Adam Wasserman 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: The White House Wants Advice On What's Blocking American Innovation

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 09 Feb, 2011 @ 04:35pm

    For what it is worth...

    The feedback I left:

    I am a consultant usually hired by VC's and institutional investors to coach early stage companies seeking financing.

    I can tell you definitively that there is plenty of innovation out there, but that attracting capital to fund these innovations, and bringing them to market is severely inhibited by the current state of affairs with patents.

    In my lifetime I have observed the USPTO move from rigorous patent examination to rubber stamping. The net effect has been that overly broad patents have been and continue to be awarded and these inhibit both competition and innovation.

    The example I use to explain to people is the following:

    if in 1885 the patent situation was as it is today, Karl Benz would have patented the "idea: for a four wheeled vehicle powered by a four-stroke gasoline powered engine, and the patent would have been extended over and over again so that even today the only brand of car one could buy would be a Benz - except the folks in Brazil who could choose from all manner of car.

    This may seem like crazy exaggeration but it is not. Every day patents are granted for concepts as general and sweeping as "a four wheeled vehicle powered by a four-stroke engine" Every few years patent terms get extended out towards infinity.

    In a world where a company like RIM is pressured by a judge to pay a half a billion dollars settle a lawsuit based on a a patent that the USPTO was ON THE RECORD as saying would be invalidated, it is no wonder that investors are unwilling to fund innovation, even when that innovation is backed by a patent (as RIM's was).

    Because even having a patent is no protection against predatory lawsuits filed by companies that exist for the sole purpose of filing lawsuits. Companies that produce no goods or services, contribute noting to society, yet are funded with hundreds of millions of dollars, sometimes billions. These companies exist because the system is so completely broken, that capital is more drawn towards filing lawsuits than to bringing innovation to market.

    The solutions are too complex to go over in a few hundred words, and any meaningful reform would likely create economic turmoil. However I suggest that turmoil is inevitable because we are in an IP bubble, and that it will do what bubbles always do: collapse.

  • On the post: Native American Nation Shielded From Patent Infringement Claims

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 02 Feb, 2011 @ 07:13am

    Re: Native American Data Centres

    Already being done.

    Look up Continent8.

  • On the post: How Denial Works: Library Of Congress Blocks Wikileaks

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 05 Dec, 2010 @ 06:58am

    Cooled off

    You know what: I apologize.

    I felt very insulted that anyone would think I was was in any way OK with the injuring of innocent children (and aren't they all), and I lashed out in anger. And was not making a lot of sense.

    Now that I have cooled off, let me just say: sorry you understood it that way, that is most certainly not how I meant it.

  • On the post: How Denial Works: Library Of Congress Blocks Wikileaks

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 05 Dec, 2010 @ 05:28am

    Re: frack...

    I think there might be something you are not getting.

    The American governing elite do not care if information wants to be free or not. Their actions are not based on an assumption that information wants to remain locked up.

    Their actions are based on the fact a they believe that a stable democracy requires rigorous indoctrination. That stability is achieved through controlling populations, and you either do that with a gun, or you do that by boxing in the mind.

    If you watch you can see the fluctuations between the two, sometimes it is physical force, sometimes it is mental.

    The goal is not to make the cables disappear, it is to make it impossible for any intellectuals to do a fair analysis of the cables by making it appear "treasonous" to read and discuss them, and by threatening the academic career of anyone who tries to.

  • On the post: How Denial Works: Library Of Congress Blocks Wikileaks

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 05 Dec, 2010 @ 05:19am

    Re: Re: Re:

    Ah. my mistake. I see now that I used the word they. I had used it as a gender neutral singular pronoun since I am unaware of the sex of the driver. You assumed that I was using the plural pronoun.

    So I withdraw my accusation of lack of basic reading comprehension.

    Instead I maintain that when provided with an ambiguous sentence structure, you chose the less generous interpretation of the two, and that means you mind is in the gutter.

    Good luck with that.

  • On the post: How Denial Works: Library Of Congress Blocks Wikileaks

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 05 Dec, 2010 @ 04:47am

    Re: Re: Re:

    I never said they were the enemy. Neither were the news correspondents.

    All I said was that carrying an AK-47 may very possibly make you a *target*, and that the army and government had no real reason to try and lie and deceive about shooting them.

  • On the post: How Denial Works: Library Of Congress Blocks Wikileaks

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 05 Dec, 2010 @ 04:42am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    That was me, above, I did not notice I was logged out.

  • On the post: How Denial Works: Library Of Congress Blocks Wikileaks

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2010 @ 07:22pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    I didn't really think it was necessary.

  • On the post: How Denial Works: Library Of Congress Blocks Wikileaks

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2010 @ 04:57pm

    Re:

    That is why it is so much more sensible to call for his assassination.

  • On the post: How Denial Works: Library Of Congress Blocks Wikileaks

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2010 @ 04:43pm

    Freedom means the freedom of US companies to exploit the global marketplace

    Actually, I would say that - at least in this context - Freedom means the freedom of the US governing elite to lie and deceive whenever they wish, without any consequences.

    It is completely un-American in the more traditional sense of what it is to be American.

  • On the post: How Denial Works: Library Of Congress Blocks Wikileaks

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2010 @ 11:23am

    Re: This disease has to stop

    You are not missing anything.

    The attacks on free speech, and the attempts to legitimize prior restraint, have been going on for years, are strongly supported by both Republicans and Democrats, and form part of a sustained attack on the Bill of Rights that is the keystone of the class war that has been going on in America since at least the late 1980's.

