Paddy Duke 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (97) comment rss

  • On the post: Did LimeWire Shutdown Increase Music Sales? Part II

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 17 May, 2011 @ 02:01am

    Motherf... so the failure of digital music sales was The Beatles' fault this whole time?

  • On the post: Son Of COICA: PROTECT IP Act Will Allow For Broad Censorship Powers, Even Granted To Copyright Holders

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 12 May, 2011 @ 02:20am

    Re: Re: Re:

    That?s still protecting IP though, right?

    The real issue is that IP doesn?t need any more protection. It needs, at least, total reform or, preferably in my opinion, abolition.

  • On the post: Son Of COICA: PROTECT IP Act Will Allow For Broad Censorship Powers, Even Granted To Copyright Holders

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 10 May, 2011 @ 02:18pm

    Re: When do we give up?

    Not so much ?self-destructive? as ?just as bought and paid for by American corporate interests?.

  • On the post: Judge Allows US Copyright Group To Shakedown 23,322 IP Addresses For Downloading The Expendables

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 10 May, 2011 @ 06:34am

    I want in on this game.

    This seems to be a fantastic business model where you?re guaranteed a return whether you succeed or not, so I want in. Who wants to help me make a crappy film?

    If it takes off and becomes popular, we?ll be rich!

    If it doesn?t, we can blame piracy and sue/shake down tens of thousands of people who allegedly shared it for hundreds of times more than they would have ever have paid us to see it. We?ll be rich!

    In fact I hope it?s a flop.

  • On the post: Amazon Uses Steve Jobs Words Against Him In App Store Dispute

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 27 Apr, 2011 @ 06:31am

    Re: Re: Cool

    Of course, even dogs are smart enough to know that if they each have an identical bone to themselves, they?re both happy.

  • On the post: UK Advertising Board Says CD Jukebox With Hard Drive Can't Advertise That It Copies Music, Since That's Infringement

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 06 Apr, 2011 @ 07:02am

    Re: Double standardsO

    One of the ASA?s primary roles is to protect advertisers from legal liability. Pointing out that an advertisement could be misconstrued in such a way as to expose the advertiser to incitement charges is doing exactly the right thing.

    To use a handy car analogy, most drivers speed, but advertising a car with the claim ?Performs excellently at well over the legal speed limit.?, however true that might be, would be asking for trouble.

  • On the post: UK Advertising Board Says CD Jukebox With Hard Drive Can't Advertise That It Copies Music, Since That's Infringement

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 06 Apr, 2011 @ 06:40am

    Re: Re:

    I?m quite sure that there are numerous members of the ASA who have no issue with the copying, and who have music libraries riddled with pirated material. But that?s not the point here.

    The job of the ASA is to protect advertisers from legal liability (incitement in this case), and the public from misleading information (i.e., that it is legal to rip music from CDs).

    What the ASA did here was exactly the right thing. Whether they agree with the law or not is really neither here nor there.

  • On the post: Does The NY Times Donate To Wikipedia For Being A Massive Source Of Information?

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 24 Mar, 2011 @ 07:51am

    Re:

    If the MSM is so good at high-standard, fact-checked, close-to-the-source journalism, why is that I and so many people I know don?t trust what we see or read in The News? until we?ve seen it verified or refuted by several dozen unpaid bloggers and tweeters?

    No one journalist or paper can fact check as well as half a million interested members of the public, whether they have to leave their desks to do it or not.

    When I do read the the websites of newspapers and major news organisations, I value the opinion pieces more highly than the ubiquitous 'The government/BPI/self serving industry group has announced...' re-edited press releases that have become the norm for most journalists.

    If mainstream news was as good and relevant as it claims to be, people would read it. And if the vast majority of people are so stupid that they would rather read "newsertainment-punditry", then the obvious solution for the newspapers struggling to make ends meet is to produce that kind of news.

    Trying to tell people that what they want is the wrong thing is rarely a good business strategy, no matter how noble the intention.

  • On the post: Reason #247 Why You Should Pay For The NYTimes: To Keep Its Dead Obituary Writers Employed

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 24 Mar, 2011 @ 05:30am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    With the rate of content production constantly increasing, most content older than 5 years is probably worse off locked down under copyright.

    The authors would almost certainly be better served by freely disseminating old content in order to promote their new stuff/live performances/other value propositions.

    I think some other stuff, like live recordings of sporting events, should have even more limited copyright terms, but that is more of a personal wish that I should be able to access and watch past events that will never be broadcast again.

