jenningsthecat 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Dutch Publishing Organization Says Filesharing Should Be A Criminal Offense

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 15 Apr, 2011 @ 02:56pm

    I sooooo want to see this trend continue.

    This kind of 'dinosaur thinking' is going to continue as long as corporations and their lobbying organizations the world over are in charge of governments, and I say 'let it'!

    The result will almost certainly be a strong artistic counterculture in which copying and sharing are explicitly permitted and encouraged by authors and artists. Art which is predicated on entitlement, and which denies the reality of technological and cultural advances, will simply have no audience and no market.

  • On the post: Desperate Drug Companies Raising Prices On Drugs Still Under Patent

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2011 @ 06:45am

    Build a business model on artificial scarcity...

    ...and your business will fail, sooner or later. Adapt, or die.

    Big Pharma, meet Hollywood and the Recording Industry.

  • On the post: SF Entertainment Commission Says Attending Any Gathering Of 100 Or More People Means You Lose All Privacy Rights

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2011 @ 06:41am

    "Papers, please!"

    If this plan comes into being, it really does seem to be a huge step in the direction of having checkpoints throughout our cities, manned by armed guards, and with a 'trip downtown' for anyone whose documentation isn't in order.

    We need to get serious about shaking off this siege mentality our society has bought into, before our freedom disappears entirely.

  • On the post: Is Tethering Stealing Bandwidth?

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2011 @ 06:32am

    Vaughan-Nichols is using a dangerous argument.

    Service providers love the comparison to utilities - in fact they use it themselves to justify Usage Based Billing. The following is from a letter which I wrote to the CRTC when they came out in favour of UBB - both of these points apply in Canada, and at least one of them applies in the US as well:

    "In his comments at the Industry Committee hearing, Chairman von Finckenstein likens Internet access to utilities such as gas and electricity. This argument fails on at least two counts. Firstly, gas and electricity are consumables - once they're used, they no longer exist. Internet capacity, on the other hand, is not consumed; the same capacity is used over and over and over again. Secondly, gas and electricity prices are heavily regulated, in order to ensure that operators don't gouge consumers; there is no such regulation for Internet service providers, whose above-the-cap per-gigabyte pricing works out to about a hundred times the actual cost."

    Although water isn't 'consumed' in the same sense as gas and electricity, the chemicals and energy used to treat and obtain it ARE consumed. But the energy consumption of the Internet doesn't change much between idle and full-capacity use, so metered billing doesn't make any sense beyond its tenuous justification as a massive cash grab.

  • On the post: Canadian ISP's Hamfisted Attempts To Throttle File Sharing Throttles World Of Warcraft Instead

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 30 Mar, 2011 @ 08:19am

    It is to laugh...

    Here in Canada, good ol' Rogers is running TV ads touting their "Speed Boost" technology, in which currently-unused bandwidth is temporarily allocated to provide users with a burst of download speed in order to improve the user experience.

    I wonder where this 'extra bandwidth' is coming from, given Rogers' apparent need to activate throttling for some users? Robbing Peter to pay Paul, perhaps?

  • On the post: US Military Kicks Off Plan To Fill Social Networks With Fake Sock Puppet Accounts

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 18 Mar, 2011 @ 02:41pm

    Re: The US military won't target Americans

    Yeah, right. The DHS has no mandate to go after various kinds of copyright 'infringement', but that hasn't stopped them from prosecuting some poor guy just for linking to online videos:

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/10/new-york-man-faces-five-years-in-jail-for-linking-to-online-videos/

    What makes you think the military will behave any differently? Power always seeks more power, and takes it howeever and whenever it can.

  • On the post: Facebook As Thin-Skinned And Short-Sighted As Apple When It Comes To Zuckerberg Action Figure

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2011 @ 01:01pm

    Zuckerberg should have negotiated royalties

    If he did that, then

    A) He'd make a little extra money
    B) He might become even more famous
    C) He wouldn't look so much like a humorless, clueless, prima donna jerk
    D) We wouldn't be having this discussion!

