Davis 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Cost vs. Benefit In Tracking Down People Using AP Content

    Davis ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2007 @ 12:04am

    Just A PR Stunt

    Sometimes the cost of sending out the notices is worth it, if you can convince your customers that you are doing something to prevent the dilution of your brand. AP is worried that with the papers cutting back, that they'll pull subscriptions. Given the competition with the blogs, online media, and the gazillion other things that are driving us from print, it's a real problem for the papers, if the content they are paying big money for, is ending up on splogs littered across the internet. Even if AP never gets a cent, the move is worth it, if they can convince their customers that they are getting semi-exclusive premium content.

  • On the post: Could 3D Save The Hollywood Blockbuster?

    Davis ( profile ), 26 Mar, 2007 @ 06:00pm

    Suvey Saaaaaayyys . . .

    No. People don't really prefer 3d, otherwise it would have been even bigger in the 80's. The technology is just annoying. If it makes them feel better to spend millions doing it though, I won't be the one to stop them.

  • On the post: It's Still A Bad Idea To Commit Libel On Your Blog

    Davis ( profile ), 09 Mar, 2007 @ 05:39pm

    you mean he allegedly libeled his lawyer right ;)

    It sounds fair to me. If you can't spread nasty rumors by slandering someone, you shouldn't be allowed to make things up and post them online either. Bloggers have responsibilities just like everyone else. I'm not sure that I'd ever want to consider myself a journalist, but with the power of the free press, you also inherit the responsibilities.

  • On the post: Broadcasters Hope Fourth Time's The Charm For Anti-Satellite Radio Bill

    Davis ( profile ), 15 Feb, 2007 @ 10:54am

    Too Many Rules

    Why does Congress keep making more rules to live by. If terrestial radio can't suceed on it's own, then why should other consumers have to live without satellite just to support a broken system. This should be a free market issue, not a regulatory issue.

  • On the post: Boston Mayor Tries To Hide Overreaction By Calling For Guerrilla Marketing Ban

    Davis ( profile ), 02 Feb, 2007 @ 06:24pm

    How Do You Define Gorrilla?

    Why is it that the minute something turns into a press event, the kneejerk reaction is to try and legislate humor behavior. Menino should just get over the fact that they over reacted and move on with city life.

  • On the post: Satellite Radio: The Songs Might Not Repeat, But The Merger Rumors Do

    Davis ( profile ), 27 Nov, 2006 @ 04:50pm

    It'll Take A Cold Day On Mars

    There's no way a merger between Sirius and XM will ever happen. They have exclusive licenses to those satellites. The FTC would never allow it no matter what. This is just Mel being smart and trying to bump up his share price. A year from now he'll still be talking about this.

  • On the post: MySpace Founder Tries Again To Get More Money Out Of Murdoch; This Time Claims Antitrust Violations

    Davis ( profile ), 04 Nov, 2006 @ 12:32am

    What A Cry Baby

    He never had to take his company public and he was never forced to sell to Fox. He saw a bunch of zeros and jumped at the chance to cash in. After the fact it looks like he sold for too little, but he could have just as easilly been greedy and turned out like Facebook too. Considering how much money he ended up making off the deal, it seems ridiculous for him to keep whining about Murdoch, even if he's not getting any link love from them.

  • On the post: Buying Content To Free It Is Not The Answer

    Davis ( profile ), 23 Oct, 2006 @ 07:48am

    What About Content Creation?

    I think education could be one way to go, but I'd love to see them use the $100 million to start an open source production company. By investing in equipment, education and resources to coordinate volunteers, I think that they would end up with a lot more content and they could still monetize the content and have that $100 million grow from selling movie theater tickets or DVDs while simulataneously using the net to promote the films for free.

    I know that a lot of people would be happy to volunteer their expertise as actors, producers or directors if the right opportunities would present themselves and what would be a better education for Hollywood then to see someone use no DRM and open source ideology and still clean their clock when it comes to the films produced?

  • On the post: Why Should EchoStar Wait For Patent Review When TiVo Doesn't Have To?

    Davis ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2006 @ 11:12pm

    All Is Fair In Love And TiVo

    Hey Mike,

    I think you got this one wrong. TiVo has already undergone the patent review case and had many of their infringement claims thrown out. I'm not an attorney, but my understanding is that this part of why they didn't get more in treble damages from the judge. After the review of 61 patents, I believe that two of the eight pertaining to the Echostar case ended up surviving the review. TiVo can still go back and argue for the other six, but the two that survived were related to the media switch and are why Echostar is forced to disable their current PVRs, but are able to build a work around if they don't include the media switch in their DVR.

  • On the post: Bored Reporters Scouring YouTube For Anything Semi-Popular To Write About

    Davis ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2006 @ 06:55pm

    Isn't This Still Citizen Media?

    I dont' think that we should be criticizing reporters for reporting the social networks as much as congratulating them. Isn't part of the news covering what is popular and catching on? How is the media reporting You Tube videos any different, then TechDirt linking to someone elses article or blog?

    When mainstream reporters look towards the blogosphere or YouTube, it gives the ordinary citizen a chance to be heard, if what they have to say is powerful enough. This is what makes Digg so powerful, that the ordinary user can vote and it attracts broader coverage to the issue.

    This doesn't mean that we shouldn't see investigative journalism, but given the amount of content that newspaper's have to produce, it isn't realistic to expect them to not get inspiration for stories from what other journalists are writing about.

    Maybe this does beg the question of whether or not the mainstream coverage drove the hits or whether it was the community, but if the community wasn't impressed to begin with, then it wouldn't have caught a reporters radar.