Allen 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (176) comment rss

  • On the post: USTR Continues To Lie: Claims ACTA Release Proved Internet Rumors About ACTA Were False

    Allen ( profile ), 27 Apr, 2010 @ 06:17pm

    Re:

    No, no, no, they have gone to great lengths to hear, they just haven't been listening...

  • On the post: If Flat-Rate Mobile Data Plans Are So Bad, Why Do Operators Keep Launching New Ones?

    Allen ( profile ), 22 Apr, 2010 @ 07:26pm

    Why Do Operators Keep Launching New Ones?

    Competition?

    /obvious

  • On the post: Google Approach In China: Redirect To Hong Kong

    Allen ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2010 @ 07:50pm

    It's a matter of perspective

    From the PRC's perspective, Google are the ones that are being arrogant.

    Anyone posturing for a foreign audience rather than following the culturally acceptable practice of private discussions out side the public eye is going to be considered arrogant.

  • On the post: Courts Stretching Computer Hacking Law In Dangerous Ways

    Allen ( profile ), 21 Mar, 2010 @ 04:15am

    Re:

    AC, I disagree. If you fire someone without being prepared for a negative reaction you're not only stupid you are being negligent.

    If someone leaves your company and you dont disable your account - you're being negligent.

    If the violation of his contract was a crime then he can be prosecuted for that crime. If it wasn't then being dismissed for cause is enough without broadening a law beyond its original intent.

  • On the post: Canon Becomes The Online Equivalent Of Madonna Or Prince, Becoming The First Single Word Domain Holder

    Allen ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2010 @ 06:48pm

    I don't know, think of what they would have to pay for to get cannon.com from someone today. Now think of what they would have to pay to buy tld cannon from someone in a couple of years. I think it's a good investment.

  • On the post: US Patent Office Decides That One Click Really Is Patentable

    Allen ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2010 @ 09:36pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Reform?

    AC, It was as obvious 13 years ago as it is today. One click with a mouse to cause a computer to do something is as old as the mouse itself (somewhere in the mid '60s I believe) and the 'idea' of making things easier for your customers can not be claimed by Amazon.

    I'll pass on the job offer. The evidence suggests the pay and conditions suck big time. Otherwise they might have some better talent.

  • On the post: Apple Goes Offensive On Patents: Sues HTC

    Allen ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2010 @ 05:41pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Wow. I'm not sure where you live Michial but here in Hong Kong apple were far from the first to release a phone/pda/mp3 player combo and your most basic GSM handset had pager functionality much earlier than that.

    Apple were the first to release a phone with a multitouch interface, nothing more or less. They didnt invent it but innovation is in the execution right? And now they want to execute HTC...

  • On the post: Administration Asks For Public Input On Intellectual Property Enforcement

    Allen ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2010 @ 06:33pm

    "IPEC specifically reached out to Techdirt"

    Window dressing or not, I find it encouraging that they are at least aware of communities like Techdirt.

  • On the post: PayPal Suspends Payments In India?

    Allen ( profile ), 08 Feb, 2010 @ 06:05pm

    Re: Tax

    That was my fist thought too, only I would have said overly aggressive rather than merely sticky.

  • On the post: The New Middleclass Musicians: I Fight Dragons

    Allen ( profile ), 08 Feb, 2010 @ 05:45pm

    I can easily see a group making the right steps to survive in a new reality without "getting" that there is new reality in the first place.

    And lets face it while its possible to make a decent living in that new reality, only the labels still promise to deliver yesterday's dream of mega bucks, wild groupie sex, fame and all the trappings. However much they are in it for the music the old dream is still there in the background.

  • On the post: Did The Recording Industry Really Miss The Opportunity To 'Monetize' Online Music?

    Allen ( profile ), 03 Feb, 2010 @ 07:55pm

    They certain missed an opportunity

    They missed the opportunity to avoid alienating billions of music fans to the point where most see nothing wrong with copyright infringement and so many see infringing as a way of 'getting back' at the recording industry for their abuses.

    If they had moved to protect their copyright given monopoly by embracing the changes rather than opposing them they would be better monetizing music today.

    Importantly, while the economics suggest this could only ever be a case of delaying the inevitable, the delay would have given them more time to adapt to a new reality. Time they no longer have.

  • On the post: Engadget Latest To Try Comment Cooling Off Period; I Can't Figure Out Why

    Allen ( profile ), 02 Feb, 2010 @ 11:09pm

    I suppose I can understand it as some sort of temporary measure to douse a flame war. On the other hand a good part of the value is the comments - whether or not I choose to make a comment myself, other peoples comments are often as compelling (in not more) than the article itself.

