Jeff Smith 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (55)

• On the post: Hollywood Collectively Loses Its Mind About Latest Set Of Livestreaming Apps

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 16 Apr, 2015 @ 11:26am

  Never heard of Periscope or Meerkat, but I sure as hell will download them now, and maybe even stream some copyrighted content, just because. Thanks, Barb!

• On the post: Google Rejects Postal For Google Play Store Due To Violence; GTA Games Still Available For Purchase

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 10 Apr, 2015 @ 12:33pm

  Put it on Amazon. Maybe it'll even be the Free App of the Day!

• On the post: District Court Says You Can (Probably) Photograph Police, But Only With A Regular Camera, Not A Drone

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2015 @ 10:39am

  Re: Re:

  Sometimes common sense dictates rules that should be in place, without seeing the possible outcomes actually occur. Drones have in fact crashed, it's not that outrageous. Plus, as others have indicated, flying directly overhead is probably already against rules and/or guidelines already in place.
  
  Note that we don't actually KNOW that the drone was flying overhead. If it's flying approximately as far away as people might be standing and observing, and they were still concerned about it, then that's silly.

• On the post: District Court Says You Can (Probably) Photograph Police, But Only With A Regular Camera, Not A Drone

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2015 @ 10:22am

  Honestly, I don't think this is as unreasonable as people probably want to make it. While unlikely with modern equipment and a pilot who knows what he's doing, it's not impossible for the thing to fly/crash into the scene. At the very least, it's likely that people working the scene might think so. I don't think I have a problem with prohibiting this. I'm more disturbed by the statements that this court seemingly doesn't recognize a right to film police in public. I thought that was clearly established everywhere in the US.

• On the post: John Oliver Takes On Government Surveillance With Help From Ed Snowden And… Some Dick Pics

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 06 Apr, 2015 @ 11:27am

  I wouldn't blame Oliver on the lack of outrage. He used a clever and creative approach to try and get people to care about something that maybe, they just don't. I thought it was a brilliant take, and I'm glad he tackled it.

• On the post: What Do You Do When Preserving Evidence Is Labeled 'Possession' And Destroying It Is A Felony?

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 03 Apr, 2015 @ 08:56am

  Re: Re:

  I think the point of the reference to the Iowa case is that, while you SHOULDN'T get in trouble for simply reporting it, that doesn't mean you won't...

• On the post: What Do You Do When Preserving Evidence Is Labeled 'Possession' And Destroying It Is A Felony?

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 03 Apr, 2015 @ 08:56am

  Re: Re:

  I think the point of the reference to the Iowa case is that, while you SHOULDN'T get in trouble for simply reporting it, that doesn't mean you won't...

• On the post: There Is No Way That Hillary Clinton Didn't Know She Was Supposed To Use A Government Email Account

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 03 Mar, 2015 @ 10:29am

  Who needs archives?

  I'm sure the NSA can provide copies of its backups

• On the post: There Is No Way That Hillary Clinton Didn't Know She Was Supposed To Use A Government Email Account

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 03 Mar, 2015 @ 10:29am

  Who needs archives?

  I'm sure the NSA can provide copies of it's backups

• On the post: As Blurred Lines Trial Starts, Take A Listen To The Special 'Copyright Only' Remix That Jurors Will Hear

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 26 Feb, 2015 @ 07:03am

  Re: Re: Re: Re:

  Sure, MIDI is just a control interface for electronic musical instruments, and doesn't dictate the timbre, but I'm pretty sure both clips are played using General MIDI instruments, which do in fact have specific same-sounding timbres, so you can play a MIDI file without having a specific program of instruments or sounds and it will sound more or less like the song. So the original commenter was correct, as to why the instrument timbres are similar in these clips.
  
  This should be pretty easy to defend, as others have pointed out, but I can totally see the defense team f*cking it up, and allowing a confused jury to find in favor of the the plaintiff based on the clips "sounding similar." Hopefully not...

• On the post: Wireless Usage Caps (And Creative Abuses Of Them) Are The New Global Net Neutrality Battlefield

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 25 Feb, 2015 @ 08:15am

  In other Net Neutrality-related news

  The absolute worst, most mis-informed article on Net Neutrality yet...in the Wall Street Journal, no less:
  
  http://www.wsj.com/articles/l-gordon-crovitz-from-internet-to-obamanet-1424644324

• On the post: Google Gets Prude: Says No More Adult Content On Blogger

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 24 Feb, 2015 @ 11:01am

  "Intercourse" and "condom" are erotic words now?

  Of course, at least in most uses they're sexual in nature, but they tend to be more clinical than erotic. Those words hardly seem to fail the test for "educational content."

• On the post: UK Intellectual Property Office Plays Up Imaginary 'Toxic' Claim In Grabbing Food Pretending To Be From Somewhere Else

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2015 @ 10:59am

  I have no problem with "the authorities" preventing the sale of a food or beverage item that is not, by content, different from what it claims to be (e.g. the screenwash vodka, or whatever). The Cornish pastries not being from Cornwall is a bit more of a stretch of course, and in the first case, that should be some arm of the law other than an IP group, but still. I do think this story is trying a bit too hard to make it's point.

• On the post: President Obama: I'm A Big Believer In Strong Encryption… But…

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 17 Feb, 2015 @ 08:36am

  The "Snowden disclosures" didn't damage trust

  I keep hearing that Snowden's leaks have damaged the trust between government and the tech industry, but that's incorrect. The government's actions damaged that trust. If one of my kids breaks something he shouldn't be messing with and the other one rats him out, the second kid didn't "damage my trust" in the first. Let's put the blame squarely where it belongs.

• On the post: Green Bubbles: How Apple Quietly Gets iPhone Users To Hate Android Users

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2015 @ 06:43am

  I'm no fan of Apple business practices, and I'm an Android user, but this seems silly. Had Apple switched the colors around, those same idiots would have been bitching about blue bubbles. I find nothing inherently unpleasant about the shade of green used in the text message bubbles. Remember that, with the green indicating traditional SMS, there is some marginal functionality that is lost vs. iMessage (e.g. feedback as to whether your message was seen).