Dave 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: CipherCloud Discovers Senorita Streisand Effect Is A Hateful Mistress

    Dave ( profile ), 27 Apr, 2013 @ 10:50am

    Re: Re: Re: CipherCloud now dead man walking

    They use very sophisticated methods: the Union Cipher Disk, FOLLOWED by the Captain Midnight Secret Decoder Ring. It don't get much better than that.

  • On the post: The Copyright Lobotomy: How Intellectual Property Makes Us Pretend To Be Stupid

    Dave ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2013 @ 09:04am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Sorry, copyright's ORIGINAL purpose was to protect the printers and give the State an effective means of censoring publications it didn't like.

  • On the post: The Copyright Lobotomy: How Intellectual Property Makes Us Pretend To Be Stupid

    Dave ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2013 @ 09:19am

    Copyright

    For an excellent write-up see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Anne

  • On the post: The Copyright Lobotomy: How Intellectual Property Makes Us Pretend To Be Stupid

    Dave ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2013 @ 09:13am

    "Intellectual Property"

    Note article I section 8 of our Constitution says "to Authors and Inventors". Nowhere does it say "to Authors and Inventors and anyone who pays them."

    This privilege is to be granted to the ORIGINAL creator ONLY, not some third-party. The whole concept that a patent or copyright is property that can be bought and sold like a used lawnmower is insane, and the basis of 99% of our problems with them.

    Yes, patents and copyrights should be able to be assigned or licensed, but the original creator retains control. If disputes arise between the creator and his assignees or licensees, or a third party, that is a matter of contract or Tort law. In any event, the patent or copyright is not property, and should only be granted for a short period of time.

  • On the post: The Copyright Lobotomy: How Intellectual Property Makes Us Pretend To Be Stupid

    Dave ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2013 @ 08:55am

    Copyright

    Since the introduction of the printing press, in England in 1476, the whole idea of "copyright" has been about protecting the publishing and printing houses, usually from each other. Said houses had formed into guilds with exclusive rights over production of certain literary works. Nothing was said about the authors and artists.

    The "Statute of Anne", passed in 1710, attempted to shift that toward the creators, but pretty much failed, with the guilds and printing houses still being in control.

    Copyright, today, is STILL about protecting the publishers and very little about the creators. That was fine as long as a "copy" was a physical thing one could see, touch, hold, and smell, and was limited by it's very nature as a manufactured thing - only so many could be made.

    Digital files, on the other hand, are not so limited. They can be (and many times are) reproduced endlessly. Indeed, publishers get the original manuscripts in that form, and reproduce them, edit them, and finally generate printing masters from them to make the physical objects they sell. Meantime hundreds of copies, in various states, exist in the publisher's computer systems. This whole thing is a farce to preserve the profits of the publishers.

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Dave ( profile ), 22 Apr, 2013 @ 05:29am

    Patents and Copyrights

    The Constitution says (Article I, Section 8,

    "The Congress shall have the power..To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing
    for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive
    Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

    Emphasis added.
    Note the article says "to Authors and Inventors". Nowhere does it say "to Authors and Inventors and anyone who pays them."

    This privilege is to be granted to the ORIGINAL creator ONLY, not some third-party. The whole concept that a patent or copyright is property that can be bought and sold like a used lawnmower is insane, and the basis of 99% of our problems with them.

    Yes, patents and copyrights should be able to be assigned or licensed, but the original creator retains control. If disputes arise between the creator and his assignees or licensees, or a third party, that is a matter of contract or Tort law. In any event, the patent or copyright is not property, and should only be granted for a short period of time.

  • On the post: MPAA Tells US Government To Screw Over The Blind, Reject Fair Use

    Dave ( profile ), 20 Apr, 2013 @ 05:11am

    Enough, Already!

    The -AAs have demonstrated, ad nauseum, that their only concern is profit - at the expense of everything else. The time has come for someone with a bit of loose change to mount a hostile takeover of both organizations with the express purpose of shutting both down. They're killing us.

  • On the post: Paul Hansmeier: Who Me? I Did Nothing… Everything You're Accusing Prenda Of Was Done By Someone Else

    Dave ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2013 @ 08:54pm

    Re:

    On a very thin Balsa wood floor. Should be fun to watch.

  • On the post: Paul Hansmeier: Who Me? I Did Nothing… Everything You're Accusing Prenda Of Was Done By Someone Else

    Dave ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2013 @ 08:54pm

    Re:

    On a very thin Balsa wood floor. Should be fun to watch.