    I wonder if Mr. Zuckerberg has ever shown the maturity and self-confidence required to laugh at oneself. Somehow I doubt it.

  • On the post: 'Privacy' The Latest Tool Being Used For Censorship

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 11 Mar, 2011 @ 01:11pm

    Re: Re: What about Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc?

    "Don't kid yourself--all stupidity is dangerous, it's just a matter of scale."

    Too true!

  • On the post: 'Privacy' The Latest Tool Being Used For Censorship

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 11 Mar, 2011 @ 01:02pm

    What about Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc?

    If they were alive today, would they have a "right to be forgotten"?

    The EU isn't promoting privacy, they're merely attempting to erase history. They won't succeed because of the nature of the 'Net, but they may establish some dangerous precedents and justifications in the process of trying.

    It would be tempting to dismiss this as mere stupidity, if it wasn't also dangerous.

  • On the post: GAO Suggests It's Time To Ditch Dollar Bills For Coins

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 09 Mar, 2011 @ 02:13pm

    Re: Re: Re: As a Canadian, I despise One Dollar and Two Dollar coins

    I use change as often as practical, and debit cards help to keep the amount of change down. But it's still easy to end up with too many one- and two-dollar coins. Two trips to a drive-through, (too difficult to fish around for change while belted into a car seat), and one or two store purchases, (where the line-up behind me is long enough that I don't take the time to dig change out from among keys, USB sticks, etc.), and I'm overloaded with Loonies and Twonies.

    I'd like to see plastic folding money, (not as long-lasting as coins but much more durable than paper), with the cost difference being made up by eliminating the annoying and useless penny.

  • On the post: GAO Suggests It's Time To Ditch Dollar Bills For Coins

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 09 Mar, 2011 @ 02:05pm

    Re: Re: As a Canadian... the size of the coin

    For me it's not so much about the size, (although our Twonie is rather stupidly large), it's about the weight of several of them in a pocket that already contains keys and other change.

    As for the old 50-cent pieces, at least in Canada these were MUCH less common that one- and two-dollar coins are today.

  • On the post: Lady Gaga Claiming Ownership Of 'Gaga'? Threatens Baby Gaga Ice Cream

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2011 @ 11:26am

    Re: Re: Now I know why I'm not rich and famous

    Well, I didn't say that was the ONLY operation La GaGa underwent.

    Then again, if my penis was stuck up my rectum, I too might be lacking a sense of humour...

  • On the post: GAO Suggests It's Time To Ditch Dollar Bills For Coins

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2011 @ 10:24am

    As a Canadian, I despise One Dollar and Two Dollar coins

    And it has absolutely nothing to do with the 'sentimental value' that Mike mentioned. The fact is, it's very easy to accumulate 5, 7, or more ones and/or twos in a day. Now if these are sheets of paper in a wallet, no problem - but if they're big coins in your pocket, the weight and bulk quickly add up. Then the tendency is to chuck'em in a drawer at night to lighten the load, resulting in an informal, inadvertent, and perhaps undesirable piggy bank effect.

    In my view, the Aussies got it right. Their bills are plastic, so they're nearly impossible to tear, are immune to inadvertent laundering, (of the soapy kind), and still fit into a wallet.

    I advise Americans to fight to the death to keep their dollar bills. If I could substitute folding money for Loonies and Twonies, I would do so in a heartbeat.

  • On the post: Lady Gaga Claiming Ownership Of 'Gaga'? Threatens Baby Gaga Ice Cream

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2011 @ 10:14am

    Now I know why I'm not rich and famous

    It seems that a humorectomy is a pre-requisite for being successful in the entertainment industry.

  • On the post: Rethinking Music Selling Incentives: Can A Pyramid Scheme Help Save Music Sales?

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2011 @ 08:17am

    Re: It would never work...

