droslovinia 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Microsoft Suggests Android Violates Its Patents… But Gets HTC To Buy A License

    droslovinia ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2010 @ 01:46pm

    Say what?

    So where is the evidence that "it overtook iPhone yesterday in mobile web traffic?" Not that I care all that much, since I have neither, but such claims should have some basis in reality that you might want to share.

    Bigger question, if Android is supposedly a "derivative "of Microsoft's products, why is it so much better? It's like claiming that Enzo Ferrari owes you money because you have a rubber tree in your house! This is clearly no more than a nuisance lawsuit aimed at a company that might have insufficient cash reserves to fight them off without settling, and it's bound to blow up in their faces.

  • On the post: Teen Remixes The Works Of Others Into Best Selling Novel… And Critics Love It

    droslovinia ( profile ), 15 Feb, 2010 @ 05:56am

    Collaboration

    It's snowing really hard outside, so I decided to "borrow" my neighbor's SYV to get to work. It was just a "collaborative effort," so he has no right to be angry when he looks out at his driveway and finds it missing. I'm thinking about putting on a mask and going down to my local bank at lunch, to see if they will "collaborate" with my efforts to buy that flat screen television I've had my eye on. Of course, if the folks at the store would just collaborate with my plans to take possession of it, it would save me all this trouble. I'm working right right now on "collaborating" for my next album. Let's call it "Rubber Soul." It should do well, since my previous work "Abbey Road" was so well-received and helped those other guys become so famous. Better yet, I'll find some budding author, like Bert Montgomery, on Amazon, republish most of his book with my name on it, add a couple of stories, and we'll both be famous. I'm sure he'll LOVE that!

    Copyrights exist for a reason. They are not evil, but they can be abused. Anyone submitting something to me that is plagiarized is writing the last thing, from them, that I will ever read.

  • On the post: When Does It Stop Being 'Sexting' And Start Being Something More Serious?

    droslovinia ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2009 @ 06:00am

    CNN?

    I stopped watching CNN a long time ago, when they proved they'd stop at nothing to be like Fox.

    Still, why should we have any sympathy for that 18 year old again? He got mad at his girlfriend so he committed a federal crime against her. But that's supposed to be okay because it clearly wasn't the same as if he did it for money? So if some other 18 year old decides to shoot his 16 year old ex-girlfriend, it will be okay because it's not like he's a hit man or anything? If he breaks into her house and steals all her stuff, that would be okay, since he's not a professional burglar? Can he run her off the road, since he's not a professional driver, or beat her up, but not like a pro boxer would? The guy committed a serious crime against a minor, so how does this fit into any argument about excessive prosecution?

  • On the post: New Primary-School Curriculum: World War II Out, Twitter In?

    droslovinia ( profile ), 26 Mar, 2009 @ 01:04pm

    Knowledge

    I think that it's critically important to teach kids how to use information-processing tools. It's no substitute for teaching them a basic set of details off of which to work, though. What next? "When I want to know what pi or the Pythagorean Theorem is, I can look them up?" Where do kids go to look up information on how to look things up? There has to be some baseline to what kids need to know and when, or you'll have a whole bunch of people who are 2 or more generations removed from WWII who have no idea how important it was and can make ignorant comments about movies depicting it. So if they're doing it as part of a coordinated program to ensure that children learn what they need, great. Otherwise, they're heading down the road to ignorance and societal decay.

  • On the post: Why Is Al Gore Supporting A .Eco Top-Level Domain

    droslovinia ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2009 @ 10:48am

    Thanks JMB

    I read through all the comments wondering why this is such a big deal. Once you remove the comments of the haters who would bad-mouth Al if he found a way to go to each of their houses and hand them $50,000, there doesn't seem to be a lot here.

    This is a non-issue, so go back to listening to Rush and the rest of us can all move on to something else.

  • On the post: Illinois Sheriff Sues Craigslist For Prostitution; Apparently Unaware Of The Law

    droslovinia ( profile ), 06 Mar, 2009 @ 06:10am

    Re: Re: Re: your boat (sorry)

    There is no scientific proof of the age at which everyone develops "decision and discernment facilities," so that's off the table. Also, the age of consent varies from state to state. For instance, "enlightened" states like Kentucky let you have sex at 16, so long as no one films it.

    That said, regulation sounds like a good idea for all the reasons the lurker gave, but you forgot to mention that if prostitution can be regulated, it can be taxed. I think that government probably takes a little less than pimps do, so it might be better for everyone.

    Your average adult prostitute, while a problem under the current system, is not near the problem that we have with underage girls who are sold into slavery for this purpose. While it might seem inconsistent to decry this while seeking to legalize the profession, this is the kind of thing that occurs when you criminalize something and keep it unregulated.

  • On the post: Didn't Expect This: Lieberman Asks Why US Court Documents Aren't Free To The Public

    droslovinia ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2009 @ 12:55pm

    Free?

    SO let me get this straight. You're wanting the government to spend more tax dollars in making sure that all of the court documents, including some that might be quite sensitive and damaging, can be available to you for nothing (other than my tax money spent to make them available to you)?

    I'm not arguing that we shouldn't be able to access court documents, but that has to be paid for. Why shouldn't the people who most directly benefit from them, attorneys, journalists, and other "lookey-loos" have to pay a small fee that can be used to maintain the servers and pay the clerks responsible for servicing those files? And why shouldn't people who misuse them be penalized to the fullest extent of the law?

