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:
Personally, I'm hoping this one gets summarily dismissed by reason of the studios not having standing. They don't hold copyright on the commercials.
Re: Re: Re: actually the entire situation is 100% false
You're not thinking it through. Were it me, I'd scrape all the peer addresses and start spoofing bad data that appears to come from them. You stop the torrent from functioning by tricking the clients into blocking the legit peers.
Re: Re: Re: actually the entire situation is 100% false
On the contrary, NP hard problems like finding a hash collision are the exact type of things quantum computing would shine at.
Works in theory...
Neither of my Senators are up for reelection this time around, so they'll vote their wallet just like most voters do.
Re: Don't forget...
Makes me think that the rest of them must have been held in Area 51.
Re:
That would require that it be a bill. Odds are pretty damned good that if it ever sees the light of day it will be as an executive agreement on the US's part so congress doesn't get a say in it.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Troll them hard!
Let me put it another way then. I really don't care about the motivation of someone who's poking me in the cornhole without so much as a bit of lube. I only care that my butt hurts.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Troll them hard!
Nah, see the great thing about that would be the kind of guys who want power for power's sake aren't the types who'd put their necks on the block for it. It takes seriously believing in something to be willing to knowingly risk your life for it. Or stupidity.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Troll them hard!
It's a nice thought but you need to actually vote the incumbent out of office a few times before they'll do anything but carve themselves an exception into law.
That's for people voting their conscience though. I plan on going a contrarian play and voting Obama again on the grounds of he's done a pretty wonderful job of screwing us repeatedly. Maybe the people who voted for him will get it through their thick heads why we don't elect guys like him very often. Also so the people who financed and voted in the Republican primaries will possibly get a clue and run someone who's not a complete douche next time.
I guess I am a bit of an optimist too if I still have hope that voters might actually ever learn anything.
Re: Re: Troll them hard!
With ACTA, SOPA/PIPA, and TPP all on Obama, it really confuses me as to why you'd want to DoS in favor of him.
Personally, I think they're all entirely too willing to screw us because they're too insulated from the consequences of their actions. I say we take away their Secret Service protection and see if they behave any better.
Re:
You mean if I pirate stuff, they'll make less crappy movies? Quick, someone get me twenty cases of Mountain Dew and a ten gigabit Internet connection!
Re: Re:
I have no doubt that sales have been lost to DRM...
Ten people I know who otherwise would have bought it without question won't be buying Diablo 3 after I explained the DRM.
Eight of them can't tell you the difference between a torrent and their own ass. Assuming 50% of those who could would have pirated it, that's nine lost sales at $60/per or a $540 current total direct cost for pissing me off.
I couldn't even guess at how much they've lost from my rants being spread to further generations and I'm for damn sure not the only one annoyed enough to talk people out of buying it.
Way to work that word of mouth, Blizzard.
Re: Re: Re: Doubtful
Europe does, obviously. That most of them who used to be capitalists are now socialists and vice versa changes nothing about their authority to dictate to the rest of the world.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Doubtful
The turn of the century was only a bit over a decade ago. I'm pretty sure it goes back to the 1930s, give or take a Republican or two and a JFK.
Re:
I get a vague impression that you're against the cyber security czar post. Care to clarify?
Re:
Shall we examine the possible prior art where some meatcutter somewhere in the history of the world did this once before?
Oh absolutely. We can send turds into the patent office as evidence of prior art.
Re: When you take protecting privacy too far
There's no reason the authorities or the company need to know what or from whom the items were stolen. It's almost certain that the customers know what was stolen and if they feel the need to inform the police, they're free to.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Eh, mostly I think they just liked being able to put larger numbers on the box.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Meh, this is a silly argument. Bytes are just as relevant as bits for measuring anything appropriate. Saying otherwise is like saying your speedometer should be rated in meters instead of kilometers per hour because it's more precise. It's pedantic at best since once you start adding prefixes to a unit, precision of that degree is rarely useful on a human level. How many nanometers in a lightyear?
The actually useful argument to be had is 1000 vs. 1024 for prefixes in data measurements. Personally, I have to stick with base 2 because mebibyte just sounds retarded.
Re: This is the only place where I found 2600 in a bookstore shelf...
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/d2600-magazine-2600-magazine/1108150347