Nate 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: This Is What's Wrong With eBooks: Amazon Loses $2 On Every eBook Sold

    Nate ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2009 @ 11:29am

    Re: Both Amazon and the Publisher are Unrealistic.

    I would kill to ditch my textbook load. My school required that students by convertible tablet PCs. One of the best benefits so far is the lack of binders. One professor sold his own textbook online for $27! DRM was horrible though and it was still a loss of money because the textbook wasn't necessary other than homework. Why don't they support homework books?... And supplement info with Wiki? (lol...)

  • On the post: This Is What's Wrong With eBooks: Amazon Loses $2 On Every eBook Sold

    Nate ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2009 @ 11:18am

    Just crunching some numbers and thoughts

    Amazon Kindle cost: $259
    Production cost (est): $185
    Profit: $74
    Assumed hit: $2
    Number of books before going negative: 37

    Okay, so I know this doesn't hold up very well (if at all) in the real world but I think you get my point. Hardware sales can minimize this hit quite a bit, especially if people like me buy Kindles as opposed to reading on a computer or other alternatives. I mean, I can't say I've ever read 37 real books in my 20 years of breathing. And then there will be new versions of Kindles with larger storage capacities, etc. like we see with iPods, which will (try to) entice people to buy a new Kindle after 2 years.

    I'm not sure how I feel about ebook readers to begin with. I haven't used one but the thought of it reminds me of digital picture frames. I guess given a few more years I'll warm up to both ideas more and by then maybe pricing for ebooks will adjust, which reminds me that people pay a premium for new tech. Ebooks = new tech => high prices at time=0? *shrug*

  • On the post: Woman Filming Parts Of Sister's Birthday Party At Theater, Charged With Felony Movie Copying

    Nate ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2009 @ 11:41am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Yeah. I wish I could see the video. It will be awful for the woman if she actually pointed the camera directly at the screen, even for a split second. I think best case for her is if the camera never got a full shot of the screen. Regardless, we all know she shouldn't be a felon given the circumstances.

  • On the post: Woman Filming Parts Of Sister's Birthday Party At Theater, Charged With Felony Movie Copying

    Nate ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2009 @ 11:08am

    Re: Re: Re:

    To clarify more, if the woman took video of just her friends and stuff WITHOUT ANY CLIPS OF THE MOVIE and if the theater had a problem with that then they could get kicked out or something along the lines you described. The fact that the woman got clips of the movie (whether on purpose or accidentally) just adds another layer of crap that makes it different from a mall picture. That's when it becomes copyright infringement. Whether or not you agree with the law as written now (I don't agree with it), that's just how it is. Yeah it sucks, but the point I made earlier was that I thought people in general knew about the risks of taking a camera into a theater and would not attempt it because situations like this can occur.

  • On the post: Woman Filming Parts Of Sister's Birthday Party At Theater, Charged With Felony Movie Copying

    Nate ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2009 @ 10:48am

    Re: Re:

    Just so you know, I wouldn't say "it's not a good idea" if images were kept privately by the family, for the family. If the family was distributing it then there's a big problem with that. Rules for recording devices in theaters are there because of assumed intent. There's nothing particularly fantastic about your run of the mill movie theater and most people act with a purpose. You're fine to have your cell phone because the assumed intent of you having it is NOT to record movies but to communicate with other people.

    I know you're not an idiot, but seeing the world in black and white is a terrible way to look at things.

  • On the post: Woman Filming Parts Of Sister's Birthday Party At Theater, Charged With Felony Movie Copying

    Nate ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2009 @ 10:40am

    Re: Re: Re:

    The article said that the birthday activities did not occur in the screen room, so I assume it was in the theater lobby. The majority of what was caught on camera was the woman talking about her camera and the movie with friends while the pre-movie advertisements in the background.

  • On the post: Woman Filming Parts Of Sister's Birthday Party At Theater, Charged With Felony Movie Copying

    Nate ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2009 @ 10:37am

    Re: Re:

    Taking a picture at a mall and recording a movie are two separate ordeals. I don't know the exact rules for malls, if they exist (I hadn't heard of it), but I can see where people would be upset about their privacy. If that's the case then it's a matter of privacy violation versus copyright infringement.

