Coasty63 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: When Musicians Get Excited About Remixes, Cool Things Happen: Jay-Z, Nick Drake And Jason Parker Do Jazz

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 14 Feb, 2011 @ 06:17pm

    If you're ever up in Seattle Mike you really owe it to yourself to go see the JPQ play live.

    The first time you mentioned JPQ here I went to their web site because I love jazz, have lived in Seattle for years, and had never heard of them. Loved the free samples on the web site and bought the CD. When Jason let us know about his new project and its being set up on Kickstarter I kicked in some bucks for it. Later on in Dec he did a preview of his version of Nick Drake and it was great, listening to it live was a real kick. It had a pretty good turnout too. Met the quartet and they were all pretty cool dudes. Heh... Not to mention that all four of them were nice enough to put up with this old dude's probably stupid questions with a smile...

    Listening to a CD is nice, but hearing it live and watching the players/audience really get into it is even better.

    If it hadn't been for your mention of the JPQ on the blog, I would never have heard of them, or had the opportunity to make a contribution to the new upcoming CD. It was sort of nice knowing that in a very small way I was able to help make something happen that I love and could _never_ do myself. A big thanks to you for showing me the way to them....

    I'm also looking forward to the release party. ;)

  • On the post: Public Citizen & EFF File For Sanctions Against Anti-P2P Lawyer Evan Stone

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 11 Feb, 2011 @ 04:34pm

    As much of a slimeball that Evan Stone undoubtedly is, one would hope you wrote that with tongue firmly in cheek.

  • On the post: Once Again, If You Don't Offer Authorized Versions Of Released Content, Don't Be Surprised If People Get Unauthorized Copies

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 10 Feb, 2011 @ 09:14pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Both your post, and that of Mike, cut to the core of the matter.

    I'll give you a specific example of that.

    I grew up in the late 40's and 50's listening to big band, pop, and early rock. As a fan of those genres over the years I built up a huge collection of LP's, almost 400 albums. A big part of that collection was all of Ferrante & Teichert's albums. After I retired from the service in 1983 I put most of my household possessions, including my music and book collections, into storage while going back to school and living on campus. Shortly after doing this the warehouse they were stored in burnt down to the ground destroying everything I owned. I quickly discovered that my LP's were mostly not replaceable as they were no longer available, either as LP's or (later) CD's. What was available was mostly "Best Hits' compilations, usually consisting of the same few songs repeated across the various titles. Such is life, and I accepted that at the time, because there were no other affordable options (such as paying $20 or more for a used and well scratched LP).

    Fast forward a whole lot of years to when the Internet had become well established and digital versions of music were common place. I then made the rounds of the various record labels (phone calls, letters, email etc), specifically to buy replacements for my most favorite artists. Again, I use Ferrante & Teichert as an example. In a nutshell, I was told well here's the seven or so "Best Of" albums, take it or leave it. I.E. multiple copes of the same songs and, for all intents and purposes, none of the tunes "I" wanted. I was perfectly willing to buy replacements for my destroyed LP's, be it a CD or digital version, but the music labels weren't interested in making them available, especially as digital copies, because they were no longer main stream big dollar makers and people like me weren't a big enough market for them to care about. That last sentence, by the way, is pretty much exactly what I was told by the music label representative on the phone (if I remember correctly the company was BMI).

    About two years ago, while doing a Google search on Ferrante & Teichert fan sites, back on about page 3 or so of the search I noticed a Bit Torrent link for one of their tunes. That was when I discovered that somebody had gone to the trouble of making high quality digitized copies of just about of all their album releases. Not too surprisingly, it wasn't done by a record label. As it was the _only_ way I could replace those tunes, I downloaded them all, which took a huge hunk of time. Since then, because I had no other option, I've done the same for just about all of the LP's I lost in that warehouse fire.

