Karl 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (4260)

• On the post: New Report: Germany Caved To France On Copyright In A Deal For Russian Gas

  

  Karl ( profile ), 25 Mar, 2019 @ 05:56pm

  Re: Re: Re: Cool conspiracy theory

  The piracy lobby

  And with this one phrase, you immediately lose whatever credibility you ever had. Incidentally, there's a link to the story in FAZ in the first paragraph of the article.

• On the post: Huge Protests Across Europe Protest Article 13; Politician Lies And Claims They Were Paid To Be There

  

  Karl ( profile ), 25 Mar, 2019 @ 05:23pm

  Re: Re:

  How much does Google make when they run an ad before a music video? How much of that money goes to the rightsholder? Squat. That's how much.

  By all accounts that I have found, Google pays rights holders 55% of the advertising revenue from YouTube, keeping 45% of it for themselves. They have been doing that for as longs as I've looked at the numbers. If rights holders get "squat" then Google/YouTube gets "20% less than squat." Some (non-Google) sources:
  https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/032615/how-youtube-ad-revenue-works.asp
  https://variety.com/2013/digital/news/youtube-standardizes-ad-revenue-split-for-all-partners-but-offers-upside-potential-1200786223
  https://www.thestreet.com/technology/how-much-do-youtubers-make-14743540 More are available if you bother to search using your favorite search engine, like DuckDuckGo.

• On the post: Producer Scott Rudin Going Around Killing Off Licensed Community Theater Shows Of To Kill A Mockingbird

  

  Karl ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2019 @ 10:40am

  Issue is with DPC and Harper Lee...?

  If I'm reading the original story correctly, this is a contract dispute between DPC and Harper Lee.

  Under the 1960 contract, DPC can not license performances of their own play (the Sergel play) to theaters in major cities, if there is another licensed version performed on Broadway or similar major venue class.

  Thus, at worst, DPC is in violation of contract and could be sued by Harper Lee. They improperly licensed their version and could be responsible for damages related to that licensing.

  So how is Rudin (not Harper Lee) able to sue local theater companies (who are not parties to this contract at all)?

  Even if Rudin was granted rights holder status under his contract with Harper Lee, it still seems that he could only go after DPC, not the theaters that innocently licenced the play from them.

• On the post: Prenda Scam Boss, Paul Hansmeier, Pleads Guilty

  

  Karl ( profile ), 20 Aug, 2018 @ 06:12pm

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

  the Open Source industry
  
  HAHAHAHA gasp HA HA HA HA HA...

• On the post: No, The Public Standing Up For An Open Internet Is Not A Criminal Google Conspiracy

  

  Karl ( profile ), 27 Jul, 2018 @ 04:12pm

  Re: Some interesting info about Castle

  (Whoa... sorry about the bad formatting. It didn't look like that in the preview.)

• On the post: No, The Public Standing Up For An Open Internet Is Not A Criminal Google Conspiracy

  

  Karl ( profile ), 27 Jul, 2018 @ 04:11pm

  Some interesting info about Castle

  Here's a nifty video interview from when Chris Castle worked as an advisor for Arts+Labs: https://youtu.be/bXIoJVFmKvQ

  And his statement about it on his MTP blog: https://musictechpolicy.com/2011/10/28/artslabs-coalition-statement-on-introduction-of-stop-online-piracy-act/

  What was Arts+Labs, you may ask?

  It was an organization set up by telecom lobbyists, including Mike McCurry of "Hands Off The Internet" fame. Andrew "the Internet is killing our culture" Keen was also an advisor, as was Rick Carnes of The Songwriters Guild of America.

  It ended up mostly as a vehicle to support SOPA, at which point most of the usual suspects joined its ranks.

  Like most astroturf organizations, it totally folded after its political goals (here, SOPA) utterly failed.

  http://fredbenenson.com/2008/09/26/arts-labs-astroturfing-content-filtering/ https://a2im.org/news/arts-labs-supports-stop-online-piracy-act-coalition-of-creators-and-technology-companies-debunks-the-blogosphere-hyperbole/ https://www.bmi.com/news/entry/bmi_joins_artslabs_coalition https://web.archive.org/web/20131205061213/http://artsandlabs.com/about-3/people https://web.archive.org/web/20130114074448/http://artsandlabs.com/

  Just so we know exactly who we're dealing with here.

• On the post: Montana Says It Won't Do Business With Net Neutrality Violating ISPs

  

  Karl ( profile ), 25 Jan, 2018 @ 07:35pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: News: Sock puppets invade TD

  and needs Hamilton to kiss him better
  
  In all fairness, Hamilton was a great kisser.

• On the post: Montana Says It Won't Do Business With Net Neutrality Violating ISPs

  

  Karl ( profile ), 25 Jan, 2018 @ 07:33pm

  Re: News: Sock puppets invade TD

  Yeah, you must be new here. This kind of sock puppetry has been going on for as long as I've visited the site (which was around 2011 or so).
  
  Fortunately the commenters here are smarter than average (which isn't saying much for the Internet, but still) and have basically sussed this out.

• On the post: Montana Says It Won't Do Business With Net Neutrality Violating ISPs

  

  Karl ( profile ), 25 Jan, 2018 @ 07:25pm

  Re:

  why should it be illegal for our ISP to charge him more than me

  Net neutrality rules have never prevented anything like that, and never intended to. They just say that you cannot charge more for 100 MB from one site than for 100 MB from another site.

• On the post: Montana Says It Won't Do Business With Net Neutrality Violating ISPs

  

  Karl ( profile ), 25 Jan, 2018 @ 07:23pm

  Re: Re: H.R. 4682 will stop states from doing this

  er, "it would stop states from disallowing ISPs to do business in that state." Sorry.

