Colin 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (53)

• On the post: Senators Want To Put People In Jail For Embedding YouTube Videos

  

  Colin ( profile ), 01 Jun, 2011 @ 10:31am

  So, which campaign worker for which Senator will be the first to go to jail for embedding an infringing video during an election?

• On the post: Privacy Is Not Secrecy; Debunking The 'If You've Got Nothing To Hide…' Argument

  

  Colin ( profile ), 26 May, 2011 @ 06:37am

  In Ontario we are currently having a bit of a discussion about a police request to collect DNA from a smallish group of people in a town in order to determine if one of them might be the culprit in a murder that happened last September. "If you've got nothing to hide" is a huge part of the argument made by the piggies, with the implied threat that should you refuse, you will be put under greater scrutiny. So far I've seen nothing in the media about what will happen to the DNA results and any remaining biological material collected once the investigation is over.

• On the post: Major Labels Shamed Into Promising To Give Some Of $105 Million Limewire Settlement To Artists

  

  Colin ( profile ), 19 May, 2011 @ 12:15pm

  Actually more interesting might be a breakdown, by artist, of the disbursements. Bet any money goes to the biggest, easiest to find acts, not to smaller groups. Also probably nothing to foreign acts which I'm willing to bet that the RIAA included in their calculation of alleged harm.

• On the post: Homeland Security Doesn't Do Cost/Benefit Analysis; They Just Do Fear And Bluster

  

  Colin ( profile ), 10 May, 2011 @ 08:34am

  Question: Are there any gains in security?

  And the answer is: Yes - apparently, if you remember from a couple of weeks ago you are being saved from getting soaked by unruly water bearing passengers...
  
  http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110427/01531214053/weve-trained-tsa-to-search-liquid-instead-bombs.shtml

• On the post: DailyDirt: Medical Research Discoveries

  

  Colin ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2011 @ 10:06am

  Hair

  I'm getting really tired of shaving my head every couple of days. Couldn't researchers put a bit of effort into figuring out how to stop hair growth?

• On the post: GAO Suggests It's Time To Ditch Dollar Bills For Coins

  

  Colin ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2011 @ 09:35am

  Re:

  More likely the old business model that will lobby for protection would be the banknote paper industry (in fact I think I heard that they already do).

• On the post: Beverage Company Sues Anheuser-Busch Over Totally Different Looking Can Design

  

  Colin ( profile ), 19 Nov, 2010 @ 12:41pm

  It's hard to tell from the photos and I'm at work so I can't just run to the local shop to see what they look like. I'm going out on a limb here, but they both appear to be cylindrical metal cans with approximately the same dimensions...in the disfunctional world is the US legal system (at least to us outsiders), perhaps that is enough similarity?????

• On the post: Does Capital One Offer Different Loan Rates Based On Your Browser Software?

  

  Colin ( profile ), 04 Nov, 2010 @ 12:39pm

  3.1% in Chrome, 3.5% in IE 32 Bit and 3.25% in IE 64 bit on the same machine. Clearly my laptop is a bad credit risk

• On the post: Yet Another Reminder That You Don't Own Your Ebooks: B&N Nook Deletes Files, Blames User

  

  Colin ( profile ), 27 Oct, 2010 @ 01:26pm

  Re: Well damn...

  I followed the Kindle debacle on this site and it is what led me to buy a Sony e-book reader, which I've populated with approximately 3000 "evaluation" books downloaded of torrent networks. When I'm through reading them, I'll be in a position to report on the suitability of the Sony product as an e-book reader. To this point, I can tell you that the books don't seem to mysteriously disappear, nor have I had any problems with losing notes.

• On the post: Big Casinos May Now Regret That They Had Congress Ban Internet Gambling

  

  Colin ( profile ), 05 Oct, 2010 @ 05:51am

  So, which completely unrelated bill will the Repatriating Assets Previously Escaped (RAPE) act be slipped through congress in?

• On the post: Plane Finder Phone App Called An 'Aid To Terrorism,' Even If It's Just Using Public Data

  

  Colin ( profile ), 04 Oct, 2010 @ 01:42pm

  Range of a Stinger missile

  OK - according to Wikipedia (hey, I'm a bit lazy, ok?) a Stinger missile, which is presumably what one of these hypothetical terrorists would use to blow up said plane, has a range of between 3 and 5 miles, so....by the time your terrorist picks a spot close enough to a busy airport that planes are within the effective range of the missile, wouldn't binoculars be just as effective?

