Internet Zen Master 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Macklemore Explains Why Not Being On A Label Helped Him Succeed

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 11 Apr, 2013 @ 01:21pm

    Re: Re: WMG

    Nah, in terms of indie, Macklemore's still independent.

    Instead of signing with WMG, Macklemore hired ADA to help him and Ryan Lewis distribute The Heist/promote Thrift Shop on the radio waves. This is also (according to Ryan Lewis) a The Heist-only deal.

    In other words, the record label (WMG's subsidiary ADA) is doing what record labels should have been doing from the beginning: offering their services out to artists on a project by project basis, doing distribution and promotion for one album at a time.

    Here's why:

    -the artist wouldn't get locked into a contract that forced them into a deal with a record label 1)that takes a 93% cut of the profit, 2) be pressured by their labels to start churning out new albums and exhaust all their creativity on the earlier ones, and 3) take away the artist's right to select the record label that will treat the artist better than the others.

    It would also benefit the record labels, because they wouldn't have to waste time and resources on artists they get in multi-album contracts who turn out to be nothing more than one-hit wonders, and can turn those resources toward promoting new artists or creating more productive ways to provide content......

    Who am I kidding, the cash flow would probably go toward the exec's salaries.

  • On the post: Apple Threatens To Kick Out Comic Book App Over 'Adult' Content, Forcing Publisher To Pull 40% Of Its 4,000 Titles

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2013 @ 06:20pm

    Re:

    Bad comparison.

    The pedophile priests act on their own (and iirc, the total number of priests convicted or even accused of sexually abusing children is less than 1% of the worldwide clergy). And what they do is definitely not sanctioned by the Catholic Church.

    On the other hand, what Apple is doing is the company policy, just not a bunch of prudish employees playing morality police without the guys at the top knowing about it.

  • On the post: Veoh Still Not Dead Enough For Universal Music; Asks Court To Rehear Case Yet Again

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2013 @ 05:40pm

    Uh.... How is it dead again?

    Veoh's still online. You can still watch (and from what I can tell, upload) new videos to the site today.

    They look pretty healthy to me for a website that's supposed to be dead. And if Veoh's dead, then what does that make Megaupload?

  • On the post: EA COO: We Get Votes For 'Worst Company' Because We're Awesome And Voters Are Homophobes

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2013 @ 05:09pm

    Re: ME Backlash

    Am I the only one who thinks that ME3's ending kinda made sense given the overall feeling of the game. The whole point of the game was: "In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war".

    Wait, no, that's Warhammer 40k.

    But yeah, if EA can't tell that the reason they're so loathed is because... well, they're effectively the corporate version of creativity-killing Necrons without the awesomeness and all the common sense of goddamn Husk.

    And they wonder why gamers/the Internet has declared an unending WAAAGH on them, leading them to be voted worst company ever for two years in a row...

  • On the post: Microsoft Creative Director Defends Always-Online, Insults Customers, Murders Logic…All In One Day!

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 06 Apr, 2013 @ 01:54pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Honestly, I honestly believe the reason Microsoft was losing money everywhere except their original bread & butter (OS and Office) and Xbox divisions was because of the guys in marketing/distribution didn't know their head from their ass.

    Best example of this is Zune, which had the potential to be a viable competitor to the iDevices if it had been distributed worldwide instead of just a purely US-focused distribution model, and had a much more aggressive marketing campaign than what it had (it was going up against the trendy, well-entrenched iDevices).

    Case in point, I misplaced my USB connection cord for my 16GB Touch Zune HD one time and couldn't find a replacement cable at the local electronics store, even in the bundle packages. What did they readily have available? Connection cables for the FUCKING iDevices in every fucking store I visited.

    I swear, someone should find the guy who thought that having the Zune as a US-exclusive product for the first two years it was on the market was a good idea and kick him in the balls (among other things) for not understanding the concept of the international marketplace.[/rant]

    Although Paul, think about what your saying for a moment. If you give any company a monopoly position (or near-monopoly position in the case of Apple), and the chances of them abusing that position is extremely high.

  • On the post: Microsoft Creative Director Defends Always-Online, Insults Customers, Murders Logic…All In One Day!