  • On the post: Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Over Warrantless Wiretapping, Appeal Planned

    Allen ( profile ), 22 Jan, 2010 @ 07:25pm

    This story and Obama Quietly Issues Ruling Saying It's Legal For The FBI To Break The Law On Accessing Phone Records and once again I'm wondering how so many US citizens can claim to be leaders of the free world with a straight face.

    I don't expect any better from the Chinese. Is it too much to ask better from the US?

  • On the post: Sometimes Protecting Free Speech Means Protecting Speech You Don't Like

    Allen ( profile ), 19 Jan, 2010 @ 07:06am

    Censorship does not help to address ignorance

    By the time I got around to reading the Techcrunch post it was too late to join in any meaningful discussion. It had degenerated into a cesspool of accusation and counter accusation. Like scottbp I declined to comment.

    It is dumbfounding that people who hold themselves to be intelligent can take a few cases where some company has abused the system and lay the blame on the exploited immigrants rather than those that exploit them. Lowering the debate to racial vilification is deplorable.

    But, much as I deplore the hateful views Vivek opposes, much as I oppose those views he wants to suppress, you cannot address ignorance with censorship.

    The US owes its prosperity to migrants. Migrants built the nation, migration provided the stimulus that fueled its growth throughout the 20th century and migration will ensure its future. No nation that has closed its borders has prospered.

    Refusing to engage and correct bad ideas is no way to address them

  • On the post: Man Sues Neighbor For Not Turning Off WiFi And Cell Phone

    Allen ( profile ), 09 Jan, 2010 @ 03:31am

    So many harsh comments about some poor soul clearly suffering from a real medical condition. He needs a psychiatrist, not a lawyer.

  • On the post: NY Times Seems To Recognize That Nokia's Patent Fights Have Nothing To Do With Innovation

    Allen ( profile ), 24 Dec, 2009 @ 07:37pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    "So they had two years to develop an competing phone, and did jack squat. Yeah, that's impressive."

    How exactly does this invalidate my inclination to believe that Nokia tried to negotiate first?

    Nokia are playing the game by the rules the same as everyone else - Apple included. The problem isnt Nokia, its the rules.

  • On the post: NY Times Seems To Recognize That Nokia's Patent Fights Have Nothing To Do With Innovation

    Allen ( profile ), 23 Dec, 2009 @ 07:10pm

    Re:

    I'm more inclined to believe Nokia when they say that they spent the first two years negotiating with Apple and only went down this path when talks broke down.

    I don't think you need to look to Machiavellian motives for what Nokia are doing. The patent system allows Nokia to get a cut from the other manufacturers of GSM (and derivative) standard handsets . Why shouldn't Nokia expect to get the same from Apple? This is mature technology from decades old work - its practically money for nothing. Why wouldn't you expect Nokia to exploit the mess of a system we have to get money for nothing?

    Whether Nokia are deliberately exploiting the system to hold apple back doesnt really change the underlying problem: The patent system is broken. The outcomes it encourages are clearly counter to the original intent. The system needs to be reformed.

  • On the post: Getting Past The 'But Artists Should Just Be Artists' Myth

    Allen ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2009 @ 04:56pm

    An Amateur artist can just be about the art. A professional though needs to be thinking about how to build a profession, a business, an income around that art.

    If you don't want to think about how to use your art to make a living, then a best you're really only an amateur. That's OK. It's up to you; who knows? You might get lucky. And the industry is there waiting to help themselves out. Just don't be too surprised if you get ripped off.

  • On the post: Google Doesn't Rely On Intellectual Property For Its Leadership Position

    Allen ( profile ), 12 Nov, 2009 @ 10:43pm

    It really depends on what intellectual property is. Patents and Copyright might form a legal framework on which you can pretend that ideas can owned, but this blog highlights the problems with that distortion regularly.

    But if you can accept the concept that ideas can be owned in the first place then trade secrets like the "secret sauce" to their page rank algorithm are as much "property" as ideas covered by patents are. From this it follows that Google are totally reliant on their IP. Without their page ranking technology they would be nothing.

    On the other hand intellectual property is an oxymoron and any treatment of ideas as property is a distortion.

  • On the post: A Look At All The Sites Owned By Rupert Murdoch That 'Steal' Content

    Allen ( profile ), 11 Nov, 2009 @ 05:13pm

    Negotiations

    Murdoch knows search and news have become symbiotic. But he wants a larger slice of the pie. Understanding his starting position is weak he's come out with a threat made credible by his reputation as a septuagenarian autocrat.

    Murdoch and his advisers are not stupid: they know the threat to block their content from google is empty, but they need to start somewhere in their bid for a share of the advertising dollars that google has lured away from them.

    It's just Negotiations.

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