Internet Zen Master 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Good Question: Why Is Eric Holder In Charge Of Investigation Of Eric Holder Spying On Journalists?

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 28 May, 2013 @ 02:13pm

    Re: House Judiciary investigating whether Holder lied under oath

    And any American who was paying even a little attention to the shit that the DOJ's been pulling under Obama (continuing Fast and Furious, spying on journalists, playing Hollywood's rent-a-cop with the Megaupload fiasco/illegal seizure of Dotcom's servers, etc.) is going: "Wait, they're investigating this idiot now? He should've been kicked out a long time ago!"

  • On the post: Copyright… Patent… It's All The Same To The World's Third-Largest News Agency

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 24 May, 2013 @ 01:35pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Frankly I don't give a flying fuck about the quality of journalism is shitty these days.

    If you can't be bothered to do a quick search for intellectual property on FUCKING WIKIPEDIA as a quick reference check, especially since it identifies copyright and patents as two completely separate types of IP in the last sentence of the first paragraph on the wikipage, then you deserve to literally be thrown out on your ass from any respectable news organization for such a blatantly obvious screw-up.

  • On the post: Copyright… Patent… It's All The Same To The World's Third-Largest News Agency

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 24 May, 2013 @ 11:13am

    Re:

    For a single news article, it's as simple as this

    http://lmgtfy.com/?q=intellectual+property

    Was that so hard?

  • On the post: Copyright… Patent… It's All The Same To The World's Third-Largest News Agency

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 24 May, 2013 @ 10:58am

    Wow....

    *facepalms* Jesus AFP, do the fucking research before posting shit like this. What, did they not read the actual tweet? Did you fire all your high-quality journalists or something?

    Still not sure if Dotcom was serious or trolling with the patent claim (which is so overly broad it's completely absurd), but he seems to be up to his old tricks: saying something outrageous and then watching the established media make a fool of themselves.

  • On the post: Ex-Prenda Lawyer Brett Gibbs Pleads Poverty To Judge Wright

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 24 May, 2013 @ 10:49am

    If actually has Brain cancer

    As somemone who's lost a close family friend to brain cancer, I'd be more than willing to let him off the hook. Provided he tells us everything he knows about the inner workings of Prenda Law (even as the fall guy, i doubt that they kept him completely in the dark.

    $500 in his account and $50,000 in debt? Yeah, that sounds pretty accurate for a patient with brain cancer. Those brain-cancer treatments are mind-blowingly expensive, and a lot of them are still experimental.

    Even if he's involved in a den of scam artists like Prenda "Law", nobody should have to suffer something as crippling as brain cancer.

    Side-note: Can anybody find out know where the tumor is located on Brett's brain?

  • On the post: Quack Professor Releases Dumbest Violent Video Game Theory Ever

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 22 May, 2013 @ 10:21am

    I never thought I'd actually say this

    I honestly miss Jack Thompson.

    The guy may have been an overzealous anti-video game crusader, but at least his "arguments" were slightly more realistic than some of the bizzaro claims made by today's anti-violent video game crowd.

    How long is the video game industry going to put up with this bullshit?

    As the Zen Master says, "We'll see."

  • On the post: So It's Come To This: Seven High School Students Arrested For Throwing… Water Balloons

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 22 May, 2013 @ 10:15am

    I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

    Seriously, a bunch of teens getting CRIMINAL FUCKING RECORDS for throwing Water Balloons.

    Hopefully the Raleigh Police don't realize that water is actually H2O, or else those teenagers could find themselves on a one-way trip to Guantanamo Bay for being "enemy combatants".

    I can see it now:

    Detainee: ...So, what are you in for?

    Teenager: Throwing water balloons at my High school security officer.

    Detainee: What, did you fill the balloons with acid or something?

    Teenager: Nope, just plain water.

    Detainee: And you're locked up here why?

    Teen: Because the chemical compound of water is H2O.

    Detainee: ... You have got to be fucking kidding me.

  • On the post: DOJ And Dept. Of Education To Colleges: Start Restricting Free Speech On Campus Or Kiss Your Federal Funding Goodbye

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 21 May, 2013 @ 11:25am

    Re:

    Hell I bet you couldn't be on any decent sized public university these days without hearding a "that's what she said" line at least once.


    I'd lay odds that's the case over at WASU (Washington State University, home of the Cougars and the state's "party school"), except you'd probably hear that sort of thing at least three or four times a day.

    ...Christ on a pogo-stick, the Man really is trying to keep us down.[/half-sarcastic]

    Although correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't FIRE a little sensitive when it comes to things that might resemble a violation of the First Amendment (and God bless 'em for it.)?

    As the Zen Master says, "We'll see."

