Ray Trygstad 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Ex-RIAA Boss Ignores All Criticisim Of SOPA/PIPA, Claims Any Complaints Are Trying To Justify Stealing

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 28 Nov, 2011 @ 02:28pm

    If they aren't selling what I want, how could I steal it from them?

    If I understand Hilary correctly, she must be referring to merchandise that the store HAS IN STOCK but REFUSES TO SELL TO ME; correct? Let's stay it's a rocking chair. They have it--I want it--but they refuse to sell it to me because I just happen to live in the wrong geographic region for that model of rocking chair. So if I set up outside the store window with 12 board-feet of oak and all my woodworking tools and make an exact copy of the rocking chair, leaving their rocking chair still sitting in the store window, would she consider that to be stealing from them? (Oh crap, she probably would.)

  • On the post: Is Getty Guilty Of Trademark Infringement For Every Photo It Has That Shows A Trademark?

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 13 Oct, 2011 @ 08:36am

    Getty does plenty of abuse of IP--but this is not an instance

    Getty has literally thousands of photos on their site that are official U.S. Government images from the armed forces and from NASA, all with the Getty copyright and watermark slathered across them despite the fact that BY LAW they are in the public domain. But this case is NOT an instance of their abuse of intellectual property.

    If everyone had to take down every photo with a trademark in it, what would be left? What would fans think if Nike started claiming trademark infringement and demanding a takedown of every picture of a football player displaying a swoosh? Shoot, they probably even have a trademark on the word "swoosh", so they could be coming after me next. Actually, no, they have more sense--but if I were to say "little tree", CAR-FRESHNER might come after me so I'd better watch my step...

  • On the post: TSA Says Groping A Dying 95-Year-Old Woman, Forcing Her To Remove Diaper, Is Ok Because It Followed Standard Procedure

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 28 Jun, 2011 @ 09:31pm

    Selective screening...of old ladies!

    Really! Instead of waiting at your gate after screening, stay on the backside of the screening area for a while and watch how high a proportion of those selected for additional screening are old ladies. It's astounding! And why? Because THEY DON'T PUT UP A FUSS! God forbid we should do this truly randomly or, even worse, based on a profile of potential terrorists. It is security theater, plain and simple, and I know, as I have mounted major security theater productions--as directed--during my career as a Naval Officer.

  • On the post: TSA Says Groping A Dying 95-Year-Old Woman, Forcing Her To Remove Diaper, Is Ok Because It Followed Standard Procedure

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 28 Jun, 2011 @ 09:31pm

    Selective screening...of old ladies!

    Really! Instead of waiting at your gate after screening, stay on the backside of the screening area for a while and watch how high a proportion of those selected for additional screening are old ladies. It's astounding! And why? Because THEY DON'T PUT UP A FUSS! God forbid we should do this truly randomly or, even worse, based on a profile of potential terrorists. It is security theater, plain and simple, and I know, as I have mounted major security theater productions--as directed--during my career as a Naval Officer.

  • On the post: Disney Trademarks Seal Team 6 Two Days After SEAL Team 6 Kills Bin Laden

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 16 May, 2011 @ 09:41pm

    A common-law trademark already exists...

    While the U.S. government cannot copyright material they produce, they certainly can hold trademarks. I think the U.S. Navy would have a very strong case to argue that they already hold a common-law trademark on SEAL Team Six.

  • On the post: Senator Schumer Fails To Properly Use HTTPS On His Own Site, After Pushing Other Sites To Use It [Updated]

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 01 Mar, 2011 @ 11:07pm

    Federal Certificate Authorities

    The federal government maintains an entire infrastructure of their own Certificate Authorities, none of which are recognized by the folks who make the browsers. As a retired Naval Officer, I access DOD sites all the time and find that my browser is constantly warning me about these sites. One time I attempted to download and install certificates for all of the DOD CAs but locating them all, downloading them and installing them took me about two hours and I swore I'd never do it again.

  • On the post: Lawyer Sues Facebook Claiming Other Users Defamed Him

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 29 Oct, 2010 @ 02:57pm

    Especially if you're stupid...

    "...it's better to just shrug it off than filing a lawsuit, drawing a lot more attention to the mean things... and anything else that might get attention" which of course is particularly true when you might be drawing attention to the facts that a) apparently you don't know your own business very well and b) you appear to be stupid.

    This is only an opinion, though; nothing actionable here. Move along now, there's nothing more to see here.

    BTW, I have lawyer jokes too: PondScumandLawyers.com.

  • On the post: UK Police Arrest Mulve Operators

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2010 @ 09:12am

    They killed their account, too. Mulve.com is now just a placeholder.

  • On the post: How Many Logical Fallacies Can You Make In A Single Column Defending A Paywall?

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 05 Oct, 2010 @ 08:42am

    The Kohl's ad...

    If I know that the only way I could see the weekend specials at Kohl's in Boston was to go to Boston.com, you can bet I would go to Boston.com to get to it. The newspapers have clearly not learned how to sell the local viewers they draw to advertisers; instead I have to go to the print version to see the Kohl's ad. Someday they'll figure this stuff out but meanwhile there is far too much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

  • On the post: Facebook Sues Teachbook Over Trademark Concerns; Where's Legalbook?

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 26 Aug, 2010 @ 02:34pm

    WordPerfect used to do this all the time.