  • On the post: New Evidence: Homeland Security Spied On Peaceful Protestors; Worried About Protests Getting News Coverage

    Dave ( profile ), 04 Apr, 2013 @ 07:05pm

    Pay Attention To History

    What the 0.01% of the population, that has most of the money, and that owns the Government, are forgetting, are the lessons of the Russians and the French at the turn of the 20th century. Eventually the citizens get fed up with the oppression and put them out of our misery. The problem here is that the governmant has nuclear weapons and IMHO would use them if threatened too much.

  • On the post: New Evidence: Homeland Security Spied On Peaceful Protestors; Worried About Protests Getting News Coverage

    Dave ( profile ), 04 Apr, 2013 @ 07:05pm

    Pay Attention To History

    What the 0.01% of the population, that has most of the money, and that owns the Government, are forgetting, are the lessons of the Russians and the French at the turn of the 20th century. Eventually the citizens get fed up with the oppression and put them out of our misery. The problem here is that the governmant has nuclear weapons and IMHO would use them if threatened too much.

  • On the post: Intuit Continues To Make Sure Filing Taxes Is Complicated

    Dave ( profile ), 04 Apr, 2013 @ 09:03am

    This whole argument is sorta silly. Most states, mine included, and the IRS, provide almost automatic free filing applications on their websites. You just enter the numbers, and the page does the calculations, including supplementary forms. Unless your income structure is very complicated, in which case you already have a tax attorney or accountant to do it for you, programs like TurboTax are superfluous anyway. Sounds like more buggy whip vs auto makers squabbles to me.

  • On the post: Peter Hansmeier Denies Connection To Prenda Cases Via Document That Shows He's Connected To The Cases

    Dave ( profile ), 29 Mar, 2013 @ 01:18am

    "And the latest story in As The Prenda Turns... "
    Make that "As The Stomach Turns!"

  • On the post: DOJ Misled Judges For Years About How It Was Using Stingray Devices To Spy On People

    Dave ( profile ), 28 Mar, 2013 @ 09:27am

    Re:

    Just about any police state or totalitarian government. There are many examples, even now, and ours is rapidly approaching that situation. The next ten years should be fun.

  • On the post: Arrested Development Documentary Has To Hit Up Kickstarter Because Fox Claims Copyright On Set Photos

    Dave ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2013 @ 01:18pm

    Take the $20,000, hire a good lawyer, and sue Fox to show cause why they think they have ANY copyright claim. DON'T let them get away with it.

  • On the post: The Government Might Want To Legalize Phone Unlocking, But Unfortunately It Signed Away That Right

    Dave ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2013 @ 02:59am

    How did the Librarian Of Congress get involved in a civil contractual matter between a company and a customer? What has copyright to do with unlocking phones? Are they suggesting that unlocking the phone somehow distributes the content of the ROMs inside it. What copyright, exactly, is being violated?

    Anticircumvention rules in the DMCA should apply to entertainment content, movies, songs, books, and the antipiracy protection applied thereto. What has unlocking or "jailbreaking", both of which are civil contract violations at worse, got to do with copyright? Someone had best take a long hard look at what Congress has done to us.

  • On the post: Recording Of Bradley Manning's Statement In Court Leaked

    Dave ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2013 @ 02:44am

    Like all cockroaches, this government doesn't like light. Any attempt to illuminate their activities sends them scurrying and usually results in a violent reaction. The time has come for some major changes. Unfortunately, this government, like all governments, will fight to the death to retain power. Considering that they have nuclear weapons available, that might include us all.

  • On the post: Deep Dive Analysis: Brett Gibbs Gets His Day In Court — But Prenda Law Is The Star

    Dave ( profile ), 11 Mar, 2013 @ 10:52pm

    Re: I Predict Criminal Charges

    Somebody better notify TSA to watch for their immediate exit. After today, they're gonna run, fast.

  • On the post: Deep Dive Analysis: Brett Gibbs Gets His Day In Court — But Prenda Law Is The Star

    Dave ( profile ), 11 Mar, 2013 @ 09:20pm

    Re: Sheer, complete idiocy

    The Thomas M_ Cooley Law School, where else???

  • On the post: Deep Dive Analysis: Brett Gibbs Gets His Day In Court — But Prenda Law Is The Star

    Dave ( profile ), 11 Mar, 2013 @ 09:13pm

    Re: Time to come clean

    I'm with you. There has to be something else going on. No one in their right mind would try to foist off the kind of crap they're doing to a Federal court and not expect to get sanctioned, hard, unless they're being paid, handsomely, to perpetuate the farce. Righthaven tried it, to a much lesser extent, and got bounced off the deck a few times. These guys should get slammed THROUGH the deck, directly into the jail floor. Who's backing them? Who's running them? Not even Steele is that smart.

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