    The one common denominator in all of this, is that virtually none of the music I replaced was available for purchase by the record labels. To replace what I lost I literally had no other option other than to 'pirate' the music. I wanted to give the record labels my money, hell, I was practically begging them to take it, but they gave me no way to do that. So, I became a 'music' pirate in the process, and have not one iota of guilt about it. I tried to be 'honest' about it, and the record labels basically laughed at me.

    Is there a market for older music releases, like I was unsuccessfully trying to buy? You bet there is! If you don't believe this, do some quick searches on Google, Amazon, or Ebay. Are the record labels making even minimal attempts at servicing that market? Hell no, not even when the cost of creating digitized copies of the music is virtually pennies compared to the ROI!

    The labels lost sight of their market, it changed on them and they didn't have the wit to see it. Which pretty much gives you a snapshot of why record labels are bleeding profits right and left. It has nothing at all to do with 'piracy', and everything to do with not being able to recognize profit making opportunities when they're staring them in the face.

    In a nutshell, basic marketing (kindergarten version), if you don't offer what your market wants, at a price it's willing to pay, that market will eat you alive.

  • On the post: Mass Copyright Lawsuit Lawyer Petulantly Drops Lawsuit After Called Out For Apparent Ethics Violations

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 01 Feb, 2011 @ 11:15am

    Re:

    Heh... Somehow I don't see the judge in the case reacting very well to this situation, and especially not well to the 'tone' of his letter to the court dropping the cases.

    It sort of sounds like a prime example of 'Legal Mistakes 101', how to piss off the judicial system.

    I wonder if he slept through that part of his education!!!

  • On the post: Mass Copyright Lawsuit Lawyer Petulantly Drops Lawsuit After Called Out For Apparent Ethics Violations

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 01 Feb, 2011 @ 11:07am

    Legal Shenanigans

    I certainly hope, with regard to the likely steps the EFF and Public Citizen take to have the court chastise Mr. Stone, that there is a followup to this. Somehow I don't see the Judge being very forgiving about Mr. Stones casual approach to judicial ethics.

    It certainly sounds like Mick Haig Productions tried to "cheap out" on their legal representation and got what they paid for. It would also seem Mr. Stone took his 'training wheels' off before he was ready to play with the 'Big Boys'.

    Other than that, after reading this article and the contents of the 'problems' link, I do not foresee Mr. Stone as having a very rewarding and/or lucrative legal career. He seems to be more than a little ethically 'challenged'.

  • On the post: Marcus Carab's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 08 Jan, 2011 @ 07:04pm

    I was astonished to learn from this post that the Rooty Tooty Fresh ?n? Fruity is a real thing. How does anyone order it without giggling?

    For years I've been wondering that one myself.

    But you gotta admit, as an advertising ploy it has a touch of genius as it sure does stick with you!!!

  • On the post: One Working Musician Explains How Pay What You Want Works For Him

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 21 Sep, 2010 @ 08:31pm

    Great Article

    Since I live in the Seattle area and like Jazz (well, old fashioned Dave Brubeck/Ramsey Lewis style jazz that is) I used the link to look at his site, played the sample track and loved it, so I bought the CD. This is a good example of how reaching out, even it's only by way of an interview, can expand your possibilities (both his and mine). I didn't even know this local jazz quartet existed until I read this article!!! I find out more stuff this way than I ever did before I dumped my subscription to the Seattle Times!!

  • On the post: Comcast: We Sped Up Your Internet… Oh, No, Actually, We Didn't

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 21 Aug, 2010 @ 12:23am

    Re: Comcast not bad around here

    Gads... I can't think of anything Comcast can screw up so bad as to make me want to switch my phone service, or any other service, back to Qwest.

    Qwest is the only utility I've ever used (and that covers 50 years), whose service was so bad, whose executives so blatantly lied, and thoroughly made me so angry that for a while I actually entertained the notion of applying a baseball bat to a random senior executive or member of the board of directors. While it was a very entertaining thought, common sense did finally prevail. Even PG&E, though God knows they tried hard, wasn't as bad as Qwest.

