John85851’s Techdirt Profile

On the post: Ford Dealership Swipes Game Image For Ad, Thinks It's Kosher Because It Came From A DMCA Compliant Site

John85851 ( profile ), 08 Jul, 2016 @ 09:27am

Sounds like a bad ad agency

So what's the name of advertising agency that:
1) Didn't create the artwork on their own, which they were probably paid by the dealership to do?
2) Used an image that was "DCMA compliant" (as if that's a thing) instead of getting an image from a real stock photo/ art site? Oh, right, because stock image sites charge fees to use their images.
3) Didn't anyone at the ad agency think it was odd that the "DCMA compliant" site didn't charge any kind of licensing fee? Or did they think this was a good way to save money?

I wonder if it's fair to blame the dealership since they probably assumed (rightly) that anything the ad agency gave them would be fully clear for them to use.

On the post: Should A Court Allow A Case To Disappear Entirely Because The Person Regrets Filing It?

John85851 ( profile ), 08 Jul, 2016 @ 09:01am

This sets a bad precedent

I agree with the other posters that TD should make a case that court cases should not be removed or deleted from the public record. Again, if this person (or this court) can make one case disappear, what's to stop any court from making any case disappear? It becomes too easy to use this case as a precedent to allow a judge to rule that their current case is close enough to this one and it can be deleted from the record.

Yes, the person might have a good reason to not want a court case to follow him or her, but that's why cases are sealed. Okay, sure, the public records will still show that the case exists, but no one can get to the details.

On the post: TAFTA/TTIP Just Got Harder: Brexit Is 'A Midsummer Night's Nightmare' Says EU Trade Commissioner

John85851 ( profile ), 30 Jun, 2016 @ 10:17am

White males will now get jobs

That's a great analysis of the trade issue.

But now that England's leaving the EU, all the dark-skinned Muslims won't be able to take minimum wage jobs from honest-working white males. That's what the Brexit vote was really about, right?

On the post: This Will Backfire: Google/Facebook Using Copyright Tools To Remove 'Extremist' Content

John85851 ( profile ), 29 Jun, 2016 @ 02:02pm

Will they apply this fairly?

... and apply it to other extremist groups. For example, will they be removing posts from the Westboro Bapist Church and banning their members?

On the post: As CBS/Paramount Continue Lawsuit Over Fan Film, It Releases Ridiculous & Impossible 'Fan Film Guidelines'

John85851 ( profile ), 25 Jun, 2016 @ 11:49am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

I know this is getting off-topic, but:
"not for profit" is defined as "has no money left after spending all incoming revenues on assets and salaries for the for profit corporation".

Isn't this what "non-profit" hospitals do all the time? They take in millions of dollars, but then spend all of it on their CEO and new "research" wings just so they don't show a profit.
In this case, I think Peters was learning from the best.

On the post: Bitcoin Evangelist Has Podcast Go Bad, Threatens To Sue After It's Posted

John85851 ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2016 @ 10:26am

Some legal advice

Here's some free legal advice for her:
If people could sue over a bad interview, then hosts like Howard Stern, Don Imus, and other "shock jocks" would have been sued out of business years ago.

On the post: Sony Settlement Gives PS3 Owners $9 After Company Made Console Less Useful Via Firmware Update

John85851 ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2016 @ 10:09am

Cost of doing business

I hate to sound cynical, but I believe most large companies have a mitigation department that checks these decisions for liability. It goes something like this:

CEO: Can we turn off the "choose an OS" feature?
Mitigation: Let's run the numbers... okay, if someone brings a class-action suit, it may cost around $2.5 million. We might have to pay the customers an amount also.
CEO: And how much is that?
Mitigation: Let's estimate it at $9 per person, which could be up to $9 million
CEO: Hmm... compared to our billions in revenue each year? Okay, let's do it and claim this as a cost of doing business.

On the post: Judge Doesn't Find Much To Like In 'Material Support For Terrorism' Lawsuit Against Twitter

John85851 ( profile ), 21 Jun, 2016 @ 10:14am

Re: Re: We don't jail car manufacturers...

Actually, law makers should hold gun manufacturers to the same safety standards as car makers.
By law, cars must have seat belts, anti-lock brakes, air bags, and other safety features.

By comparison, guns come with a palm-reader so only the owner can fire it, an RFID chip so it can only be used within a certain range of the fob (again, to prevent stolen guns to be used in crimes), and guns are limited to only firing 60 bullets per minute. Oh, wait, NONE of that is happening.

Guns are the only products on the market that are designed to kill, and which don't have any improvement in safety features.

On the post: Press Eats Up 'App' That Helps People Search For Migrant Boats On The Meditarranean… Despite It Not Actually Doing Anything

John85851 ( profile ), 21 Jun, 2016 @ 10:03am

And how does someone tell a migrant boat from a real boat?

I think Mike's sentence sums this up perfectly:
how would a random person who actually spotted a boat using such an app be able to distinguish a "refugee" boat from... any other boat?

So, tell us, app-maker, how does a user tell if a "suspicious" speck is a boat of migrants or a fishing boat? Is there a FAQ that covers this? Can people zoom in on the image?
And what happens if enough people report the fishing boat speck? Will the app send out the authorities... to the boat which has probably filed their trip with the local coast guard?

