E. Zachary Knight 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: It's Great That Winnie The Pooh Is In The Public Domain; But He Should Have Been Free In 1982 (Or Earlier)

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2022 @ 02:44pm

    Re: What's more,

    You can't even officially "opt-out". There is no real way to do that. You can only choose to not enforce your copyright. You still get it.

  • On the post: Google Says Our Article On The Difficulty Of Good Content Moderation Is… Dangerous

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 24 Oct, 2018 @ 11:17am

    Similar Thing Happened To Me

    I run a hobby blog and podcast. I run Google Ads on that site. One day, I got an email saying that our site violated copyright law. I had no idea how. It was just the entire site.

    At first I thought it was a video I had embedded that used footage from the justice League trailer, but nope. That wasn't it. I had no opportunity to talk to a real person. I posted on the Google Ad forum to get some advice there, but the people there just commented on the low quality content that took up a majority of blog space.

    After nearly a week of looking at this and trying different things, I found out that Google flagged the links in my Podcast articles that pointed to an MP3 download of the podcast. These were MP3s of the podcast I run that Google claimed were infringing copyright. Only after removing all those links did Google finally reinstate ads on my site.

    Not that losing the ads was that big of a deal. I have only made $40ish in the entire time I have used Google Ads and still can't get paid because the hold all earnings hostage until you make at least $100.

  • On the post: Google Moderation Team Decides My Piece About The Impossible Nature Of Content Moderation Is 'Dangerous Or Derogatory'

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 07 Sep, 2018 @ 09:26am

    Yeah, Google Ads' automated moderation tools are garbage. Just a few months ago, they blocked all ads on my site because according to them we were committing copyright infringement. I tried appealing but was denied instantly every single time. I tried removing a few embedded Youtube videos, one of which was copyright claimed by Warner Bros, but that was not the issue. Finally, after no help at all from Google on this, I found out that they considered me linking directly to the mp3 of my own podcast was what they considered copyright infringement. The only way to fix the issue was to remove all links to, again, my own podcast.

  • On the post: Valve Decides To Get Out Of The Curation Business When It Comes To 'Offensive' Games

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 08 Jun, 2018 @ 06:07am

    Re:

    And yet, Amazon is the most popular online shop in the Western world.

  • On the post: Game Studio Found To Install Malware DRM On Customers' Machines, Defends Itself, Then Apologizes

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2018 @ 08:07am

    Re: Re: You would think that, but no

    Despite the absolute deluge of disgust and contempt for EA after its Battlefront lootbox fiasco, the game has gone on to sell gangbusters. So I think that in general, gamers have a really hard time sticking to boycotts.

  • On the post: Trump Blames School Shootings On Violent Video Games, Movies; Suggests We Need Some Sort Of Rating System For Them

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2018 @ 01:57pm

    Re: Re: Ratings system?

    The ESRB already tells you why a game got the rating it did. Whether that is for violence, gore, sexual content, nudity, drug use, etc. It is right there next to the rating on the back of the box. The MPAA rating system does the same, but to a less effective means.

  • On the post: Terrible Copyright Ruling Over An Embedded Tweet Undermines Key Concept Of How The Internet Works

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 16 Feb, 2018 @ 11:01am

    Re:

    iframes, one of the tool used for embedding, are a core functionality of the internet.

  • On the post: Australian Lawmakers Propose Outlawing Parody, Having A Sense Of Humor

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 27 Oct, 2017 @ 08:57am

    Re:

    I just went through some of their videos and they have some really great US related ones. I do agree that something like this would be great if targeted directly at the US government.

  • On the post: Larry Lessig's Latest Big Challenge: Fixing The Way We Elect A President

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 27 Sep, 2017 @ 06:45am

    I am a fan of proportional distribution of Electors. To me, it solves the most pressing problem of the Winner-take-all systems we have now. I don't think Maine and Nebraska's systems are that much better than the other states as it is susceptible to gerrymandering in the same way their Congressional districts are.

    The alternative to proportional, if we can't get the will to move away from winner-take-all, is ranked choice voting for president.

    Both of these proposed changes would have a huge impact on the way people vote in this nation. It would result in people taking a greater interest in actual policy positions of candidates, rather than voting based on tribalism as they do now.

    That said, proportional distribution would have a higher likelihood of the selection for president landing in the laps of Congress. Ranked choice has a lower chance of that happening, but it would still be somewhat likelier than it is now.

