pringerX 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: US Government Officials Admit That They Lied About Actual Impact Of Wikileaks To Bolster Legal Effort

    pringerX ( profile ), 20 Jan, 2011 @ 11:31am

    This is completely unsurprising. If there had been compromising information released, it would have been dealt with swiftly and most likely, silently. The fact that it was trumpeted in this manner suggests nothing crucial was at stake in the first place, aside from some egos.

  • On the post: Techdirt 2010: The Numbers.

    pringerX ( profile ), 12 Jan, 2011 @ 01:53pm

    That is pretty hilarious. If this were an election, Hephaestus should demand a recount.

  • On the post: Permission Culture And The Automated Diminishment Of Fair Use

    pringerX ( profile ), 28 Dec, 2010 @ 07:50am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: The very point of fair use is that it's supposed to allow for creativity without permission. NO MIKE

    Nothing kills an argument faster than an ad hominem attack.

  • On the post: Study Suggests Placebos Don't Have To Be Secret To Work

    pringerX ( profile ), 27 Dec, 2010 @ 12:51pm

    Psychosomatic

    It's like the people who claim to be allergic to wireless signals. Their physical symptoms have been documented to be real, but obviously unassociated with the presence of wireless signals. The mind does have considerable power over the body. The tricky part is figuring out where the limits are; it's probably also different for different people. For minor things like colds, where the stakes are fairly low, the placebo effect might be fine. But clearly more research has to be done before you can apply them to more serious ailments.

  • On the post: Anyone Notice That Sites Don't Have To Rely On Google So Much For Traffic Any More?

    pringerX ( profile ), 26 Dec, 2010 @ 07:50am

    Google more effective for large sites?

    I thing Google may drive more traffic for large, established sites like TD than small start-up sites.

    Both large and small sites rely on their fan base to link to friends via email, social network, personal blogs, etc. However, large sites have the benefit of being on the radar- they are more likely to come up in casual conversation, the news and other media. Greater exposure means more Google searches by naive (in the scientific sense) people whose interest has been piqued. Small sites don't have this visibility, are are more reliant on traffic by non-Google referrals.

    This is just theory though, so feel free to poke holes in it. Also at the very bottom of it all is the assumption that you have good content.

  • On the post: isoHunt Appeals Process Begins

    pringerX ( profile ), 23 Dec, 2010 @ 12:08pm

    Re: Re:

    So you're saying it's better to criminalize all torrent users than to let any infringer go. That you would rather see an innocent person executed than 99 criminals walk.

    That is not how our justice system is supposed to work. Innocent until proven guilty; the burden of proof is on the accuser. Effectively what you are supporting by banning torrents outright is a policy of guilty until proven innocent. If anything, your argument is weaker (and more disturbing): A majority of illegal users does not make criminalizing innocents right in any way.

  • On the post: Now Random Webhosts Are Demanding Wikileaks Mirrors Be Taken Down Over Possibility Of DDoS?

    pringerX ( profile ), 23 Dec, 2010 @ 08:46am

    $100 million to take down Techdirt, or...

    Threaten TD with a DDOS attack?

    Internet - Techdirt = sad panda

  • On the post: isoHunt Appeals Process Begins

    pringerX ( profile ), 23 Dec, 2010 @ 08:43am

    What big picture?

    Having read all the comments thus far, those in favor of taking down isoHunt and Torrent-Finder seem to be supporting a dangerous stance. Specifically, that a search engine is responsible for the results it pulls up.

    Does this mean Google and Yahoo and Bing are all infringing, because people undoubtedly search for infringing material via these search engines? Or are they in the clear because of some arbitrary, unmeasured percentage of searches are non-infringing? Is it because their intent is not to enable infringement? Because one can claim that isoHunt and Torrent-Finder are great places to search for linux distros, which would not be off the mark. And before you challenge that "the vast percentage of isoHunt/TF users are searching for infringing material", can you provide these exact percents? For isoHunt, TF, as well as Google, Yahoo and Bing?

    The fact of the matter is, search engines offer a service. What people do with that service is their business. They may be liable, but the service provider is not. Ebay, Craigslist and internet service providers would all fall under the overly broad umbrella of "contributing to infringement".

  • On the post: isoHunt Appeals Process Begins

    pringerX ( profile ), 23 Dec, 2010 @ 08:26am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Where does isoHunt host these infringing files? It's true that typing in search terms in isoHunt may turn up infringing materials, but nowhere is the material itself permanently hosted by isoHunt. What you're saying is search engines must be held accountable for the results they provide. Is this truly what you think?

    Also, Mike has never condoned piracy. He just acknowledges that piracy exists, that it is all but impossible to stop, and to deal with it effectively one must work it into one's business model (or account for it).

