse... Merkel doesn't have a lot of clout in the parliament since there are a lot of left wingers there and she has decided to piss them off.

    There might be some new alliances formed ousting her from her position in the future.

  • On the post: Cinemark Tosses Elderly Woman Out Of Theater, Claiming She Was Filming A Movie With Her Phone

    Jay ( profile ), 02 May, 2014 @ 06:53am

    Re: Re: A "great" idea to end movie piracy

    ... Where is the home copy tax in the law?

    Now I'm interested...

  • On the post: Cinemark Tosses Elderly Woman Out Of Theater, Claiming She Was Filming A Movie With Her Phone

    Jay ( profile ), 02 May, 2014 @ 01:56am

    But Mike...

    You just don't like copyright being enforced.

    That old lady had it coming!

  • On the post: 'Radical' Publisher Claims Copyright On Free Collection Of Marx And Engels Works; Orders Them Taken Down

    Jay ( profile ), 01 May, 2014 @ 03:00am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Delicious, delicious irony...

    Federal programs were enacted to aid the victims of an economic depression created by unfettered capitalism and an unregulated stock market.

    You just answered your own question.

  • On the post: Chase Bank Slutshames Their Adult Performer Customers

    Jay ( profile ), 30 Apr, 2014 @ 08:57am

    Re: Credit Unions?

    Still need to stop the government from supporting the failed bank system, but yes, a mass exodus to credit unions would be a great start.

  • On the post: 'Radical' Publisher Claims Copyright On Free Collection Of Marx And Engels Works; Orders Them Taken Down

    Jay ( profile ), 25 Apr, 2014 @ 09:19pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Delicious, delicious irony...

    Not really.

    Communism is a classless, stateless society. Meaning you don't have a rich or poor class.

    Stalinist Russia required a strong state which was akin to FDR's New Deal liberalism. Further, you didn't give the workers their revolution in Russia since they weren't in charge of the businesses, but the government officials were. That's actually state capitalism, which again is the same as FDR's New Deal.

    What Marx meant when he discussed communism was that you had to go through a transitional phase which he termed "Socialism", whereby the worker class owned the means of production. After such a transition, you have Communism, which is classless and stateless.

    Basically, he wants a more democratic form of governance than what is available through capitalism, which is why he was such a critic of the capitalist classes. Such works being taken away from the public domain only spur more people to find reasons to take away capitalism and begin finding alternatives to it.

  • On the post: 'Radical' Publisher Claims Copyright On Free Collection Of Marx And Engels Works; Orders Them Taken Down

    Jay ( profile ), 25 Apr, 2014 @ 03:17pm

    Re: Re: Delicious, delicious irony...

    Meh, Stalinism isn't Communism either.

    But that said, it does look like the quickest way people have routed around this is to spread the works on the Pirate Bay.

    Now that's pretty communist...

  • On the post: 'Radical' Publisher Claims Copyright On Free Collection Of Marx And Engels Works; Orders Them Taken Down

    Jay ( profile ), 25 Apr, 2014 @ 03:16pm

    Re: Re: Copyrights are communist?!

    Jon still has a point that copyright isn't communist.

    Having publishers use copyright to create a new market and take things out of reach even though Marx spoke out against such functions of capitalism point out the irony of the situation, but communism is all about a classless, stateless society, meaning no way for a government to impose monopoly rents for publishers.

  • On the post: Verizon Knows You're A Sucker: Takes Taxpayer Subsidies For Broadband, Doesn't Deliver, Lobbies To Drop Requirements

    Jay ( profile ), 25 Apr, 2014 @ 06:58am

    Re:

    It depends on who controls the politicians. The digital Game of Thrones demands it.

  • On the post: Why Do So Many People Describe Aereo 'Complying' With Copyright Law As The Company 'Circumventing' Copyright Law?

    Jay ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2014 @ 10:33am

    Re:

    But that's the problem. Even if the pirates don't care, the laws continue to look into serving the interests of the largest "shareholders" of copyright instead of the public.

    It doesn't matter if the content is not legally available.

    It doesn't matter if smaller publishers are forced to comply with bogus copyright needs.

    It doesn't matter if the public doesn't want stronger copyright laws.

    As far as the Supreme Court is concerned, they'll support these issues for the legacy industries through thick and thin.

    A prime example is the Grokster ruling which added laws outside of what Congress intended. Inducement was meant to force people into the older business models of the RIAA before the internet matured.

    It didn't work at all in stopping the tide of new technology.

    Now you have the destruction of cloud technology if the cord isn't long enough and the Supreme Court has some dangerous precedents on these issues.

    We can't let the courts decide this. We actually need to show Congress that this is not what we want. If it gets to the Supreme Court, we've lost the battle.

    Just my take on the situation.

  • On the post: Quentin Tarantino Loses Big In Trying To Paint Gawker As A Copyright Infringer

    Jay ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2014 @ 08:19am

    So Hollywood lost on piracy again...

    Just a thought, but this is Hollywood alumni passing around a copy of a script via a private torrent network that showed how popular a property was. Instead of creating a new market for the work, Hollywood claimed copyright and lost goodwill and brand loyalty for an expensive lawsuit which hasnot given them any return on investment.

    The lesson here: copyright does nothing in creating new works, stifles innovation, and anyone using it wants to promote censorship to control what others can do or say for nothing more than a sense of entitlement.

  • On the post: Five Illinois Cops Are Caught Lying On The Stand When Defense Produces A Recording Contradicting Their Testimony

    Jay ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2014 @ 04:28am

    Phoenix Wright tells the story...

    A seemingly routine suppression hearing in a suburban Chicago courthouse last month took an unexpected dramatic turn when video from a police car was introduced that disproved the testimony of five police officers.

    Objection!

    They had said Joseph Sperling was arrested after officers who pulled him over in a traffic stop smelled marijuana, searched the vehicle and found nearly a pound in a backpack lying on the back seat of his car. But the Glenview police video showed the search occurred only after Sperling was taken from his car, frisked and handcuffed, reports the Chicago Tribune (sub. req.).

    They're in pursuit!

    Sadly, the world of Phoenix Wright has become even more true... You are guilty until proven innocent.

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