Kal Zekdor 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (345) comment rss

  • On the post: How Microsoft Convinced Clueless Judges To Send A Man To Jail For Copying Software It Gives Out For Free

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 27 Apr, 2018 @ 09:28am

    Re: Re: Judges wrong on this case yet Misnack STILL wrong on copyright.

    Are you still going on about this bullshit? I've got a pretty big gap myself circa 2008. Go on, ask me about it. There's no massive conspiracy here, just people who aren't pathologically obsessed with this site, as you are.

  • On the post: It's Spreading: Lindsey Graham Now Insisting 'Fairness Doctrine' Applies To The Internet

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2018 @ 02:34pm

    Re:

    That is just flatly untrue. The Fairness Doctrine never applied to cable news.

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 15 Apr, 2018 @ 05:11pm

    Re: Re: Hillary

    Primarily to distinguish between Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. "Clinton" generally refers to Bill.

  • On the post: Canadian Music Industry Confirms Once More That For Copyright Companies, Enough Is Never Enough

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 13 Apr, 2018 @ 11:14am

    Re: Re: Re: Abolish Copyright

    There are a lot of problems with copyright as it is, but entertainment as a business would certainly not exist if it were to be abolished. Without copyright we're thrown back to a patronage model, and while that can work ok for small projects without a lot of costs, crowd funding of larger projects has been a mixed bag. Like most people, I don't want to speculate on whether or not a production can deliver what's promised, I want to know what I'm getting what I paid for. That means shifting the uncertainties to speculative investors, who rightly demand payment for the risks they take.

    There are undoubtedly a lot of problems in the entertainment industry, exploitative contracts, phony accounting, poor treatment of workers, rampant sexism, etc., but, fundamentally, entertainment as a business is here to stay, and entertainment as a business depends on copyright.

    That said, if you haven't turned a profit after 14 years, you're not going to. There's no need for copyright terms to be so long, the incentives work just fine with reasonable copyright terms.

    (I'm not going to get into copyright as applied to software, here. That's a whole other thing.)

  • On the post: The Video Game Industry Joins The Lawsuit To Save Net Neutrality

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 12 Apr, 2018 @ 04:30am

    Re: Re: Oh, here's ANOTHER ZOMBIE! Zombie Master trying to wear me out!

    He's just confused as to how one could possibly not be obsessed with Techdirt. Clearly Techdirt consumes his every waking thought, and fuels his nightmares, to the point where the idea that people might not define every facet of their lives in relation to Techdirt is utterly incomprehensible to him. He is obsessed, and thus assumes everyone else shares his obsession. That people have lives that continue outside of this site would never occur to him, he sees people only as aspects of the faceless conspiracy.

    It's kind of depressing, actually.

  • On the post: DOJ Seizes And Shuts Down Backpage.com (Before SESTA Has Even Been Signed)

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 07 Apr, 2018 @ 01:05pm

    Re: Re: FOSTA is to make CLEAR that corporatists are WRONG: NOT immune,

    Wow. I'm not sure you could be more wrong if you tried. If anything, SESTA/FOSTA are going to further concentrate more power/control to the big corporate players, Facebook/Google/Etc., as the new burdens raise the barrier of entry for smaller businesses. (While doing nothing to actually help victims of human trafficking).

  • On the post: Not Everything Needs Copyright: Lawyers Flip Out That Photos Taken By AI May Be Public Domain

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 02 Apr, 2018 @ 11:39pm

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

    Saying that the creator of a software tool that aids in the creation of a work should own the copyright on that work is no different than saying that the creator of a hardware tool that aids in the creation of a work should own the copyright to that work. The developer of an AI should no more own the rights to works produced with it than the designer of a camera should hold the rights to photos it's used to produce.

    By definition, there is never zero creative input involved in creation. The question is what is the threshold of input required to pass beyond a mere mechanical process. It's hard to pin that down in any general fashion, as art is inherently subjective.

    That said, I'm not sure of the reasoning why works created by mechanical processes aren't copyrightable... Offhand, it doesn't seem like that would be a problem. I'm off to do some research.

  • On the post: Not Everything Needs Copyright: Lawyers Flip Out That Photos Taken By AI May Be Public Domain

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 02 Apr, 2018 @ 03:14pm

    Re: I'll trade you

    14 years plus an optional 14 year extension? Deal. Where do I sign?

  • On the post: Not Everything Needs Copyright: Lawyers Flip Out That Photos Taken By AI May Be Public Domain

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 02 Apr, 2018 @ 03:06pm

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

    That would be like saying the company that builds a camera would own the copyright of any photographs taken with it. AI is simply a tool, we're a long ways off from any type of Artificial General Intelligence. The operator of the AI has made a creative decision to produce works. It doesn't really matter how much went into that decision. It could be just turning the AI on. They've made a decision to create, regardless of the difficulty of the actual creation, and it follows that they should own the copyright of whatever is created. (Of course, if anyone can make similar quality works simply by pushing a button the value of that copyright goes down, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.)