    Back when they were their own company and not owned by someone else, WordPerfect used to sue anyone using "perfect" in their business name and having any conceivable connection to a computer or using words. As I recall it got pretty ludicrous but like many of these cases, the deep pocket will nearly always beat common sense, because it just costs too much money to defend against these types of ridiculous claims.

  • On the post: To Find Needles In Haystacks, US Gov't Has Built Hundreds Of New Haystacks

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 20 Jul, 2010 @ 11:07am

    Unrelated tasks...

    I can't speak for all of these post-9/11 agencies, but I can tell you the "cyber-warriors" of the Department of Homeland Security spend a huge amount of time focused on something that is COMPLETELY outside their mission and makes ZERO contribution to the security of the United States: child porn. Don't get me wrong: child porn is of the worst crimes there is and offenders deserve to be hunted down and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law (and maybe even castrated). But it is not the job of HOMELAND SECURITY to do this!!! In their case, this is nothing but a distraction from their primary mission! OK, I'm done venting.

  • On the post: Why Should Customs Officers Be Determining What Counts As A Copyright Circumvention Device?

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 26 May, 2010 @ 02:32pm

    Guess I better delete Handbrake from my notebook before crossing back.

    Seriously.

    If they have even a margin of a clue, this one would be THE product to nail you on.

  • On the post: NYTimes Has To Apologize, Pay $114k For Mentioning Singapore Had Father/Son Prime Ministers?

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 29 Mar, 2010 @ 10:04pm

    This is consistant!

    Having spent a fair amount of time in Singapore, I can tell you that anything negative written about the government of Singapore by the press anywhere outside of Singapore is considered to be "external interference in the political process of Singapore". They will block distribution of any publication that has committed this offense; in the 80's I saw them do this to Time Magazine. The NY Times may view this market as important enough to preserve their distribution rights by an apology.

  • On the post: Apparently The Word 'Piracy' No Longer Sufficiently Derogatory For Entertainment Industry

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 21 Mar, 2010 @ 12:05am

    Suggestions for Ms. Haaland...

    "In the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions for Ms. Haaland on what we should call the act of copyright infringement? "

    Copyrape?

  • On the post: New Study Points Out That Gene Patent On Trial Is Very, Very Broad

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2010 @ 10:49am

    I think I'll patent eagles.

    That makes as much sense to me as allowing people to patent genes. How can anyone possibly claim any proprietary rights over something naturally occurring in nature? If I held the patent on eagles, then when native American want to use eagle feathers in their rituals, they will not only have to get the necessary permits from the federal government, they will have to pay me a license fee, because hey, I OWN THE PATENT. If anyone can come up with a really good way to get this by the patent examiner I'll go halves with you on it.

  • On the post: Be Careful Challenging Others To Read 100 Books, As You Might Infringe On Someone's Trademark

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2010 @ 08:00pm

    Oh Heck: Why not a 99-Book Challenge, or a 101-Book Challenge?

    I mean, c'mon, they can't trademark ALL the numbers! They could even protect themselves by getting permission from Disney, just in case someone might confuse Dalmatians with with books.

  • On the post: Warner Bros. Shuts Down Harry Potter Themed Dinner For Infringement

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 26 Oct, 2009 @ 08:27pm

    "The Party That Shall Not Be Named"

    Naperville, Illinois had nearly 70,000 people attend the party for the release of the final novel in the Harry Potter series. The previous book release party had been named "Muggle Madness" but Warner Brothers blocked any use of "Harry Potter" or associated trademarks in Naperville's next celebration--notably, it was not Scholastic, who published the book in the U.S. So what did Anderson Books and the Downtown Naperville Alliance do? They just named it "The Party That Shall Not Be Named" and went right ahead. My son repainted his Yoda ears and went as Dobby, and everyone had a great time DESPITE the Warner Brothers boneheads, who obviously don't recognize the value of free promotion when it bites them in the butt.

  • On the post: Congress Moving Forward On 'P2P' Warning Law

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 02 Oct, 2009 @ 02:25pm

    I know: just download the software from any other nation on earth.

    They just don't get that the tubes on the Interweb thingy completely ignore national borders. The law would be a complete waste of paper, ink and electrons.

  • On the post: The Lies Newspapers Tell Themselves About Their Traffic

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 18 Sep, 2009 @ 06:38am

    Current subscribers and paywalls

    I actually still subscribe to the on-paper edition of a "major metropolitan newspaper". If these folks think I'm going to pay for online access when I'm ALREADY paying once, they'll find that I will drop my physical subscription like a hot potato--and then not pay a penny to their paywall. On top of that, I'll still be able to read their online content; I'll just go through my municipal or university library account, as both of them are ALREADY paying for the "privilege" of access to current and archived articles. Michael is right; these people are deluded, and self-delusion is the hardest kind to break.

  • On the post: Rethinking Handing Copyright On To Heirs Beyond Death

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 10 Apr, 2009 @ 08:53am

    A Good Illustration....

    ...of the ridiculousness of this position is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, the copyright on which has been guarded by his heirs like bulldogs. One of the most historic speeches of the 20th Century, something that should be part of the patrimony of our nation, cannot be published or quoted in it's entirety without paying his descendants. Yes it's a tragedy that the man was struck down by an assassin, but that should not entitle his descendants to what amounts to welfare at the expense of the public of this country. It's a damn good thing that inaugural addresses and all other official public utterances of the President of the United States are in the public domain, having been prepared as a work for hire by an employee of the U.S. Federal government, or people writing history books would be having to pay their heirs--or worse, history books would not quote Presidents.

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