    A very penetrating analysis. As soon as you mentioned the shell companies I thought 'Yup! Bound to happen!'

    And you're right, the traditional record companies, (or, in a different context, publishers), can still make lots of profit from being middlemen. They just have to get their heads around the idea of being a different KIND of middleman, offering expertise and organization instead of plastic discs. (It's really ironic - they're sitting on a vast wealth of expertise, contacts, assets and experience that are truly scarce and valuable, and they're wasting time and money on a losing battle to create artficial scarcity).

    Unfortunately, it's all about control for the dinosaurs at the helms of these industries. They will spend, waste, and lose scads of money just to maintain the illusion that they're still in the drivers' seat.

  • On the post: Rethinking Music Selling Incentives: Can A Pyramid Scheme Help Save Music Sales?

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2011 @ 05:29am

    Even if the distributed files aren't DRM-encumbered...

    ...the plan likely won't fly because it still relies on creating artficial scarcity.

    This scheme may in fact result in an outcome totally opposite to that of the classic pyramid scheme - original purchasers may barely make their money back, while thousands of people at the 'bottom' of the pyramid get free copies.

    It's good to see people trying to come up with alternate business models, but I don't think this one will be saving any livelihoods.

  • On the post: Mediacom Puts Its Own Ads On Other Websites, Including Google & Apple

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 28 Feb, 2011 @ 05:06pm

    There's a long standing precedent for this in TV land

    This practice really sucks; unfortunately, it's been around in the television world for a long time now, seemingly without any effective opposition.

    I'm talking about TV networks and local stations putting their logos, and/or advertisements for other programs, right over top of a currently-airing program. Not only is this annoying and distracting, it often obscures vital parts of the main show's content.

    If TV networks can get away with it, why not ISP's? Conversely, if the ISP's are forced to abandon this practice, then the TV networks and stations should be treated to the same rules.

  • On the post: UK Gov't Admits That Protecting Big Record Labels More Important Than Getting Poor Online

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2011 @ 08:22am

    Re: Rich vs poor

    I agree completely, and would like to elaborate further. The following is an excerpt from a letter I wrote to the CRTC here in Canada, regarding their decision to let Bell Canada force Usage Based Billing on third-party ISP's:

    "Libraries, telephone service, roads, hospitals, schools, etcetera, comprise societal infrastructure; that is, they are necessary for the country as a whole to conduct business, pursue creative endeavours, participate in culture, acquire education, and generally be full members of Canadian society. As a society, we agree that all of these things are for the common good. The benefits flowing therefrom accrue to all citizens, regardless of whether a specific citizen makes direct use of a given resource. For example, someone who doesn't drive nevertheless benefits from roads, because without them there would be no food on the local supermarket's shelves.

    Internet service also falls into the category of societal infrastructure. Whether for work or for recreation, in today's world it is nearly impossible to be a full, participating citizen without access to the Web."

  • On the post: NY Times Editor Says He's 'Alarmed' By The Idea That The US Might Try To Prosecute Wikileaks

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2011 @ 05:28am

    When is a journalist not a journalist?

    I find it interesting that Mr. Keller still maintains the pretense that Assange isn't a journalist: ("...tends to punish Assange for doing essentially what journalists do.") How, specifically, is Assange NOT a journalist? If he does "what journalists do", doesn't that make him a journalist?

    We are fast approaching, (if we don't already live in), an age in which paper qualifications and convoluted notions of 'expertise' are being abandoned in favor of a demonstrated ability to do the job. It's time for 'qualified experts' in all fields to recognize this and either get with the program or be left behind.

  • On the post: Indoctrinating Children To Hate Freedom Of The Press?

    jenningsthecat ( profile ), 18 Jan, 2011 @ 11:00am

    Re: Re: Re: Dose of reality please!!!

    I suspect that the people who "have lived through REAL fascism, or other forms of highly oppressive gov't" would tell you that this is often how it all starts.

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