So, yep, someone didn't think this through. However, it's slightly better than "Like and retweet this post if you support migrants".

On the post: DailyDirt: Flying Around Everywhere..?

John85851 ( profile ), 17 Jun, 2016 @ 04:49pm

Re:

And you think it's bad merging left-to-right? Try merging up-down and left-to-right!

On the post: Facebook Still Deleting Non-Offensive Posts For Being Offensive

John85851 ( profile ), 17 Jun, 2016 @ 04:47pm

Re: Facebook's censorship policies

Oakley sunglasses spam? AOK!

T-shirts on sale for 50% off spam? Perfectly okay.

Spammers tagging your friends in spammy "I made $9,821 using this work-at-home secret" spam posting? Just fine!

Talking about gay and lesbian issues and getting reported by bigots? Bad!

On the post: Twitter, Facebook & Google Sued For 'Material Support For Terrorism' Over Paris Attacks

John85851 ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2016 @ 02:03pm

Sue Big Gun

If people can sue Big Tobacco over the willful deaths of smokers, when can people sun Big Gun over the deaths of people got shot? After all, AR-15 rifles are specifically designed to shoot and kill people. And the NRA has knowingly blocked legislation on the grounds that people's 2nd Amendment rights over-ride people's right not to get shot.

On the post: Google's Arbitrary Morality Police Threaten Us Yet Again; Media Sites Probably Shouldn't Use Google Ads

John85851 ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2016 @ 01:49pm

Statute of limitations

Here's something else to consider: isn't there any kind of statute of limitations on posts and pages? How can they complain NOW about posts in 2010 and 2012? Isn't that a little too late, especially since 98% of the traffic to those pages has already come and gone? How much ad revenue can a page from 2010 really be making?

On the post: Citigroup Sues AT&T For Saying 'Thanks' To Customers

John85851 ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2016 @ 10:43am

Bored lawyers

Are these lawyers so bored and have nothing more constructive to do than file a trademark for "THANKYOU" and then sue another company over it? I can sort-of understand doing busywork to pad the billable hours, but this is getting ridiculous.

On the post: The FBI Says Its Homegrown Terrorist Stings Are Nothing More Than A Proactive Fight Against 'Going Dark'

John85851 ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2016 @ 10:29am

What's the methodology?

What kind of methodology is the FBI using to "entice" or entrap would-be terrorists? Are they going after dark-skinned people who might have ties to the Middle East (which is an obvious choice)?
Are they going looking for white males who have become alienated with the world, such as the shooters in Denver, Sandy Hook, etc?

On the post: Both Trump And Clinton Suggest Expanding Mass Surveillance, Bogus Watch Lists After Attack In Orlando

John85851 ( profile ), 15 Jun, 2016 @ 10:36am

At the risk of invoking Godwin's Law...

"If you see your neighbors doing something suspicious, say something to the authorities."
"All of our problems can be blamed on that religious group so we need to get rid of them."

Who said these statements and when: Germany in the 1930's or USA in 2016?

On the post: Concussion Protocol: Can You Tell The Difference Between Soda And One Half Of A Football Team?

John85851 ( profile ), 15 Jun, 2016 @ 08:37am

Playing devil's advocate...

The problem is that so many things are named after sponsors and companies: Coors Light Stadium, AT&T halftime show, Bank of American bathrooms, "this commercial break brought to you by Ford", and so on.
Would people reasonably believe that part of the football team was now sponsored by Orange Crush soda?

On the post: Court Tells Cops They Can't Seize Luggage And Send It Hundreds Of Miles Away In Hopes Of Generating Probable Cause

John85851 ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2016 @ 07:50am

Seems like overkill

And all of that over 7 ounces of marijuana, which is becoming legal in many states?
Did the cops have nothing better to do? Or did they really think they just caught themselves a major drug kingpin and searching his luggage would break the drug cartel wide open?

On the post: Watch The President Use Fair Use To Support A Trade Deal That Undermines Fair Use

John85851 ( profile ), 13 Jun, 2016 @ 11:00am

Re: Decent presidents

I agree that it's impossible to get a decent president also.

Logically, the most qualified person (man or woman) to run for president would be a CEO of a company. But CEO's only have to worry about their company, not the entire country. And CEO's get a butt-ton of money in salary and stock-options, but the president's salary is fixed.

So, instead, we get popularity contest every 4 years between career politicians, military leaders, and even a real estate mogul/ reality show host.

On the post: Yes, Getting The US Government Out Of 'Managing' Internet Domain Governance Is A Good Thing

John85851 ( profile ), 13 Jun, 2016 @ 10:41am

Cruz has always been against Obama

I think the key phrase is:
... this places Cruz and Duffy... against... the Obama administration
Cruz has been fighting Obama almost since day one, with no regard to the damage it does. Remember that this is the same Ted Cruz who forced a government shutdown because he told Congress not to work with Obama over the Affordable Care Act, even though the Supreme Court had already ruled it legal.

I wouldn't be surprised if Cruz read the bill or even know what it does, since the most important thing is that he's against it because Obama is for it.

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