E. Zachary Knight 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: DRM Strikes Again: Digital Comics Distributor JManga Closing Down… And Deleting Everyone's Purchases

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 18 Mar, 2013 @ 10:15am

    Re: Re: @"Ninja" - "how the fuck this is fair"?

    It explicitly does NOT provide that those who don't pay for the works can still enjoy them for free.

    That is dodging the actual question. We were asking how denying paying customers the content they paid for fair and just. Do you have an answer to that?

    those who produce are to get the rewards, while those who merely use the products must TRADE something of value for goods or works.

    So paying money, which most economists agree is something of value, does not guarantee access to a good or work?

  • On the post: How Much Does It Cost To Win Election To Congress?

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2013 @ 07:27am

    Re:

    Is Techdirt going full on constitutionalist, if not what does this have to do with tech or copyright, patents or tech innovation?

    Money in politics is a common theme on Techdirt, especially when it comes to new laws such as CISPA, SOPA, PIPA, etc being proposed. The Question often comes down to "Who is buying this law?"

    So with this little bit of information, we can learn how much it costs to "buy" a Congressman or Senator.

  • On the post: How Much Does It Cost To Win Election To Congress?

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2013 @ 07:24am

    Re:

    Read the bills they vote on?

  • On the post: Modder Makes SimCity Capable Of Offline Play Which Works Flawlessly

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2013 @ 09:43am

    Re: Arrrrgh, Matey.

    Should be fairly simple to intercept whatever the game sends to the server, parse it and write it to a flat file locally. Then do the reverse when the game loads a save file.

  • On the post: Healthcare Isn't A Free Market, It's A Giant Economic Scam

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2013 @ 11:16am

    There are doctors fighting back.

    This recent video shows how some doctors are fighting back against these absolutely insane practices.

    http://reason.com/reasontv/2012/11/15/the-obamacare-revolt-oklahoma-doctors-fi

  • On the post: Obama Administration, Once Again, Says $222,000 For Sharing 24 Songs Is Perfectly Reasonable

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2013 @ 06:04am

    Re: Uh, that's why it's called punishment

    The punishment for shoplifting 24 songs (2 cds): A maximum of 1 year in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.

    The "punishment" for sharing 24 songs online: $220,000 fine.

    Do you not see a disconnect here?

  • On the post: Do You Live In The Constitution-Free Zone Of The US?

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2013 @ 01:25pm

    Re: Re:

    Article 1 Section 6 of the US Constitution:

    "The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place."

  • On the post: Mark Cuban Agrees: Independent Invention Is A Sign Of Obviousness; And Should Kill Patents

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 08 Feb, 2013 @ 02:26pm

    Re:

    The problem is not that 2 people in 7billion would come up with the same solution to the same problem. The problem is that 2 people in the same narrow expertise would come up with the same solution to the same problem. The fewer the number of people in a field and the more specialized the field, the more likely it is that individuals would independently come up with the same solution to the same problem.

    There is no other way to consider it. That is the purpose of the obviousness requirement. It is not to measure whether a moron in a hurry would come up with the same idea, it is to measure if a software engineer would be able to write the same "software" a patent would cover or any other field of expertise..

  • On the post: Iceland's MPAA Pirates Software; Tries To Defend Itself On Facebook; Runs Away

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 07 Feb, 2013 @ 01:23pm

    That's not piracy...

    SMAIS is a thief. Why? Because they made a promise to pay and then refused to do so. That is theft.

  • On the post: Another Legislator Hops On Board The 'Violent Video Game' Bandwagon; Introduces Redundant Labeling Bill

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 18 Jan, 2013 @ 08:31am

    Re:

    I don't particularly like the insinuation that Mormons in particular support this kind of legislation. This kind of legislation has an emotional appeal to a vast array of emotional and shortsighted people of all faiths and lack thereof.

  • On the post: White House, Tiring of Death Stars And Deportation Requests, Ups 'We The People' Signature Threshold From 25,000 To 100,000

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 11:58am

    Re: The Next Step

    "I tell you, a clever person would form a political party."

    People have been forming new parties for years now with little luck. The major problem with that idea is that the two major parties have so entrenched themselves in government and media that it is nearly impossible to gain national party status consistently between the 50 states. If you do manage to gain status in all 50 states, the problem then becomes a matter of exposure. With most media outlets being run by entrenched players in the current two parties, getting serious air time on their networks is near impossible.

    Do we need new parties? Yes. Yes we do. However, short of a revolution, it will be near impossible for such an effort to take hold in the minds of the people.

  • On the post: The Rise Of E-Singles In Literature

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 11 Jan, 2013 @ 06:10am

    Re: Re:

    better than the less than 5% writers get under a traditional publishing deal.

  • On the post: The Rise Of E-Singles In Literature

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 11 Jan, 2013 @ 06:09am

    Re:

    I would object, however, to the idea that Amazon gives authors a "friendly split." No way! They take 30% (one third!) of your profits.

    While 100% of the revenue would be the most ideal scenario for any creator, 70% of the sticker price is still leaps and bounds better than the

  • On the post: Bradley Manning's Defense: Releasing Over-Classified Information To The Public Would Be Good For The US, Not Bad

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 08 Jan, 2013 @ 02:10pm

    Re: don't tell those guys freed after 20 years by DNA evidence

    What the court is saying is that if convicted, the time he has spent imprisoned without bail will apply to the final sentence. Sounds pretty fair to me, all things considered.

  • On the post: Bradley Manning's Defense: Releasing Over-Classified Information To The Public Would Be Good For The US, Not Bad

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 08 Jan, 2013 @ 02:07pm

    Re: Re: Many anti-Manning people will argue that it is not his position to decide what is and what is not properly classified, and that's true.

    If the corrupted have the power to suppress the evidence of their corruption through the classification process, exactly how are you proposing we go about exposing said secret corruption?

  • On the post: To Avoid Controversy, 'Realtime' Microblogging In China Now Delayed By 7 Days

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 28 Dec, 2012 @ 10:29am

    Re: Protest

    No you won't. Any complaints about the process will simply never be published.

  • On the post: Infographic: People Will Pay To Support Creators, Even When Free Is An Option

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 13 Dec, 2012 @ 07:39am

    Re: Re: Re: How much total was received?

    In order to have a 51% section of the graph, it would need at least 100 points of data. With only 10 points, the closest it could get would be 50%.

  • On the post: Nintendo Still Loves DRM; The Internet Not So Much

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 12 Dec, 2012 @ 10:13am

    Re: Re: Re: Change to "Nintendo's is one of the most" SUCCESSFUL!

    The DRM itself is not the reason for Steam's success. It is all the features that come with agreeing to use DRM. The Achievements, the play on any device with the same account. The cloud saving and storage., The massive friends lists. The gifting features. The sales. Many many more positive features. With all that, the DRM seems pretty much unnecessary.

  • On the post: Court Orders Yahoo To Pay Mexican Yellow Pages Companies $2.7 Billion In Mystery Case

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 05 Dec, 2012 @ 08:49am

    Dollars to Pesos

    If all else fails, Yahoo could send them 2.7 billion Pesos claiming they thought that was what they were asking for. While $208 million is still no laughing matter, it is a far less bitter pill to swallow.

  • On the post: Copyright Troll Case Tossed For 'Fraud On The Court' After Abbott & Costello-Worthy Hearing

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 03 Dec, 2012 @ 09:26am

    Obviously...

    Obviously, these people are paid actors in an improvised and un-televised satire of the US legal system. There is no other way to explain this.

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