Michael Ward’s Techdirt Profile

On the post: US Government To Put Old Newspapers Online

Michael Ward ( profile ), 18 Nov, 2004 @ 09:43am

digitizing newspaper archives

This is all about historical newspapers, not last week's or last year's issues. They're talking about the pre-1923 material that is in the public domain. As for it being a waste of taxpayer's money... Get a grip! It's a library. It's our national library. This is what libraries are for.

On the post: Would HP Spin Off Their Printer Business?

Michael Ward ( profile ), 26 Oct, 2004 @ 10:18pm

HP

Mike, I'm surprised you gave this troll any publicity. Or do you know something about HP that we don't know yet?

On the post: Following The Spam Trail, From Legit Companies To Spammers

Michael Ward ( profile ), 19 Oct, 2004 @ 02:52pm

real companies behind spam

Use a bot to fill out thousands and thousands of copies of the application forms, with reasonable-sounding but spurious names and addresses. Do this by studying the source code of the html entry forms or by a follow-me learning app. Swamp the SOB's with so many false leads they give up in disgust.

On the post: First Thing, We Kill All The Virus Writers…

Michael Ward ( profile ), 27 May, 2004 @ 08:27am

appropriate punishment

If I ever find the scammers who forge hidden-knowledge.com as the return address on their spam, physical remonstrances will occur.

on a related issue:

SF writer Larry Niven pointed out many years ago that the value of human body organs far transcends the monetary value of most criminals' nefarious enterprises. Thus: most crimes become punishable by organ removal. This would be particularly appropriate with virus writers, thought to be mostly 16 to 26 and with still-healthy organs ripe for transplantation. Most of the business scammers (Enron, Worldcom, etc.) are too old to have organs worth transplanting.

On the post: The Rise Of eBay Middlemen

Michael Ward ( profile ), 05 May, 2004 @ 05:11pm

eBay middlemen

I sell things sometimes on eBay (userid michael_ward, feedback 153, all positive) but it's a pain in the butt to do it right. Good pictures and/or scans, detailed descriptions, you can end up paying yourself a dollar an hour. And I'm pretty good at the digital and html work, but it is possible to do it faster and better if you REALLY specialize in it. There is always a potential business niche for someone who can do your task faster and cheaper than you can. Of course, they may make their market by concentrating on high-ticket items that maximize dollars/hour of listing labor. That's there business. The money is nice, but you have to count on the fun of watching someone bid your item up. Or even just bid on it at all. Someone out there is going to put this to good use! And I get to clean off another shelf.

On the post: Morse Code Gets The @ Sign – But It's Too Long

Michael Ward ( profile ), 15 Apr, 2004 @ 01:07pm

@

word "at" is dit dah (space) dah
letter "w" is dit dah dah

If you run the first ones together they sound similar to the second. You're not supposed to run them together.

Mike W6INA

On the post: 419 Scams As A Way Of Keeping Up On Current Events

Michael Ward ( profile ), 14 Apr, 2004 @ 10:28am

419 aka Spanish Prisoner

Times change but scams are all the same donkey with different kinds of ears pasted on. A couple of years ago I ran across a humor piece that made me laugh outright, so I scanned it and put it up on the web. It's from 1910 (!) and it's called -- what else -- "The Spanish Prisoner."

http://www.hidden-knowledge.com/funstuff/spanishprisoner/spanishprisoner.html

On the post: Logging Off The Internet

Michael Ward ( profile ), 23 Jan, 2004 @ 10:54am

Steve Cisler unplugs his modem

Steve consults for social and economic groups and companies, on topics like the digital divide and infrastructure development in third-world countries.

Oddly enough, none of these agencies would fund this research into the Unconnected. He's funding it himself. Seems strange, no?

On the post: Self Publishing Success Story

Michael Ward ( profile ), 21 Jan, 2004 @ 09:53am

Self

Publishing is easy.

Publicity and marketing and distribution and selling are hard, hard, hard.

On the post: Spam Hasn't Changed One Bit For New Law

Michael Ward ( profile ), 06 Jan, 2004 @ 10:22am

search and destroy

I agree with AC above.

Follow.The.Money.

Find out where the fake Xanax is coming from. How hard can that be? --Track the credit card transfers and the shipper's waybills ... or postage.

Find 'em and fry 'em.

Repeat as necessary.

On the post: Adobe Launches Own E-Book Store

Michael Ward ( profile ), 18 Dec, 2003 @ 09:43am

Adobe's e-book store

Overdrive is running the store for Adobe; they do one for Yahoo, too, but nobody's noticed yet.

For Adobe, this is a chance to make a tiny bit of money on sales and get a lot of publicity for PDF. Of course, Adobe doesn't make any money on PDF directly; they make it by selling the tools for PDF construction. You don't even have to use Adobe's tools; the PDF spec is a public document and there are several other companies competing with Adobe.

The digital rights are set by the publisher, not by Adobe. The publisher can allow unlimited printing and copying, read-aloud, lending, and duplication if they feel comfortable with it. We do; all our e-books have lowest DRM and we depend on moral suasion. If your favorite publisher limits your rights, send them a letter of complaint.

