Chris-Mouse 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: ICE Considered One Of The Worst Places To Work In The Federal Government

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2012 @ 08:03am

    Is it any surprise that the TSA is located even lower down that list?
    In fact, there are eleven entries in that list that fall under the Department of Homeland Security. All but four of the entries are in the bottom half of the list, and even more worrying, all but two of the entries have gotten worse than they were last year.

    Sounds like there should probably be a rethinking of this whole Department of Homeland Security.

  • On the post: Canadian Universities Agree To Ridiculous Copyright Agreement That Says Emailing Hyperlinks Is Equal To Photocopying

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 21 Feb, 2012 @ 06:22am

    The agreement isn't a signed deal, yet. At least not at the University of Toronto. Some of the faculty are raising the point that the way in which the agreement was reached may have violated the university's governance procedures.

    UofT Faculty Blog

  • On the post: Why You Should Regret LightSquared's Setbacks

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 21 Feb, 2012 @ 05:57am

    First off, I have to say kudos to the FCC for giving LightSquared the chance to try. The fact that the condition was put on the waiver in the first place is a good indication that the FCC didn't think it was possible to avoid interfering, but LS got the opportunity to prove the FCC engineers wrong. The fact that the technology failed to work as planned does not mean LS cannot build their network. They just have to find some other spectrum in which to do it.

    Kudos also to the FCC for not allowing that idea to trample all over an existing highly innovative industry. A two inch square module that costs under $50 can provide both location information to within a couple of metres, and a time stamp signal with atomic clock accuracy. What's more, this is available everywhere on the planet with a view of the sky, even when mobile. You've almost certainly seen the explosion of in-car navigation systems over the last few years, but how about some of the hidden uses? There's a huge explosion in infrastructure that makes use of the location information of the GPS units, or the time information. In many cases it's cheaper and easier to hang a GPS unit on a system than it is to add in a real time clock or a connection to a time server.

    Overall, which is more beneficial to society, the innovation in the GPS industry, or the increase in innovation in the communications industry? That I can't say, but right now, I'm leaning towards the GPS industry. Who knows, maybe in another few years someone else will come up with a technology that will let the GPS and a terrestrial communications network coexist on adjacent frequency bands.

  • On the post: US Returns JotForm.com Domain; Still Refuses To Say What Happened

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 17 Feb, 2012 @ 06:26am

    The government may get smacked down by a court, but only if it ever gets to a court. The government seems to be doing a very good job of delaying things until their victims either give up or run out of money.

  • On the post: How Does The Penalty For 'Content Theft' Match Up With Similar 'Crimes'?

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2012 @ 10:01am

    That seems difficult to square with reality.
    We are talking Hollywood here. Their entire industry is one of creating fantasies, so it should be no surprise to anyone that they are a lot more comfortable in a fantasy world instead of the reality the rest of us live in.

  • On the post: Redbox Won't Cave To Warner Bros. Demands; Will Buy WB DVDs From Other Sources And Rent Them

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 02 Feb, 2012 @ 10:51am

    Re: Re:

    Wal-Mart's answer is: "Do things our way, or we don't carry your product"

    Wal-Mart risks less than 1% of their business.
    The movie studio risks something like 25% of all DVD sales.

    Which do you think will cave first?

  • On the post: FIFA Orders Brazil To Overturn Ban On Selling Beer At World Cup Matches

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 31 Jan, 2012 @ 05:20am

    Just out of curiosity

    What happens to FIFA if the Brazilians tell them to get stuffed, and manage to convince the rest of Latin America to go along?

  • On the post: Entertainment Industry Lobbyists Don't Want To Let Canada Into Secret TPP Negotiations Until Canada Passes More Bad Laws

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2012 @ 09:36am

    Re:

    The last three times the government of Canada tried to "modernize" the copyright laws in Canada, the laws were put on hold until they died. Each time it was because the copyright changes threatened to become an election issue that would hurt the government badly.
    The Conservative party (more or less equivalent to the Republicans in the USA) won a majority government in the election held last year, so I'm expecting another crack at cramming through some horrible copyright laws shortly. with a majority government, getting a bill passed is pretty much guaranteed, and with the ability to put off an election until October 2015, they may hope that Canadians will forget about anything they do now before the next election.

  • On the post: Google Contractor Caught Mucking Up Competing Open Street Maps

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2012 @ 04:10am

    I doubt that Google's management is involved in this. They have to be well aware of just how badly this would backfire on the company, as well as how certain it is that the story would leak.
    It's possible that this is a result of someone trying to embarass Google, but setting up a fake company just to embarass Google seems like a whole lot of effort for relatively little return.
    More than likely this is the result of someone being real stupid just to get a few more bucks.

  • On the post: Harry Reid Says He's Concerned PIPA Will Break The Internet, But We Must Move Forward With It, Because Of 'Jobs'

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 16 Jan, 2012 @ 12:16pm

    Re:

    It's about jobs all right. The high paying jobs that the politicians and their staff will be getting with the *AA after this bill passes.

