kyle clements 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Microsoft Makes Retail Versions Of Office Single Install

    kyle clements ( profile ), 14 Feb, 2013 @ 03:01pm

    "What does that mean in real terms? It means if your machine dies or you upgrade to a new computer you cannot take a copy of Office 2013 with you to new hardware. You will need to purchase another copy, which again will be tied to the machine it is installed upon forever."

    This is completely wrong. What this means IN REAL TERMS, is that users will download a cracked version of office from the pirate bay when their legit version fails to function on a new machine.

    Or jump ship and use a FOSS alternative.

  • On the post: Canada Denies Patent For Drug, So US Pharma Company Demands $100 Million As Compensation For 'Expropriation'

    kyle clements ( profile ), 09 Feb, 2013 @ 08:26am

    Re: Re:

    Like how the US has been in breach of NAFTA regarding Canadian softwood lumbar for nearly a decade and absolutely nothing has come of it?

  • On the post: Newegg's 'Screw Patent Trolls!' Strategy Leads To Victory

    kyle clements ( profile ), 28 Jan, 2013 @ 01:29pm

    nice

    This story makes me feel good about the PC sitting on my desk that was built from parts ordered entirely through NewEgg.

    Every time you roll over and let a troll win, you provide incentive for that troll to continue trolling, and more people will be exploited.

    In my opinion, money spent doing good like this does more to advertise for NewEgg than money spent on advertising would.

  • On the post: To Boost Its New Crappy DRM, Hollywood Tries Giving Away Free Movies

    kyle clements ( profile ), 11 Jan, 2013 @ 11:44pm

    I really wish the film and music industries would offer a simple service where I could just go to their website, pick a piece of content, and pay $5 to support those involved in the creation of that content, then I'd get an email saying I was now licensed to own a copy of that content in any form.

    Then I can go to pirate bay, iso hunt, or wherever, download the content, and it would be perfectly legal and paid for, and that would be the end of it.

  • On the post: DailyDirt: Accounting For Taste

    kyle clements ( profile ), 05 Oct, 2012 @ 07:06pm

    Re: dogs can taste sweet

    One of the dangers of the advanced chemistry of the modern age is that we can create things that trick our bodies, bypassing the warning systems we have developed over millions of years of evolution.

    In nature, very few sweet things are toxic. Lead is the only thing I can think off. Lead is delicious.

    If you are concerned about antifreeze, only ethylene glycol is toxic. Propylene glycol, a common "marine antifreeze" or "non-toxic antifreeze" is also used a food additive, so use it instead and your pets will be fine. It doesn't taste nearly as good as ethylene glycol does, but it wont kill you or your pets either.

  • On the post: Come Celebrate 15 Years Of Techdirt (And 50,000 Posts)!

    kyle clements ( profile ), 03 Oct, 2012 @ 04:42pm

    "it still feels like the early days, when I'd publish something and know that absolutely no one would read it"

    How times have changed. Now I can hardly post a comment without a dozen other people getting their remark in first.

    And I'm sure the number of readers who don't comment is much higher than the number who do comment. (I'd guess 10X higher)

    Congratulations.

    Here's hoping the next 15 years will be just as good.

  • On the post: University Requires Students To Pay $180 For 'Art History' Text That Has No Photos Due To Copyright Problems

    kyle clements ( profile ), 19 Sep, 2012 @ 09:25pm

    Re:

    If OCAD is still run the way it was while I was a student, I'm afraid this isn't really an option, since the art history courses are compulsory.

    What sets OCAD apart from other schools, and what motivated me to go there back in '02 over anywhere else was the strong emphasis on studio work over academic work. I have this crazy idea that if I want to get good at doing stuff, then doing stuff is more effective than writing about doing stuff. And OCAD got that, they understood that. So there was only one Academic course per year (2 if you were enrolled in the degree program) and it was mandatory. everyone had to take it, and everyone had to pass to move on to the next year.

  • On the post: University Requires Students To Pay $180 For 'Art History' Text That Has No Photos Due To Copyright Problems

    kyle clements ( profile ), 19 Sep, 2012 @ 09:15pm

    Re: Look on the bright side...

    "Hopefully, these students will find this experience an education in the realities of today's copyright, as these art schools otherwise leave them woefully ignorant, and will carry this realization into their professional lives."

