Nick 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (504)

• On the post: Study Shows Educational And Social Harm 'Three Strikes' Punishment Would Cause Young People

  

  Nick ( profile ), 09 Jan, 2013 @ 11:57am

  I always thought beer was the cause of young people.

• On the post: IP Diplomat Sob Story: It's Hard To Push The US Agenda When The World Listens To Reason

  

  Nick ( profile ), 18 Dec, 2012 @ 11:59am

  In the maximalist world, your opinion doesn't matter if you don't have a history of profiting off of the IP system. That makes you an expert.
  
  Those darn abolitionists who smuggled slaves to freedom just before the American Civil War. They were not economists.

• On the post: Entertainment Industry Mourns The End Of 'Hollywood' Howard Berman Being Their Personal Voice In Congress

  

  Nick ( profile ), 11 Dec, 2012 @ 07:46am

  Re:

  Hopefully he is too old. Let's hope he retires and does not try to get any other jobs.

• On the post: Doubling Down On Secrecy: ITU Believes Secret Media Strategy Key To Avoiding SOPA/ACTA Fate

  

  Nick ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2012 @ 08:27am

  Well, Google has wasted no time and fired the first shot. The battle is on! https://www.google.com/takeaction/

• On the post: Homeless Man Who Got Free Boots From Cop Now 'Wants His Cut' Of YouTube Attention

  

  Nick ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2012 @ 08:07am

  This is why he can't have nice things.

• On the post: US Patent Boss Completely Clueless: Insists That Patent Fights Show The System 'Wires Us For Innovation'

  

  Nick ( profile ), 21 Nov, 2012 @ 07:37am

  Re: "The explosion of litigation we are seeing is a reflection of how the patent system wires us for innovation"

  Said the weapons manufacturer on sales: "The explosion in wars you are seeing throughout the world shows us that weapons wires us for war."
  
  Or, more accurately: "The explosion of litigation we are seeing is a reflection of how lawyers are wired to find suits to make money from. It's natural and reasonable that innovative attorneys would seek to enrich their bank accounts using the patent system."

• On the post: If You Eat Something, Say Something: DHS Sounds The Alarm On The 'Terrorist Implications' Of Food Trucks

  

  Nick ( profile ), 12 Nov, 2012 @ 12:49pm

  I can't wait for these slides to be remixed into a new meme.

• On the post: Will Disney Block Star Wars Fan-Made Content?

  

  Nick ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2012 @ 05:56pm

  If I had made some Star Wars fan fiction I would say to Disney: Come at me, bro. If the ire of Star Wars geeks can't help drive awareness about the need for copyright reform and the evental reform itself I don't know what can.

• On the post: Partisan Piracy: Conservative Filmmakers Accuse Obama Supporters Of Uploading Their Film To Youtube

  

  Nick ( profile ), 26 Sep, 2012 @ 07:56am

  Re:

  I agree. Is it profit or propaganda? They can't have it both ways. I guess if you think of Fox News as farcical entertainment then you could think of the film the same way. Either way, all just an opportunity for the filmmakers to get more attention to the film.

• On the post: Google Follows Apple In Unnecessarily Pulling App That Allowed A Little Girl To Speak

  

  Nick ( profile ), 04 Sep, 2012 @ 11:46am

  So much for "Don't be evil."

• On the post: The Stupidity Of The 'Just Go Without' Argument

  

  Nick ( profile ), 22 Aug, 2012 @ 01:04pm

  Re: Re: Let's talk "entitlements"

  I think in the context of this discussion copyright was developed to protect middlemen's investments. Creators were not in the business of printing and publishing (they just create), so they had to sell the rights to a third party who could do the printing and marketing. And to make it fair to that publisher, they restricted other publishers with copyright laws and the threat of punishment for violations.
  
  It is the same mentality you have with things like the 2012 London Olympics brand police. Other parties are paying "good money" to to advertise their brands so they need to stop others from "free riding." Or with licencing of music, films, TV. Licencees are paying money to monetize content so they and/or the licencor want to stop others from doing the same for free: YouTube takedowns, ICE domain seizures, etc.
  