  • On the post: Comcast: We Sped Up Your Internet… Oh, No, Actually, We Didn't

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 21 Aug, 2010 @ 12:03am

    Re: Aye

    Well, to be honest, you only think you're getting 20Mbps service. I say this because I've been paying Comcast for that level of service, but in point of fact I've been extremely lucky the last seven months to get even 8Mpbs.

    Why do I know this? Well, after finally noticing that my average speed was much slower than 20Mbps, I spent 3 months doing hourly speed tests tracking my actual average speed. It turned out my average speed was in the range of 7.5-8Mbps. A major portion of the problem was the modem Comcast had installed. The standard Arris modem was just not capable of adequately handling 20Mbps speed. After complaining about this to tech support last week I finally got a tech (who actually knew her job, or cared about it), that installed an upgraded version of the Arris modem which resulted in noticeably faster download speeds.

    Unfortunately, whether or not you can get this upgraded modem depends VERY much on just how good your Comcast tech repairman really is. I can tell you that ping speeds, at sites I regularly test at, have gone over the last week from an average of 150-200ms to 20-40ms, which is quite a significant improvement. I'm still testing to see what that improvement translates to in terms of Mbps speed.

    So, as a note to Comcast subscribers, if you're paying for the higher level speed packages (16-20Mbps) and having speed problems, make sure Comcast installs a modem capable of actually handling those speeds.

    I should mention that I'm rather lucky in that almost all the other people on my node are extremely light Internet users. The node consists of a series of close together senior housing apartment complexes whose tenants pretty much only watch TV. So, problems of maximum node Internet use are virtually non-existent, which pretty much means any problems with speed are solely due to Comcast hardware problems.

  • On the post: Phone Calls Are For Old People? Just Not Efficient Enough

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 06 Aug, 2010 @ 02:32pm

    Phone Calls are for Old People? Just not Efficient Enough

    I totally agree with Ken and Gracey. In my case, being 65, I guess its a 'generation gap' issue.

    Whatever the case, I gotta admit that this is the very first blog article of yours that I 100% disagree with. In point of view, it's a boat load of BS.

    While I had my cell phone I infinitely preferred that some one just call me, and forget about texting me. When I had text messaging on my business cell phone at least 90% of all text messages were pure drivel, for which I had the unwanted pleasure of also paying for. It annoyed me so much that I very quickly turned text messaging off, as in totally unavailable. Thereafter my cell phone was strictly a 'voice only' phone and if someone wanted to 'text' me they could damn well just send me an email on their own dime.

    One of the pleasures of selling my business and retiring was the absolute joy I had in smashing it into pieces with a hammer and tossing it into the nearest garbage can. Having a cell phone was a business necessity, but not a necessity I enjoyed. Plus, after 5 years with AT&T, it was also quite enjoyable to tell AT&T to take their contract "early cancellation" fee and shove it where the sun didn't shine.

    But you were right about one thing, voice mail is sheer unadulterated torture. I can't avoid it when calling out, but if any incoming calls start off with automated voice the phone is immediately hung up. As you said, it's very rude. I'm one, of probably millions, who detest and abhor voice mail in any its forms.

    If anybody ever invents and markets a phone that can, on incoming calls, automatically detect automated voice and immediately hang the phone up, I will buy it in a heart beat and hang the expense!!! Just think of all the asshole (pardon my French) politicians, and fly-by-night charities, that I'd never have to spend another second listening to!!!

  • On the post: Times Online Says Competitors Will Go Out Of Business Without A Paywall

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 25 May, 2010 @ 06:13pm

    I don't know who 'Anonymous Coward' replier #2 is, but I suspect he/she doesn't get out much in the 'real' world!!!

  • On the post: Pennsylvania AG Tom Corbett Can't Take Anonymous Twitter Criticism; Issues Subpoenas For IDs

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 19 May, 2010 @ 01:29pm

    I can just imagine what his gubernatorial opponent will do with this in future campaign radio/TV spots.

