"Marc Randazza makes me unkind to weasels in describing him."
I actually agree with Mike Masnick that even today being publicly named is likely to have severe consequences for some people and while I am generally opposed to sealing court cases this is most certainly a case were it is warranted.
I disagree with vivaelamor's assertion that Randazza is a weasel. Randazza has a long history of doing good works related to First Amendment issues. Even if that was not the case, all attorneys are hired mercenaries. Advocating for their client is the essence of what makes our legal system function. While it is far from perfect, as far as I can tell it works better than the systems which proceeded it and I see nothing which has the potential to do a better job.
The single biggest problem with our legal system that it favors those with deep pockets. But that is also a problem with all aspects of human institutions.
The solution is public policy which prevents wealth from becoming too concentrated, something which is undermining our whole society. It should not remove the incentive to work hard.
At this point the only solution I see as being effective is to change to publicly funded elections and not allow with strict regulation and banning of large contributors.
If every politician had to run their campaign on a fixed amount from the government it would level the playing field. Any candidate who was caught using other funds should be banned from holding any office for life.
Politicians retirement and current income should be pegged and adjustable based on overall economic performance. This would encourage working towards long term prosperity rather than for short term gain.
We have been addressing invention promotion fraud for well over a decade. There are several hundred web pages exposing various questionable companies and the people behind those companies at www.InventorEd.org/caution.
Historically, invention promoters fleece inventors for typically $10,000 to $50,000. The highest I have seen was about $300,000. The industry is raking in about $500 million a year.
There are legitimate invention promotion companies but they do not advertise. Those who do advertise usually are at best worthless and at worst outright frauds.
Up until about five years ago the biggest risk of becoming entangled with a promote was loss of money. But today there is a very slick promoter who appears to filing patents on other people's inventions. That promoter appears to be closely associated with the USPTO and David Kappos.
Aspiring inventors should never disclose their inventions to others until they have at least a provisional patent application filed. Even then, disclosure is risky. There are far more hucksters and asset thieves then there are inventors and most inventors have minimal business experience, making them easy prey.
Our nonprofit, InventorEd.org provides extensive resources for aspiring inventors, including a list server where inventors can get one on one help. The list server is Inventors-L @ InvEd.org (Remove extra spaces in address). To join send a message to that address which includes your name, address, phone number and a brief description of what your interests are. Do not disclose your invention unless you have an issued patent.
Other Affiliations:
Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow - www.PatentPolicy.org
President - Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 9 pm EST.
Other Affiliations:
Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow - www.PatentPolicy.org
President - Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 9 pm EST.
And perhaps big corporate money for delivering PR (propaganda).
Mike Masnick likes to talk about journalism. Journalists and PR flacks for the most part have the same training and yet there is no love loss between the two groups. Journalists on balance make the world a better place, while PR hacks are in my opinion ethically flawed on a fundamental level.
The primary difference between journalists and PR hacks is that journalists believe in exposing the truth while PR hacks use the same skills to give cover to those of dubious repute.
Inventors conceive of new useful things. Mike has claimed to be an inventor but has not been able to provide any proof.
In a twisted sense his claim has some truth, he invents propaganda. This article is a good example of Mike Masnick's inventiveness.
Look at the difference between what Jay Walker has accomplished and what Mike Masnick represents. Is it any wonder that Masnick is green with envy?
Other Affiliations:
Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow - www.PatentPolicy.org
President - Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 9 pm EST.
I agree. When sales pitches arrive in my mailbox I scan them. When Sony is mentioned I scan over and delete because experience has taught me that Sony builds junk. Attractive on the outside but with serious flaws on the inside. When you add poor service and attitude on top of their design and quality problems and compound those issues with their high prices it is not prudent to buy Sony products.
Other Affiliations:
Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow - www.PatentPolicy.org
President - Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 9 pm EST.
"Having less items on the shelf will also help theft protection."
Most theft of physical products are inside jobs. This means that there will be fewer freelance thefts but larger inside thefts.