• On the post: Montana Says It Won't Do Business With Net Neutrality Violating ISPs

  

  Karl ( profile ), 25 Jan, 2018 @ 07:22pm

  Re: H.R. 4682 will stop states from doing this

  It won't stop states from doing this. It would stop states from allowing ISPs to do business in that state, but it won't stop the state from adopting regulations for making conditions on what the state itself does business with.
  
  In other words, ISPs could not do that if they were to do business with the state directly; so for instance, they would be barred from offering their services to public schools. But they could still offer their services to non-state actors, i.e. the general public.
  
  Of course this assumes a) HR 4682 becomes law, and b) that provision of HR 4682 is found to be lawful by the courts. I have some hopes that a) will not happen (there is still tremendous backlash in Washington from both sides of the fence) and for b) courts have found struck down similar provisions (I'd have to dig up the cases).

• On the post: Case Dismissed: Judge Throws Out Shiva Ayyadurai's Defamation Lawsuit Against Techdirt

  

  Karl ( profile ), 07 Sep, 2017 @ 06:20am

  Re: Re: Re: Excellent news!

  Yeah, this quote is pretty revealing too:
  
  > The Establishment creates and funds groups like Antifa, KKK and Black Lives Matter with the aim of dividing everyday poor black and white Americans.
  
  I'm not sure which is more laughable, the false equivalency of comparing Antifa or BLM with the KKK, or the notion that he thinks they're created and funded by the people in power.

• On the post: Case Dismissed: Judge Throws Out Shiva Ayyadurai's Defamation Lawsuit Against Techdirt

  

  Karl ( profile ), 06 Sep, 2017 @ 09:06pm

  Re: Excellent news!

  Here's a fun little fact: He was an invited speaker at the so-called "Free Speech Rally" here in Boston.
  https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/14/senate-candidate-plans-address-free-speech-rally-common/CzFnJ4c4u1wOjojtdeLUzM/story.html
  
  You may wonder, "why would the organizers of a free speech rally invite someone who is so clearly anti-free speech?" Well, because it was pretty transparently using "free speech" as a cover for another alt-right rally, and Ayyadurai is quickly becoming the alt-right's token minority representative.
  http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/article/2017/07/09/shiva-ayyadurai/

• On the post: ACLU To Court: It's Legal To Tell Bob To Eat Shit

  

  Karl ( profile ), 02 Aug, 2017 @ 06:20pm

  Re: The Masnick has entirely forgotten the coal miners and now openly delights in court details and meaningless insults.

  Say, you do realize that the phrase "Eat shit, Bob" originated with a coal miner, right? I doubt it. I'm betting your "real working person support" is entirely pretext for attacks on "globalist 'news' organizations" (i.e. anyone who isn't a conspiracy monger). Also: every time you say "The Masnick," I chuckle a little, because it reminds me of "The Nozzle" from the Venture Bros. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8yQhXDquII

• On the post: Game Music Composer Goes On DMCA Blitz Against Innocent YouTubers Over Contract Dispute With Game Publisher

  

  Karl ( profile ), 27 Jun, 2017 @ 04:32pm

  Re: Disagree

  Instead of punishing one lunatic for perjury, I'd rather see the chairmen of the systematic abusers of the DMCA system serve jail time.
  
  Maybe, but those systematic abusers have millions of dollars and will spend it driving their legal opponents into bankruptcy.
  
  Though Alex may not be the worst offender on the planet, she is still very much doing something illegal. Suing her would both punish an actual wrongdoer, and set a legal precedent for the larger wrongdoers.

• On the post: Game Music Composer Goes On DMCA Blitz Against Innocent YouTubers Over Contract Dispute With Game Publisher

  

  Karl ( profile ), 27 Jun, 2017 @ 04:25pm

  Leonard French's legal analysis

  If anyone wants to see a more detailed legal analysis of this (including the fact that non-payment won't revert the copyright), then copyright attorney Leonard French has a YouTube video about it here:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuSZ6wZAaHQ

• On the post: US Court Upholds Enforceability Of GNU GPL As Both A License And A Contract

  

  Karl ( profile ), 23 May, 2017 @ 04:24am

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Meh, GPL.

  GPL is incompatible with pretty much any of my clients' environments

  Just FYI, if you're not distributing the code to the public, you don't have to open up the source code. I am a programmer, and my employer uses GPL code all the time; yet none of our software is open source.

• On the post: Digital Homicide's $10 Million Lawsuit Against Game Critic Gone

  

  Karl ( profile ), 03 Mar, 2017 @ 03:56pm

  Re: each party to bear its own costs and attorneys’ fees.

  Digital H should be responsible for paying ALL expenses.
  
  Probably, but James Romine filed pro se (without a lawyer). In fact, this is one of the reasons he was forced to re-file (LLC's like Digital Homicide can't file pro se).
  
  Let's be honest here, even if the court found in Sterling's failure and faced Romine to pay, there's no way he would have been able to get the attorney's fees. Can't get blood from a stone, and Digital Homicide didn't even have enough money for their own attorney.

• On the post: New Zealand Court Says Kim Dotcom Still Eligible For Extradition… But Not Over Copyright

  

  Karl ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2017 @ 06:39pm

  Re:

  it came to light Google used you as paid shill

  For the story behind this: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120824/12563220150/apparently-im-google-shill-i-didnt-even-know-it.shtml The tl;dr version is this: Techdirt is on a list of people that Google claimed, under oath, were not paid shills. If you're wondering why Google would even have to produce such a list, read the linked article.

• On the post: New Zealand Court Says Kim Dotcom Still Eligible For Extradition… But Not Over Copyright

  

  Karl ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2017 @ 05:15am

  Re: The "fraud" part

  Also - here's a link to the ruling:
  https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3468456/Ortmann-amp-Ors-v-United-States-of-America.pdf

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