OldGeezer 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Guidelines On Who Might Be Suspicious: Too Nervous? Too Calm? Blending In? Standing Out? It's All Suspicious

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 27 Oct, 2014 @ 11:57pm

    Re:

    Cruise control set to the speed limit won't help. I have read of people being pulled over for driving too consistently at the speed limit. The reasoning: if you are smuggling drugs you would want to carefully obey all traffic laws to avoid being stopped. Never mind that some people believe that the speed limit is what it says and set the cruise to it. Just another lame excuse to pull people over who do not give them a reason. Then they bring the drug dog and claim it alerted on the car. Entirely subjective how the dog's behavior "alerted". When I was in the Army they brought a drug dog into the barracks. One guy had a small bag of weed in his mattress cover. The dog ran straight to it and barked loudly, growling and shaking the mattress in his teeth. If a drug dog alerts you will absolutely know it. Apparently that is not how the police see it because they seem to have so many false positives. When no drugs are found they will confiscate anything more than a small amount of cash found. Usually not enough to make it worth your legal fees to get it back. They can claim that because you are driving on a highway considered a trafficking route that if you have any money you are probably returning home after selling your stash.

  • On the post: Guidelines On Who Might Be Suspicious: Too Nervous? Too Calm? Blending In? Standing Out? It's All Suspicious

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 28 Oct, 2014 @ 12:01am

    Are they male? Are they female? Are they young? Are they old? Are they short? are they tall?

    Makes about as much sense!

  • On the post: Italian Parliament Publishes Draft Internet Bill Of Rights

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 21 Oct, 2014 @ 07:23am

    No Italian surveillance?

    And I suppose this means Italy does not have it's equivalent of the NSA doing mass surveillance? I doubt it. Maybe their lawmakers are as clueless as ours used to be.

  • On the post: Sirius XM Hit Again Over Pre-1972 Recordings

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2014 @ 11:19am

    Re: Re:

    Troll!

  • On the post: Not Just Governments Hacking Your Computers Via YouTube Videos; Malicious Ads Found On Popular Videos

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2014 @ 11:16am

    Re: Re: Re:

    The warning I was referring to was recent, just a couple of months ago. I guess not much has changed.

  • On the post: Not Just Governments Hacking Your Computers Via YouTube Videos; Malicious Ads Found On Popular Videos

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2014 @ 10:34am

    Re: Re: Re:

    For me that was when I was running Windows 95 and Explorer would get so many pop ups at one time it could lock your system.

    A while back a favorite site had a message that they were working to fix a hack. I couldn't see anything wrong at all but out of curiosity I tried it with Explorer. It redirected to a scare ware site with the phony scan telling me I had many dangerous viruses and trojans.

  • On the post: Not Just Governments Hacking Your Computers Via YouTube Videos; Malicious Ads Found On Popular Videos

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2014 @ 10:03am

    Re:

    One clue should be that recently IE had a breach so bad that the government had to issue warnings to use another browser. Explorer is only for people too stupid not to use it. Probably the same idiots that click on unknown email attachments, log in from a a phishing message and fill in their account number, social security and mother's maiden name.

  • On the post: Sirius XM Hit Again Over Pre-1972 Recordings

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2014 @ 08:42am

    Re: Re: Re:

    California and then separately for the other 49 states. And also separately with each label and sometimes even with individual artists. Public over the air radio stations pay one simple fee that covers everything. They want to force this licensing nightmare to try to squeeze more money out of new innovators. Exposure in any form is promotion for them that leads to more sales. They should make the process easier and charge reasonable fees to help new innovations thrive, not blackmailing them into bankruptcy.

  • On the post: Sirius XM Hit Again Over Pre-1972 Recordings

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2014 @ 06:47am

    Re:

    Certain songs?!! We're talking about every song up to my 20th birthday. The very foundations that inspired millions of works since then. So, no Elvis, Buddy Holly, Beatles, Hendrix, Sinatra, early Stones, Doors, Beach Boys etc? Rock was born in the 50's, not 1972.

  • On the post: Dangerous Rulings: Georgia Court Says Parents May Be Liable For What Their Kids Post On Facebook

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2014 @ 01:05pm

    The parents may not be legally liable but they are idiots for not making sure the brat took the fake account down. I thought that you could register a complaint over something like this and Facebook would investigate and remove it. This clearly violates their policies. There was nothing in the article about the classmate's family trying to get it taken down. Did they even tell the kid's parents that the offensive page was still online or did they do nothing all this time before bringing legal action?