  • On the post: Swedish Prosecutor Claims Registrar Of .se Domains An 'Accomplice' In Infringement Because Of Pirate Bay Domain

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 20 May, 2013 @ 12:22pm

    Beyond stupid

    Stupid is sort of thing that the US DOJ does (see: MegaUpload case). I'm pretty sure the brainiacs at the Justice Department aren't so lobotomized that they would even consider going after an entire domain registrar.

    Then again, with the current administration, who knows?

    As the Zen Master says, "We'll see."

  • On the post: Congress Grandstanding Over Google Glass 'Privacy' Concerns; Next Up: Privacy Concerns Over Your Eyes

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 17 May, 2013 @ 09:58am

    Re: Re: Re:

    Pretty much this. If it's the LED is glowin' then it's clearly recordin'.

    So yeah, the claim that you wouldn't be able to tell if someone is recording you or not with Glass is a load of bull*.

    *Caveat: this statement does not cover the possibility of the person wearing Glass tampering with said device so that the LED doesn't light up.

  • On the post: Eric Holder Claims Terrorists Are Involved In 'IP Theft'

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 16 May, 2013 @ 10:26am

    Re: Well, Rapidshare, Depostfiles, and Mega are ORGANIZED,

    Of course they're organized blue. They're all businesses! It's very hard (or at least extremely time-consuming) to operate a business without a minimum amount of organizational structure!

    That being said, I think that this "IP Theft=Terrorism" bull is just a red herring for Holder to distract from the fact that a) he should have been fired a long time ago, b) he's completely incompetent, and c) he's trying to distract everyone from the whole AP records debacle.

    And for the nth time, it's not IP theft. It's IP infringement! You can't steal a copyright, you infringe on a copyright. You can't steal a patent, you infringe on a patent. You can't steal a trademark, you infringe on a trademark.

    However, you can steal trade secrets, but that usually falls under "corporate espionage". So while trade secrets are considered Intellectual Property, they're the only one of the four IP categories that is actually considered stealing.

    The phrase IP Theft is misleading to the common man, because you turn around and go "copyrights/trademarks/patents are IP", which leads to people incorrectly believing that illegal downloads are considered stealing, when in fact it's actually infringement. There is a big difference.

    The fact that the people at the DOJ don't understand this kind of important difference (or they do and keep parroting the "copyright infringement=theft" meme anyway) is rather disturbing.

    Now the question is: will Rep. Watts try to get a bill through Congress effectively saying something "IP Theft is helpin teh terrorusts (including copyright in that definition since he supports Hollywood's interests), so we need to make it a a felony, and if you don't support this bill then you're with the terrorists!"?

    As the Zen Master says, "We'll see."

  • On the post: Judge Wright Sentences Prenda To Poetic Justice

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 07 May, 2013 @ 01:22pm

    Re:

    I can already hear the Star Wars references being made.

  • On the post: Judge Wright Sentences Prenda To Poetic Justice

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 07 May, 2013 @ 01:26pm

    Remember that statue idea?

    So in the previous article I suggested (in a half-joking manner) that the Internet should consider crowdfunding the construction of a statue for Judge Wright to honor him for taking down Prenda.

    I mentioned the idea over at Ars as well, and apparently someone over there has started a campaign on indiegogo for that very statue!

    http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-unofficial-otis-d-wright-ii-statue-fundraiser

    I'd be pretty amused if this project actually met its goal, to be honest.

  • On the post: Judge Wright Tells Team Prenda To Pay $80k, Refers Their Activity To State Bars, Feds & IRS

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 06 May, 2013 @ 05:23pm

    Statue in his honor

    So, has there been any word on someone crowd-source funding a statue of the Honorable Judge Otis Wright made from [insert precious metal here] with a plaque saying:

    Dear Honorable Judge Otis Wright:
    You win ALL the Internets.

    -Sincerely,
    The Internet


    That would be absolutely awesome.

  • On the post: When Memes Go Corporate: Creators Of Nyan Cat And Keyboard Cat Sue Warner Bros.

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 03 May, 2013 @ 03:31pm

    Re:

    This. If you're going to use something in a commercial venture, at least ask for permission from the owners first.

    On a related note, since this is related to memes in general, I wonder how the whole Slenderman phenomenon factors into this. There's already an independent studio releasing a film named "Entity" into theaters this July that is basing itself on the Slenderman mythos, which makes me wonder: did they ask permission from the makers of Slender/Slenderman's creator to use Slenderman for their movie (doubt he'll be referred to as Slenderman, but it's hard not to instantly recognize tall, dark and faceless at this point.)?

  • On the post: Alice In Chains: We Hate The Internet, Twitter & Dancing

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 03 May, 2013 @ 02:58pm

    I can kinda get where they're coming from

    Oddly enough, Macklemore/Ryan Lewis and Alice in Chains are both from Seattle.