• On the post: Another Day, Another Apology From Netflix; Calls Americans Self-Absorbed

  

  Colin ( profile ), 24 Sep, 2010 @ 07:57am

  Re: Meh....

  Well, they need every advantage they can get. Competition between ISP's is so poor here that they can pretty much get away with any type of abuse. I was poking around last night - Bell Canada's mid range service has a 25GB bandwidth cap, and Rogers the other big criminal provider, sorry ISP, announced a cap reduction for a lot of users the other month, just after the Netflix rumors really picked up.
  
  I don't think I'll use Netflix any time soon and my cap is 60GB.

• On the post: Could Copyright Hold Back iPad Sales In Canada And Elsewhere?

  

  Colin ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2010 @ 01:32pm

  Re: Regional Coding

  It's not exactly regional coding. Its the fact that the content providers know what IP address you are hitting their server from and can tie that to a region. Sometimes you can get around it with a Proxy Server, plus the aforementioned American iTunes account, but it sure is a pain in the butt. Much easier just to use BitTorrent, or other convenient service.

• On the post: Russian Collecting Society Sues Promoters For Not Paying Up To Let Beyonce Sing Beyonce Songs

  

  Colin ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2010 @ 12:57pm

  I wonder who the employees of this collections society are? Aren't most collections societies non profit - and they pay out whatever is left after expenses (salaries, etc)?
  
  Probably friends/family of senior government officials.

• On the post: Reminder: You Don't Compete With Piracy By Being Lame, The DVD Edition

  

  Colin ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 01:05pm

  I do so enjoy...

  the FBI warnings on DVD's that I buy up here in Canada. Does this mean that puppy the bounty hunter (or whatever his name is) might come after me should I disobey??????

• On the post: Can Any Smartphone Survive The Patent Gantlet?

  

  Colin ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 12:32pm

  Getting my head around how these patents were granted

  According to the link to ZDNet from the previous post on this issue:
  
  "In one suit against Apple, Kodak alleges that Apple is infringing on two patents covering image preview and the processing of images of different resolutions. The second suit is focused on technology that allows one application to ask another program for help completing a computing task. The second suit revolves around the same technology that Kodak sued Sun Microsystems over in 2004. A jury ruled for Kodak and Sun licensed the technology."
  
  Really looks to me that both the patent office and the jury screwed up big time on this one as these sorts of tasks seem pretty obvious.

• On the post: Should Data Collected For Academic Research Get Intellectual Property Protection?

  

  Colin ( profile ), 20 Jan, 2010 @ 07:10am

  I dropped by the blog and read the post. It is a pretty fair discussion, but it srikes me as being a similar type of issue to that of open access to academic journal articles. That being:
  
  1. Was the income earned by the researcher provided in part (in whole?) by the public?
  2 Was the research itself funded by the public in any way?
  
  If you can answer yes to either question then the data should be public.
  
  On the claim of protections leading to more research. There seems to be an awful lot of research going on now without protections, so why change anything.

• On the post: Copyright Monopolies In The Middle Of Health Care Reform Debate As Well

  

  Colin ( profile ), 07 Jan, 2010 @ 02:00pm

  I suppose that since the issue has been raised here, it won't be too long before wikileaks has the codes posted

• On the post: Booksellers Claiming That Competition And Lower Prices Are Bad For Consumers

  

  Colin ( profile ), 27 Oct, 2009 @ 05:28pm

  Cost of printing

  Does anyone actually know what it costs to print up one of these $25 (or $10) hardcover blockbuster books in the volumes that they must be producing? Just curious....

• On the post: Appeals Court Says Patenting Basic Medical Diagnostic Process Is Just Fine

  

  Colin ( profile ), 21 Sep, 2009 @ 10:00am

  This sort of ruling should, in the long run be self correcting...I can see the discussion in the hospital now:
  
  Sick Apeeals Court Judge "Just give me some pills to make me better"
  Doctor: "I'm sorry, but due to patent problems exacerbated by you, I can't do any sort of testing on you to determine the appropriate dosage, because your drug plan won't pay the licensing fees to the lab holding said patent."
  Sick Appeals Court Judge keels over and gets replaced (hopefully by someone more enlightened)

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