    One final thought is that laws banning or punishing so-called "faithless electors" need to be scrapped as well.

  • On the post: Senator Blumenthal Happy That SESTA Will Kill Small Internet Companies

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 19 Sep, 2017 @ 02:01pm

    Re: Where does the logic come from?

    As a society, we have determined that quantity is better than quality when it comes to passing laws. If Congress were to pass 10 fewer laws this year than they did last year, we determine that they have failed to do their jobs.

  • On the post: Zillow Still Doesn't Get It: Second Letter About McMansion Hell Is Still Just Wrong

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 28 Jun, 2017 @ 12:51pm

    Re: Fair use doesn't mean that

    That would fall under the CFAA, but Zillow is not arguing that the use of the pictures is a TOS violation. They are arguing that it is a copyright violation. If they want to threaten McMansion Hell under the CFAA for a TOS violation, then they should just do that.

  • On the post: Our 'Copying Is Not Theft' T-Shirt Seems To REALLY Upset Some People

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 31 Aug, 2016 @ 07:28pm

    Re: Interesting priorities...

    "do any of these people think copyright infringement should be legally treated as theft"

    If only. IN Oklahoma stealing anything that is worth less than $500 is a misdemeanor with a punishment of a $500 fine, up to a max of 1 yer in prison, or both. So if someone stole a cd from Walmart, I doubt they would be going to jail and might get off with a warning. But heaven forbid you copy that cd or you are looking at about a million dollar fine.

  • On the post: Annotating The Letter Disney's CEO Sent To Disney Employees Asking Them To Fund Disney's Sketchy Lobbying Activities

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 26 Feb, 2016 @ 09:11am

    Re:

    Buying other companies and the work they have done is not innovation. That is as old as time.

  • On the post: U2 Claims It's Working With Apple On A New Music Format That 'Can't Be Pirated'

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 19 Sep, 2014 @ 09:41am

    The Only Real Piracy Immune Music Format

    The only real piracy immune music format will never happen because no one would use it. It requires people to travel to an approved listening room. Before they are allowed to enter, they must be strip searched for audio recording equipment. Then they are allowed to listen alone and a barren room.

    Completely 100% piracy free. But it would never succeed.

  • On the post: The Duct-Tape Approach To Fixing Broken Copyright Law Happens Again With Phone Unlocking

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 16 Jul, 2014 @ 03:55pm

    Have you ever considered....

    Have you ever considered the idea that this whole duct tape approach is nothing more than a big corporate handout to 3M to keep its duct tape business afloat?

  • On the post: Sunlight Foundation Gives Congress Email Addresses

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2014 @ 05:46am

    Re: committees

    For now, you will have to do it the old fashion way.

  • On the post: Sunlight Foundation Gives Congress Email Addresses

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2014 @ 05:45am

    Re: Re: Re: In a related story...

    Regarding your 4th point there, that all depends on your Congressperson. My US Rep Tom Cole has ignored almost every email I have sent him. On the other hand, Senator Inhofe will almost always send me a form letter that was churned out after pushing the email through a key word search. Finally Senator Coburn has always responded with a personalized response, probably written by a staffer but never a form response, within a month of me sending the email.

    Three different Congresspersons, three different reactions to email.

  • On the post: How Do You Know The Public Domain Is In Trouble? It Requires A 52-Page Handbook To Determine If Something Is Public Domain

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2014 @ 07:02am

    Re:

    If it is fair use for an article to include a quote from another copyrighted source, why would it not be fair use for all copies of said article to include those same quotes?

  • On the post: The Lies Mike Rogers Told Congress About The USA Freedom Act

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 23 May, 2014 @ 12:47pm

    The Really Good Villains...

    The best villains in any media are the ones that truly believe that what they are doing is the right thing and the best thing to be done. They do not consider themselves evil, but as agents of good doing the work needed to make the world a better place.

    Rep Mike Rogers fits the bill exactly.

  • On the post: Can Anyone Name A Programmer Still Getting Paid For Code He Wrote In 1962?

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 21 Apr, 2014 @ 06:08am

    Re: Oh, there are some...

    But they don't get paid royalties on the code they wrote 50 years ago. They get paid on their investments in the companies they built up which are still massively profitable and making money today. That is the difference.

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