  • On the post: Woman Filming Parts Of Sister's Birthday Party At Theater, Charged With Felony Movie Copying

    Nate ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2009 @ 08:21am

    This probably won't be a popular point of view, but out of all the things someone could have chosen to video tape, she chose a birthday event at a movie theater? Do people know it's generally not a good idea to bring a camera to a movie theater? I agree that the punishment given so far is unreasonable and the theater overreacted, but this wasn't the best idea in the world either...

  • On the post: Dismissing The Freeloading Myth

    Nate ( profile ), 03 Dec, 2009 @ 01:10pm

    Re:

    To those complaining about the price of music and film: don't be ridiculous. You probably spend more on beer and crisps, or printer cartridges, than you do on music.

    Just so you know, I don't drink, eat crisps, or own a printer and I still end up paying more for music this year anyway: $36 to Pandora.

  • On the post: Canadian Collection Society Pushing Gymnastics Clubs To Pay Up For Music

    Nate ( profile ), 03 Dec, 2009 @ 04:58am

    Re: Re:

    Or a loud car stereo...

    I would imagine that the owner operator of the venue would be responsible so the local government should be charged for allowing their music to be heard.

    And then maybe the local government would be more proactive about keeping the noise levels down! I hate loud cars...

  • On the post: If You Gain Unauthorized Access To A Character In A Virtual World, Is It Theft?

    Nate ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2009 @ 09:04am

    Yeah, it's hard to say it's robbery. Coming straight from the the Terms and Conditions from RuneScape (which a player must accept):

    "You agree that all intellectual property or other rights in any game character, account and items are and will remain our property."

    From what I understand it's Jagex's property any way. They just simply allow you to use their service for entertainment. So yeah... tell me if I'm looking at this wrong, but I think the arrest is crazy.

  • On the post: Spam King Alan Ralsky Gets Four Years In Jail

    Nate ( profile ), 24 Nov, 2009 @ 01:22pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Haha that's awesome. I'll bookmark that for later...

  • On the post: Publishers Getting The Wrong Message Over eBook Piracy

    Nate ( profile ), 24 Nov, 2009 @ 01:17pm

    Re: Time for authors to get creative...

    Ooh ooh pick me!!! Actually, that would be a pretty interesting reason to buy a book. Have the contest and then don't publicly release the winner's name, just sell the info in the book. I'm sure it would get leaked, and the idea I guess in hindsight isn't perfect but an idea at the very least...

  • On the post: If You Only Share A Tiny Bit Of A File Via BitTorrent, Is It Still Copyright Infringement?

    Nate ( profile ), 20 Nov, 2009 @ 02:14pm

    Re: intent

    Since we're on the topic of technicalities I'm just going to point out the fact that bit torrent isn't exclusively used just for "get(ting) free music or movies." I've used it to get Linux distributions. Also, contributing "ANYTHING" to the upload isn't enough to complete the offense of infringement seeing as I can seed a Linux distribution and be just fine.

    Now that's said and done, I find the technicality in question hilarious.

  • On the post: Oh Look, Some Police Do Know How To Use Craigslist As A Tool

    Nate ( profile ), 19 Nov, 2009 @ 05:16am

    Keep in Mind...

    We always hear about the bad things that happen (blaming Craigslist) more than the good (using Craigslist) because the bad things are the outliers to what we think should be the status quo. I wouldn't be surprised if for every occurrence of officers blaming Craigslist for the actions of its users there are 100 others taking advantage.

  • On the post: Recording Industry Making It Impossible For Any Legit Online Music Service To Survive Without Being Too Expensive

    Nate ( profile ), 18 Nov, 2009 @ 04:46am

    Re: "Too Expensive"

    Minus the snarky tone from Miles, I agree that purchasing music is too expensive. I used to pay $1.06 (included tax) for songs with DRM through iTunes. After $500 worth I just couldn't justify spending any more on music when there were better (for me?) alternatives.