  • On the post: How Denial Works: Library Of Congress Blocks Wikileaks

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2010 @ 08:59am

    Re: "remediation"

    Did you say "re-education"?

    I thought so.

  • On the post: How Denial Works: Library Of Congress Blocks Wikileaks

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2010 @ 08:10am

    Re:

    Because they are insane with rage that anyone would *dare* to defy the imperial power. Same as the dramatic overreaction to Cuba.

  • On the post: How Denial Works: Library Of Congress Blocks Wikileaks

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2010 @ 08:08am

    Re:

    Well, not so much a question of *more careful*.

    The thing that not enough people are talking about, and that our government does not want you to know, is that this entire thing - the leak of all 250,000 diplomatic cables - are 100% because the USG and US Army lied.

    It was an incredibly unnecessary and stupid lie, and all of this noise and panic would absolutely not be happening if that lie had not been told.

    What happened is: in 2007 a US Army helicopter killed two Reuters war correspondents because they mistook a video camera for an RPG launcher.

    What they should have done is say: "sorry we blew up your correspondents, here is what we do to make sure that happens as little as possible.

    Instead what they did was deny deny deny. Lie till you die.

    War corespondents assume the risk of getting killed. The other people killed were walking around with AK-47s or standing next to someone with an AK-47. I feel they also assumed the risk of getting killed. I deplore the fact that a good Samaritan with two children in his van were also blown up, but they also assumed a little bit of risk when they drove into a fire zone with 30mm cannon rounds exploding all around them and the helicopter clearly still circling overhead.

    So there really was no compelling reason for the army and the government to lie and deny about this. So why did they?

    Because it was easy. Because they are to used to lying all the time about all sorts of things and getting away with it. And every American citizen should be concerned when their army and government are so used to lying that they do it even when there is absolutely no need.

    Finally, an intelligence officer was so disgusted by the needless lies, that they leaked the gunship footage, and once they started leaking... this offer felt that somewhere in the 250,000 was more evidence of government lies. At the current rate of release, we may not know for sure for a few years if the intelligence officer was correct, but one thing is clear:

    The leak was triggered by an egregious, totally unnecessary lie by our government.

    So it is not a question being more careful. It is a question of being more truthful.

  • On the post: Copyright Expansion Through Misinformation Has Gone On A Long Time… And It Involved Pimps & Ferrets

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 20 Nov, 2010 @ 07:57am

    Re: Re: The "Information Age" makes near total control possible.

    "Making the same mistakes over and over again is a sign that someone is not learning"

    And here I was thinking it was a sign that someone was alive.

  • On the post: As US Insists ACTA Is Not A Treaty, EU Trade Commissioner Admits It's A Treaty

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 18 Nov, 2010 @ 04:54pm

    Re:

    Just because something is presented as x does not mean it really is x and not y.

    The Viet Nam War was not a war but a "police action". Waterboarding is not torture but "enhanced interrogation techniques".

    Suggested reading: 1984 by George Orwell. It provides an excellent perspective on governments propensity for finding pleasant sounding euphemisms for heinous things.

  • On the post: Cooks Source Editor Gives First Interview; Says She'll Probably Shut Down The Magazine

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 15 Nov, 2010 @ 09:21am

    Re: quitter

    What makes you think she is even halfway serious about shutting down?

    "I don't know if I'm going to continue Cooks Source. At this point, it's looking doubtful."

    That is far from a clear declaration of intent. From where I sit it sounds a whole lot more like a teenager's petulant threat to run away from home in the hopes of garnering some unwarranted sympathy.

    Just sayin'...

  • On the post: Turns Out TV Cord Cutters Are, In Fact, Young, Educated And Employed

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 02 Nov, 2010 @ 07:48am

    Re: From a less than 0.00001 sample size.

    This sample size is actually twice the size of what Gallup uses for a national poll.

    Gallup uses a 1000 person sample population and that gives them plus or minus 4% accuracy.

    On top of which, as Mike points out, this poll is not a poll of the entire US adult population like a Gallup Poll is.

    So yes, this survey is considered very meaningful and accurate.

  • On the post: Runkeeper's Ability To Outrun Nike & Adidas Shows How Big Companies Don't Always Copy & Win

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 29 Oct, 2010 @ 04:25am

    Re: Re: The American Way

    I was stylistically lampooning rabid xenophobic right-wingers... apparently too well.

    My apologies.

  • On the post: Runkeeper's Ability To Outrun Nike & Adidas Shows How Big Companies Don't Always Copy & Win

    Adam Wasserman ( profile ), 25 Sep, 2010 @ 04:59am

    The American Way

    *That* is the American way.

    Ford comes up with a mass produced automobile, and so a couple of other companies try and do them one better. What do you get? Competition, better product, a healthy market, in fact one of the biggest markets in the world.

    GE comes out with a television, and so a bunch of other companies try and do them one better. What do you get? Competition, better product, a healthy market, in fact one of the biggest markets in the world.

    If the pinko communist "IP" supporters had their way, there would be one brand of car on the road today, because once someone patented the *idea* of an internal combustion engine powering a four-wheeled vehicle, and the *process* of driving a car down the road. and let me tell you: it would be a pretty shoddy car, because that is what monopoly does.

    IP maximalists are un-American hippie pinko freaks who hate competition, hate working for a living, and just want a free ride for the rest of their lives. They want what English (and other) royalty have: guaranteed income from "lands". No Yankee ethic at all.

    If they love England so much they should get the heck out of the U.S. of A. where we work for a living, and free competition is way we get ahead.

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