B's Opinion Only 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (106) comment rss

  • On the post: Daily Deal: The New Techdirt Deals Store

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 24 Mar, 2015 @ 02:21pm

    Broken?

    I was pleased to find some free software on the site, but the downloading seems to be broken. When you click the link, you see:

    Complete the steps below:
    Step 1 – Get Your Updates
    or
    or
    Step 2 – Spread The Word
    or
    or


    What does that mean? None of the words are clickable.


    Also, the login process is unclear. It is a Techdirt site, so why can't I log in with my Techdirt account? This could be made more clear.

  • On the post: Voltage Pictures Has To Pay $22k To Canadian ISP If It Wants Names For Its Shakedown Scheme

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2015 @ 05:35pm

    ?

    The $350,000 is mostly the legal costs Teksavvy paid to stand up to these trolls. Did you even read the article?

  • On the post: Voltage Pictures Has To Pay $22k To Canadian ISP If It Wants Names For Its Shakedown Scheme

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2015 @ 05:41pm

    ...but they gained a customer

    Teksavvy, if you are monitoring this article, I want you to know that the way you stand up to copyright trolls, especially the Voltage Pictures situation, is THE reason I switched to your service. I'm not a hacker or a pirate, but I respect businesses that care about my privacy.

    I know you spend hundreds of thousands to fight for what is right, which is why I am loyal to your service.

  • On the post: Adding Condoleezza Rice To Dropbox's Board Seems Incredibly Tone Deaf Following NSA Concerns

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 10 Apr, 2014 @ 12:13pm

    I have just moved everything out of my DropBox and into my WDCloud.

    I have never felt "right" about using DropBox and this was the last straw.

  • On the post: Microsoft Looked Through Reporter's Hotmail And MSN Chat Accounts To Identify Windows 8 Leaker

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 20 Mar, 2014 @ 12:49pm

    Employment Contract

    I'm certainly no fan of Microsoft, but the key issue that seems to be overlooked here is that Microsoft looked at the emails of a Microsoft Employee.

    It is exceptionally common for one's Conditions of Employment to indicate very clearly that any and all emails sent and received through the employer's facilities will be monitored.

    There is no story here.

  • On the post: Beastie Boys Not Letting Goldieblox Off; Launch Massive Countersuit

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 11 Dec, 2013 @ 08:21am

    Obvious

    The moment the video became about selling a product and not about making social commentary, fair use went out the window.

    This is very simple. Using someone else's copyrighted work in a commercial is not fair use.

    Also, knowing the Beastie Boys, any money they make from this will go to a worthy charity, probably something MCA was passionate about such as Tibetan freedom or childhood cancer.

  • On the post: FISA Court Rubber Stamps Continued Collection Of All Phone Records, While DOJ Insists No One Can Challenge This

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 20 Jul, 2013 @ 10:24am

    The ACLU just needs to starts sending emails with terrorist threats in them. When the nice men in black come for a visit, they will be able to prove to the DOJ that their "metadata" was accessed and used.

  • On the post: Spanish Anti-piracy Firm Ares Rights History Of Censorship By Copyright For Ecuador & Argentina

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 29 Jun, 2013 @ 09:29am

    Could someone please translate the headline "Spanish Anti-piracy Firm Ares Rights History Of Censorship By Copyright For Ecuador & Argentina" into english for me?

  • On the post: Did FBI Counterterrorism Agent Reveal That Feds Now Record All Phone Calls?

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 07 May, 2013 @ 06:05pm

    20 years ahead

    It has been stated many times that the technology the military/government has access to is 20 years ahead of what the general public uses.

    How powerful was your computer in 1993 compared to now?

    1200 baud modem, no internet, 40 megabyte hard drive (if any), 640K RAM, a few thousand operations per second.

  • On the post: Edwin Mellen Press Demonstrates How Not To Respond To Criticism: With Lawsuits & Bogus Threats

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 29 Mar, 2013 @ 03:34pm

    The blue tape obscuring information in the documents above is transparent enough to read the info.

    If the purpose was to hide the info, you might wish to fix the docs.

  • On the post: Copyright Insanity: School Policy Requires Students Hand Over Copyright On All Work

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 04 Feb, 2013 @ 12:35pm

    This will get more interesting when some of the parents send the forms back after changing the terms to a Creative Commons or Copyleft license.

  • On the post: Court Gives Canadians More Time To Fight Copyright Troll Voltage

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2013 @ 05:49pm

    I am very proud to be a Teksavvy customer today!

    I understand they have spent $190,000 so far fighting this troll. If they wanted to add $5 a month to my bill to continue taking the high road I would be happy to pay it.

