John Fenderson 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (17316)

• On the post: Donald Trump Threatens 'Art Of The Deal' Ghostwriter, Claiming His 'Disloyalty' Somehow Amounts To Defamation

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2016 @ 03:04pm

  Re: What will it take for his campaign to implode?

  Trump's fans view all of his copious faults as strengths. If there were photos of him blowing a boy scout, that would just make them love him all the more.

• On the post: Donald Trump Threatens 'Art Of The Deal' Ghostwriter, Claiming His 'Disloyalty' Somehow Amounts To Defamation

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2016 @ 03:00pm

  Re:

  Yes, the parallel seems clear. If the guy becomes President, I expect the similarity will become even spookier.

• On the post: Court Says Cop Calling 911 With Suspect's Phone To Obtain Owner Info Is Not A Search

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2016 @ 09:29pm

  CFAA?

  The cop used the phone without authorization from the own or a warrant. Wouldn't that be a CFAA violation?

• On the post: Kudos To Senator Leahy: Fighting To Keep Privacy & Civil Liberties Board From Being Hobbled

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2016 @ 01:42pm

  Re:

  Techdirt has never given tech companies a pass from such criticism, as near as I can tell.
  
  As to government protection, I would be surprised if Techdirt's position were different toward tech companies than anyone else.

• On the post: Kickass Torrents Gets The Megaupload Treatment: Site Seized, Owner Arrested And Charged With Criminal Infringement

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2016 @ 01:33pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

  Yes, they're in 2010 dollars.

• On the post: Elon Musk's Master Plan Includes Turning Tesla Into An Autonomous Uber

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2016 @ 01:30pm

  Re:

  Going carless will never be something that makes sense for everybody, so I expect that lots of people will always own their own form of high speed transportation.
  
  But it makes a lot of sense for a substantial number of people. Personally, I find owning a car is not only expensive, but enough of a pain in the ass that I will gladly ditch it as soon as an alternative that meets my needs comes around.
  
  It doesn't even have to be that much cheaper -- but it's hard to see how it wouldn't be, given that the more costly expenses (insurance, maintenance, etc.) would be shared across many people.
  
  I don't live in an area that has anything like Uber, so I have zero experience with such things. My comments are half speculation, and half just the fact that I don't like owning a car.

• On the post: Kickass Torrents Gets The Megaupload Treatment: Site Seized, Owner Arrested And Charged With Criminal Infringement

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2016 @ 10:45am

  Re: Re: Re:

  My inner pedant can't help but comment on this...
  
  The US is manufacturing more now than at any time in US history. What's changed is what we manufacture -- in the past, it was mostly consumer goods. Now, it's mostly big-ticket things like supercomputers, very large machinery, etc. We still outproduce every other nation. The next largest producer is China. According to 2010 figures, China produced about $1.5 trillion worth, and we produced about $2.1 trillion worth.
  
  That said, the number of manufacturing jobs has fallen from about 19.5 million in 1980 to around 11.5 million in 2010.

• On the post: German Software Company Sues US Gov't For Copyright Infringement

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2016 @ 09:40am

  Re: Re:

  Just for fun, I once counted the number of computers my mother owned. She thought she had one. Once I did an inventory of all the consumer devices she owned that contained a computer, I was able to inform her that she owned at least two dozen.

• On the post: German Software Company Sues US Gov't For Copyright Infringement

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2016 @ 09:38am

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Bunch of Pirates

  I doubt that adding a watermark would be enough of an alteration to make it count as a new work.

• On the post: Miami Brewing Co. Sends Cease And Desist To M.I.A. Beer Co. Over Trademark Concerns

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2016 @ 09:35am

  Re: Use it or lose it.

  There is a certain truth to this, although it's often overstated in common conversations. It is not true, for instance, that you have to sue in order for it to count as defending your mark in this way.
  
  For instance, if you and another company with a similar mark have come to an arrangement with each other, that counts as "defense".
  
  However, it's pretty hard to see how this is an example of a case where a defense is needed. Unless I'm missing something (always possible), the alleged trademark infringement is nonexistent. Or, at the very most, extremely difficult to see.

• On the post: German Software Company Sues US Gov't For Copyright Infringement

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2016 @ 08:08am

  Re:

  The OP addressed this point.

• On the post: Nick Denton Bucks The Trend Du Jour, Thinks News Comments Are Worth Saving

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2016 @ 08:05am

  Re: Re:

  I think so. In my mind, it's not about what Techdirt prefers over what other sites prefer. It's about the overall reduction of one of the things that makes the internet itself valuable -- enabling the exchange of ideas and opinions between ordinary people.
  
  What the anti-comment news sites are doing has an important impact on society at large, and especially the intersection of society, technology, and business. That puts it squarely into Techdirt's stated area of interest.

• On the post: Ed Snowden And Bunnie Huang Design Phone Case To Warn You If Your Phone Is Compromised

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2016 @ 02:58pm

  I must not be average

  "The average [DIY enthusiast] in America would think this is pretty fucking crazy."
  
  I must not be average, because this doesn't sound crazy at all. I know a few people who do this sort of thing, and while I haven't modded my phone (yet!), I certainly could.

• On the post: Turkey Blocks Wikileaks After It Dumps Nearly 300,000 Turkish Gov't Emails

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2016 @ 07:13am

  Re: Re: Re: Before we are too harsh on Erdogan . . .

  "But it does remove our ability to credibly call it out as horrible when we are doing it ourselves."
  
  Only if we're failing to call out the US as well.

• On the post: Elon Musk's Master Plan Includes Turning Tesla Into An Autonomous Uber

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2016 @ 09:29am

  I can't wait

  The day when it is no longer necessary to own a car can't come soon enough!

• On the post: Miami Brewing Co. Sends Cease And Desist To M.I.A. Beer Co. Over Trademark Concerns

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2016 @ 07:07am

  Not from Miami

  I'm not from Miami, so I may be missing some local meanings to all of this, but never in a million years would I think that "Miami Brewing Co." and "M.I.A. Beer Company" were in any way associated. They are miles apart.
  
  That's just bizarre.

• On the post: DOJ Pushes Out Legislation Proposal To Undercut Microsoft Case Decision About Overseas Searches

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 20 Jul, 2016 @ 05:55pm

  Re: Re: Re: You can only police people as much as they want to be policed

  No need to use computers for this. The method is tried and true, and as old as government: you keep increasing the amount of tyranny until your subjects start to squeal louder than you can take, then back off half a notch.

• On the post: Paris Court Says Search Engines Don't Need To Block Torrent Searches

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 20 Jul, 2016 @ 05:47pm

  Re: Re: It's like paper, it's a medium not the content

  Not to mention lots of smaller companies and individuals. I share large blocks of data with collaborators through torrents two or three times a week. I have never used torrents to violate copyright (or any other) law.

• On the post: German Software Company Sues US Gov't For Copyright Infringement

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 20 Jul, 2016 @ 02:19pm

  Re:

  Padpaw, I truly admire your optimism.

• On the post: Turkey Blocks Wikileaks After It Dumps Nearly 300,000 Turkish Gov't Emails

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 20 Jul, 2016 @ 01:58pm

  Re: Before we are too harsh on Erdogan . . .

  I'm not following this logic. No matter how terrible our President may be, that in no way makes other leaders less terrible, or makes it so that we shouldn't call them out for being terrible.

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