Andy Roon's Techdirt Profile

Andy Roon

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Andy Roon's Comments comment rss

  • Mar 23, 2012 @ 08:10am

    Wow, when SEO and rampant copyright enforcement collide. We should turn all the copyright folks against all the blackhat SEOs and see who wins. And have it streamed by the people who stream UFC fights. Wait...

  • Oct 12, 2011 @ 07:33am

    The real trade secret

    The real secret isn't his personal information per se, it's _how_much_ personal information they have and what type that information is. Facebook really, really doesn't want to reveal what kind of information they hold.

  • Apr 21, 2011 @ 08:33am

    The Movie Experience

    In a move in the other direction, the local theater chain in my state has started playing 'Late Night Cult Faves' every Friday and Saturday night, for $4. Previous titles have included Spaceballs, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Dazed & Confused, etc. I think this week's is Top Gun. Everyone I know has these on DVD, if not Blu-Ray...and why would you pay $4 to see them on the big screen? The theater experience, that's why. It's a ton of fun to see your favorite movies not only on the big screen but with a huge crowd of people who love them as much as you do. Sure, private screenings are cool too, but saying you can't compete is asinine. It's comparing apples to oranges.

  • Mar 29, 2011 @ 05:56pm

    I refer you to this: http://reason.com/archives/1999/04/01/precautionary-tale

    Remember, anything can be proven dangerous, nothing can be proven 100% safe. Without forward thinking, there will be no progress.

  • Jan 16, 2010 @ 07:57pm

    sigh.

    I'm ashamed to admit that this company is from my state. @Linotype Hell: agreed. If you need to explain, you're doing it wrong.

  • Oct 25, 2007 @ 06:26pm

    Re: the four models

    An insightful breakdown. At the same time, I take issue with some of the naming. 'Loss leadership' is a valid strategy labeled negatively; it also bears no resemblance to traditional 'loss leadership' wherein retail stores accept a loss on one product to entice consumers to visit their locations and buy additional products. Using open source in this way is not 'loss leading', it's (as has been mentioned in Techdirt often) using the value of the infinite product (information in the form of source or binary files easily copied) to create or enhance the value of your other offerings. That's not losing anything, it's gaining a foothold where no one else has created value. The only value that's created in retail loss leading is to the customer, where here the company releases an open source product and therefore doesn't have to worry about 'piracy', about trying to market software and convince people to pay for it, about any number of headaches you get when you try to treat an infinite commodity as a finite one.