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 06 Apr, 2013 @ 02:13pm

    The fact that he's even talking about it

    Raises the possibility that Microsoft is aware of the SimCity Charlie Foxtrot, or that they haven't fully reached a consensus on whether or not they should have an always-on requirement. [The naive gamer in me would love to believe that the loudest and more influential voices of dissent are coming out of 343i, but the cynic in me knows better].

    That said, the rumors that Microsoft are looking at the next-gen Xbox/Durango as more multi-media center than actual gaming console bugs the hell out of me, since it means that it'd be easier for them to justify having an always-online requirement to the general public.

    Of course, Microsoft never comments on speculation or rumors, so we still have no bloody idea what we're going to get, and will have to wait until the official release announcement.

    So, as the Zen Master says, "We'll see."

  • On the post: Recording Industry Lobbyists Accuse Pandora Of Deliberately Not Selling Ads To Plead Poverty To Congress

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 05 Apr, 2013 @ 02:07pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Kim Dotcom's a statistical outlier in all of this, and given the fact that over 50% of the content hosted on MU was almost never touched after being uploaded or was non-infringing material, your assertion that Dotcom allegedly made his fortune on copyright infringement alone is rather misleading.

  • On the post: YouTube Won't Put Your Video Back Up, Even If It's Fair Use, If It Contains Content From Universal Music

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 05 Apr, 2013 @ 12:43pm

    Re:

    But where does that put Universal in relation to EA?

  • On the post: Macklemore Explains Why Not Being On A Label Helped Him Succeed

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 04 Apr, 2013 @ 11:47pm

    Re:

    Can't believe someone else beat me to posting this (that's what I get for being a slacker on this kind of thing).

    Anyway, Macklemore is the kind of artist that other aspiring artists should aspire to be, and not sell their souls to the RIAA.

    That said, I'm a Seattle native born & raised so I'm kinda biased. God I feel hipster when I say this, but I was a fan of "Thrift Shop" and made a huge effort to go and buy physical version of The Heist album. [Found it for $12.99 at Fred Meyer's.]

    And I confess that I downloaded the "Thrift Shop" single without paying for it, but I deleted the single version as soon as I got bought the full album.

    And it is by far the best album I've listened to in a long, long time.

  • On the post: Team Prenda Shows Up In Court, Pleads The Fifth… Angry Judge Ends Hearing In 12 Minutes

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 02 Apr, 2013 @ 11:52am

    Re: Re: Now this is popcorn worth...

    I second this.

    There's no doubt in my mind that Judge Wright was extremely tempted to throw the book at Prenda, followed by chucking his gavel at John Steele's head.

    This just keeps getting better and better.

  • On the post: Wikipedia Editor Threatened With Lawsuit For Participating In Discussion Leading To Deletion Of Entry

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 02 Apr, 2013 @ 09:44am

    Re: Lesson: commercial interests ruin everything public.

    ESo in other words, all you have is hearsay and your baseless claims.

    That and $5 will get you a latte at Starbucks.

  • On the post: UK Music Licensing Agency Says You Can't Use Its Music In Your Podcast Without First Purchasing A License It Doesn't Even Offer

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 02 Apr, 2013 @ 09:36am

    Reality Distortion Field

    And here I thought that Steve Jobs was bad...

    So unless I'm reading the article wrong (completely possible since I'm reading it on my smartphone), these PPL folks are pretty much the local equivalent of GEMA?

  • On the post: US Government's Failure To Protect Public Privacy Is Driving Business Overseas

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 01 Apr, 2013 @ 12:42pm

    Gee, I wonder why

    As said above: Megaupload says hi.

    And it doesn't help that some companies are bending over backwards to provide governments with customer's data.

    Case in point, companies state in their FUCKING TERMS OF SERVICE that they have the the right to scan content uploaded to their cloud backup service for things like child porn. This is part of their privacy policy.

    Exhibit A: Verizon.

    Verizon reserves the right to access your Storage Service account at any time with or without prior notice to you and to disable access to or remove content which in our sole discretion is or reasonably could be deemed unlawful... Verizon is required by law to report any facts or circumstances reported to us or that we discover from which it appears there may be a violation of the child pornography laws. We reserve the right to report any such information, including the identity of users, account information, images and other facts to law enforcement personnel."


