PaulT 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (29334)

• On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 15 Oct, 2023 @ 02:39pm

  If only you people would spend as much time and energy defending rights as you do attacking a hallucination of what some asking for them entails.

• On the post: Math Problem For Linda Yaccarino: If 90% Of The Top Advertisers Have Come Back, But Are Only Spending 10% Of What They Used To, How Screwed Are You?

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2023 @ 02:12pm

  The changes to the blue checks are a scammer's wet dream. They used to indicate one thing - that the person posting was verified to be who they claim to be. But, the right-wing that Musk is courting decided that because (reputable journalist with a track record) was verified and (anonymous agitator with a name like catturd2) was not meant that they were unfairly promoting the left. So, Musk decided to sell off the check to anyone who wanted to pay and amplify them, so while it's now useless for verification, it's a very cheap way of promoting bad things to an audience who might be confused by the change in meaning. It's also possible that he doesn't see the problems - he seems to spend most of his time Tweeting, and only interacting with those who agree with him, so he won't be exposed to differing ideas or people who just stopped trying.

• On the post: Sure, There’s Disinfo On ExTwitter, But The EU Should Not Be Demanding Censorship

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2023 @ 01:57pm

  One man's "strangling with red tape" is another man's "this company would actually employ slave labour and poison their neighbours if they weren't explicitly forced not to".

• On the post: Three Guarantees In Life: Taxes, Death, And Politicians Trying To Destroy The Internet

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2023 @ 01:24pm

  Most such bills don't, but the person proposing them can ride on their "tough" stance of "important" issues next time they run for office. Whether their solution was workable, or even just would have made things worse, is secondary to the appearance of "doing something".

• On the post: Three Guarantees In Life: Taxes, Death, And Politicians Trying To Destroy The Internet

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2023 @ 01:23pm

  anyone can generate their own certificate and have it claim whatever they please

  Yes and no. You can do that, but modern browsers will refuse to connect if the certificate chain isn't valid, and faking that requires control of a certificate authority that's accepted by the browser and OS. It's possible, and has happened, but the likelihood of breaking that trust is as low as it's ever been. But, that's got nothing to do with card payments, except that any small retailer would have to sign up with a payment processor to accept credit card payments, and then you're back at the same problem only with the platform that was also providing marketing, reach and accessibility to the seller is no longer there.

• On the post: Three Guarantees In Life: Taxes, Death, And Politicians Trying To Destroy The Internet

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2023 @ 01:19pm

  And HTTPS already was that protocol for most of the history of the Internet

  So, you really don't know what it is. It wasn't even actively enforced until recently, and it wasn't because Amazon was trying to send credit card data over insecure connections.

• On the post: Three Guarantees In Life: Taxes, Death, And Politicians Trying To Destroy The Internet

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2023 @ 01:17pm

  "Kill the platforms; return to the protocol of HTTPS" I assume you mean return to the days of thousands of individual sites instead of places where people can buy/sell with little technical skill? At least https is mostly enforced nowadays by browsers unlike those times... That won't fix things, though. Larger sellers will remain more popular, smaller sellers will struggle to find business without a central location for buyers to find them, many have no idea how to build their own sites and are easy marks for people who promise to handle things for them. The current situation isn't great, but there's always something for scammers to exploit and pretending that caveat emptor didn't also apply in the old school internet won't get you the easy answer you want.

• On the post: Elon Musk Seems Really, Deeply Committed To Making Sure The FTC Has More To Investigate

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2023 @ 01:07pm

  Musk stops doing stupid things, people stop writing about them, that's the deal.

• On the post: Confused City Council Candidate Trademarks Local School’s Logo And Demands Licensing Fees

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2023 @ 01:06pm

  I've said several times that the hardest job in the world for the last 7-8 years at least must be writing for The Onion. Burning the midnight oil trying to come with hilarious satire, then finding out the real world's headlines make you look like you're downplaying things.

• On the post: Confused City Council Candidate Trademarks Local School’s Logo And Demands Licensing Fees

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2023 @ 01:04pm

  "how’s George Santos doing? Vivek? Trump?" Two of the three are currently indicted for federal crimes.

• On the post: Confused City Council Candidate Trademarks Local School’s Logo And Demands Licensing Fees

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2023 @ 01:03pm

  Well, there's finally traction on Santos: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67073935 I'm confused about what took so long, really. He fabricated so much that people who voted for his essentially voted for a fictional character, and AFAIK they aren't allowed to run for office.

• On the post: Sure, There’s Disinfo On ExTwitter, But The EU Should Not Be Demanding Censorship

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2023 @ 01:00pm

  You're saying that the Allied forces in WWII were fascists?

• On the post: Sure, There’s Disinfo On ExTwitter, But The EU Should Not Be Demanding Censorship

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2023 @ 01:00pm

  Plenty of users have left. The problem is merely where to go to, and one of the most lauded alternatives (Threads) isn't allowed to do business in the EU yet. I'm sure it will be decided soon, and the network effect will take care of the people who are only there because of who they follow.

