mikez 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Because Only The Record Labels Are Supposed To Get Away With Not Paying Their Musicians…

    mikez ( profile ), 11 Mar, 2010 @ 12:35pm

    missed the mark on this one

    The lawsuit isn't entirely about money. It's about selling individual songs, specifically on iTunes. Pink Floyd's contracts have always prohibited the sale of songs "out of context" as they felt their albums were seamless and meant to be consumed whole. EMI argued that the current contract didn't only applied to CDs and LPs, and were therefore able to offer the songs individually on iTunes.

    Pink Floyd won the suit today: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/mar/11/pink-floyd-win-download-case

    "the judge sided with the band, noting that the contract was designed to "preserve the artistic integrity of the albums"."

  • On the post: Prisons And Hair Dressers Latest To Push Back On Ridiculous Collection Society Demands

    mikez ( profile ), 21 Jan, 2010 @ 12:14pm

    on a good note

    The money quote in the prison piece is this:

    The Tories criticised the ban on the playing of recorded music. Alan Duncan, the shadow prisons minister, said: " It seems crazy that a prisoner can listen to a radio in their cell but not when they're doing something useful in the prison estate."


    Some good could come out of this if the members of Parliament become more aware of the absurdities of these things.

  • On the post: Who's Behind The False Rumors That Facebook Might Start Charging?

    mikez ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2010 @ 09:47am

    Re: Entitlement Mentality Reigns

    I disagree with you completely.

    It would be a huge leap to suggest it's entitlement mentality behind this.

  • On the post: Who's Behind The False Rumors That Facebook Might Start Charging?

    mikez ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2010 @ 07:45am

    Re: Re: Re: Not necessarilly malicious

    http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/03/25/number-of-us-facebook-users-over-35-nearly-doubles-in-last-60-days/

    Sure it's a general statement, but there's truth to it. Just because people my age (41) have been using the internet since it's early days doesn't mean the majority of them have. These are the same people that would forward you 10 emails a day cause they were funny or warned of some imminent danger or the ones that couldn't understand why their computers don't work well after downloading free smileys.

    Don't take general statements personally kid.

  • On the post: Who's Behind The False Rumors That Facebook Might Start Charging?

    mikez ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2010 @ 01:42pm

    Re: Not necessarilly malicious

    Agreed.

    Add to it the influx of users that are 35+ yrs old and you have a huge user base that isn't as internet savvy as the kids that were the initial users of facebook. I see my friends falling for the scam apps all the time, and have seen many of them joining the protest groups. The most common protest group I see is that fb will start charging $5 a month but saw one claiming fb will charge ₤14.99 a month.

  • On the post: Washington Post Reporters Believes Bogus Police Report Over Own Editorial Aide Eye Witness And Photographic & Video Evidence

    mikez ( profile ), 24 Dec, 2009 @ 06:08am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    "Get the bottom of the real issues, not some random snowball fight"

    If the snow ball fight was a human interest story I would understand the level of reporting.


    The snowball fight wasn't the issue, it was that an off-duty officer in plain clothes drew his gun without identifying himself to anyone. This is a big story in DC because DC just paid out $8.25m for false arrests in the Pershing Park lawsuit.

    The city is dealing with a lot of misconduct issues with the police, much of it stemming from top brass making bad decisions. Therefore a detective pulling a gun on a crowd of people with snowballs is much more than a human interest story.

  • On the post: Another Battle: Can Teachers Sell Lesson Plans?

    mikez ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2009 @ 06:19am

    not all teachers are under contract

    Many issues at play here. Not all teachers are under contract, teachers at private schools and some public charter schools are at will employees without a contract, so the issue of contractual obligation doesn't apply in all cases.

    As a teacher of 9 years I can say teachers are provided a curriculum of what subject matter they need to teach. They are entirely on their own to figure out HOW to teach it. Lesson plans are written and discarded all the time and modified. They go with the teacher when they change jobs, because not every lesson plan can work for every teacher, or even every class. I was never paid to write lesson plans, I was paid to teach. Planning periods are used to update grade books, do paperwork, call parents, and prepare for lessons, not write lesson plans.

  • On the post: Why Would Countries Leave ACTA Negotiations If Text Was Public?

    mikez ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2009 @ 07:06am

    He also claimed that some of those in the negotiations would "walk away from the table" if the documents were made public.

    Perhaps the "those" are the media execs and not countries. We all know the diplomats aren't writing this treaty.

  • On the post: Essayist Writes Popular Essay… Then Sends 'Non-Negotiable' Invoice To Church Who Posts It Online

    mikez ( profile ), 19 Nov, 2009 @ 01:53pm

    This is just RIAA's tactics applied to actual infringement. She's a bully, but there's no surprise that she sees this as acceptable behavior.

  • On the post: Free Doesn't Mean Devalued

    mikez ( profile ), 12 Nov, 2009 @ 02:08pm

    How about saying, "Here's how you get paid: ..."?

    Why is it TechDirt's job to tell someone that? If you want to "get paid" get a job. If you want music or art to be your job, work in a stuido, or gallery, etc. or come up with your own business model, one that works for you.

  • On the post: Free Doesn't Mean Devalued

    mikez ( profile ), 12 Nov, 2009 @ 01:23pm

    "More importantly, songwriters who get hung up on "devaluation" confuse recordings with music."

    There's also so much more to the "music" than the recordings as Mike and others always point out. This made me think of David Sylvian, http://www.davidsylvian.com/texts/, who publishes his lyrics freely on his website and in liner notes on his albums, but still manages to sell (usually sell out) books of his lyrics. Suzanne Vega, Jane Siberry, and many other artists have done this successfully as well.

  • On the post: Time For Palm To Drop WebOS And Embrace Android

    mikez ( profile ), 04 Nov, 2009 @ 07:27am

    I have a Palm Pre for work. It's a nice phone and you're right about the hardware, but the OS is the weak point. The OS is very slow compared to blackberries I've previously had and compared to my iphone. I haven't used an android phone yet but I'd bet a pre running android would be very slick.

  • On the post: Sex Pistols Claiming Trademark Infringement? Because Selling Out Is So Punk Rock

    mikez ( profile ), 21 Oct, 2009 @ 07:34am

    Missing the story

    The claim was filed by the holding company and the issue is that the advertising looks too much like the artwork from God Save the Queen. This is not about punk, it's about lawyers and trademarks, fair use, etc.

    http://www.nme.com/news/sex-pistols/47841

  • On the post: Alternative Weekly Papers See Spike In Adult Ads Following Craigslist Decision

    mikez ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2009 @ 09:07am

    Re: Re: Re:

    The original post links to the Washington City Paper article that is the basis for Mike's post. The article has the link to the CL blog. This isn't making you click through a web of links to get to the CL blog, it's referring you to the source Mike used for the blog post.

    A responsible reader wouldn't just take Mike's word for it, but would check his sources.