    In today's political climate, if you don't have a thick skin you can probably count on a rather short political career.

  • On the post: Doctors Against Patients Having Direct Access To Test Results

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 26 Apr, 2010 @ 06:35pm

    Re:

    Your comment is pretty much spot on, except for "if you don't trust your doctor, you probably shouldn't have gone there in the first place".

    That comment is forgetting that for a great many people, economics and/or their HMO's dictate that control over which doctor they see can, and frequently does, vary from minimal to totally outside of their control.

    This TechDirt article does lightly touch upon something that is frequently quite aggravating, namely doctors that have a range of attitude from a "poor bedside manner" to downright "need their ass kicked" arrogant jerks. By my experience, sad to say, the field as a whole suffers from a rather high proportion of undeserved self-inflated egos.

    This is one of the reasons why over the last 40-50 years, for many people, the medical profession as a whole has lost the automatic respect it once had. Over the last forty years or so I've talked with more than a few people who rate doctors on about the same level as mechanics, only better paid. That pretty much illustrates the level of respect to which the profession has now sunk, and the profession has only itself to blame. On the brighter side, it does seem that at least some parts of the profession have recognized this situation and, at least minimally, are beginning to consider how to remedy it.

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

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 07:06pm

    Pain in the Ass DVD's

    The sad thing about that picture is that some DVD's over the last several years have been exactly that bad.

    Over the last several years I've built up collection of about 1,000 DVD's, mostly re-releases of old 1950's and 1960's movies (every John Wayne movie for example), but also a whole lot of new movies. After a while I got extremely pissed off at DVD's I bought that matched the profile shown by that picture.

    When I buy a DVD that's pretty much like the one described in that picture, I create/burn 10 edited copies, CD/DVD labels, and package them. Just so know, copying/editing a DVD is ridiculously simple. Then I give them away to whoever wants the movie. I've been doing that for about 3 years now.

    Does it cost the movie companies money, you bet, that's the whole purpose of the exercise even if it is penny ante. My business partner and I, before we retired, used to call this type of thing an asshole tax, applied when we had to put up with jerks.

    Is giving the copies away illegal, oh hell yes (making copies of your legally purchased DVD's is NOT illegal, the DCMA does NOT trump that right, I do carry it to an extreme though). Do I give a good damn if it's illegal, not one little bit.

    I'm sure this will seriously offend some of the apologists here but, again, I don't give a good damn if it does. It'll probably help keep their noses bent out of shape.

  • On the post: South Butt Responds To North Face As Only It Could

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 04 Feb, 2010 @ 10:42am

    What's the world coming to?

    My God, lawyers with a sense of humor, and not afraid to show it!!! Will wonders never cease!!

    Seriously though, the commenter above who mentioned that 'a judge with a sense of humor' will certainly help is probably right, although one thing the civil court system really needs is more briefs like this one.

    Personally, if I lived in Missouri, I'd write down the address of that kids legal team and run, not walk, to them if I ever needed legal advice or services. They're my kind of people and, as lawyers go, probably rarer than living dinosaurs...

  • On the post: Using A Security Breach As An Upsell Opportunity?

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 20 Oct, 2009 @ 06:23am

    Re: Re: Re: A Solution to Credit Card Problems that Works...

    If someone is financially challenged due to low pay etc., then the absolute last thing they need, or should want, is a credit card. The high interest rates, which will be very high because they're likely to have a low credit rating, will eat them alive and make a bad situation even worse. It comes under the heading of 'false savings'.

    Unfortunately, people in either of the situations you mention are also the same people who the credit card companies aggressively court, knowing they're quite likely to over-charge a credit card. Good Lord, my own son started receiving credit card solicitations the day he turned 18, and this was a kid still in school with basically no disposable income at all.