    And what's with all the "copyright" and paranoid FOA stuff? I'm an ardent progressive in virtually every way, and I just don't see the threat here. I've also used PACER extensively and don't understand why anyone not involved in an ongoing case actually needs the records unless they are using them for some improper purpose (yes, getting your tabloid story about a trial counts). PACER is still relatively new and getting worked on all the time, and here you are complaining that it's not perfect, free, and provided for your entertainment.

    So what now? Are we going to complain about healthcare privacy laws (see also "Steve Jobs")??

  • On the post: Band Puts All Its Music (Plus More) Into A $3 iPhone App

    droslovinia ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2009 @ 08:42am

    DRM is not always bad!

    Crap! I've been holding out on the iPhone for so long, but I'm a big POTUSA fan, so now I have to get one. BTW, this is an app that plays their music and provides some extras. DRM is perfect for this. How many people have been clamoring for all the other apps to allow you to take their music and play it for free with no restrictions? Why WOULD they? So if I spend 99 cents per song for all this stuff, that;'s nothing to complain about, but give it all to me for $3 and keep me from distributing it, and suddenly it's a bad idea?

  • On the post: Court Tosses Lawsuit Against Google Over Streetview Photos Of Home

    droslovinia ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2009 @ 12:39pm

    Privacy?

    I love the way NullOp slides his fascist slant into the conversation. Well done! It's good to know that your average right-wing survivalist nut will be happy to let people drive by and take pictures of his hideout whenever they want.

    But seriously, it's hard to claim privacy when in the public's view. On the other hand, trespassing is illegal, if it actually occurred in this case. I'm kind of doubting that it really did, since that is something that could have made that boring suit a lot more viable. Also, if someone uses your image for profit without your consent, you might have a good case that they've commercially exploited you, but evidently, if you're boring you can't make that argument.

  • On the post: Cuba Uses Linux To Stick It To The US

    droslovinia ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2009 @ 05:44am

    They're on to us!

    Dang!

    Cuba finally figured out that Microsoft is an evil plot. I guess we'll have to move on to some other country whose politics we don't like.

  • On the post: Wikipedia's Circular Logic Pops Up Again

    droslovinia ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2009 @ 05:39am

    Wikki wikki wow wow

    Actually, this shows Wikipedia's strength. Eventually, the information was corrected and they got it right. If they had published the wrong information in a print encyclopedia, how long do you think it would have taken to correct? Yes, there are pranksters and other folk who deliberately sabotage the system, and there are times when people just plain get it wrong. Over time, however, Wikipedia has proved to be a good concept. Incidentally, if you only use one source in your research, you deserve to be exposed as a hack.

  • On the post: Apple Threatening Patent Lawsuits Over New Palm Pre

    droslovinia ( profile ), 22 Jan, 2009 @ 05:49am

    Re: Dear Steve Jobs,

    Twinrova, you have a right to use whatever you want, just as Apple has a right to produce what it wants and pocket billions of dollars, whether you like it or not.

    You even have a right to be an angry, uncivil asshole in your posts - not that it's cool, but you do have that right - and you don't have to care what anyone else thinks. But you might want to be careful about invoking "karma" while you're being so transparently hateful.

  • On the post: Google, Apple, Microsoft Sued Over Patent For Thumbnail Icons

    droslovinia ( profile ), 29 Dec, 2008 @ 10:26am

    Copyright?

    This whole thing is a ridiculous filing that ought to be tossed immediately. If not, I couldn't help but notice that the patent filing used an unauthorized depiction of a Mac II as one of its figures. Should they not be liable for suit in using this depiction? It seems like patent fraud to me. At the very least, the fact that they had such a graphic before the patent was even filed indicates that it is something that Apple may have already been doing before they got around to trying to steal it.

  • On the post: Did You Know Caching Is How Perverts Avoid Downloading?

    droslovinia ( profile ), 18 Dec, 2008 @ 01:41pm

    And yet another real problem

    Anyone who thinks that the "danger is overblown" has some serious self-gratification issues. I mean, if you can't even diminish your pleasure in life enough to protect children from exploitation, your view of yourself as human is a bit overblown, too. Millions of kids are sexually exploited in this world, and yes, I'm willing to give up the right to help the exploiters by participating in their schemes or protecting them from exposure and prosecution if it will put a stop to it. I can put up with the idea that you want to deny global warming so you can feel better about your lifestyle, but this one is just too much to ask.

  • On the post: Wrongfully Blaming Hackers For Rainforest Deforestation

    droslovinia ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2008 @ 05:19am

    Huh?

    AJ! Rush called and wants his pills back! Seriously, though, just because one group of well-intentioned but misguided people is saying a dumb thing doesn't mean that the whole green movement should be indicted. That is, unless you "pro-lifers" out there are willing to give up because someone threatened a doctor; or the NRA is going out of business over a school shooting. There are nuts out there supporting every cause. That doesn't mean that their cause is necessarily wrong, only that some people are nuts.

  • On the post: Does It Make Sense To Have Libel Be A Criminal Offense?

    droslovinia ( profile ), 05 Dec, 2008 @ 07:50am

    Criminal?

    This is one area where libel ought to be criminalized. Abuse of many sorts, including mental and verbal, is a common occurrence in domestic disputes. If you're seeking to deliberately hurt your ex in any way, there's a fairly good chance that you are committing a crime, even if you're enough of a wimp to hide behind "free speech" while doing it! Don't forget that there's also a child involved here, and what damage might this jerk be doing to him or her through these actions? You can't sue to restore a child's faith in his or her mother!

    Also, there are some places where libel does not necessarily have to be false - just intentionally malicious. Even true words, when used to hurt another person, can be criminal. While civil actions might enable you to hit someone in the pocketbook, that's often not what it takes to get an abuser to stop.