Aaron Martin-Colby 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (110) comment rss

  • On the post: Valve Sued In Germany Over Right To Resell Games

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 03 Feb, 2013 @ 11:16am

    Re: Crampons for cramps.

    One can hope, but even if this passes, it won't affect anything in other countries. The lobbying power of copyright interests is too great.

    I don't think it much matters, at least as regards games and installed software. Technology and the market are moving to obviate these things, and no matter how onerous EULAs get, they can't stop the march of time.

    Now EULAs for online services? That needs real change.

  • On the post: Valve Sued In Germany Over Right To Resell Games

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 03 Feb, 2013 @ 11:10am

    Re: Re:

    For many of the games, it isn't Steam's choice. The restrictions were put on them by the publishers.

    And for many of the smaller companies, their games are so cheap to begin with that the concepts of loaning and/or discounts lose a great deal of value.

  • On the post: CNET: You Can't Trust Our Reviews, But You Can Trust Our News! Honestly!

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 27 Jan, 2013 @ 12:38pm

    Many years ago...

    Many years ago, I sent a letter to Cnet complaining about their "CERTIFIED RETAILERS" list, or something to that effect.

    When you looked up a product, say a TV, below the review would be a list of retailers selling the TV, all of which had a star rating next to them. One would think that this star rating involved some sort of quality analysis.

    And one would be wrong!

    It had nothing to do with quality, but some arbitrary list of things that no one cares about, like whether the website accepted Discover Card or not.

    As such, with concerns of actual retailer quality out of the way, the lists were overrun with companies like "Brooklyn Camera Stores." Google it.

    Bait and switch shops! Genuine scams being listed on Cnet with a five-star rating. It was a travesty.

    So as I said, I sent a letter... No response.

    I sent another letter... No response.

    This was around the same time that Cnet introduced its new rating system, where instead of using academic numbers (where anything below a 60 was bad), they used Bell Curve numbers (where 5 was perfectly average).

    One would thus expect reviews to cluster around 5... i.e. average. But no. The average review was actually a 7.something. They expressed, in quantifiable terms, that their reviews are bullshit.

    I haven't been back to Cnet since.

  • On the post: Razer Updates Synapse Software With Better 'Offline Mode,' Other Problematic 'Features' Remain Unchanged

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2013 @ 09:14am

    In defense of Razer

    In defense of Razer, I think that they are a pretty kick-ass company, and they have expressed explicit understanding of the need to innovate and push the market forward.

    This is a stupid idea, but they are, at least, trying something new. I'm sure that this is their logic, however flawed it may be in this case.

  • On the post: DMCA Nonsense: Your Default Login Page Is A Ripoff Of Our Default Login Page!

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 02 Jan, 2013 @ 11:57am

    Re: Re: Notice OOTB

    Good god. Did you have that pre-written?

  • On the post: Defense Department Overclassifies Memo On Avoiding Overclassification

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2012 @ 12:14pm

    Devil's Advocate

    In fairness, I've seen behavior like this purely because FOUO is the default classification. I remember the terms FOU and For Public Consumption (FPC), and all FPC documents went past editors and whatnot, whereas FOU could be riddled with typos and racist jokes.

  • On the post: $1.5 Billion In Taxpayer Funds Go Directly To Movie Studios Each Year… And Very Few Jobs Created

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2012 @ 09:12am

    No!

    Because... jobs!

    Why do people in government constantly mix up growth in business with growth in economic activity. Because that's what I see happening here.

    They don't necessarily happen at the same time.

  • On the post: Study: Viewing Cat Videos At Work Can Make You More Productive

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 20 Oct, 2012 @ 06:00pm

    Work

    No exaggeration, this is one of the reasons why I'm a freelancer. Every, single one of my friends works in a company that tracks computer use. Some to the degree that my friends have received official citations for viewing Facebook.

    All it ever did was breed contempt in the employees. One wonders how many more studies will be necessary.

  • On the post: Hollywood Accounting: How A $19 Million Movie Makes $150 Million… And Still Isn't Profitable

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 19 Oct, 2012 @ 10:39am

    Piece of the gross!

    I don't know if anyone has posted this yet or not, but it's a clip from a mid-90's cartoon called "Freakazoid," where the titular character is teaching an idiotic alien the ways of Earth.

    Cartoons taught us something back then!


    Freakazoid: Always ask for a piece of the gross, not the net. The net is fantasy.

