Donald 's Techdirt Comments
Latest Comments (13)
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On the post: An Open iPhone App Market That Doesn't Require Jailbreaking… And Which Apple Can't Stop
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On the post: People Aren't Buying Blank CDs Any More, So Collection Agency Demands Media Levy Expanded To Mobile Phones
Donald ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2010 @ 10:00amWhat about Photocopiers?
I was under the impression that all of the latest photocopiers/scanners had hard drives built into them. I wonder what the fee will be for those? USB Keys? The SD Card for my camera? My PS3/Xbox360/Wii? I have a 30GB hard drive built into the stereo of my new minivan (sorry, family man).
I think this collective is thinking too small. Maybe they should tax the human brain. After all, if we memorize the words aren't we storing it in another form? -
On the post: The Rise And Fall Of The RIAA
Donald ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2010 @ 12:44pmA different perspecitve on sales
I used to buy a lot of CDs. Indeed, over the course of the past 25 years I have easily reached a thousand CDs. However, my buying habits changed in the late 90's because I felt that I was getting ripped off. I would go out, spend $20 on a CD and enjoy one or two songs. To be honest, the groups being promoted by the big record companies could not produce an entire album of good songs if their life, or the life of the RIAA, depended on it.
Fast forward to the digital age and, until recently, this was still very much the case. iTunes made a fundamental change in the buying habits of consumers. Instead of purchasing an entire album for $10 the consumer now had the option of buying the two songs they wanted for $2. The fan is still getting what they want but at a fraction of the cost of what it was previously.
Indeed, if you take this into account you see that the numbers the RIAA has painted are not that bleak after all. Let us "convert" digital sales into physical sales. If people only want two songs out of an album of ten, then to convert the digial sale to a physical sale you would multiply by five. Or, to put it another way, if digital sales were not available the music fan would need to spend $10 to get the two songs they want instead of $2. Using this metric (and a few minutes in Excel) you see that the "music industry" has continued to grow in recent years.
People are still buying the songs they want, but they are buying less fluff and this is where the RIAA has a problem. They produced fluff to pad the good stuff. Now that digital downloads are available the fluff no longer sells.
Perhaps the real failure, is the failure of the RIAA supported bands to produce an entire album of good music? I do know that of the last 10 albums I have purchased not a single one has a contract with a major record label and, in my mind, virtually ever song on every album is worth listening to and paying for. Have we reached the stage at which the consumer is able to make more decisions concerning what they need to purchase in order to enjoy a few songs? -
On the post: AP Sues Others For Copying Its Reporting, But Has No Problem Copying Bloggers Without Citation
Donald ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2010 @ 09:25amTime to Push AP
So, if Danny quotes the AP story and provides a link to AP, do you think he would be contacted and threatened?
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On the post: Canadian Entertainment Industry Begins New Media Campaign For Draconian Copyright Laws
Donald ( profile ), 21 Apr, 2010 @ 12:19pmAn interesting side effect
I went to the Canadian Business magazine web site to read the full article and provide any comments ... but they apparently have taken comments offline. Could it be the TechDirt effect? (Similar to Slashdot but specifically related to moronica attempts at keeping obsolete business models alive.)
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On the post: In Favor of Software Patents…Why?
Donald ( profile ), 26 Mar, 2010 @ 09:30amSoftware is like art or a novel
I'm probably one of the few people that believe this, but in my mind good software is an art and should be protected as such. It is also very much like a novel where a plot is followed to get the desired outcome. There are already laws in place to protect these items and they are copyright laws. I would expect to be able to protect my software like a novel. If someone rips it off and tries to sell it as their own I have an option to sue them.
However, if they develop software that does the same thing (or a novel that has essentially the same plot), I don't have much of a leg to stand on. They did not "steal" anything from me that was tangible. I would have to compete in the area of being the best instead of just being the first.
If I cannot compete by writing better software then maybe I shouldn't try to compete.
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On the post: Once Again: The iiNet Decision Did Not Make Unauthorized Downloading Legit
Donald ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2010 @ 09:54amLet's take it to extremes
So, Internet providers are supposed to stop people from sharing or downloading "priated" content?
Shouldn't manufacturers of DVDs put in place technology such that DVDs cannot be copied? If you can't copy a DVD it can't be pirated. This would stop pirates in their tracks.
Shouldn't manufacturers of DVD players put in technology so that only DVDs authorized for your country can be played on your DVD player? This would prevent people from half way around the world from bootlegging the latest movies. This would be sure to cut into pirating.
Shouldn't manufacturers of DVD burning software ensure that whatever is being burned is not copyrighted material? This should be able to stop pirating in its tracks!
Shouldn't manufacturers of new televisions incorporate technology such that they won't display copyrighted material if the source is not an authorized source? This would ensure that people can't watch hi-def bootleg material. This is a guaranteed win.