  • On the post: Inauspicious Start For Chris Dodd At MPAA; Starts Off With 'Infringement No Different Than Theft' Claim

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2011 @ 05:16am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    If someone makes copies without his permission it fundamentally changes the value of the property, and thus the property itself.

    If you sell a popular service, and I start offering a much cheaper competing service of equal or better quality, I have fundamentally changed the market for your service. I have directly affected your ability to sell your service at its current price by creating competition.

    Have I infringed on your rights in this case? Are my customers criminals because they didn?t buy your service? Of course not. You are still free to try and sell your service at any price you want. You can even make use of any efficiencies my entrance to the market may have created or highlighted. If you fail to compete, that?s your fault, not mine or my customers?.

    This is effectively what happened with electronic file sharing. The old media method was slow and expensive. The new method is fast and cheap. No prizes for guessing which option the consumers prefer.

    It?s competition, not theft.

  • On the post: What Would Happen If Napster's Co-Founder Owned Warner Music?

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2011 @ 03:33am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    So why don?t you put ads on album sleeves and make recorded music viable again? Seems as though, if it was just that simple, you could have figured it out before now.

  • On the post: Does President Bush Speaking Out Against Julian Assange Prejudice The Case Against Him?

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2011 @ 08:04am

    Re: Re: I still don't understand how he can be charged with anything?

    ^ AC comment was me. Forgot to log in.

  • On the post: Bradley Manning Hit With New Charges; Could Face Death Penalty

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 03 Mar, 2011 @ 06:16am

    Re: Re: So let me get this straight...

    If he?d been trafficking stolen munitions to terrorist cells or malevolent regimes you would have a point.

    He wasn?t though, was he?

  • On the post: How To Debunk A Fact-Free Fox News Fearmongering Piece About New Video Game

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 16 Feb, 2011 @ 05:03am

    Re: too bad my wife watches them

    You could explain to her that, statistically, your son is more likely to be murdered by her than to come to any harm by a stranger they play games with online.

  • On the post: Evidence Suggests Major Film Studios Uploading Movie Clips To YouTube… Pretending To Be Pirated

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 14 Feb, 2011 @ 05:10pm

    Re:

    Absolutely.

    Though to do so using false identities and then sue YouTube over videos the studios themselves uploaded does seem a touch disingenuous.

  • On the post: 'War' On Fake Drugs Really An Excuse To Boost Big Pharma; Putting The Poor At Risk

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 09 Feb, 2011 @ 07:22am

    Lies, Damn Lies, And Logical Fallacies

    Lumping generics and fakes together under the guise of safety should immediately set off alarm bells. It?s totally illogical, and much more dangerous. This is how I see it.

    Under a fair system, you might have 3 choices when buying medicine for a given condition:
    1. Big Pharma?s brand name, at an artificially inflated price
    2. A legal generic drug, at a lower price
    3. An illegal generic, at a very low price, with obvious risks

    This system differentiates the generics from the fakes (and other untested drugs) pretty well, by maintaining proper regulation of the lower priced drugs.


    Under systems like that proposed by ACTA you have only two options:
    1. Big Pharma
    2. Illegal drugs, generics and fakes.

    This system encourages the production of dangerous counterfeit drugs, because it?s much easier to confuse them with legitimate generics.


    Thus, any attempt to lump generic pharmaceuticals in with fakes in the name of safety is blatantly disingenuous and should be pointed out as such, as loudly and publicly as possible.

  • On the post: So After Torturing Bradley Manning For Months, US Officials Offer Him A Deal If He Says Assange 'Conspired' With Him

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 20 Dec, 2010 @ 06:00am

    Re: Re: Re: Please cite sources for "Solitary = Torture"

    You got a source for that?

    No, not that source! I don?t like that source.

  • On the post: French National Assembly Approves Internet Censorship Law

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 20 Dec, 2010 @ 04:04am

    Using an internet blacklist to try to stop illegal behaviour is like hanging a curtain and declaring sunlight a thing of the past.

    Sure, you won?t be able to see it, but it?s still out there.

  • On the post: The US's Reaction To Wikileaks Is Doing A Lot More Harm Than The Leaks Themselves

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 14 Dec, 2010 @ 11:01am

    Re: Trial?

    ?the President can order anybody, including even US citizens, assassinated by the military?

    They are US officials. If a politician has the power to order anyone?s assassination it should be their own electorate.

  • On the post: Olympics Continues Threatening ICANN Because It Won't Block All Olympics-Related Terms

    Paddy Duke ( profile ), 06 Dec, 2010 @ 12:27am

    Re: Re: Subject

    Zero sum athletics?

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