aethercowboy 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (158)

• On the post: IBM Patent Lawyer Says The Patent System Works Fine Because… Hey Look Over There!

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 12 Nov, 2012 @ 11:00am

  Why any Patent Lawyer Would Say the Patent System's Not Broken

  They're still making money off of it...

• On the post: Biden Takes Part In MPAA Board Meeting; Suggests Studios Tell Paying Customers They're Thieves

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2012 @ 12:15pm

  Re: Real Math Time...

  Oops, wasn't signed in...

• On the post: Scientist Refused Permission To Call Hominids 'Hobbits', Even Though Word First Used In Print In 1895 — And Not By Tolkien

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 26 Oct, 2012 @ 12:01pm

  This is great! It means that those pesky scientists can't sell products that may lead consumers into thinking they're getting Hobbit-brand hominids.
  
  Otherwise, we might get a dreadfully boring anthropological documentary called "The Hobbit" or something. Snore... even if it IS in 3D...
  
  Bullet = dodged.

• On the post: Studio To Amazon Instant Video Customer: Thanks For The $$$. Enjoy Your Blank Screen.

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 18 Oct, 2012 @ 06:15am

  Whew. She had it easy. One time, DreamWorks thugs broke into my home and smashed my Puss in Boots DVD. Said I'd get a fresh copy when I "bought it again."

• On the post: Why The Theory Of 'Tarnishment' Doesn't Make Sense For Trademark Law

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2012 @ 06:16am

  Tarnish

  I think that the reason why tarnishment is a valid thing is because most consumers say to themselves: "Oh, how could Company X let Company Y use their name so immorally?" without considering for a moment that this is either an unreasonable expectation on Company X, or an unreasonable expectation on everybody else.
  
  It seems to me to be a consumer confusion problem, but one that's been promoted by these big companies.

• On the post: Court: Book Scanning Is Obviously Fair Use

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2012 @ 06:41am

  no subject

  At least they didn't claim that a closed book counted as a form of DRM...

• On the post: Time Warner Cable Suddenly Forced To Compete In Kansas City; Complains Google Has 'Unfair Advantage'

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2012 @ 09:11am

  Competitive Disadvantage?

  What would TWC do with free fiber, government employees, buildings, and discounted services? Would they make service better and cheaper for their users?
  
  I think not. I have a feeling that if TWC/AT&T got these perks, they might use them to develop faster services, but would charge the users a premium to get access to them; or do nothing with them, since TWC does cable, and AT&T does DSL, letting the users wait for Verizon to come in with fiber, so they can continue to have tiered services that technically (but don't actually) compete with one another.

• On the post: All Fair Use And No License Fees Makes Room 237 An Interesting Test Case

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 28 Sep, 2012 @ 12:10pm

  You know, if we still had a copyright term that lasted no more than 28 years (and change), this wouldn't even be an issue.
  
  It makes me wonder if IP laws are just a government stimulus for the legal industry...

• On the post: Partisan Piracy: Conservative Filmmakers Accuse Obama Supporters Of Uploading Their Film To Youtube

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 27 Sep, 2012 @ 06:41am

  Re: Re:

  Yeah. I guess I'm still new at this Troll business. I was trying to stick with the nautical motif of pirates.

• On the post: Partisan Piracy: Conservative Filmmakers Accuse Obama Supporters Of Uploading Their Film To Youtube

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 26 Sep, 2012 @ 08:08am

  there goes pirate mike's sidekick, cabin boy tim, completely missing the point of politics.
  
  it's not about informed votards. it's about making money.
  
  duh.
  
  where have you been for the past 200+ years?
  
  /pseudotroll

• On the post: When Captain Picard Loses Patience With Your Cable Service, You Need To Run A Tighter Ship

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 25 Sep, 2012 @ 06:17am

  Why didn't Stewart just go with one of the other cable providers in his area? I'm sure TWC has plenty competition in that region.
  
  ...
  
  Oh, yeah. Nm.

• On the post: Dead Authors' Estates Preventing Even The Slightest Revisions To Works

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 13 Sep, 2012 @ 07:48am

  The unauthorized changes to the play obviously caused harm to Levin.
  
  He's dead.

• On the post: Why Does Copyright Last 70 Years After Death… But Licenses Expire At Death?

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 04 Sep, 2012 @ 10:24am

  Does this mean that all of my books must be destroyed when I die?
  
  Hello, viking funeral...

• On the post: US Chamber Of Commerce Launches Ad Campaign For Son Of SOPA

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2012 @ 09:31am

  Silver Bullet for Protecting Intellectual Property:

  Stop believing that it exists.

• On the post: Should Creative Commons Drop Its NonCommercial & NoDerivatives License Options?

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2012 @ 10:24am

  Re:

  principle, too.

• On the post: Should Creative Commons Drop Its NonCommercial & NoDerivatives License Options?

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2012 @ 10:22am

  I used to be a big fan of the NC, until I realized that I was only using it to prevent other people from making money from something I did. And then I realized that that made me just as bad as all the other culture cops out there, and since I didn't care if people copied my stuff, why should I care if they profit off of it? Ultimately, what I wanted was the credit for the parent work, and as long as there's a CC-BY, I'm still good.
  
  I still do SA, though, as a matter of principal.
  
  That being said, I think that NC and ND are good things to have to promote openness in otherwise gated content. I think if CC did away with these clauses, they would get fewer new adopters. The better solution is to keep these clauses around to encourage growth, but to educate people (as I was educated) that while it might be comforting to have the NC/ND clauses, they should only be used as a gateway to better access to content.
  
  Also, if the CC got rid of NC, Cory Doctorow's new books wouldn't be released under CC-4.0 licenses due to an agreement he has with his publisher.

• On the post: DEA Gets Lawsuit Dismissed Because It Couldn't Cope With Two Terabytes Of Evidence

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2012 @ 08:56am

  Re: Re:

  The federal government?

• On the post: Google Launches Patent Attack On Apple In A Disappointing First For The Company

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 20 Aug, 2012 @ 11:27am

  Maybe Google is just trying to bring awareness to the ridiculousity of patent laws and how they only manage to harm the general public and stifle innovation, and is doing this by targeting the squeakiest wheel on the block, Apple users.
  
  I just hope that someone will appreciate the irony.

• On the post: Where Fan Fiction Stands On Copyright: A Legal Primer

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 16 Aug, 2012 @ 06:06am

  Re: Copyright

  I know! It seems to me that "character copyrights" seem more like a fictional character's "publicity rights" than they do actual copyright issues?

• On the post: Monster Fight: Can You Tell An Energy Drink From An Aquarium?

  

  aethercowboy ( profile ), 31 Jul, 2012 @ 06:11am

  So, what next, they're gonna sue Sesame Street?

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