E. Zachary Knight 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Wireless Carriers Finally Cave On Overage Fees; Reluctantly Agree To Stop Treating Customers Like ATMs

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 25 Oct, 2011 @ 01:31pm

    Re: A better solution

    This reminds me of banks and their inability to block transactions for insufficient funds. The banks' justification was that people don't like to be embarrassed by a card rejection. They would much rather get caught with multiple $35 overage fees.

    It doesn't matter how badly a money making scheme harms a customer. As long as the bank/phone company can spin it to be a service for the customer all is fine and dandy.

    Personally I am fine with being denied. Sure I may get frustrated that my Little Debbie craving will not be satiated every once and a while, or that I may not be able to call home if I am going to be late towards the end of the month. I would much rather be denied than hit with obscene expenses.

  • On the post: CreativeAmerica: When Major Hollywood Studios Set Up Bogus 'Grassroots' Campaigns

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 21 Oct, 2011 @ 02:14pm

    Re: Re: Re: Most Americans are Creative Americans

    Despite the fact that many of them get residual payments and/or get health and retirement benefit funded by downstream revenues

    You mean creatives like David Prowse, the face behind Darth Vader who has yet to get a residual because Return of the Jedi, the 15th highest grossing film of all time, is not yet profitable?

    http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110912/13500315912/hollywood-accounting-darth-vader-not-getting-paid-because-return-jedi-still-isnt-profitable.shtml

  • On the post: CreativeAmerica: When Major Hollywood Studios Set Up Bogus 'Grassroots' Campaigns

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 21 Oct, 2011 @ 02:10pm

    Re:

    They are also the people who are not making their movies and tv shows available to me in an affordable and convenient way.

    I like watching the tv show Mentalist. However, if I miss an episode, I can't watch it because it is not available on any legal website.

    If I want to watch the show I missed, I have to do one of two things: 1)wait a year or more to buy the season on DVD and then catch up on the plot events I missed. 2) download it from the pirate bay, watch it and then move on with my life and hope I don't miss an episode again.

    Same thing for a lot of other shows.

    What good does it do the content creator if I am forced by their own actions to resort to 'illegal' means to stay current on a show when there are legal means that the content creator can take advantage of to keep me honest? Hulu was a hugely successful platform that all content companies could have taken advantage of and made more money. But because they didn't know how to take advantage of it, they have killed all means of legal consumption over the internet.

  • On the post: CreativeAmerica: When Major Hollywood Studios Set Up Bogus 'Grassroots' Campaigns

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 21 Oct, 2011 @ 02:05pm

    Re:

    Well, here is one.

    I post a video to a popular video site. Some big content company decides the site I use for distribution is a site "dedicated to infringing activities" and has it seized.

    My distribution system is now killed even though my content was 100% legal.

  • On the post: The Connection Between Wikileaks Censorship And PROTECT IP: Censorship Through Cutting Off Service Providers

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 21 Oct, 2011 @ 08:20am

    Re:

    That is because the site is legal in the country it is hosted in and operated from. Why should they have to remove content from a site that is legal for them to operate everywhere except the US?

  • On the post: TSA Decides Terrorists Must Be Driving; Partners With Tenn. Law Enforcement To Randomly Search Vehicles

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 21 Oct, 2011 @ 08:12am

    Purple Tiger Patrol

    I make it a point to run around at night screaming and banging pots together in order to chase away purple tigers. It works too. I have never been attacked by one.

  • On the post: Free Justin Bieber: Do We Really Want Congress To Make Bieber A Felon?

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 19 Oct, 2011 @ 04:45pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Ok...? So why is Youtube the one in trouble here? Why is the law not targeting the person uploading the video?

  • On the post: New Research Brings Much Needed Objectivity To Game Piracy Numbers

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 19 Oct, 2011 @ 02:49pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    This article went 2 weeks from being submitted by Neppe to it being published here. I think they have had plenty of time to read the 9 page report.

  • On the post: New Research Brings Much Needed Objectivity To Game Piracy Numbers

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 19 Oct, 2011 @ 12:09pm

    Re:

    This is the sad thing about research. No matter how objective the researchers are, there will be people who try to mold that research to fit their preconceived notions in order to prop up their own side.

    I made no claims about what these numbers mean, only that the numbers are different from the games industry in two important ways:

    1) The numbers are less than half what the games industry is reporting.

