hozelda 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Making A High Quality Film On The Cheap With A Digital SLR

    hozelda ( profile ), 21 Dec, 2010 @ 03:56am

    Re: Re:

    >> Even as expensive as some of these movies are, so much of the money is needlessly wasted.

    When a major fraction of demand is willing to spend a bunch of money, it drives prices upwards.

    If they weren't there willing or able to spend that much, prices would come down as expected. Cameras would cost less, actors would not demand millions per flic, etc.

  • On the post: eBay Shutting Down Rubik's Cube Knockoff Sales Due To Patent Infringement Claim (Not From Rubik's Maker)

    hozelda ( profile ), 21 Dec, 2010 @ 03:34am

    Obviousness is questionable, but brokenness might be guaranteed

    >> (which would suggest "obviousness" and thus make it not patentable)

    Many can come up with something without it being "obvious" to a person having ordinary skill in the art. Surely, if you have 10 engineers, only one, the brainiest one, need come up with it and without having thought it was obvious.

    To me that several came up with something can suggest that patent law is broken in not respecting independent creation and in picking such a low bar to innovation (non-obviousness to PHOSITA) that even if we had a higher bar we'd still have multiple parties coming up with the invention independently.

  • On the post: Judge In Limewire Case Wants To Explore How Much File Sharing Really Costs Record Labels

    hozelda ( profile ), 18 Dec, 2010 @ 01:04pm

    Re: Wouldn't it be nice if ...

    Yes, negative damages. Limewire helped them so they must pay for the suit and royalties.

  • On the post: Creating Flight Plans Online? Patented! Small Company Sued Out Of Business For Not Wanting To Pay $3.2 Million Per Month

    hozelda ( profile ), 15 Dec, 2010 @ 01:28pm

    Re: This Is On the Supreme Court Agenda.

    An earlier comment links to a thread where a patent examiner (or so he states he is) acknowledges that he has not read any of the hundreds of millions (billions) of open source software lines of code that are in active use today (or have been written over the years).

    Now, even if he wanted to or was supposed to (which he might not and is not), that would be a heck of a lot of prior art to master and on what time? It is impossible to master all that code. At best, you would have to take an average of a few of the top contributors/maintainers from almost every open source project and then require that each of these experts check off each patent that goes through the system. Is this humanly possible to ask of each expert (to skim and maybe study on the order of hundreds of software patents per year each)? Will they get paid? Will they get paid enough to stop doing what they like to do or to cut short their business to tend to the USPTO? Will the USPTO ever seriously consider paying all of these people to do what they will view as duplicate work and against the interests of their paying clients and might lead them to turn a significant profit into a loss?

    Of course, without doing this work, we need to presume invalidity as you mentioned.

    And software is information. Patents were not intended to hold back progress over information that is $0 marginal costs in time, money, energy, and materials to manufacture and distribute and where free expression rights are also at stake. [even if the inventiveness bar was high, which it most certainly isn't, and this has very serious consequences for a field jam-packed with innovating participants because costs are so low to participate -- it's information creation utilizing "household appliances".]

  • On the post: Creating Flight Plans Online? Patented! Small Company Sued Out Of Business For Not Wanting To Pay $3.2 Million Per Month

    hozelda ( profile ), 15 Dec, 2010 @ 01:11pm

    Re:

    They have guidelines, and there is and has been confusion over software patent legitimacy. The agency's incentives (at least in terms of maximizing revenue/profits) are aligned to support the patent types industry likes. People applying for patents are seeking monopoly power and software patents are among those at the top (not to mention relevancy because digitalization and other improvements since have led to significant control capabilities being able to be built very cheaply in software).

    This thread http://opensource.com/law/10/11/software-too-abstract-be-patented on swpat includes comments by a patent examiner over.

  • On the post: Wikileaks Leak Suggests Hollywood Is Better At Preventing Terrorism Than The TSA

    hozelda ( profile ), 10 Dec, 2010 @ 06:21pm

    Two classes of money (holy living money and play money)

    >> Do you mean that playing instead of fighting is an attractive feature to humans the world over?

    This is one reason why I like fair markets with many competitive players if possible and no one too strong. It enables more people to play rather than for many to have to worry about fighting (to get food, shelter, etc) frequently.