"Mike could we get a filter for the comments in which people who rail against anything w/ absolutely no details, or information to back it up with? Also a filter for " has nothing to do w/ this blog post".
"It seems to me to be very clear what blogposts are advertorial in nature, and what blogposts aren't, which is a lot more transparant than your average newspaper."
There is no doubt that someone is more transparent than they would like.
Traditional journalism has been imploding for the last decade. While there have always been journalist , or should I say PR hacks posing as journalists for hire the general decline of journalism has driven many more people into the business.
I have been involved in many businesses for over forty years now and my experience is that PR hacks have very flexible ethical standards. To put it bluntly the majority are whores and con artists. TechDIRT Drivel, it sure looks like a PR operation.
Now I do think Mike has some merit, in that he does good First Amendment work. If only that was the case elsewhere.
"But imagine if, from within the store, I could explain the job, take a quick picture of certain items, and reach out to a community of experts on the subject who could let me know if I really had the right tools for the job or not."
And how do you know if they are real experts or just corporate shills? It is a fact that there is no substitute for actually understanding the problem and solutions yourself.
Most certainly we cannot expect to get the truth from Intel or anyone associated with them.
"The other consideration is that online can sell via volume and make up their sales. Retail cannot do that. Mark-ups are necessary or else they lose money in selling a product."
There are plenty of outfits with retail and mail order that sell at one price. You can bet that they used combined sales volume to get a better price.
While on the issue of price, AMD beats the crap out of Intel. If you decide to but Intel you should first buy a tube of KY for each hand.
Try calling Best Buy to find out if something is actually in stock. Take a look at their restocking charges. Try to actually get the great Black Friday deals. Make the mistake of trusting their sales people to give you accurate product information.
A few years ago I decided enough was enough and started buying almost everything online. I save money and aggravation.
For more expensive items the saving in price easily covers next day delivery and more.
For the vast majority of people computer speeds are already far faster than what they need. There are some exceptions such as gamers, some servers and so one. But for the rest AMD based systems deliver far greater value.
There is also a fringe benefit in that every time someone buys AMD their purchase helps keep Intel in check :)
Actually creating new things is fraught with risk. Sucking up to large companies in order to be tossed a few scraps may not be sexy, but if one is a really effective at brown nosing it can provide a good living.
It looks to me like there are many similarities between Intellectual Vultures business model and that of TechDIRT. It will be interesting to see if Sony sees merit in seeking TechDIRT insight.
Sony is all about style. InventorEd.org is designed to deliver substance at low bandwidth because in addition to serving people in developed countries it also serves people in developing countries. Not everyone has low cost connections. And many are using older computers. It also serves visually impaired people and is designed to be easy to navigate with screen readers.
There is no question that Mike Masnick has rightfully pegged Sony and I do appreciate when Mike gets something right as he has in this case.
I have not noticed any puff pieces like Intel and other have had on TechDIRT for Sony. I wonder if this is a marketing tactic to sell Sony some insight? But I do think it is reasonable to consider why Sony and not also Intel?
Or at least well along the path to eventual total failure.
"They're starting on a "denial of existence" push to lower peoples recognition of xperia as being connected to sony and therefore have to force fan-sites to close."
Another good reason to move the website to Experia-Sony-Sucks. If they pull the plug next year and leave all their customers with expensive orphan systems there will be plenty of people interested in using a more aptly named discussion forum.
It seems that Sony knows and acknowledges that they SUCK :)
SonySucks.com
Registrant:
Domain Administrator
Sony Music Entertainment
550 Madison Ave.
New York ny 10022
US domain.admin@sonymusic.com
+1.2128338000
Like most big companies they did not realize that this was futile, see: http://Sony-SUCKS.com/
Hopefully the owner of http://Sony-SUCKS.com/ will work with the people by offering them use of Experia.Sony-SUCKS.com
Attacking fan sites and turning fans into adversaries is just plain stupid.
It would be better to use XperiaX10-SUCKS.net. And while they are at it they should register the name on other top level domains. For an example of this take a look at www.CyberTrialLawyer-SUCKS.com, a site I created about a self professed Super BS lawyer.