• On the post: Sure, There’s Disinfo On ExTwitter, But The EU Should Not Be Demanding Censorship

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2023 @ 12:57pm

  He said a lot of things. Sadly, some of the people who invoke him never read any f his actual work, especially outside of two particular novels.

• On the post: Math Problem For Linda Yaccarino: If 90% Of The Top Advertisers Have Come Back, But Are Only Spending 10% Of What They Used To, How Screwed Are You?

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2023 @ 12:55pm

  With the tiny ad spends, I've been wondering if it's not just some contractual issue. That is, they cancelled but the contract say they still have to buy ads for X months/years before they're compliant. So, they buy as little as the contract will allow to get out of it. I could be wrong, but otherwise Visa spending $10 doesn't make much sense, the return on thathey won't t would probably be less than they'd spend on employing someone to reopen the account. I suspect it's just another "technically true" thing, where advertisers are "returning" so the fanboys will think they're back on the upswing, but they won't bother looking at the details past the headlines.

• On the post: Publishing A Book Means No Longer Having Control Over How Others Feel About It, Or How They’re Inspired By It. And That Includes AI.

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2023 @ 02:45pm

  Oh, and maybe another better example - Fifty Shades Of Gray. Quite famously, that series started as Twilight fan fiction, but the author rewrote it to remove those references in order to get it published. How do you allow that series to exist with its own "original" status, but still claim that an AI trained on the Twilight books can't count because they took from that source? I'm not saying there's a right answer here, but ultimately, humans are "trained" on copyrighted works too. There's a problem with the speed and volume in which these models can churn out something, but it's problematic to say the least to say that "training" on copyrighted work attracts an automatic fee. Also, if you're using a public domain work like A Tale Of Two Cities that's been legally copied and riffed on for many years as your starting point to "prove" that Ai will just copy, especially if you only use 120 words which can be legitimately quoted by new authors... that's not a great example. We're in an age where lazy and corrupt people will use the tech for bad things, as every new tech has been used before it. I just don't think this is the right argument against it.

• On the post: Publishing A Book Means No Longer Having Control Over How Others Feel About It, Or How They’re Inspired By It. And That Includes AI.

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2023 @ 02:30pm

  If output starts with your work and then veers off into hallucination/confabulation, it’s not great.

  One of Stephen King's magnum opuses (yes, he has more than one), is the Dark Tower series. The entire series is inspired by a poem by Robert Browning, titled "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" and the sentence "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." set up several decades of creative work. The later books have been criticised for the way they went toward the story's conclusion, especially as he incorporated many real life events following his accident into the story, and a lot of his output in that time period can be traced to the pain drugs he was taking (he apparently doesn't even remember writing Dreamcatcher, written at the same time). But, there's no doubt that at least the first 4 books of the series stemmed directly from that poem and I doubt that an AI would write the same thing just because. So, do you think that King owes the estate of a long-dead author something for taking his direct inspiration, or does that only apply when the later books went in a different direction? If you don't agree with those things, what specifically separates King from AI in terms of what you're thinking of? Also, if you're going to test supposed problems with ML written output, it might be best not to use a very famous book that's in the public domain as your starting point. That may skew the results.

• On the post: Depressing: Ed Sheeran Films Songwriting Sessions Due To All The Copyright Suits

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2023 @ 02:17pm

  That was my point

  Which I would have hoped you'd understand wasn't one by now. The issue at hand is way larger than what you can personally access, or whether the artist is a globally popular artist or a newcomer. I'm just pointing out that it's hilarious that you chose the former to question. The story is about how even a major label, internationally successful artist feels the need to record every creative session in case he gets accused of plagiarism, and your entire argument is about whether he's famous in your own home. Which doesn't matter - I'd be saying the problem is concerning even if the guy was still busking.

  Personally, I don’t really care about charts, or popularity.

  Yet, this entire conversation is based on the implication that this issue doesn't matter because you didn't realise the guy was popular.

  The proper response would have been a Wikipedia link

  Which simply raises the question as to why you weren't capable of typing his name into the search bar yourself. Sheeran's relative popularity ultimately shouldn't affect the arguments made here, except that maybe people without the strength of major labels behind him that the result would have been different. Yet, your entire argument here seems to be that when faced with something you're unfamiliar with, you're too lazy to even do a basic search. Somehow, you'll post paragraphs here rather than type 2 words into Wikipedia.

• On the post: Elon Has To Pay The Legal Fees Of Former Execs He Fired

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2023 @ 02:06pm

  If the only punishment is a fine, then that means it's legal for a price. If the price is too low to get the target to change their behaviour, then it's as useless as not having punishment at all. Another form of punishment would be nice, but in the meantime it seems that the current system isn't working as a deterrent or a punishment.

• On the post: Elon Has To Pay The Legal Fees Of Former Execs He Fired

  

  PaulT ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2023 @ 02:03pm

  So, no evidence, huh?

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