TheBigH 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (53)

• On the post: NYC/NBCUniversal Pro-Copyright Propaganda Contest For School Kids: Facts Not Allowed And Your Rights Don't Count

  

  TheBigH ( profile ), 21 Sep, 2011 @ 01:14pm

  Re: Re: But, um...

  Propaganda is a necessity to NBC Universal.

• On the post: Shouldn't Unilateral Retroactive Copyright Extension Mean Copyright Is Void?

  

  TheBigH ( profile ), 15 Sep, 2011 @ 09:18pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Me and everybody else ..

  I think a better analogy would be this:
  
  I and a computer vendor agree to a contract that says that, for a specified period of time, I pay the vendor for the right to use the computer. After that period of time, the computer becomes mine to do with as I please.
  
  If the vendor then decides to retroactively change the terms of the contract so that I have to go on paying him indefinitely, then I say "Bad luck. Computer's mine."
  
  This is exactly how it is with copyright. It was agreed, long ago, that inventors, artists, etc. could have a monopoly on their creations for a limited time so that they could profit, and go on creating more stuff. As part of that agreement, the content is to enter the public domain once that limited time is over. Copyright is supposed to be a compromise that allows both the individual creators and society as a whole to be enriched.
  
  By extending copyright retroactively and indefinitely, the government has reneged on that deal. They are taking from us something that the terms of the deal explicitly grant us.

• On the post: Man Claims Apple Investigators Pretended To Be SF Police In Searching For Lost iPhone Prototype [Updated: Or Not]

  

  TheBigH ( profile ), 02 Sep, 2011 @ 09:43pm

  As a major Terry Pratchett fan, I am delighted and amused that there is an actual real life Sergeant Colon.

• On the post: DOJ: This Case Has Nothing To Do With Puerto 80; Now Here Is Why Puerto 80 Is Guilty

  

  TheBigH ( profile ), 30 Aug, 2011 @ 11:53pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Doublething

  Your tears say more than real evidence ever could.

• On the post: Swedish Teenager Turned Over To Police By School Headmaster For File Sharing Acquitted By Court

  

  TheBigH ( profile ), 30 Aug, 2011 @ 03:21pm

  Re: Lay Judges

  Thanks for the info. This seems like a sensible system that can defend itself to some extent against the letter of the law being used to obtain clearly perverse results.

• On the post: Concord PD Hits For The Cycle: Lemonade Stand + Camera + Wiretap Law

  

  TheBigH ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2011 @ 02:19pm

  Re: Re:

  From what I saw on the video, the cops weren't really harassing him at all. They showed up because Blasdell called them, and if coppers didn't turn up to respond to reported disturbances they wouldn't be doing their job. The fact that Blasdell's complaint was petty and without merit doesn't put the cops in the wrong. I thought the cop who talked to Ean was actually pretty polite and restrained, although he could have expressed himself better.

• On the post: DailyDirt: Distant Discoveries

  

  TheBigH ( profile ), 09 Feb, 2011 @ 01:42pm

  Re: Re: Re:

  I'd like to see two radio telescopes at Earth's leading and trailing Lagrange points. Imagine a baseline 1.73AU long. *drool*

• On the post: DailyDirt: Scientific Measurements

  

  TheBigH ( profile ), 31 Jan, 2011 @ 08:50pm

  Re: Re: Re:

  Ha! :)

• On the post: DailyDirt: Scientific Measurements

  

  TheBigH ( profile ), 31 Jan, 2011 @ 08:41pm

  Re:

  I think once you start doing things like replacing electrons with muons or other particles, it's going to rapidly become hard to think of new names for these things. Better just to describe what it is.

• On the post: Has The Fourth Amendment Been Dismantled By Technology And The Courts?

  

  TheBigH ( profile ), 29 Jan, 2011 @ 11:27pm

  Re: Re: Just So Long As They Don?t Take Away The Second Amendment...

  That is probably true in terms of pure material and technological resources, access to weaponry, etc. But I think if America ever had a government corrupt and evil enough for the people to rise up in armed revolution, and the government tried to get the military to open fire on the citizens... well, I think it would go very badly indeed for the government.

• On the post: Sheriff Files Criminal Complaint Against Reporter For Asking Questions He Didn't Like

  

  TheBigH ( profile ), 28 Jan, 2011 @ 04:23pm

  Re:

  glasNOT

• On the post: Lee Harvey Oswald's Brother Sues Funeral Home For Selling Oswald's Old Coffin

  

  TheBigH ( profile ), 26 Jan, 2011 @ 03:35am

  Hmmm...

  This argument between Oswald and the funeral place is going to increase publicity of the auction and potentially boost the price of the coffin. So even if the funeral people have to come to some kind of settlement with Oswald to divvy up the loot, they'll probably still do well out of it.

• On the post: Woman Claims Legal Loophole Means She Now Owns The Sun… And She Wants You To Pay Up

  

  TheBigH ( profile ), 03 Dec, 2010 @ 06:48pm

  I don't know about Spanish real estate law, but many countries stipulate that to take possession of a piece of real estate you actually have to set foot there. Perhaps she could go at night.