Josh in CharlotteNC 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: The Weather Channel Finally Gets The Message: Announces Plan To Actually Cover…The Weather

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 16 Sep, 2015 @ 06:13am

    Re:

    You completely forgot the History channel.

    Though when they went to shows about aliens, I guess they're beyond saving.

  • On the post: The Weather Channel Finally Gets The Message: Announces Plan To Actually Cover…The Weather

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 16 Sep, 2015 @ 06:09am

    Re: Who is watching this?

    If I watched TV, I'd subscribe to a channel that showed 50% weather coverage, and 50% anchors standing stupidly (and dangerously) around in thunderstorms, hurricanes, and blizzards. Or even something where I could stream that on my phone. A buck or two a month would be worth it for that.

  • On the post: Texas Police Arrest Kid For Building A Clock

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 16 Sep, 2015 @ 07:42am

    Incompetence plus bigotry. Great combination there, Texas.

  • On the post: The Crazy Permission-Asking Media Scrum That Descends When Photographic News Happens On Twitter

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2015 @ 10:43am

    Re:

    The problem isn't that news organizations need to work with their lawyers - the problem is that lawyers are actually running the news organizations. Them and business types who care about nothing but profit. The actual journalists aren't in charge.

    If the news organizations would use and then defend their fair use rights instead of folding whenever it will cost them money, they wouldn't need to worry so much about it the second or 300th time.

    As far as politicians - that's an entirely different scenario. When you're a politician and advocating that someone vote for you, and using a song, you don't ask because you need permission - you ask because artist doesn't like you, they're going to speak out and be given attention for someone else.

  • On the post: The Crazy Permission-Asking Media Scrum That Descends When Photographic News Happens On Twitter

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2015 @ 10:34am

    Re:

    Interestingly enough, there's a site out there that copies all Techdirt content. They do an incredibly bad job of hiding that it's originally from TD, but enough of one to show they're attempting it.

  • On the post: The Crazy Permission-Asking Media Scrum That Descends When Photographic News Happens On Twitter

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2015 @ 10:28am

    Re: Wait a couple weeks...

    Or their twitter accounts will at least be DMCA'd by the eleventy-billion news outlets who used their pics.

  • On the post: HP Drops Support For Hacking Competition As Wassenaar Arrangement Continues To Make Computing Less Safe

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 08 Sep, 2015 @ 11:00am

    Re: Car Analogy

    I'm wary of analogies, but in this case, you've nailed it exactly.

  • On the post: HP Drops Support For Hacking Competition As Wassenaar Arrangement Continues To Make Computing Less Safe

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 08 Sep, 2015 @ 10:57am

    Re: Leave expertise to the experts

    ... we let politicians make any decisions.

    FTFY.

  • On the post: Microsoft Retrofitting Windows 7, 8.1 With Windows 10's Privacy-Invading 'Features'

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 02 Sep, 2015 @ 06:28am

    Re: CEIP

    Even when opted out and the services turned off, the OS still connects back to Microsoft servers. As mentioned, it's thought that this data is harmless... but it's hard to be certain.

  • On the post: New Hampshire Law Banning Ballot Selfies Struck Down As Unconstitutional

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 13 Aug, 2015 @ 09:47am

    Re: Re: Re: I have to agree with BentFranklin there...

    I think you've failed to consider:

    1) The fraudsters are already in office
    2) The fraudsters have far more efficient way to rig elections such as gerrymandering, voter disenfranchisement, and other dirty tricks.

    Don't treat the papercut on your finger when you've got a gash spurting blood from an artery.

  • On the post: New Hampshire Law Banning Ballot Selfies Struck Down As Unconstitutional

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 13 Aug, 2015 @ 06:39am

    Re:

    Then ballot secrecy was dead long ago and selfies didn't kill it. Don't buy into the moral panic bullshit.

    Cameras small enough to easily take a picture of a ballot have been around for decades. Need to be more discreet? Button cams. Heck, absentee ballots can be filled out and mailed in the presence of someone else.

  • On the post: BMW Apparently Concerned That New Google Holding Company 'Alphabet' Infringes On Its Trademark

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 13 Aug, 2015 @ 06:14am

    Re:

    involve big companies stomping all over small ones for trademark 'violations' for prodcuts that could 't possibly be confused?

    While Google isn't small, BMW is certainly a large company whining about something that could never be confused with how Google is using the very common word 'alphabet'.

    But the reality is they happen all the time, and much of the time, they either win or end up settling.