The prices for e-books are set by the publishers. Editorial and management costs for e-books are exactly the same as they are for printed books; production and shipping are less expensive. Most books are sold through a distributor, who takes 55% of the list price. The publisher gets 45% of some price that has to cover his costs--including royalties to the author. Some e-books will cost less than mass-market paperbacks; some will have to cost more because the fixed costs have to be amortized over a small number of copies sold. For an e-book edition of a title with hardcover and paperback editions also published, the e-book should cost less than the paperback. If your favorite publisher charges too much for his e-books, send him a letter of complaint.

Good places to learn about e-books are ebookweb.org and knowbetter.com.

E-book sales increase steadily every year, with or without hype. They started from a tiny base, and this year they're becoming a measureable factor in book publishing and selling. The real era of e-books will only arrive when better reading devices at lower prices are available: perhaps smart phones with good screens, or truly inexpensive tablet or notebook-size computers.

On the post: Spammers Struggling, Moving Overseas

Michael Ward ( profile ), 15 Dec, 2003 @ 10:54am

spam laws

First law passed, OK, it's a piece of crap. Time to start working on the second piece of law. That won't fix it, either, but it may help. Then it's time to start working on the third piece of law. That should be the one that returns the right of individuals to go after the spammers.

Think, "Bounty Hunters."

On the post: Gray Davis Panders To Entertainment Industry

Michael Ward ( profile ), 26 Sep, 2003 @ 09:07am

Ol' Gov. Davis

Mike, I think you wrote this one up before you had your coffee this morning. Davis doesn't "pass" laws, he signs the ones the state legislature passes. Blame them first.

He -does- appoint people to commissions, though. Putting an RIAA fox among the chickens is bad policy and he should be called down for this one.

On the post: California Spam Law Might Not Get Very Far

Michael Ward ( profile ), 25 Sep, 2003 @ 09:08am

California spam law

To call it what it is: this is where the battle really starts, from this position.

What will come out of court challenges and lobbyist donations is anyone's guess; but we might as well demand the ideal since we know we'll get less than we wanted.

On the post: Hitler, Copyright And Fair Use

Michael Ward ( profile ), 22 Sep, 2003 @ 10:26am

Homes and Gardens copyright

This is probably getting plenty of anti-copyright coverage, so I'll play devil's advocate.

First, this is a British magazine, and their copyright laws are different from US laws.

In the US, the magazine issue copyright would have had to have been renewed after 28 years by the publisher. Even if they didn't do that, the author could have renewed it (assuming it was not work-for-hire when originally done) as his own copyrighted material.

There is a body of common law that holds that if you don't object when someone reprints your copyrighted work without your permission (and you find out about it), your rights are weakened; this is happening with some older magazines today that are "owned" by publishing houses that bought older publishing companies and inherited the rights to long-dead titles. If "Homes and Gardens" is still being published then it's reasonable for the publisher to complain if someone reprints their work without permission.

The advent of the internet hasn't changed the law, and it hasn't changed what's ethically right; but it has changed our perception of what is commonly done, and it has made it easier to do things that at one time required a printing press.

Lots of magazines didn't bother to renew at the end of 28 years; the Copyright Office at the Library of Congress has thousands of log books you can walk in and examine. Also, anything published before 1923 in this country is in the public domain. [Non-profit ad: see MagazineArt.org for an example of what is in the public domain already.]

On the post: Scammer Spams FBI

Michael Ward ( profile ), 20 Sep, 2003 @ 09:46am

Phishing Scam / FBI

Read the story, and you find out that this happened two years ago and the perps were completely incompetent.

Any chance of arresting some of the people doing this scam -today-? From the Ukraine or Nigeria?

Hope rises eternal, but I'm not seeing much to base my hopes on.

On the post: Why Hollywood's Broadcast Flag Won't Work

Michael Ward ( profile ), 18 Sep, 2003 @ 03:45pm

Broadcast Flag

I'll just have to borrow more DVD's from the public library. Or my friends.

Or rewire the damned box.

Whom the gods would destroy, they first make give silly presentations about stupid ideas.

On the post: Meet The Spam Nazi

Michael Ward ( profile ), 29 Jul, 2003 @ 09:57am

Spammer or other profiles

Let's have some profiles on the people who HIRE spammers.

Ask questions like, "Does it bother you that you are hiring people that will make you and your product hated? Have you ever considered a different career, such as selling illegal drugs or toxic waste?"

If people stop paying spammers the spamming will stop. It won't stop just because most of us hate it, and it won't stop because of some laws.

On the post: Return To Sender

Michael Ward ( profile ), 25 Jul, 2003 @ 11:28am

spam

Find the people who buy the spammers' services and get them to stop.

Use social engineering. Boycott the products. Send Vinnie around to talk to them. Publish the home phone numbers of the presidents of companies that buy spam.

As long as there is money to be made sending spam, spam will be sent. Follow the money, and cut off the supply.

On the post: Spam Clients Outed

Michael Ward ( profile ), 23 Jul, 2003 @ 02:03pm

the Spam food chain

Find and shame the people who pay the Spammers, and convince them to stop. Spamming will stop.

Seems pretty basic doesn't it? Wait, there's more!

Spam MUST have a path leading back to the client, the person who paid for the spam to happen; therwise there is no way for the spammer's client to benefit from the spam. Track that credit card payment. Ostracize the seller. Tie him up in litigation. [Insert further methods of social engineering here.]

Point is, the spammer is simply an agent. Go after the person who is paying him to behave in a sociopathic manner.

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