  • On the post: Anger Against Red Light And Speed Cameras Going Mainstream

    Nate ( profile ), 09 Nov, 2009 @ 10:18am

    Punished harsly?

    Really? Punish red light runners harshly? I'm not reading a modern "A Modest Proposal" am I? Believe it or not, where I live running the red light is lay of the land. Drivers here expect people to run the red light and take that into account before pushing the pedal when the light goes green. Instead of increasing the duration of the yellow light, I think increasing the duration between red and green light switches would be more effective.

    Also, I'm not sure, but when have harsh punishment worked successfully as a complete deterrent for a behavior? It's better to reward the good behavior instead, right?

  • On the post: Modern Warfare 2 Shows How To Piss Off Fans

    Nate ( profile ), 09 Nov, 2009 @ 06:05am

    Re:

    The people who develop these games most likely know what the gamer wants because they are probably gamers too (among other reasons including getting feedback from their massive twitter following).

    The people who make laws most likely know what the people want because they are probably people too (among other reasons including getting feedback from their massive mail boxes full of letters). I know that's a bad analogy, but the point is that an organization can be out of touch with what people want.

    As with all things, change happens.

    Yeah, but in this case the changes were bad and IW had full control over what changes it made (they were not the result of random or complicated circumstances). That's not an excuse for making poor decisions.

    I'm disappointed about the lack of dedicated servers because I value communities in games I play. Communities without a doubt add to the gaming experience. A game by itself can be fun but being able to play with people you're familiar with as opposed to random people certainly makes the experience more enjoyable. I fail to see why IW made this decision. Was the the normal system was failing? For those who don't value community, they just chose random servers. This goes back to the old saying of "why fix something when it's not broken."

    Side thought: One problem (if it is at all) with the old system is team stacking by a group. However, from my experience this has been resolved by admin regulation or by the offended person finding a new server to play on.

    Before I throw my hands up in the air, I'm going to give it a shot.

    As will I, with hopes that I can still play with online friends (up to 10-15) in the same game.

  • On the post: Teens Sue School After Being Disciplined For MySpace Photos

    Nate ( profile ), 02 Nov, 2009 @ 02:29pm

    "conflicting court cases on the subject make it fairly unclear where a school's authority to discipline students ends."

    To me, I think a school's authority should end when there is not another link tied to the school with respect to an incident. To be more clear in this case, the school should be able to punish the girls if they took racy pictures on school ground and/or uploaded the pictures on MySpace during school hours. Anything outside school time and property should be a parenting(?) issue. I don't know about private schools (I never went to one), but I suppose different rules could be applied.

  • On the post: Are Kids Not Going Into Computer Science Because Their Parents Want Them To Be Sports Stars?

    Nate ( profile ), 28 Oct, 2009 @ 05:45pm

    I certainly don't blame the parents for lack of Computer Science interest in kids, and I have a hard time blaming one group over another because in reality this 'problem' (if it is a problem) stems from multiple sources.

    Though if I had to choose one group to blame it would be schools. My high school used to have a computer course requirement. Granted, this really wasn't anything more than how to learn to use Microsoft products, but it directly exposed kids and may have sparked some interest in someone. My high school also used to have computer programming courses in GW BASIC and AP Computer Science (Java). Sadly, my high school dropped the computer course requirement because they weren't able to enforce it (lack of funding, faculty, and facilities).

    So without schools, how else is a kid going to be exposed to CS? I wouldn't readily suggest parents be completely responsible because they're at a disadvantage, especially with technology. Altogether I wouldn't expect parents to be knowledgeable about other fields outside of their scope of work anyway. I also don't expect kids to pick up the slack either. There will be those who will, but they are few and far between. So with what I see as a lack of other opportunities for exposure to CS (or any other field) I think a school's core responsibility should include exposing kids to a broad array of fields. Unfortunately, that's easier said than done...

    But like I originally said (and would like to further re-emphasize), lack of interest in CS stems from multiple sources. I chose to point out schools because of my personal first hand experience.

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