    Alien: Yeeennngggg! Piece of the gross!


    http://youtu.be/bHL91HQzhuc

  • On the post: Apple CEO: When Others Violate Our Patents, They're Copying Our Hard Work; When We Violate Patents, The System Is Broken

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 30 May, 2012 @ 11:11am

    Re: Re: Typo

    Awww. I preferred paint of coat. It sounded so avant-garde interior designy.

  • On the post: Apple CEO: When Others Violate Our Patents, They're Copying Our Hard Work; When We Violate Patents, The System Is Broken

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 30 May, 2012 @ 11:10am

    Re:

    Yeah, but you're overstating its importance. Just because Apple wouldn't exist without it doesn't mean that Apple wouldn't exist without it.

  • On the post: Apple CEO: When Others Violate Our Patents, They're Copying Our Hard Work; When We Violate Patents, The System Is Broken

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 30 May, 2012 @ 11:08am

    Re: Re:

    For me, that's the only reason that I need.

  • On the post: Apple CEO: When Others Violate Our Patents, They're Copying Our Hard Work; When We Violate Patents, The System Is Broken

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 30 May, 2012 @ 11:04am

    Re: Re:

    I think that you should look up info on Roger Ailes, the president of Fox News. It's much more than simple exploitation of a market. It is, without doubt, ideologically driven.

  • On the post: MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren't Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 21 Jan, 2012 @ 08:49am

    Re: Re: Disgusting

    I think that you are missing the point.

    This is not tech vs. media; this is common sense vs. stupidity. Or good law vs. bad law.

    If the tech industry ever unanimously supports an awful bill, I will rip them to shreds just the same.

  • On the post: The Lies Of NBCUniversal's Rick Cotton About SOPA/PIPA

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2012 @ 10:52am

    Master Debaters

    I hate people like Cotton.

    He's very skilled in the ways of direct debate. That is how people who are absolutely wrong can still win an argument.

    People disagree with you? Tell them that they are wrong because you know that proving otherwise would take up more time than the debate allows.

    One key point in the debate? Rapid-fire lots of other points, thus forcing the opponent to either ignore them, and appear to admit their validity, or charge off-track in an attempt to counter each individual point.

    People like cotton disgust me, not because I disagree with him, but because he is intellectual corrupt.

  • On the post: Capcom Confirms: If ESA Is For SOPA, Then So Is Capcom

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2012 @ 01:58pm

    Re: Re:

    No! Download MAME and then don't play Street Fighter Arcade. That way, you can show them that you are so angry, you won't even not buy their games.

  • On the post: What Would The Movie Business Be Like If The MPAA Succeeded In Killing The VCR?

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 02 Nov, 2011 @ 02:24pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    No, we haven't. We have found a new business model that does what the old one did, transported entertainment/data from a producer to a consumer, but with a different profit vector.

    This evolution happens constantly even in industries that don't have the scapegoat of illegal behavior. The entire industrial revolution is an example of this. And, big surprise, we saw the rise of people who hated the machines.

    Their plight even birthed Karl Marx's philosophical wellspring, who began working on what would become communism after learning of the working conditions of Britain's lower class. So, in that regard, we're pretty conservative in our response. We created a few misguided laws; they created a whole fucking country.

  • On the post: UMG Watermarks Audiophile Files, Pisses Off Paying Customers

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 12 Aug, 2011 @ 09:47am

    Huh?

    I don't really get the bullet analogy at the beginning of the article.

  • On the post: The Greatest Trick The NYTimes Ever Pulled Was Convincing The World Its Paywall Exists

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 22 Jul, 2011 @ 02:19pm

    Re:

    I never got the "doom and gloom" thing from the Techdirt posts. I got a sort of entertained derision. That, basically, the Times was stupid to try this at all for reasons x, y, and z. And when the first numbers came out that showed a relatively small drop in user numbers, that Techdirt's narrative of stupidity remained the same.

    Also, Lincoln? High end? You don't read auto websites very frequently, do you? They're the laughing stock of the car industry, right now. I say this more to make fun of Lincoln than deride the NY Times' effort.

  • On the post: The Greatest Trick The NYTimes Ever Pulled Was Convincing The World Its Paywall Exists

    Aaron Martin-Colby ( profile ), 22 Jul, 2011 @ 02:15pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    I don't think that they turned off anything. I just a Javascript blocker and have never hit the paywall. Millions of people, no matter how frequent they visit, will never hit the paywall. At best, they dimmed the lights.

Next >>