  • On the post: Hackers Figuring Out How To Set Up Satellites To Route Around Internet Censorship

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2012 @ 04:53am

    I don't think replacing the critical network infrastructure will help much, that just leads to the "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" problem. A better method would be to restructure the network so as to allow for competing services. that way, if one operator no longer meets your needs, you can move to another.
    The real trick is going to be arranging for competition in things like DNS and IP number assignments, without also fragmenting the internet.

  • On the post: Lawmakers Propose Resale Right For US Artwork To Harm Young Artist & Help Already Successful Ones

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 28 Dec, 2011 @ 06:36am

    Yet another industry about to move offshore

    It's almost a no-brainer to predict that this will cause the secondary art industry to move offshore. Shipping a piece of art to an auction house out of the country would be cheaper than paying the new fees, and once out of the country, the new fees no longer apply.

    Next up, export restrictions on artwork.

  • On the post: Lawmakers Propose Resale Right For US Artwork To Harm Young Artist & Help Already Successful Ones

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 28 Dec, 2011 @ 06:24am

    So, I find a painting that's been stashed in the garage for a couple of decades. I have no idea who created the painting, but this art collector really wants to buy it from me. How am I supposed to figure out who to gets the artist's fees?

  • On the post: Righthaven.com Domain Auction Has Begun

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 27 Dec, 2011 @ 07:31am

    keep in mind that Righthaven won't get any of the money from this auction. It's all going to go towards paying the legal bills of one of Righthaven's victims.

  • On the post: USTR Puts Out Its 'Rogue Sites' List… Can't Even Find 20

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 21 Dec, 2011 @ 09:22am

    Re:

    I don't get it - you claim SOPA will be over used, and when they come up with a short list only, you complain because it will be underused?

    Mike is complaining that it will be abused, not over used.
    this article doesn't show that it will be under-used It shows that SOPA is not needed.

    I suppose it's a bit much to ask a troll to understand simple concepts like that.

  • On the post: Veoh Still Perfectly Legal… But Also Still Dead Due To Bogus Copyright Lawsuit

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 20 Dec, 2011 @ 01:52pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    If Veoh wants to avoid issues, they would pre-screen their content.

    Pre-screen how? Without access to a complete list of all the works covered by copyright, and all the licensing agreements covering those works, it is simply not possible to know if any given copy is infringing.

  • On the post: Veoh Still Perfectly Legal… But Also Still Dead Due To Bogus Copyright Lawsuit

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 20 Dec, 2011 @ 01:09pm

    Possible way for third parties to identify infringement

    "Copyright holders know precisely what materials they own, and are thus better able to efficiently identify infringing copies than service providers like Veoh, who cannot readily ascertain what material is copyrighted and what is not."

    It might be possible for third parties to identify copyright infringement, but before that can happen, two things have to occur.
    1) copyright holders must register all their copyrights in a central repository that's open to anyone to read.
    2) copyright holders must register the full text of any and all licensing agreements in that same repository.

    I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it to happen.

  • On the post: Megaupload Sues Universal Over Questionable Video Takedown, As Will.i.am Says He Sent Takedown Too

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 13 Dec, 2011 @ 08:47am

    Re:

    Nope, it's a copyright issue. See, Will.I.Am may not be able to consent to being in the video, and all of his work (including what was used in the video) would be by contract copyright to his label
    Umm, that would still be a contract issue. You cannot own copyright in your acting, or singing, because those are not fixed. You can own the copyright to a video of your acting, or a recording of your singing, because those are fixed,
    the copyright in any such recording belongs to the person or company that makes the recording, not to the person doing the performance. Will.I.Am may have an agreement with UMG not to perform anywhere without approval from UMG, but that's a contract issue between Will.I.Am and UMG. Will.I.Am may have a publicity rights issue with Megaupload, but that's publicity rights, not copyright, so the DMCA does not apply.

  • On the post: Congressional Research Service Shows Hollywood Is Thriving

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 12 Dec, 2011 @ 01:46pm

    Re: Well, the AP says otherwise. Who knows?

    Take a wander through The-Numbers.com, a movie industry research site.
    Specifically, the section on the
    Biggest Combined Gross for All Movies in a Single Weekend
    Looks like of the five biggest weekends, two have been in this year. The remaining record weekends were in 2008 and 2009. Then look at the chart below that one, the worst weekends were all from 2000 and 2001.
    It certainly doesn't sound to me like the movie industry has any grounds for complaint about the box office revenue this year.

  • On the post: Paul Vixie: SOPA/PIPA Would Be Good For My Business, But I'm Still Against It

    Chris-Mouse ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2011 @ 04:12am

    Re:

    A little spilled toothpaste is nothing compared to the benefits.

    when ''a little spilled toothpaste' involves trampling all over the constitution that is supposed to be the foundation of your entire legal system it's far from being 'nothing'

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