    Not just ignorant, but horribly misinformed.

    Several years ago, I was at the OCAD grad show, and a spectacularly gifted student was showing. I asked if he had a website where I could see more.
    "NO! Absolutely not! If I put pictures online everyone will just steal them"
    "So...how are people supposed to find you, to get to know you? to become familiar with your work?"
    He walked away, angry.

    This wasn't an isolated incident, as many other students has the same attitude. Someone is telling these kids that copyright is like gold and must be protected at all costs.

    The best revenge, however, is success, and I was picked up by a gallery by them googling "cool effing art +toronto" and I came up in the results.

    I haven't seen anything from these students in years, it's like they disappeared off the face of the earth, and without a website, that's exactly what's happened.

  • On the post: University Requires Students To Pay $180 For 'Art History' Text That Has No Photos Due To Copyright Problems

    kyle clements ( profile ), 19 Sep, 2012 @ 09:02pm

    Re: Re:

    OCAD also has a laptop program, where students are forced to purchase one of very limited selection of laptops for their coursework.

    So they are forced to buy textbooks AND laptops.

    I graduated from this school in '06.

    By 3rd year I had stopped buying any of the text books for a number of reasons:
    1. free copies are available in the library.
    2. I can pay attention in class and still pull off high 70's.
    3. Marks are irrelevant, it's the $20,000 piece of paper at the end that matters, not your report card.
    4. You are buying your way into a social network, not actually learning anything, so who cares about textbooks?
    5. It's cheaper to not buy stuff.

  • On the post: Royal Canadian Mint Claims Copyright On One Cent Piece, Threatens Indie Musician Over Album Art

    kyle clements ( profile ), 17 Sep, 2012 @ 09:27am

    During the copyright consultations that were held several years ago, where the government pretended to care about what Canadians wanted out of copyright reform, a big issue that took the government by surprize was strong support for the abolition of Crown Copyright.

    They just don't get it. They see it as a way of protecting Canadians, only "approved agencies" present the info, so we can "trust it".

    A lot of statistics and information is like this, making it very hard to collect and present information about my own damned country. If, for example I want to list the GDP from each year over the last hundred years and compare it to which party was in power to get a sense of who is better for the economy, I can't find it anywhere. If I want to do the same for The States, after 5 minutes on Google, I have everything I need.

    How is this helping Canadians?
    The public paid for it, the public should own it.

  • On the post: Apple/Samsung Verdict Advertising Samsung As A Viable Alternative To iPads & iPhones

    kyle clements ( profile ), 27 Aug, 2012 @ 02:02pm

    Re: Re:

    For this very reason, we must insist on calling the Apple branded iPads "Mac's iPads", thus eliminating any possible confusion between apple products and anything else on the market.

  • On the post: If I Were The MPAA… How I Would Deal With My Car Break-In

    kyle clements ( profile ), 13 Aug, 2012 @ 12:38pm

    Re: Well said

    Would you care to explain why car analogies are viewed with suspicion...in the form of a car analogy?

  • On the post: What Would You Like To Hear In A Techdirt Podcast?

    kyle clements ( profile ), 02 Aug, 2012 @ 04:36pm

    I think starting in-house with some interviews with the creative Tech Dirt contributors would be a good way to get things going. Let's see if spoken Dark Helmet is as funny as written Dark Helmet.

    I'd like to see the interviewee talk about their experiences, their failures, their successes, the challenges they've overcome, and the challenges they still face in a frank and honest way, with the host taking the "Larry King" approach - minimal interruptions, just poking and prodding and listening.

    I fear that if the interviewer tries to bash the uninitiated subject over the head with the regular TechDirt point of view, the guest may get defensive, or feel like they are being talked down to, or otherwise close down and not reveal anything interesting.

    I'd steer away from serious debate in the podcast, this isn't the best format for debates - those are often won on form, style, and recall of random factoids, not on who's side is actually correct. Text, where people can read, research, organize their thoughts and edit points is a far better medium for debates than live discussion.

    For that reason, I'd suggest using the podcast as a way to round up creatives who are trying to get their name out there and learn about their needs, then follow that up while a text article (sort of like case study) about your thoughts on what they could do differently, what could be tweaked, what interesting strategies are they using, what they aren't using, etc.