One reason for hyphenating is that search engines parse on the hyphen, seeing the terms as separate words. The other is that there is case law regarding the use of sucks in a domain name. The minute you add sucks you remove any possibility of confusion about the trademark.
If Sony registers that domain (they know that they suck) there are an endless number of other possibilities such as XperiaX10-Really-SUCKS.net or XperiaX10-Sony-SUCKS.net. I thing that XperiaX10-Sony-SUCKS might be the best because it ties the trademark and Sony's name to the site.
There was a time when Sony actually produced quality products, but in my experience that time is long past. Sony became Style without Substance, a nice play on SonyStyle.com :) They are good at building attractive products which are by design in really ugly inside.
When you look at Sony you are seeing Apple's eventual fate. In both cases they produce products which are attractive on the surface but limited by design in ways which are meant to extort more money from customers. It is one thing to offer additional value and profit from doing so and quite another to force a user into a shotgun wedding where additional money is extracted without delivering fair value.
Difference Between Twain and Masnick
Mark Twain will be known for a very long time while TechDIRT Drivel will quickly fade into obscurity.
Re: Weasel.
"Marc Randazza makes me unkind to weasels in describing him."
I actually agree with Mike Masnick that even today being publicly named is likely to have severe consequences for some people and while I am generally opposed to sealing court cases this is most certainly a case were it is warranted.
I disagree with vivaelamor's assertion that Randazza is a weasel. Randazza has a long history of doing good works related to First Amendment issues. Even if that was not the case, all attorneys are hired mercenaries. Advocating for their client is the essence of what makes our legal system function. While it is far from perfect, as far as I can tell it works better than the systems which proceeded it and I see nothing which has the potential to do a better job.
The single biggest problem with our legal system that it favors those with deep pockets. But that is also a problem with all aspects of human institutions.
The solution is public policy which prevents wealth from becoming too concentrated, something which is undermining our whole society. It should not remove the incentive to work hard.
At this point the only solution I see as being effective is to change to publicly funded elections and not allow with strict regulation and banning of large contributors.
If every politician had to run their campaign on a fixed amount from the government it would level the playing field. Any candidate who was caught using other funds should be banned from holding any office for life.
Politicians retirement and current income should be pegged and adjustable based on overall economic performance. This would encourage working towards long term prosperity rather than for short term gain.
Re: Re: BS Experts / Re: Wow.
We have been addressing invention promotion fraud for well over a decade. There are several hundred web pages exposing various questionable companies and the people behind those companies at www.InventorEd.org/caution.
Historically, invention promoters fleece inventors for typically $10,000 to $50,000. The highest I have seen was about $300,000. The industry is raking in about $500 million a year.
There are legitimate invention promotion companies but they do not advertise. Those who do advertise usually are at best worthless and at worst outright frauds.
Up until about five years ago the biggest risk of becoming entangled with a promote was loss of money. But today there is a very slick promoter who appears to filing patents on other people's inventions. That promoter appears to be closely associated with the USPTO and David Kappos.
Aspiring inventors should never disclose their inventions to others until they have at least a provisional patent application filed. Even then, disclosure is risky. There are far more hucksters and asset thieves then there are inventors and most inventors have minimal business experience, making them easy prey.
Our nonprofit, InventorEd.org provides extensive resources for aspiring inventors, including a list server where inventors can get one on one help. The list server is Inventors-L @ InvEd.org (Remove extra spaces in address). To join send a message to that address which includes your name, address, phone number and a brief description of what your interests are. Do not disclose your invention unless you have an issued patent.
Ronald J. Riley,
President - www.PIAUSA.org - RJR at PIAUSA.org
Other Affiliations:
Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow - www.PatentPolicy.org
President - Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 9 pm EST.
BS Experts / Re: Wow.
"Mike said "bullshit".
"Mike's pissed."
Actually, I think that Mike is an expert at BSing and that when he starts talking about BS we should all pay attention.