    This is different than the monkey selfie case. That photo was an accident. If the photographer had intended to give the camera to the monkey in order to take photos I think the case would have ended differently, but, if I'm recalling correctly, the monkey just picked up a camera that happened to be lying around. There's a huge difference between those scenarios, at least in my mind.

  • On the post: YouTube Shows Dennis Prager's Claim Of Discrimination Against Conservatives Is Laughable

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2018 @ 09:10pm

    Re: Re:

    I'm guessing that, sadly, "partisan politics" and "politics" have become indistinguishable in a lot of people's minds. While Techdirt has its share of biases and idiosyncrasies, as any such outlet does, partisanship is certainly not one of them. A commitment to truth, and the willingness to own up to mistakes, are some of the reasons I stick around, even if I don't always agree with the positions taken.

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 11 Mar, 2018 @ 08:06pm

    Re: Re: I wonder..

    Of course, none of this matters at all if you just throw a brick through the window.
    Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/538/

  • On the post: FCC Broadband Availability Data Derided As Inaccurate, 'Shameful'

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2018 @ 01:12pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    I don't know if you meant to write "suspending wires from poles" or not...

    Suspending poles from wires somehow sounds an almost plausible fuck-up by Verizon, at this point.

  • On the post: The Nunes Memo Has Effectively Destroyed Intelligence Oversight

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 09 Feb, 2018 @ 08:42am

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

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabolic_trajectory

    In astrodynamics or celestial mechanics a parabolic trajectory is a Kepler orbit with the eccentricity equal to 1. When moving away from the source it is called an escape orbit, otherwise a capture orbit.

  • On the post: The Nunes Memo Has Effectively Destroyed Intelligence Oversight

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 08 Feb, 2018 @ 02:21pm

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

    Yes. Just like, assuming Hillary and Trump are equally corrupt, I worry more about Trump because he is the one causing damage.

  • On the post: The Nunes Memo Has Effectively Destroyed Intelligence Oversight

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 08 Feb, 2018 @ 02:17pm

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

    Firstly, your statements were in reply to my post, why should I not think it was targeted at me?

    Secondly, what offends me is your blatant whataboutism. You are nothing but distraction from real, current issues. You can’t see past your blind team worship long enough to actually consider the issues at hand.

    I'm done with you.

  • On the post: The Nunes Memo Has Effectively Destroyed Intelligence Oversight

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 08 Feb, 2018 @ 02:08pm

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

    Easy, the one causing the most damage.

  • On the post: The Nunes Memo Has Effectively Destroyed Intelligence Oversight

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 08 Feb, 2018 @ 02:01pm

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

    I didn't run anybody. I'm an Independent, and in my state Independents can't vote in primaries. (Don't get me started on that.)

    This isn't about assigning blame. The past is the past, we can only affect the future. I do not play Govball. I don't care whether Red Team wins, or if Blue Team screwed their chances at the Govball trophy. What I care about is the person in power making terrible decisions that affect our nation.

    Is this really that difficult a concept to grasp?

  • On the post: The Nunes Memo Has Effectively Destroyed Intelligence Oversight

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 08 Feb, 2018 @ 01:00pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Wow, that went so far over your head it's currently in an escape orbit. Alright, let's try a little thought experiment. Suppose we have two, equally dangerous deranged lunatics. Call them A and B. B is carrying a loaded gun, A is not. Which one do you worry about? Since I suspect you'll miss the point of that as well, I'll be more literal. Say we start with the a priori assumption that Hillary is as terrible as Trump. Even in that case it makes no sense to complain about Hillary, because Trump is the one in power.

  • On the post: Media Freaks Out About Facebook Changes; Maybe They Shouldn't Have Become So Reliant On Facebook

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 16 Jan, 2018 @ 11:26pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Deliberately choosing to be a sharecropper is a bad move

    I suppose it's a matter of perspective. I'd say the focal point is the business-customer interaction, so any party not directly involved in that, i.e., a vendor, would be a third party.

  • On the post: Media Freaks Out About Facebook Changes; Maybe They Shouldn't Have Become So Reliant On Facebook

    Kal Zekdor ( profile ), 16 Jan, 2018 @ 02:22pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Deliberately choosing to be a sharecropper is a bad move

    "Don't rely on third party services. If you don't have the time or expertise to do it yourself, then find a third party to pay to set services up for you and rely on them." Well, that's a fun contradiction. Your (second) point about reliance on a single vendor is spot on, whether that's a raw material supplier for widgets you build, a cloud hosting provider, or outsourced IT work, you need to be prepared to deal with them vanishing. It's fine if it's a bit disruptive to do so, and it's even fine if your business is less effective as a result. Hell, that's expected, it's the reason why you were using a vendor in the first place, they are able to provide value in excess of their costs, due to expertise, economies of scale, etc. You don't want to be in a position where your business goes under (or takes a significant hit) because a vendor goes belly-up, but trying to do everything yourself isn't the answer either.

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