    It's also why I am intolerant of the very wealthy's approach when they keep leveraging their easier and easier dollars to add more and more pressure to those that don't have access to a similar quantity of dollars and levers.

    Dollars for food, shelter, education, and basics come first as a human requirement so that all people can eventually be peaceful and play. Afterward, we can divy up the remaining bucks over time to play our games, hopefully with some degree of "reset" mechanism (eg, progressive taxes) so that the same players aren't always starting each year with a huge lead over everyone else. If you always start off with a big lead and many levers, all else being equal, you end up each year with a bigger lead and more levers (until you slip from the diminishing players that are the cream of the crop and get pressured back towards the masses). Think of Monopoly the board game.

    Sure, this may sound crazy to some ears, but it's a pretty interesting way to live I think. We need to make sure there are two distinct categories of dollars: (a) those that apply to the basics (we can find jobs, and we can do our chores to earn these, perhaps a la "to each according to need from those according to ability") and (b) those dollars that apply to our games.

    As a small way to impact legislation in the US at this very moment, consider letting each of your two Senators know that you don't support reinstating the 2yr tax cuts on easy money (money for the top 2%). These people are loaded with levers (including holding huge cash reserves that have become inaccessible to the rest of us).

    Having a fair playing field and a genuine opportunity is a part of thwarting terrorism and of enabling the potential of the "American Dream", no matter who you are or where you live.

  • On the post: Wikileaks Leak Suggests Hollywood Is Better At Preventing Terrorism Than The TSA

    hozelda ( profile ), 10 Dec, 2010 @ 06:01pm

    SHOCK!!!

    Do you mean that playing instead of fighting is an attractive feature to humans the world over?

  • On the post: One Way To Deal With Child Bullying: Have The Whole Internet Stand Up For You

    hozelda ( profile ), 10 Dec, 2010 @ 05:17pm

    Re: Re: Re: Ugh...

    >> Yeah, but let's be aware of potential unintended consequences. Bullies go crazy when the one they are bullying gets help, particularly adult help.

    It depends on how it is handled, but many bullies assume the other person has no support among "important" people. And many that support bullying in lesser roles are probably amenable to influence from numbers. [The girl has numerous folks participating, and they likely won't abandon her.]

  • On the post: Copyheart: Encouraging People To Copy

    hozelda ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2010 @ 03:09pm

    Re: How do you type it out?

    That's odd. We probably aren't using the same software, but I would think you would see it as text, exactly as it is created for a webpage and sent over the Internet into your computer.

    & h e a r t s ; (but without spaces)

  • On the post: Lieberman Introduces New Censorship Bill In Kneejerk Response To Wikileaks

    hozelda ( profile ), 03 Dec, 2010 @ 09:24am

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

    Want peace? Increase communication and the standard of living.

    Can our government do more in these areas? Are they setting a good example?

    What makes a stronger statement to a dictator, a few high ranking political competitors making some statements or a very large number of people standing together despite what such elites had in mind?

    It's tough to attack someone with whom you empathize. And it's great when games are an accessible diversion.

    PS: You will also note that most war hawks work hard to drum up war feelings. Then they want to shut free communication down and other forms of competition for information. Behind conflict there is misunderstanding. Understanding comes from truth not from lies.

  • On the post: New Judicial Hero: Philip Gutierrez Goes Ballistic On Ridiculous Gov't Prosecutors During Xbox Modding Trial

    hozelda ( profile ), 03 Dec, 2010 @ 08:39am

    Tinkering is human nature and a way to promote the progress.

  • On the post: New Judicial Hero: Philip Gutierrez Goes Ballistic On Ridiculous Gov't Prosecutors During Xbox Modding Trial

    hozelda ( profile ), 03 Dec, 2010 @ 08:38am

    Judges, like all humans, especially in areas where you have not thought many details through or even know the most relevant details, can be influenced. This is normal and there is a trust relationship here. The last thing a person who takes such a role seriously (where lives and laws are made or broken) is to smell duplicity from some of your working colleges. It (at least momentarily) brings into question everything they have been arguing over time and which you have tended to view with an open mind.