After all, being an expert at BS is an essential skill for spinning PR and pushing big business propaganda.
Ronald J. Riley,
President - www.PIAUSA.org - RJR at PIAUSA.org
Other Affiliations:
Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow - www.PatentPolicy.org
President - Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 9 pm EST.
Re: Got any solutions? Yelling "the patent system is broke!" isn't working.
"Mike has basically nothing but a blog."
And perhaps big corporate money for delivering PR (propaganda).
Mike Masnick likes to talk about journalism. Journalists and PR flacks for the most part have the same training and yet there is no love loss between the two groups. Journalists on balance make the world a better place, while PR hacks are in my opinion ethically flawed on a fundamental level.
The primary difference between journalists and PR hacks is that journalists believe in exposing the truth while PR hacks use the same skills to give cover to those of dubious repute.
Inventors conceive of new useful things. Mike has claimed to be an inventor but has not been able to provide any proof.
In a twisted sense his claim has some truth, he invents propaganda. This article is a good example of Mike Masnick's inventiveness.
Look at the difference between what Jay Walker has accomplished and what Mike Masnick represents. Is it any wonder that Masnick is green with envy?
Ronald J. Riley,
President - www.PIAUSA.org - RJR at PIAUSA.org
Other Affiliations:
Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow - www.PatentPolicy.org
President - Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 9 pm EST.
Re: Since the CD rootkit fiasco
I agree. When sales pitches arrive in my mailbox I scan them. When Sony is mentioned I scan over and delete because experience has taught me that Sony builds junk. Attractive on the outside but with serious flaws on the inside. When you add poor service and attitude on top of their design and quality problems and compound those issues with their high prices it is not prudent to buy Sony products.
Dealing in Misappropiated Goods / wwRe: Re:
Patents are routinely traded in whole or in part.
The college student developer just learned a valuable lesson, not to deal in misappropriated goods.
Ronald J. Riley,
President - www.PIAUSA.org - RJR at PIAUSA.org
Other Affiliations:
Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow - www.PatentPolicy.org
President - Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 9 pm EST.
Inside Jobs & Censorship Shills.
"Having less items on the shelf will also help theft protection."
Most theft of physical products are inside jobs. This means that there will be fewer freelance thefts but larger inside thefts.
"Mike could we get a filter for the comments in which people who rail against anything w/ absolutely no details, or information to back it up with? Also a filter for " has nothing to do w/ this blog post".
Be careful what you ask for Eric.
Re: Re: SOLD OUT / Re:
"It seems to me to be very clear what blogposts are advertorial in nature, and what blogposts aren't, which is a lot more transparant than your average newspaper."
There is no doubt that someone is more transparent than they would like.
Traditional journalism has been imploding for the last decade. While there have always been journalist , or should I say PR hacks posing as journalists for hire the general decline of journalism has driven many more people into the business.
I have been involved in many businesses for over forty years now and my experience is that PR hacks have very flexible ethical standards. To put it bluntly the majority are whores and con artists. TechDIRT Drivel, it sure looks like a PR operation.
Now I do think Mike has some merit, in that he does good First Amendment work. If only that was the case elsewhere.
"imagine if" we could trust Intel?
"But imagine if, from within the store, I could explain the job, take a quick picture of certain items, and reach out to a community of experts on the subject who could let me know if I really had the right tools for the job or not."
And how do you know if they are real experts or just corporate shills? It is a fact that there is no substitute for actually understanding the problem and solutions yourself.
Most certainly we cannot expect to get the truth from Intel or anyone associated with them.
Price, AMD beats the crap out of Intel Re:
"The other consideration is that online can sell via volume and make up their sales. Retail cannot do that. Mark-ups are necessary or else they lose money in selling a product."
There are plenty of outfits with retail and mail order that sell at one price. You can bet that they used combined sales volume to get a better price.
While on the issue of price, AMD beats the crap out of Intel. If you decide to but Intel you should first buy a tube of KY for each hand.