    2) The methodology to reach those numbers is published and verifiable as opposed to the games industry's proprietary and secret methodology.

    What ever you are reading into the numbers is your opinion and does not necessarily reflect reality.

  • On the post: New Research Brings Much Needed Objectivity To Game Piracy Numbers

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 19 Oct, 2011 @ 12:03pm

    Re:

    Gamasutra was the one site I had hoped to find an article about this. Sadly, I could not find anything. Arstechnica is another that I would have expected this. Again, not there.

    It is very strange to not see anything positive, negative or neutral about this.

  • On the post: New Research Brings Much Needed Objectivity To Game Piracy Numbers

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 19 Oct, 2011 @ 12:01pm

    Re: "majority of games ... had fewer than 50,000 unique peers"

    If you have a point here -- I assume that game industry figures are inflated -- then you didn't throw it very hard.


    I though my point was clear in the closing paragraph. So for the slow, here it is worded a bit differently:

    Look at these piracy numbers that have been found using methodology that is published and detailed as opposed to the games industry's numbers that are found using a methodology that is proprietary and secret.

    If the games industry wants to add weight to its 600 million figure, it should publish the steps needed to reproduce that figure. Then other researchers can determine if the methodology is sound and validate the results.

    As it stands, there is no objectivity coming from the games industry or any other content industry commissioned report on piracy.

    We need more objectivity and less secrecy in research.

  • On the post: Wyden: PROTECT IP Act Is About Letting The Content Sector Attack The Innovation Sector

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 19 Oct, 2011 @ 11:39am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Of course it has. They couldn't even sell Hulu for $2 billion. That is how badly the service has failed. Af course none of that has anything to do with the content industry's open plans to kill Hulu as soon as it was off their plate.

  • On the post: YouTube Now Helping Artists Sell The Scarce

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 18 Oct, 2011 @ 07:53am

    Re: Re: Re: bleh

    Recorded music sales still "dwarf" things like concert revenues and t shirt sales. Because they are the most desired commodity.

    Perhaps for the record label/RIAA. But for the Artists themselves the vast majority of their income comes from performances and merchandise.

  • On the post: Roger Ebert Points People To The 'Ebert-Edit' Of Psycho On The Pirate Bay

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2011 @ 02:25pm

    Re:

    You Philistine! Han shot first!!!!!

  • On the post: Michele Bachmann Comes Out Against PROTECT IP

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 14 Oct, 2011 @ 05:07pm

    Re: Re: Help!

    Ah. Thank you. That did it.

  • On the post: Michele Bachmann Comes Out Against PROTECT IP

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 14 Oct, 2011 @ 04:25pm

    Help!

    Help! Someone please stop me from liking Michelle Bachmann!

  • On the post: US Postal Service Sends Postage Due Bill To Guy Who Put Block Party Invites Into Neighbors' Mailboxes

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 14 Oct, 2011 @ 07:38am

    Re: Re: This isn't New or 'Rarely Enforced'

    The last time I had to use a stamp, it was 30?.

    I still have a half roll of stamps that were paid for at 38? each. I haven't used them in years.

    I consider snail mail much the same as fax, pointless and archaic. Email is far faster and more convenient.

  • On the post: US Postal Service Sends Postage Due Bill To Guy Who Put Block Party Invites Into Neighbors' Mailboxes

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 14 Oct, 2011 @ 07:30am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Who owns mailboxes?

    No they don't pay a fee. The seperate box is the way they get around the law preventing papers from being put in the mail box. It is stupid and archaic but that is the way it is.

    It would be nice if we could have one box in front of our house to get all deliveries in regardless of delivery method, but it will take a lot of effort from the federal government to make that possible.

  • On the post: Lady Googoo Gone Gone After Lady Gaga Gets Injunction Against Parody

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 14 Oct, 2011 @ 07:25am

    Re: I dont really see the problem

    This is just one of several video that were pulled. There are others that are actual parodies of Lady Gaga songs. I just couldn't find any of those.

  • On the post: Lady Googoo Gone Gone After Lady Gaga Gets Injunction Against Parody

    E. Zachary Knight ( profile ), 14 Oct, 2011 @ 07:23am

    Re: Sigh

    He only get permission if he is including the song on an album. He plays a number of parodies at concerts that he hasn't gotten permission for. Even with his run in with Lady Gaga's people, he still released the song and video without permission.

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