    Over my 21 years in the USCG I was constantly counseling kids to save money and avoid expensive contracts on a young mans fancy, usually way too expensive upscale cars, motorcycles, or stereo systems. I was lucky if 1 in 10 paid attention and bought what they could afford, and do without if they couldn't. Most were in constant debt because they were more interested in buying 'right now' instead of budgeting towards a future purchase with cash in hand. Instant gratification instead of common sense!

    I guess for most folks, especially young ones, it's hard to think about that 'down the road' age of 65 (67 these days I guess). It does require some will power.

    I was lucky as a kid in that one of my Dad's constant mantras was financial responsibility, and putting away each month to prepare for retirement. Fortunately for me, I was smart enough to follow his advice.

  • On the post: Using A Security Breach As An Upsell Opportunity?

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 19 Oct, 2009 @ 09:01am

    A Solution to Credit Card Problems that Works...

    It's an easy solution actually, but probably not for everyone.

    Back in the 70's I cut up my two credit cards after both card companies pissed me off with obvious "rip'em and gouge'em" penalty fee schemes designed to extract even more money over and above the regular monthly payment (which I generally triple paid). I think the biggest balance I ever had on the two cards combined was somewhere around $400. I don't think I was too popular with either company because I didn't charge enough on either card to suit them. The only concession I make towards cards now is using a Debit Only card so I don't have to carry cash.

    I haven't had a card since then, and have never missed them, mostly because I've pretty much run my life on the principle that if I haven't got the money I don't have any need to buy it. Take half the money you'd spend using a card and put it into a retirement fund instead, it's amazing how fat it can get when you do that.

    Life is much nicer when you're never in debt.

    It's a solution that many people obviously don't believe in.

  • On the post: It Ain't The Link, It's What You Do With The Traffic

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 15 Aug, 2009 @ 02:25am

    Re: I got your link...

    I found TechDirt the same way "some old guy" did.

    Found it, loved it, been following it and getting the daily email ever since.

    I've looked at a lot of blogs, but as far as I'm concerned TechDirt is the best of the bunch.

  • On the post: For East Texas Patent Lawyers: Maybe Next Time Don't Sue Random Open Source Developers

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 28 Jul, 2009 @ 09:57am

    Re:

    Regardless, patent attorneys are your worst nightmare. We have the tenacity of attorneys and the calculation of engineers.
    -------------------
    You forgot to mention greed and an obvious total lack of concern about the effect of said greed upon any business or person. They could care less about who they hurt so long as they get their money.

    Just another reason these days why so many people rank lawyers as being lower than dog shit.

  • On the post: Obama Fighting For His Blackberry… But May Be Losing

    Coasty63 ( profile ), 09 Jan, 2009 @ 12:51am

    Obama Fighting For His Blackberry... But May Be Losing

    I don't know why he should be losing, or even why the subject is considered important enough to be discussed in the news.

    Granted, the security folks, Secret Service etc., will have their objections concerning his security, but when it comes right down to it, all they can do is advise. I don't really see how they can force him to give it up. When it comes down to the final decision it's his choice to make, not theirs, on how much he follows personal security routines.

    Myself, in his shoes, I'd just tell them to go to hell and I'll use the phone. The Secret Service folks wouldn't like it, but ultimately it's still his decision to make, not theirs.

    If I remember correctly, way back at the start of Clinton's first term there was a bit of a brouhaha over security on his daily morning runs. Clinton finally gave in enough to allow one security agent to accompany him on those morning runs. The Secret Security people distinctly didn't like it, but all they could do was advise, not command. The final decision wasn't for the Secret Service to make.

    So, if Obama wants to use his Blackberry, in spite of any increase of personal security it might cause, it's his choice and more power to him. It's his life and his decision on just how much of a security blanket that will be around him. You don't give that up just because you became President.

    Personally, I think it's ridiculous that there is even all this much discussion about the subject. It tell's me that the newspapers/TV new/reporters either have too much time on their hands or it's a slow news month and they aren't capable of thinking of anything else important enough to comment about.

    No wonder I quit reading newspapers for my news! I get it faster and, more importantly, with considerably more accuracy via the Internet.

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