Let's face it, with all of these technological pieces in place we could wipe out piracy in hours. -
On the post: Bakery Claims Trademark On Smiley Face Cookies; Sues Competing Cookie Firm
Donald ( profile ), 11 Jan, 2010 @ 07:55amRe: Sad face patent
You are correct, Monte, Despair does indeed have a trademark on the sad face. Fortunately I was one of the lucky people and have a license to use the sad face in perpetuity from Despair. The cost was an email, but it has served me well throughout the years.
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On the post: More UK Artists Speak Out About File Sharing, Pro & Con
Donald ( profile ), 18 Sep, 2009 @ 12:57pmISP Charge --- Confusion
Let us assume for one brief moment that the musicians do get their way and get ISPs taxed. Let's take a look at what is really "pirated" on the Internet.
- Software. So does this mean that the BSA gets a tax as well? They could probably claim a bigger amount than the RIAA because of the higher cost of software vs. songs.
- MPAA. Once again, a popular item. Let's give them a tax as well.
- Book Publishers? Yeah, I can see them getting some money as well.
- Magazines? Ditto.
- Porn Industry. Let's face it, they started the VCR revolution and they had a big impact on the Internet. They deserve some money.
What about foreign interests? Japanese anime gets bootlegged a lot. We should tax and give them some money as well. Foreign movies? Foreign music?
I'm thinking, to be fair, we should charge based on Internet usage. For every 100MB you download you should be taxed $1 regardless of what you downloaded. Now, we all know that people are going to go to work to download their music / porn / movies / books so we have to make sure that every business gets charged this same rate as well, regardless of whether you are the government, charity or other type of org. -
On the post: Report Suggests RIAA's Lawsuit-Happy Strategy Still Not Working
Donald ( profile ), 01 Oct, 2007 @ 02:00pmOther reasons
Unfortunately Stan Liebowitz couldn't take into account more subjective data: the music industry has been pumping out bad music for a long time and it is getting progressively worse. Instead he chose to look at P2P and music sales.
Video game sales have been increasing over the past few years. Have they been increasing at the same rate as music sales? What about the total entertainemnt dollars being spent in any particualr year? Has it fallen with CD sales or has it steadily risen, indicating that people are moving away from music and to something else? And while legal downloads are included, each sale of a single on iTunes means a loss of an album sale. (Many bands are one hit wonders, so he needs the rest of the album?) Was this factored in?
Stan Liebowitz has been promoting the idea that file sharing is harmful to the music industry for years so it is no wonder that he revisted the topic.
Their is no way to come up with a definitive answer to the question because of the variables involved. Unless there is a parallel universe where P2P was never invented, we will never know the "truth". Instead of blaming P2P, which may or may not be a contributing factor, learn to exploit it.
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On the post: Recording Industry Doesn't Even Have To Sue To Carry Out Agenda
Donald ( profile ), 06 Jun, 2005 @ 07:16amCopyrighting a single note
I don?t know much about American copyright law, but I was wondering: what if you wrote a song that had a single note, could you copyright it? If you could, could you then copyright a number of different songs, each one compsed with a single note? Then, theoretically, couldn?t you charge everyone in the world with copyright infringement?
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On the post: Real Networks Discovers The Difficulty Of Having An Open Forum
Donald ( profile ), 18 Aug, 2004 @ 07:08amIt's actually not Apple's fault
I was thinking about this and in my opinion, the whole problem with the iPod and iTunes and Real actually revolves around the RIAA. If they didn't insist on such restictive practices I am positive that the iPod would be a more open system and you could buy music from anywhere and play it on anything. If the RIAA would grab a brain - any brain - and think about it they would realize that they could increase the music market by loosening up a bit. Of course, in the long run, even the digitial rights management that is in place doesn't work. Download some songs from one store, burn it to a CD-RW and then rip it into iTunes. Voila, the iPod now supports your favourite store. Sort of.
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On the post: Enough With The Useless Enterprise Software Upgrades
Donald ( profile ), 09 Jul, 2004 @ 03:03pmIntuit is headed for disaster
I have a similar problem with Quicken. I purchased the Quicken XG product because it was bundled in with QuickTax and it was a good deal. (Canadian versions) I hadn't used it for about three or four weeks recently and when I tried to bring up the program it told me that I needed a new license key and that the old one had "expired".
To be perfectly honest I hadn't read all the fine print on the box before installing it, so I take some of the blame, but I am unable to look at ANY of my data. I can't print out reports on what I entered or do anything at all. Intuit was no help. They just wanted money. My answer: Money. Microsoft Money. It does what I need it to do and I'm not "leasing" something that I thought I had bought. There are no other answers for Canadians and the good thing is that it can import my Quicken data.
As for a small business, do NOT get Simply Accounting. My wife spent almost three months trying to transfer information into Simply Accounting for a local non-profit company. The result was a mess.
Rquirees a Phone Number
Interesting site. Too bad they left out millions of potential customers. In order to use the site you need to register ... with a phone number. My 3G iPad doesn't have a phone number, neither does my daughters iTouch. So close to being useful, yet so far away.