  • On the post: YouTube Wants You To Comment Under Your Real Name

    kyle clements ( profile ), 25 Jul, 2012 @ 10:36pm

    While the loss of privacy is certainly a concern, I joined YouTube six years ago when I was still a child in school and I was paranoid about online privacy and anonymity. So, to protect myself, I picked a really, really stupid name.

    But over the years I have built up a following, and I really don't want to lose that by starting fresh with a new account.

    I use YouTube for marketing my artwork and my random projects, and it kinda works. Art is very much a reputation economy, and this channel is a valuable tool for me. But I'm still stuck with this stupid name.

    So any option to change that is a welcome addition in my books.

    Also, I've made some comments today and haven't been presented with any windows yet. Is this feature only being rolled out in select countries, or to a small number of select users?

  • On the post: Canadian University Association Surrenders Completely By Withdrawing From Copyright Hearings

    kyle clements ( profile ), 18 May, 2012 @ 03:34pm

    Re:

    I've asked a teacher about this myself. Here is what I was told:

    Unfortunately, teachers can't just use open materials.

    When selecting textbooks for the elementary and high school levels, teachers are given a list of board-approved materials, they are not allowed to select materials that do not appear on this list.

    There are a number of barriers to entry, including review costs, so getting approval is something that takes effort and financial resources.

    Open materials, being non-profit and not for sale, don't have these financial resources needed to break in. No one can just snap their fingers and overhaul the whole system and use non-approved material. Its going to take something big for changes to happen quickly. But a gradual transition to open materials might be possible, but wont be quick.

  • On the post: Romance Author Adele Dubois Receives Takedown On Blog Post For Having The Same Name As Singer Adele

    kyle clements ( profile ), 18 May, 2012 @ 01:58pm

    "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate"

    So, when will Sony face those perjury charges?

  • On the post: In Which I Debate A Media Mogul Who Insists It's Crazy To Give Content Away For Free

    kyle clements ( profile ), 15 May, 2012 @ 05:42pm

    Re: Re: An Obvious Thief

    If there was no creativity before copyright, how was copyright created?

  • On the post: Canadian University Association Surrenders Completely By Withdrawing From Copyright Hearings

    kyle clements ( profile ), 25 Apr, 2012 @ 05:18pm

    Re: Re:

    Canadian here. I'm just thrilled that someone is talking about us.

    It always amazed me how we mock the French for their cowardice and military incompetence. How can two wars completely overshadow Napoleon's legacy?

    As for Canada's insignificance, need I remind you that our curling team recently won an important tournament.


    When I was in school (Before it changed it's name to access copyright) they charged a few cents per page to ensure that all rights were cleared. In practice, we could photocopy whatever the hell we wanted, and it was fine, because we paid the fee to make sure any potential problems would go away. And their might be 3 textbooks that all cover one part really well, and other parts were just ok, so profs could mix and match, giving us just the best, without wasting money on 3 textbooks when one reader would do.

    During my first year, a photocopied reader was around $10. by the end of 4th year, it was around $40-$60. The content hadn't changed, we weren't getting 4 to 6 times more value from the textbook. I would be curious to find out if the authors were receiving 4 to 6 times as much in their royalty cheques, because some of my profs were contributors to these readers, and they didn't say they were getting any extra.

    In first year, everyone just bought the book, because its easy and cheap enough, it's not worth it to spend an hour in a copy shop to save $2.

    By 4th year, I think a psychologacal barrier was reached; spending $40 on B@W photocopies felt like a rip off, its now worth the time to just make it ourself for cheaper. Most students would just buy one reader as a group, then go to a local copy shop, and copy the whole thing for far, far less than the school wanted for it, avoiding the copyright clearance racket entirely.

  • On the post: Author Discovers Assassin's Creed Uses Same Cliche'd SciFi Trope As His Book… Sues For Infringement

    kyle clements ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2012 @ 04:21pm

    Re: Re: Re: zing!

    I think it's ok to feed the troll antifreeze.

  • On the post: How Do We Know That Piracy Isn't Really A Big Issue? Because Media Companies Still Haven't Needed To Change As A Result Of It

    kyle clements ( profile ), 06 Apr, 2012 @ 10:35pm

    "Treat your customers with respect, and they?ll do the same to you. And that is how you fight piracy."

    I show my customers nothing but contempt, and they still don't pirate my stuff.

    *sigh*

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