    The fact that the terms & conditions of the cloud backup service, which most people assume are private, explicitly allowing them to scan the stuff you upload to their cloud for things you shouldn't have legally (see: child porn), kinda files in the face of basic idea of privacy.

    [the info about Verizon this sort of thing popped up early last month on Ars: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/03/how-verizon-found-a-child-pornographer-in-its-cloud/ ]

    So yeah, no surprise that companies have started moving overseas. If some companies/the US government are barely attempting to pay lipservice to the concept of privacy anymore, then companies are going to want to move to places that have more respect for privacy.

    How long before Congress gets the memo that they're hurting their economy by driving businesses overseas by letting the FBI et al do surveillance for extremely vague "security reasons"?

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

  • On the post: South Korea Considers Dumping Draconian Copyright Law Forced On It By The US

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 29 Mar, 2013 @ 01:00pm

    Re:

    Hey now, the industry of make believe is part of the land of Make-Believe, which is the creation of Mr. Rogers (who is probably one of the greatest human beings to have ever lived in the last century. The man also went against the MAFIAA when they were trying to kill the VCR & Betamax).

    What you're thinking of is the Industry of Fiction and its legal counterpart, the Ministry of "Truth".

  • On the post: Counter-Strike Map Of School Causes Outrage

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 29 Mar, 2013 @ 12:47pm

    Re: Re: Re: High School layout

    If it's an urban legend, it's a popular one. I've heard of a couple high/middle/(hell, even) elementary schools that were supposedly designed with the original intention that they were going to be prisons before they got converted to schools at the last minute. Would explain why some students felt like they were in prison every time they had to go to school (aside from the usual explanation).

    'Course, these are all bogus myths, but one thing is for sure: architects for schools in the 90's had no originality.

  • On the post: Brazil's Music Collection Societies Convicted Of Price Fixing

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2013 @ 02:45pm

    Hmm...

    I wonder if anyone's willing in a government-level position is to investigate groups like the RIAA and GEMA under similar pretenses. Unlikely, but it's been far from "business-as-usual" since the beginning of 2013, so you never know.

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

  • On the post: Supreme Court Won't Hear Jammie Thomas Appeal

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2013 @ 05:35pm

    Re: Feeding

    Depends on how much the Roman equivalent of Monsanto was charging for fish and bread.

  • On the post: Supreme Court Won't Hear Jammie Thomas Appeal

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2013 @ 05:33pm

    Re: Re: Um, hold up a sec

    Correct. In this case this precedent would cover the Eight Circuit. However, there is no nationwide, legally binding precedent being set (I'm not a lawyer, I'm simply basing this on what limited knowledge I have from my education in business law).

    As for the argument of one circuit/the lawyers looking at the result here when crafting an opinion about a case, that's pretty much a given. However, it's also equally likely that they could dismiss what happened in the Eighth Circuit and come to their own conclusion on the matter.

  • On the post: Supreme Court Won't Hear Jammie Thomas Appeal

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2013 @ 04:30pm

    Um, hold up a sec

    Exactly what precedent has been set here? A refusal to hear a case means just that. The Supreme Court refused to hear Jammie Thomas-Rasset's case, and her case alone.

    I have no idea where the hell you people are coming up with the idea that just because the US Supreme Court denied Thomas-Rasset her appeal means that there's some sort of precedent being set. All means is that the decision of whatever lower court ruled on the case last is the final outcome.

    In short, we're back to square one. No binding (nationwide) precedent has been set. The RIAA is still able to sue for outrageous amounts of cash if they so desire (however, after all the terrible press they received from the "we're gonna sue you into poverty for rest of your life" angle, they'd have to be really stupid to try something like that again), and the people still have the ability to appeal to the courts over the constitutionality of exorbitantly high damages.

    If something like this happens again, perhaps next time we'll have a defendant who has a better case to take to trial.

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

  • On the post: WSJ Claims That Wikileaks Is Not Journalism But Espionage By Taking A Bunch Of Quotes Out Of Context

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 18 Mar, 2013 @ 02:50pm

    Re:

    But then major media is no longer dependable as a news source to let the public know when politicians are out screwing the public. It's all full of political propaganda with bias so thick you can use a knife on it.

    Careful now! If you use a knife on the media the police could charge you with attempted murder!

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