  But today creators can do it all just by hiring services (TuneCore, CDBaby, Amazon, fabrication in China, etc) that need to compete in the market for customers (it does not make sense financially for them to get exclusive deals, for example, they are just a service provider), so there is no middleman and his army of trolls.

• On the post: FBI-Created 'Terrorist Plot' Fails To Produce A Single Terrorist — But Does Plenty Of Damage To Individual Liberties

  

  Nick ( profile ), 22 Aug, 2012 @ 09:19am

  Here some other tidbits:
  
  The ex-FBI informant, Craig Monteilh, with a change of heart: 'There is no real hunt. It's fixed. It is all about entrapment.' http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/20/fbi-informant
  
  Eric Holder is behind the Suit's Quash Against FBI:
  http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2011/08/obama_monteilh_malik_rahim_faz.php

• On the post: Publisher Angry Robot Bundles Free Ebook With Physical Copies And Triples Sales

  

  Nick ( profile ), 20 Aug, 2012 @ 05:23pm

  Re: Misleading Title

  I read it this way: Publisher [are] Angry [that a] Robot (Amazon's "Frequently Bought Together" suggester, but free) Bundles Free Ebook With Physical Copies And Triples Sales.
  
  And before reading the story I thought a book publisher didn't like how their sales tripled because Amazon included a free ebook version of a physical book without their permission.

• On the post: Honey Badger Don't Care… Unless You're Cheering On A College Player With That Nickname

  

  Nick ( profile ), 14 Aug, 2012 @ 07:10am

  I think we have a new critter in our midst: the memetroll.

• On the post: Google Caves To Hollywood Pressure: Will Now Punish Sites That Get Lots Of 'Valid' DMCA Notices

  

  Nick ( profile ), 13 Aug, 2012 @ 08:59am

  This is just terrible news. I can't even find the words.

• On the post: Gibson Guitars CEO Calls Out The Government For 'Regulating Business Through Criminal Law' [Updated]

  

  Nick ( profile ), 07 Aug, 2012 @ 08:11am

  Gibson his this coming. They have pissed off a lot of people. They hate innovation and try to squash it where they can. They kill jobs by acquiring companies and then firing everyone. Juszkiewicz, karma is a bitch, isn't it?

• On the post: More Anti-Youtube Whining: 'YouTube Complies With Our Takedown Requests Just To Make Us Look Bad'

  

  Nick ( profile ), 06 Aug, 2012 @ 12:11pm

  Re: Re:

  That is a good idea! They can sell ads/links to other videos on these dead-end pages. I might consider using that.

• On the post: If It Takes You 20 Years To Notice Madonna Sampled Your Songs, Perhaps It's A Transformative Use

  

  Nick ( profile ), 02 Aug, 2012 @ 12:09pm

  All I can hear is the horn stabs in the original track that start at 1:46 are at least the same chord as used throughout Vogue that first appear at 0:56. I don't see how they are hidden. All of the string parts in Vogue are either live recorded strings or a synth. If Pettibone had access to the original multi tracks maybe he could have used the string sound but it is just a long-sustaining chord.
  
  Imagine if the rights holder of James Brown's recordings sued everyone who used the horn stabs in Get Up Offa that Thing. That would be insanity.

• On the post: Senate Intelligence Committee A Lot More Interested In Punishing Whistleblowers Than In Investigating Why They're Blowing The Whistle

  

  Nick ( profile ), 27 Jul, 2012 @ 10:37am

  Feel free to leave comments on Feinstein's Facebook wall posts regarding this topic.
  
  http://www.facebook.com/SenatorFeinstein/posts/254424444658557
  http://www.facebook.com/SenatorFeinstein/posts/420875764602267
  http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=420370754652768

• On the post: Pirate Party ALMOST Ejected From Festival For Giving Out Free Waffles After Vendors Selling Waffles Complained (Updated)

  

  Nick ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2012 @ 08:44am

  Re: Re:

  I think you are saying the same thing here.

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