Alan Gerow 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Independent Review Finds ICANN Screwed Up In Approving… Then Rejecting .xxx

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2010 @ 01:15pm

    I always thought that creating a TLD of ".kids" that ONLY kid-friendly sites would be allowed on would be a much better alternative to creating ".xxx" and forcing all porn sites to move.

    And then that way, parents could only allow their young children to view sites that end in ".kids", knowing there was an oversight body making sure that all sites using a ".kids" domain would be child appropriate.

    Creating a virtual Red Light District with ".xxx" is just stupid and unenforceable.

  • On the post: Author Who Claimed $9.99 Not A Real Price For Books Admits Comments Were A Mistake

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2010 @ 12:52pm

    Re:

    Because the number of books they sale has a direct relationship to the amount of profit per book.

    More physical books sold, more profit. Less books, more waste, less profit.

    They're willing to sacrifice the eBook market to keep the physical market a little bit more profitable for a little bit longer. Ironically, they're sacrificing a market with such reduced costs associated with it that they could rake in substantial profits at lower prices.

    Where they could leverage eBooks into a new explosion of literature and reading with stories distributed faster, with larger libraries and back catalogs (NO MORE "OUT OF PRINT" EVER!!!), and lower costs with a net benefit to society (lower prices = more people reading) ... they're instead willing to ignore that (and actually sabotage it) and cling to a failing print industry where profit margins are getting slimmer and slimmer.

  • On the post: Author Who Claimed $9.99 Not A Real Price For Books Admits Comments Were A Mistake

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2010 @ 12:39pm

    Re: Entitled Authors

    None of that matters to the person who is purchasing a book. The author is not entitled to be paid because they spent 14 months writing a book.

    The author has to write a work that holds value to someone else to want to pay money for it. And that value has to do with how that work will enrich their lives, and has nothing to do with costs associated to it.

    It's up to the author to spend the right amount of time writing something that people want to spend money on. It's not that the author spends a chunk of their life and then deserves to be paid back for it. A smart author will have a plan in place to make money BEFORE spending a year writing, not dedicating a portion of their life on the hope that they will make money later. Not if they expect writing to be their primary income.

    Good authors will write works that people appreciate and want to pay for. Bad authors will make no money and have to do something that actually holds value to people if they want to be paid.

    History is littered with people who spend months, years, DECADES (*cough* Duke Nukem *cough*) working on projects that produced nothing of value or nothing that people valued enough to justify the cost the creator wanted. Those people fail. It's life. They don't deserve anything, because they didn't do anything deserving of anything. They created something that no one wanted. It's a risk, and risks can pay off big or break the bank. If they want security, then they need to get that BEFORE dedicating a significant portion of time to a project.

  • On the post: School Spying Scandal Gets Even More Bizarre: Student In Question Was Disciplined For Eating Candy

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2010 @ 10:44am

    Every time "more" of this story comes out, it looks worse and worse for the school.

    It went from a kid doing something bad and getting caught showing a violation of privacy.

    Then school district admits spied on kids "only" 42 times, and only when the laptop was reported missing or stolen. So the kid likely stole it.

    The kid didn't steal the laptop. The school had no need to turn the camera on.

    The bad thing the kid was doing was eating candy.

    So, the school turned on a webcam to spy on a student who was in legal possession of the laptop, and who was then disciplined for eating candy in his own home.

  • On the post: Author Who Claimed $9.99 Not A Real Price For Books Admits Comments Were A Mistake

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2010 @ 10:31am

    Re: Works for video games

    He's comparing the hard cover release to a theatrical release.

    Movie comes out in theater/Hard cover book is released

    Months go by...
    Home DVD of movie is released/Paperback version of book is released

    He's saying the eBook version should come out the same window as the DVD/Paperback, not the theatrical/Hardcover window.

  • On the post: Author Who Claimed $9.99 Not A Real Price For Books Admits Comments Were A Mistake

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2010 @ 10:28am

    Re: Re: e-Books have different properties than physical books

    Not to mention bypassing eBook DRM is laughably easy.

    Run a Python script freely available on the Internet and *poof* DRM free eBook.

  • On the post: Calling 911? That'll Be $300

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 07:58pm

    "Update: As pointed out in the comments, there may be more to this story, and the CBS link above might not be that accurate. Another report notes that the $300 will only apply to cases where the fire department needs to respond to medical emergencies. Still seems a bit questionable, but not as bad..."

    So if you call 911 do you have to specifically say "I need help, but don't send those costly firefighters, tell them to stay home, I want an ambulance ONLY!"?