    Yes, that's the problem. It's just a waste of both Google's and BMW's time and money. The only ones that win are the lawyers. The point of the story: everyone stop being stupid and rein in the lawyers.

  • On the post: Former Clippers Owner Donald Sterling Sues TMZ For Publishing His Recorded Conversation

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 11 Aug, 2015 @ 10:45am

    Re:

    Situation:
    Person1 is talking to Person2 in private. Person1 records the conversation without telling Person2.

    Analysis:
    In a two-party consent state, Person2 can sue Person1. This is silly.

    Your example:
    Person1 is talking to Person2 in private. Police record conversation.

    Analysis:
    Your example has nothing to do with 2-party consent law.

    Clear enough?

  • On the post: RIAA Asks BitTorrent Inc. To Block Infringing Content With A Hash Filter

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 05 Aug, 2015 @ 12:36pm

    Re: It's the same move repeated over and over again by pirates: rather than pay the producers a pittance, they use technology to evade clear law and then don't understand why people get pissed off and try to stop their thefts.

    I would love to pay producers of content "a pittance" for the pleasure of having access to their work. However:

    1) They frequently want far more than what any average sane person would call "a pittance" and would instead refer to it as "highway robbery" or "you must be out of you skull and are you fucking serious?"
    2) They choose to offer the content only on horrendously inconvenient, highly fragmented, utterly outdated, and just plain buggy services and formats.
    3) They insist on corrupting the political process to try to hold back the tide and don't give a ratfuck about what else they need to destroy just so they can get a few more short years of declining profits on legacy business models.

    So convince your pay masters to give the customers what they want at reasonable prices on convenient services, and stop being assholes, and you can have my money. Until then, it's my money that I refuse to give away for your shitty product.

  • On the post: Judge Insists His Own Lost Luggage Is A 'Key' Issue In Massive Lawsuit He's Overseeing Against British Airways

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 04 Aug, 2015 @ 07:15am

    I'm gonna side with the judge on this one, even though I've never had my luggage lost or been bumped from a flight.

    He had a bad experience with a company. It happens. He tried to resolve the issue through normal channels. But this is where it goes off the rails, and he was given abysmally poor customer service and no explanation of what happened. So long as he was using his experience to dig into the problem and was doing so openly.

    It all could have been avoided if BA had bothered to treat their ordinary customers with respect and fix the issue and tell them what happened before the judge even needed to identify who he was. Everything after that looks like a cover-up of a massively powerful company trying to protect it's bottom line at the expense of everything else.

  • On the post: TSA Decides Sorority Souvenir Book Carried By Dozens Of Travelers Probably A Bomb

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 03 Aug, 2015 @ 10:59am

    Re: Probability Math

    Also, a trick coin with both sides as heads has the same probability of coming up tails as each of these sorority souvenir books has of being a bomb, no matter how many times it goes through airport security.

    Probabilities can be tricky, ya know. Be glad the TSA didn't fall for them and is ensuring that many things that are not bombs do not end up on planes.

  • On the post: TSA Decides Sorority Souvenir Book Carried By Dozens Of Travelers Probably A Bomb

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 03 Aug, 2015 @ 11:06am

    Creeps

    We all know why the TSA had to look through this particular group's bags.

    After they got to rifle through a bunch of sorority girl's luggage, did they also make them go through the naked scanners?

  • On the post: DA Claims He'll Charge Drone Operators Near Wildfires For Murder

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 30 Jul, 2015 @ 10:56am

    Intent

    Doesn't murder require intent? Did any of those useless local journalists bother to ask the grandstanding DA such a basic question? Or are the reporters just stenographers now?

    Look, you want to charge the operator with some kind of negligence, endangerment, or interference charge, that makes sense. Maybe even something like manslaughter if it really results in a death could be reasonable. But murder? Bet the DA graduated from the Cooley Law School or got his degree in a cereal box.

  • On the post: Audits Of Asset Forfeiture Program Uncover Funds Used To Pay Student Loans, Property Used As Rent-Free Housing

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 28 Jul, 2015 @ 03:52pm

    Re: Please, PLEASE tell me.....

    Get enough money to bribe more politicians and judges than the people who want it this way.

  • On the post: Even If The State Of Georgia Can Copyright Legal Annotations, Should It?

    Josh in CharlotteNC ( profile ), 28 Jul, 2015 @ 05:11am

    Re:

    I'd argue that the first step is making laws that cannot be understood by normal people without law degrees.

    We shouldn't need an annotated code in the first place. The actual laws should be easy enough to understand by themselves.

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