  • On the post: Yes, It Would Be Prohibitively Costly For Google To Offer Google Fiber Everywhere, But It Shouldn't Have To

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 12 Dec, 2012 @ 08:05pm

    Just use the cellphone business model!

    As Anonymous Coward mentioned above, the numbers people are throwing around work out to about $1500 per household for a fibre install. That's what most of us pay for TWO years of crappy/capped/slow Internet service, not to mention that fibre can handle our TV and phone as well.

    If the telcos can convince us to take a "free" iPhone by agreeing to a THREE year contract, why can't fibre work the same way???

    I would gladly pay $100 per month or more for fast, high-bandwidth fibre! And (for the first time in my life) I would happily pay a set-up fee to get that precious light pipe into my home.

    The incumbent telcos won't acknowledge this reality until people catch on that they are being gouged, and that speed and bandwidth are basically free once the infrastructure is in place. Remember when you paid $75 per month for a pager that could only beep when you had a message? Remember paying $$ a minute for cell phone service?

    Telcos will price the ones and zeroes as high as they can until someone like Google comes along and shows everyone that bandwidth is a commodity just like electricity, gas and water. Have you ever thought about your monthly water bill when 'downloading' a glass of water? Has your tap ever slowed to a trickle because your neighbor was washing clothes? Has the water co ever 'fined' you by quadrupling your monthly bill because you watered your lawn too much?

    Bandwidth is the new water. The infrastructure for both is similar in logistics and cost. Water treatment plants, buried pipes, maintenance, quality control, repairs, billing - how are the ones and zeroes flowing into your home any different?

  • On the post: Twitter Finally Reinstates Journalist's Twitter Account, But Questions Raised Over Its Actions

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 31 Jul, 2012 @ 08:44pm

    It is my understanding that service providers such as Twitter are protected from a lot of bad things by the DMCA's "Safe Harbour" provisions, specifically because they are simply the conduit of the information and exercise no editorial control.

    If Twitter has started proactively censoring posts, wouldn't that mean that they are now legally and financially responsible for what their users publish?

  • On the post: PayPal Freezes Diaspora's Account

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 19 Oct, 2011 @ 04:14pm

    People seem to forget that Paypal isn't a bank. It is a private business that has no federal oversight, no deposit insurance, no requirement to adhere to any sort of banking laws, and NO way to speak to a human when they screw you over.

    Of course Paypal can arbitrarily freeze your funds indefinitely without recourse - it's in the contract you agreed to when you signed up. You DID read it, right?

  • On the post: How Quickly We Forget: Google's Competitors Falsely Claim Google Dominates Because It Was 'First'

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 21 Sep, 2011 @ 04:37pm

    Google who?

    I remember short years ago thinking Lycos was the be-all, end-all. Artificial Intelligence had been achieved. All of mankind's knowledge was now available. There was nothing more to invent. Period.

    Then Alta Vista came along...

    Who is this Google of which you speak??!

  • On the post: Motorola Deal Showing Massive Loss To Innovation Caused By Patents

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2011 @ 07:12pm

    The Googorola deal is about Google building smartphones to compete with Apple, set-top boxes to bring YouTube into everyone's living rooms, and owning the chip foundry and manufacturing to make it happen. The patent portfolio is nice, but it is NOT the biggest part of the deal.

    Anyone who thinks Google bought Motorola to help out their Android partners just doesn't get it.

  • On the post: Apple's Music Match: Innovation By (Record Label) Committee

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 06 Jun, 2011 @ 02:00pm

    Theoretically(*) Apple only has to store one copy of each song. Your personal cloud won't contain a physical copy of your music, it will have a database of what songs you are allowed to play.

    (*of course they will store multiple copies of each song for maximum availability, scalability and geographical distribution, but you get the idea.)

  • On the post: European Politicians Look To Ban WiFi In School… For The Children

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 20 May, 2011 @ 09:32am

    They would have to build their schools inside huge faraday cages with no electricity. Either that or ban: TV, radio, cel phones, police radios, microwave ovens, etc.

  • On the post: Philly Police Harass, Threaten To Shoot Man Legally Carrying Gun; Then Charge Him With Disorderly Conduct For Recording Them

    B's Opinion Only ( profile ), 18 May, 2011 @ 02:46pm

    OK. I have been well and soundly spanked by other commenters. Nice work.

    Here in Canada no one can carry a pistol, so I was unaware that only felony convictions can take away that right in the US.

    The action of the cops was reprehensible. I only mentioned that Fiorino had a record to indicate what may have set them off after a random license plate check or something.

    Perhaps running a recorder all the time is an advisable activity in the new police state. I was just surprised that someone, with no supposed agenda, had done that.

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