  • On the post: Supreme Court Will Review The Standard For Patent Infringement: Could Raise The Bar

    hozelda ( profile ), 02 Dec, 2010 @ 12:21pm

    Re: Perfectly Simple Fix

    Patents are broad and stifling. They don't work at least where they overlap with copyright, and if you don't like copyright even there, just imagine. They stifle too many in the field of software; they don't recognize independent invention; and it's extremely expensive to prove innocence even when you have prior art available, never mind when you can't find a needle in the haystack. [How many billions of lines of software source code have been written over the years?] http://opensource.com/law/10/11/software-too-abstract-be-patented#comment

  • On the post: Chris Matthews Says That Pointing Out Chertoff's Conflict Of Interest Over Rapiscan TSA Scanners Is Slander?

    hozelda ( profile ), 02 Dec, 2010 @ 04:23am

    Chris Matthews went too far, but I like that this conversation is taking place. She answered well and likely appealed to a lot of people, so I don't think she has anything to be worried about.

  • On the post: Supreme Court Won't Hear Innocent Infringer Case, Though Alito Thinks It Should

    hozelda ( profile ), 02 Dec, 2010 @ 04:00am

    Re: Re:

    >> Sharing of information is [taught] in school

  • On the post: Supreme Court Won't Hear Innocent Infringer Case, Though Alito Thinks It Should

    hozelda ( profile ), 02 Dec, 2010 @ 03:57am

    Re: Re: Soft Baller

    Its getting easier to be optimistic about the future.

  • On the post: Supreme Court Won't Hear Innocent Infringer Case, Though Alito Thinks It Should

    hozelda ( profile ), 02 Dec, 2010 @ 03:55am

    Re:

    She probably has also been listening to music for many years as well. I don't think she has been fined for that activity.

    In fact, she probably reasons that sharing of information is how you promote the progress and maintain a strong democracy (and is crucial to it), and the Internet has enabled progress to a new degree if we don't shunt it. She might even have heard that the value of sharing of information is stamped in the Constitution (recognized in the "to promote the progress" criteria and in the First Amendment). Sharing is key to learning and evolution. Sharing of information is tough in school since kindergarten, which by the way is no charge.

    Copyright law is outdated. It's now very inexpensive to share and hence there is now a much higher opportunity cost to society to adding hurdles to sharing. In particular, copyright appears no longer to be about which major publisher is the one that gets access to the profits from running their presses at the behest of the author (nor about preventing publishers from cutting the author out of profits or opportunity) but about whether you enable the Internet's efficiencies to even exist. The author him/herself no longer requires as much leverage over major publishers in order to monetize his/her writings and share them.

  • On the post: TSA's Failure Based On The Myth Of Perfect Security

    hozelda ( profile ), 25 Nov, 2010 @ 05:51am

    Re: Re: Not a Myth

    I've thought a few times that perhaps the fear with planes is that 9/11 was aimed at the nation's leadership and that still has them rattled to that point that any existing defenses they view as not good enough and that more needs to be done. [Note that these leaders skip the hassles they ask others to go through.]

  • On the post: What If We Gave Toddlers An 'F' In Walking?

    hozelda ( profile ), 24 Nov, 2010 @ 11:50am

    Re: Junk analogy, really...

    >> The toddler reference was a pretty lame attempt to incite sympathy toward a child and project that on a lazy 20-something student who whines that calculus is just too hard to figure out quickly and easily.

    I don't find anything wrong with that reference; however, after reading your first paragraph, I realized that learning to walk generally is something you have to learn, whereas that is not true for many other things.

    In any case, babies learn largely by themselves. They gain from the goal of being able to keep up with others in games and have greater access generally.

    The key is to find a (good) reason to learn something. If you can't, maybe you should not be wasting time learning it?

    Perhaps we can do better than by giving out failure grades and instead focus more on carrots. On the other hands, a failure grade might represent something different for different kids because of their upbringing.

    Another comment on this page suggested that administrators often hold back teachers from doing more because of the constraints they place on them.

  • On the post: What If We Gave Toddlers An 'F' In Walking?

    hozelda ( profile ), 24 Nov, 2010 @ 11:41am

    Re: Re: Junk analogy, really...

    Maybe you should have spotted that weakness a long time ago and decided to tough it out and solve the problem.

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