Scott Owens 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (14) comment rss

  • On the post: Court Not Impressed With ivi's Legal Loopholes, Shoots Online TV Broadcaster Down

    Scott Owens ( profile ), 24 Feb, 2011 @ 01:40am

    ivi serves a growing niche

    I stopped subscribing to cable ages ago and I don't own a tv. I use netflix and watch whatever I can online.

    However, when it comes to certain live events like the olympics, the world cup, the super bowl. I want nothing more than to see these events live. I am willing to pay to see them for the duration of the event. But I am not willing to pay a huge fee for a cable subscription.

    ivi offered a way to spend a few dollars and get access to the content I want to see. Something the cable & broadcast networks are not willing to let me do. And because the dept of homeland security is cracking down on other options.. I am left with no alternatives.

    I wanted to subscribe to ivi during the superbowl but they were inundated with requests and had to limit subscriptions. This shows that there is a real demand for their service and it probably is a threat to the networks.

    Not only is it cheap. (I think $6 a month) But they even support Linux and Mac. I hope ivi is around during the next live event I want to see because I am totally willing to pay the reasonable price to watch tv the way I want to.

  • On the post: Homeland Security Seizes Another 18 Domain Names, With No Adversarial Hearings Or Due Process

    Scott Owens ( profile ), 21 Feb, 2011 @ 03:28pm

    Where can I sign up?

    I have quite a few competitors I would like to take out. Who can I speak to? Is there a form or website I should visit to have the government take down some websites?

  • On the post: Is There Anything Lamer Than Facebook Threatening Lamebook With Trademark Infringement?

    Scott Owens ( profile ), 21 Nov, 2010 @ 10:45pm

    I just wish that they would start going after all the adult sites that claim to be "The Facebook of Sex"

  • On the post: Connecting With Fans… In The Porn Industry?

    Scott Owens ( profile ), 31 Jul, 2010 @ 05:47pm

    It's true.

    Yep.. It is true. Some companies are failing to adapt. But myself and others know that the key is to connect with fans and give people a reason to pay. Not just create content and charge money for it.

    My site has a thriving community built around it and while it is hard to make yourself stand out from all the free stuff online, part of the fun is coming up with innovative ideas for generating traffic and revenue.

  • On the post: Tool Maker Loses Lawsuit For Not Violating Another Company's Patents

    Scott Owens ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2010 @ 11:19am

    :(

    This post makes me sad. I have usually come to expect better from techdirt.

    The government has not mandated this technology be used.

    "It's too expensive" Is ALWAYS the reason behind companies wanting products to be less safe. This is why various government agencies mandate certain safety features in cars, airplanes, and consumer products.

    Some or many of them are patented. But so what, there are many ways to innovate around a certain need using different methods. SawStop does not own a patent on every single possible way to stop a saw from hurting you.

  • On the post: Court Invalidates Key Patent Claims In Acacia's Streaming Media Patent

    Scott Owens ( profile ), 04 Oct, 2009 @ 12:15pm

    Finally

    When I got the slick packet from them in the mail years ago demanding a large fee and a percentage of revenue from my porn site years ago, I was a little scared and I was not sure what to do.
    I was in no way about to give money to patent trolls, but at the same time did not really want blow a bunch of money on a legal fight.
    Most of my content was still photography, so I simply took down all the music and videos, responded to their notice saying that the offending content had been removed, waited a while and then put it back up.

  • On the post: The Porn Industry, Free And Basic Economics

    Scott Owens ( profile ), 11 Aug, 2009 @ 02:13pm

    Agreed

    I have been in the industry for 10 years and remember in the early days trying very hard to fight file sharing.

    But over time I have realized you just need to keep on your toes and adapt as things change. Identify ways you can add value and create things that people can not share by engaging your customers and creating a community around the content.

    However, one problem I have identified that has put the porn industry at a much bigger disadvantage than mainstream content industries is that you can pretty much only advertise more porn on a porn site.

    Sex and porn are rarely hot topics on my forums. It is all about the latest gadgets, music, politics, etc.. So if I could advertise products my users are actually interested in, I would make some decent money. But none of these industries are going to want to run ads next to porn. All I can advertise is more porn... Most of my users are not interested in more porn.. They already found some porn they liked and paid me money for it.

    This may make it a lot harder for some adult companies to survive. But as long as I can stay competitive enough.. I will personally welcome some of the less innovative competition being thinned out.

  • On the post: The Death Of Paid WiFi

    Scott Owens ( profile ), 05 Aug, 2009 @ 10:16am

    Airports

    PDX airport also has free wifi.
    Honestly, I would be willing to pay in an airport if they had reasonable fees. If I want to check my email on my laptop during a 1 hour layover, I am not going to pay $10 or $20 for it. I'll go through the trouble of trying to peck out an email on my phone instead. But $2 or $3 would be reasonable to me.

    I just don't see why things are priced the way they are, although I don't have data to back it up.. It would seem that they would actually make much more money by charging less. However, the popularity of smart phones and 3G will eventually kill paid wifi in airports.. I think

  • On the post: Hotels.com Not Unique Enough To Get A Trademark

    Scott Owens ( profile ), 28 Jul, 2009 @ 11:30pm

    They can still trademark their logo. I ran into this problem when applying for a trademark. The words in the brand were too generic, but a stylized logo could be trademarked which I think is perfectly suitable in this case. It gives them a certain amount of protection while preventing them from potentially getting broad ownership of the word hotels.com and then trying to sue any other website that contains the word hotels and a .com

  • On the post: Audiophiles Run And Hide: Growing Number Of Young People Prefer The Sound Of MP3s

    Scott Owens ( profile ), 03 Mar, 2009 @ 01:27pm

    Water

    I prefer music recorded onto water.

  • On the post: More Lawsuits Against Google… To Protect The Children

    Scott Owens ( profile ), 05 May, 2006 @ 01:57pm

    Re: Well, when you look into it

    You do not believe for one second that google reviews their ads?

    well you sir, are very ignorant.

    I've been advertising on google since the day adwords launched. both normal sites and adult sites. I know from experience how strict they are and that everything gets reviewed by a human. It just takes a few days sometimes.

  • On the post: Comforting Or Not, Sony Getting Out Of The Robotic Dog Business

    Scott Owens ( profile ), 26 Jan, 2006 @ 05:18pm

    People liked it?

    I don't think Aibo was that great of a seller anyway. I don't know anyone who has one, i've never seen one in person, and for what they can do.. they are pretty expensive.

  • On the post: Who Actually Buys Stocks Based On Strangers Text Messaging Them?

    Scott Owens ( profile ), 13 Dec, 2005 @ 06:24pm

    People do it

    My bosses read the spam email and fax stock tips they get.. as well as any other spam they get.. they take all spam for exactly what it says and never question it.

    In fact.. I had to change their paypal password and keep it from them so that they stop falling for those paypal email scams.

  • On the post: Advertisers Question How Google Helps Them In Print

    Scott Owens ( profile ), 06 Dec, 2005 @ 11:55am

    What kind of advertisers?

    I wonder if the advertisers were mostly the small business types who are used to adwords and have little experience in print advertising.

    When you advertise in print, it is rare you will see a return on your first run. This is why people who advertise in magazines or newspapers frequently buy up ads in blocks of multiple issues.
    Not because they see immediate results, but because it takes a long time to see results.