Re: Brick and Mortar need to stop "ignoring" online
Try calling Best Buy to find out if something is actually in stock. Take a look at their restocking charges. Try to actually get the great Black Friday deals. Make the mistake of trusting their sales people to give you accurate product information.
A few years ago I decided enough was enough and started buying almost everything online. I save money and aggravation.
For more expensive items the saving in price easily covers next day delivery and more.
SOLD OUT / Re:
No news, the sellout happened long ago.
Informed shoppers dump Intel.
For the vast majority of people computer speeds are already far faster than what they need. There are some exceptions such as gamers, some servers and so one. But for the rest AMD based systems deliver far greater value.
There is also a fringe benefit in that every time someone buys AMD their purchase helps keep Intel in check :)
Re: Re: Re: Re: Why Mike Picks on Sony?
Is this one of Mike's aliases?
Whoring For Big Companies Is Not New
Actually, this is not a new trend.
Actually creating new things is fraught with risk. Sucking up to large companies in order to be tossed a few scraps may not be sexy, but if one is a really effective at brown nosing it can provide a good living.
It looks to me like there are many similarities between Intellectual Vultures business model and that of TechDIRT. It will be interesting to see if Sony sees merit in seeking TechDIRT insight.
Re: Re: Sony, Style Without Substance
Sony is all about style. InventorEd.org is designed to deliver substance at low bandwidth because in addition to serving people in developed countries it also serves people in developing countries. Not everyone has low cost connections. And many are using older computers. It also serves visually impaired people and is designed to be easy to navigate with screen readers.
Why Mike Picks on Sony?
There is no question that Mike Masnick has rightfully pegged Sony and I do appreciate when Mike gets something right as he has in this case.
I have not noticed any puff pieces like Intel and other have had on TechDIRT for Sony. I wonder if this is a marketing tactic to sell Sony some insight? But I do think it is reasonable to consider why Sony and not also Intel?
Sony is a Failure / Re: Well
Or at least well along the path to eventual total failure.
"They're starting on a "denial of existence" push to lower peoples recognition of xperia as being connected to sony and therefore have to force fan-sites to close."
Another good reason to move the website to Experia-Sony-Sucks. If they pull the plug next year and leave all their customers with expensive orphan systems there will be plenty of people interested in using a more aptly named discussion forum.
It seems that Sony knows and acknowledges that they SUCK :)
SonySucks.com
Registrant:
Domain Administrator
Sony Music Entertainment
550 Madison Ave.
New York ny 10022
US
domain.admin@sonymusic.com
+1.2128338000
Like most big companies they did not realize that this was futile, see: http://Sony-SUCKS.com/
Hopefully the owner of http://Sony-SUCKS.com/ will work with the people by offering them use of Experia.Sony-SUCKS.com
Sony, Style Without Substance
Attacking fan sites and turning fans into adversaries is just plain stupid.
It would be better to use XperiaX10-SUCKS.net. And while they are at it they should register the name on other top level domains. For an example of this take a look at www.CyberTrialLawyer-SUCKS.com, a site I created about a self professed Super BS lawyer.
One reason for hyphenating is that search engines parse on the hyphen, seeing the terms as separate words. The other is that there is case law regarding the use of sucks in a domain name. The minute you add sucks you remove any possibility of confusion about the trademark.
If Sony registers that domain (they know that they suck) there are an endless number of other possibilities such as XperiaX10-Really-SUCKS.net or XperiaX10-Sony-SUCKS.net. I thing that XperiaX10-Sony-SUCKS might be the best because it ties the trademark and Sony's name to the site.
There was a time when Sony actually produced quality products, but in my experience that time is long past. Sony became Style without Substance, a nice play on SonyStyle.com :) They are good at building attractive products which are by design in really ugly inside.
When you look at Sony you are seeing Apple's eventual fate. In both cases they produce products which are attractive on the surface but limited by design in ways which are meant to extort more money from customers. It is one thing to offer additional value and profit from doing so and quite another to force a user into a shotgun wedding where additional money is extracted without delivering fair value.