  • On the post: Sirius XM Hit Again Over Pre-1972 Recordings

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2014 @ 12:01pm

    Providers and artists could be "Happy Together" but it looks like my favorite music is on "The Eve of Destruction"! ☺

  • On the post: Sirius XM Hit Again Over Pre-1972 Recordings

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2014 @ 03:50am

    Re:

    For the most part musicians aren't the ones getting paid. The labels have a long history of keeping most of the profits. I grew up in the 60's and many big stars died in poverty, especially the black ones.

  • On the post: Sirius XM Hit Again Over Pre-1972 Recordings

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2014 @ 03:44am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Doen't make economic sense

    No intention of being racist. The truth is that the popularity of black artists played at least a small role in breaking down racial roadblocks in that era.

  • On the post: Sirius XM Hit Again Over Pre-1972 Recordings

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2014 @ 12:55am

    Re: Not just oldies

    How often do you hear any of these A-list artist's tracks used in movies and TV series? I was shocked when I actually heard a real Beatles song on "Mad Men". This series must have struck some special deal to use so many original hits because most of the time all you hear are covers and lesser known artists. "The Sopranos" are one of the few other exceptions. CSI uses The Who for a theme but very few other well known artists. The big hits are mostly priced out of the market. When "Married With Children" came out on DVD most seasons used a "sounds like" instrumental theme because a 50 year old song by a long dead Frank Sinatra was too expensive to license.

  • On the post: Sirius XM Hit Again Over Pre-1972 Recordings

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2014 @ 11:47pm

    Re: Re: Doen't make economic sense

    Yes, the demographic shifts but that does not mean today's young people cannot enjoy the music of my youth. Before I retired some of my coworkers were barely out of their teens. I found that many black young people were big fans of the great Motown stars of the 60's. When I would ask them why they would tell me that their parents and grandparents played it for them all the time as they grew up. Perhaps blacks are just better at passing on their culture.

  • On the post: Sirius XM Hit Again Over Pre-1972 Recordings

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2014 @ 11:34pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    The extent they have gone to with YouTube is ridiculous. I became a fan of the Ukrainian artist Assol after discovering her on YouTube. I posted an hour long concert video of her and soon it was blocked in Germany. At first I couldn't figure out why and then I discovered that in a 30 second segment between songs some dancers performed to a German artist. Perhaps this might give them some tiny claim to monetize it, but instead they just blocked it completely. Thanks to the internet I can enjoy some incredible music even though I can't understand a word of Russian. I bought one of her CDs, a sale they would have not made if she was blocked in the US.

  • On the post: Sirius XM Hit Again Over Pre-1972 Recordings

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2014 @ 10:43pm

    Re:

    Just like the hypocrisy of the German news outlets when Google eliminated all but the headlines from their listings. Google did not go far enough. They should have completely blocked Germany from their listings and taken down all German artists from YouTube. Close out all German Gmail accounts too.

  • On the post: Sirius XM Hit Again Over Pre-1972 Recordings

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2014 @ 10:03pm

    Doen't make economic sense

    I was a teenager in the 60's and The Turtles were one of my favorite bands. They had several great hits and I'm sure they earned millions for the labels. I have to wonder in the nearly 50 years since then if they have brought in a tiny fraction of that since they fell of the charts. Ask anyone under 40 if they ever heard of them. In my days the labels realized correctly that airplay=sales and there was the payola scandal where they were paying DJ's to put recordings in the rotation. Because of their greed now some really great music will fade into oblivion and never make them another dime. Just another example of copyright destroying culture. Even the oldies stations are phasing out the 60's. There will be no new fans for most of the music of my era. When my son was in his teens in the late 90's I shared my CD's with him and he became a fan of many of the same bands from when I was that age. Much of it will not be public domain until my great grandchildren are in their 50's.

  • On the post: SXSW Considering Turning Austin Into The Olympic Village, Complete With 'Brand Equity'-Protecting 'Clean Zones'

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 15 Oct, 2014 @ 09:54pm

    Is this going to require that they tape over the brand names on the toilets and urinals like at the Olympics? Where does it stop? Will they make everyone leave behind any cell phones, watches, shoes, clothing with logos etc. that are not sponsors when they enter the clean zone? This would even be too extreme for the TSA.

  • On the post: Judge Issues $5 Million Award To Dow Jones In Hot News Case… But It's Meaningless

    OldGeezer ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2014 @ 09:40pm

    Breaking stories are often wrong

    News organizations compete with each other to make the big scoop and this causes them to jump to conclusions before the details are fully confirmed. Once the first news channel or paper takes the risk everyone else jumps in and reports the same sketchy story. This has led to many sources wrongly reporting the death of a celebrity or spreading spoof news stories and making asses of themselves.

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