  • On the post: Reminder: You Don't Compete With Piracy By Being Lame, The DVD Edition

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 03:45pm

    Re: Re: Re: The DVD Magically Appears

    Maybe if you got into less fights with people, your DVD buying experience wouldn't be so negative.

  • On the post: Reminder: You Don't Compete With Piracy By Being Lame, The DVD Edition

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 03:42pm

    Re: The DVD Magically Appears

    "make sure it's not infected with spyware or viruses"

    Video files aren't executables. They don't contain spyware or viruses.

  • On the post: Reminder: You Don't Compete With Piracy By Being Lame, The DVD Edition

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 03:34pm

    Re: Re: (rip it yourself)

    That's why I ALWAYS pirate my software that I use to pirate my movies.

  • On the post: Calling 911? That'll Be $300

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 03:29pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    "I'm going with because private police forces are extremely likely to quickly become indistinguishable from, or at least gain significant overlap with, mafia-esque arrangements and/or mercenary companies. "

    And a public police force is distinguishable from gangs & the mafia right now?

    I fear less from thugs than I do police officers. Thugs generally leave you alone if you leave them alone. Police officers make it a point to get into everyone's business.

  • On the post: Calling 911? That'll Be $300

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 03:26pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    How about they at least start by no longer charging a 911 Surcharge on phone & VoIP lines if they are no longer keeping it a public service.

  • On the post: Calling 911? That'll Be $300

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 03:25pm

    Re: Re:

    So, if you're going to call 911, be sure that it is either a non-medical emergency or a total prank call. Actually calling 911 for its intended usage will result in a $300 finefee.

    Call 911 when you want to know what time it is.
    Don't call 911 when you fell and you can't get up.

  • On the post: Book Publishers Circulating 'Talking Points' To Counter Arguments That Ebook Prices Need To Go Lower

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 02:55pm

    Re: Sigh

    Becau$e publi$her$ have people on $taff who under$tand the$e thing$ way better than you. $o hu$h up and ju$t hand over your money.

  • On the post: Calling 911? That'll Be $300

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 02:45pm

    So does that mean the state of California is going to abolish their 911 Surcharge Fees on telephone and VoIP lines?

    California already charges telephone users a fee for 911 whether they use it or not:

    http://www.boe.ca.gov/pdf/pub39a.pdf
    http://www.boe.ca.gov/pdf/boe863.pdf

    Essentially they're saying "you need to pay us so we can operate so that you can pay us to use our services."

  • On the post: Calling 911? That'll Be $300

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 02:39pm

    Re: Frequent callers

    "Hey honey, how much money do you have?"

    "Two hundred and ..."

    *SLAP*

  • On the post: Book Publishers Circulating 'Talking Points' To Counter Arguments That Ebook Prices Need To Go Lower

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 10:19am

    Re: Don't dictate price, dictate marketplace features!

    That idea is too logical to work.

    Sorry, work on incorporating more pixie dust to solve the problem and less of your brain.

  • On the post: Book Publishers Circulating 'Talking Points' To Counter Arguments That Ebook Prices Need To Go Lower

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 10:17am

    Barnes & Noble shot up a bunch of eBook prices this week. "The Singularity is Near" was $9.99 at the beginning of the week. Just as I was about to purchase it ... the price shot up to almost $22.

    I purchased a $250 nook ... not because I'm rich, but because it has value. An eBook does not hold $22 worth of value to me, most barely hold $10 of value. I've purchased exactly 3 eBooks and didn't pay more than $5 each, and everything else has been free & legal through B&N or another website that distributes public domain and license-free ePub files. And then there's free eBook check-outs from my local library's website.

    So, I can get all the legal free content I need to read on my nook. The publishers can go suck one.

    "The Singularity is Near" ... that I ended up getting on The Pirate Bay in a torrent that came with the PDF and a DOC version. I would have paid $5 in an INSTANT for this book even with DRM ... $10 caused me pause and I waited ... but $22, screw you guys!

  • On the post: Philly City Council Members Want To Sue Facebook And Twitter Over Flash Mob Snowball Fight

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2010 @ 03:51pm

    Re: Question

    "What exactly is an "organized riot"?"

    I would say "an army".

  • On the post: It's Probably Not A Good Idea To Ask People To Spam The Judge Hearing Your Case With Support Emails

    Alan Gerow ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2010 @ 03:50pm

    Re: Re:

    But judges, lawyers, and police officers can legally harm an innocent person's life without fear of repercussions.

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