    And honestly, I can kinda understand the whole twitter aversion (Didn't see the point of it when it came out, still don't now). For popular bands these days, people love hearing constant updates about whatever the band members are doing this very second. Fact is, some people still have this belief that we don't need to get on the Internet bullhorn and shout out whatever is we're doing at the moment just because.

    I think Sean's point is pretty much if Alice in Chains is going to let the world know what they're doing, they'll do it the old-fashioned way: with a old-fashioned press-release.

    As for their complaints about how much their music is worth these days, considering on how their contract was probably written, they're probably getting under 10% of the income that their songs actually generate (the line from Macklemore's "Jimmy Iovine" popped into my head about "7 percent to split" and whatnot). And with the advent of the Internet, their already tiny slice of the revenue pie may have declined in the past decade or so due to brief lapses in popularity/Internet piracy/rewritten contracts with record labels. so I'm not surprised that Alice In Chains would be unhappy about the apparent worth of their music.

    And much as you think that the days of record labels supporting artists is over, here's a little food for thought: Macklemore's singles are getting a lot of radio play in part to the fact that he hired out Time Warner's promotions department to help get his debut album out in the open (y'know, for all those unaware of the awesomeness that is Youtube/still listen to the radio).

    The success of The Heist can be attributed to how the relationship between the record label and the artist should be. Not the "I sold my soul to the record label in order to make it to the big time" relationship, but a "I am the artist, the label's job is just to distribute my music on a per album basis".

    Still, both groups make great music as far as I'm concerned.

  • On the post: McAfee Patents System To 'Detect And Prevent Illegal Consumption Of Content On The Internet'

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 26 Apr, 2013 @ 02:59pm

    Re:

    uses Norton

    Meh, Norton does an adequate job for a run-of-the-mill anti-virus program.

    That said, I have SuperAntiSpyware and MalwareBytes installed and run them every so often just to go through my drives and make sure that Norton didn't miss anything.

    But yeah, I burst out laughing when I read that McAfee was the ones patenting this thing. I mean, I don't know anyone in my circle of friends actually uses McAfee these days. It's kinda common knowledge now that it's a shitty anti-virus software.

    And now that I think about it, if they implement this patent into their software, aren't they technically selling legal spyware instead of an anti-virus program?

  • On the post: U.S. Ambassador To Australia Takes On #1 Issue Of The Day: Game Of Thrones Piracy

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 26 Apr, 2013 @ 10:01am

    Most pirated-show to date.

    The Ambassador probably specified Game of Thrones (which I've never seen myself) for his "infringement = stealing" rant/mantra is because it's the single-most pirated show to date, so he decided to hold it up as a prime example of his tired, horse-carcass of an argument.

    It should be noted though that there are two types of infringement, a civil and a criminal version. I think the arguments trying to equate the criminal version with stealing, but it still fails because even then it's still two different crimes.

    Oh, and this just makes the Ambassador look like more of a fool:

    Show director David Petrarca said shows like Game of Thrones thrive on ?cultural buzz? and piracy, he suggested, helps to move that along. HBO programming president Michael Lombardo and actor Rose Leslie, who plays Ygritte in the show, both described piracy as a ?compliment?.


    [Quote courtesy of the TF article on the same topic]

    Yeah, sounds like the ambassador apparently didn't do any independent research to me.

    How will this affect Aussie-US relations?

    The Zen Master says, "We'll see."

  • On the post: After Muzzling Librarians And Scientists, Now Canada Starts Making It Difficult For Citizens To Express Their Views

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 25 Apr, 2013 @ 04:10pm

    Here I thought US was the one owned by "Big Oil"

    From the source:

    In addition to the new barriers for public participation, Enbridge?s proposal won?t undergo an environmental assessment, also thanks to Bill C-38 which gutted environmental laws.


    So let me get this straight: Canadians who want to publicly participate in the NEB hearings have to do everything most company's require for job applications to simply get their foot in the door, let alone debate the issue? On top of that, they only have 2 weeks in which to do this, which means if that two weeks started on April 5, then the "application period" for the hearing expired last Friday (and if i am right, I'm gonna hold Moody at fault for not reporting on this sooner).

    This whole 'applications for debate' malarkey just reeks of the tar sands lobby to me.

    So the bigger question is: will this Line 9 get approved?

    The Zen Master says, "We'll see."

  • On the post: Rep. Peter King, Mayor Bloomberg Agree: Boston Bombing Shows We Desperately Need MORE Surveillance

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 22 Apr, 2013 @ 12:19pm

    Re: Re:

    In all fairness, the FBI interviewed Tamerlan in 2011. Apparently lot can change in two years.

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