  • On the post: Second Humble Indie Bundle Does Even Better Than The First

    pringerX ( profile ), 22 Dec, 2010 @ 09:52am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Switched to Linux

    I haven't really used Linux much, but I had plenty of Compsci friends who did (and our school workstation network was linux based). I must agree that with the more sophisticated builds of Linux, Developer's Syndrome is very much in effect. However, builds like Ubuntu are pretty user-friendly.

    In some ways, Linux is like Mac, in that it caters to a niche market. With Mac, the niche is based on $$$ and chic which means as long as it wants to corner that market, it can't expand. Linux has potential though. Sure, its niche is the tech savvy, but there is nothing to prevent more user-friendly versions from taking over the market space. It just needs to convince the multitude of PC xenophobes to make the leap.

  • On the post: DailyDirt: Peak Coal And Other Energy-Related Stories

    pringerX ( profile ), 21 Dec, 2010 @ 08:49am

    I'm more interested in the battery technology. If we can figure out why Li ion batteries crap out the way they do, that could lead some really awesome stuff. A lot of potentially useful cordless technology is limited by the relatively low energy densities of batteries.

    On the other hand, these researchers might discover there is an insurmountable barrier to increasing energy densities once they get to the bottom of things.

  • On the post: Nike Sues Guy Who Ordered Single Pair Of Counterfeit Sneakers Over The Internet

    pringerX ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2010 @ 02:51pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Asinine

    Very good point, I missed that the entire thing is going down in the UK. In which case, US law is not pertinent to British law, but it is still worthwhile to examine how things might have played out in the US. Thanks for pointing out my error!

  • On the post: Nike Sues Guy Who Ordered Single Pair Of Counterfeit Sneakers Over The Internet

    pringerX ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2010 @ 12:17pm

    Re: Re: Re: Asinine

    btr1701:
    As a federal agent whose particular jurisdiction is the enforcement of counterfeit currency crimes, let me reassure you that you are not legally liable for passing counterfeit that you had no reasonable way of knowing was counterfeit. There is an intent element ("knowingly") included in the statute.


    Thanks for the info! That is approximately in line with my initial thoughts.

    However, in the case here, I wonder if it was presumably due to an oversight that the law lacks an intent element, or due to fundamental differences in criminal versus civil law. Anyone else care to chime in?

  • On the post: Nike Sues Guy Who Ordered Single Pair Of Counterfeit Sneakers Over The Internet

    pringerX ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2010 @ 11:03am

    Re: Asinine

    What I find astounding is that the buyer's state of mind is irrelevant. Although, I would like someone to enlighten me on this question- if you inadvertently use counterfeit money because it was given to you as change by someone else, are you responsible or at fault? I seem to recall this tends to result in some sort of mitigating circumstances, or nothing at all. Or is this because civil law has lower standards than criminal law?

  • On the post: Weighing The Benefits And Costs Of DRM: Type I & Type II Errors

    pringerX ( profile ), 14 Dec, 2010 @ 09:56am

    Cost benefit analysis

    For any given system, pushing down Type II errors (false negatives) by definition increases Type I errors (false positives). For DRM, this means failing to catch pirates (I) and inconveniencing legitimate customers (II).
    However, I disagree with classifying the costs of the system as a Type II error, because these are not relevant to the statistical model. Instead, Type II errors fall into a bigger category that is "Cost to consumer". In this context, you can set the stringency of your DRM (which affects relative ratios of Type I and II errors), and you can raise the specs of your DRM. All of these have a cost, but if we break it down, Type II errors and raising the specs cost more.
    This is because Type II errors irritate your customers (never a good idea), and raising specs has costs that must be paid by the company, or passed to the customer. Type I errors do carry a cost in lost sales, but they also carry a gain in free advertising. Usually these gains far outstrip any lost sales. So if you add it all up, the road the entertainment industries have taken is completely illogical.

    But we already knew that, right?

  • On the post: Sherman Fredericks 'Steals'* From Me

    pringerX ( profile ), 13 Dec, 2010 @ 03:06pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    That's dodging the question. Why is Sherman's quote of TechDirt "fair use" if those in the Righthaven cases are not "fair use"? Did the Righthaven cases involve substantial copying without attribution?

  • On the post: Journalists Continue To Rely On Bogus Research About File Sharing As If It Were Factual

    pringerX ( profile ), 13 Dec, 2010 @ 10:39am

    The devil is in the details

    The article on TorrentFreak highlights two serious flaws in the way the study was carried out. Basically, there is overcounting of seeders, and misleading approximation of "most downloaded" as "most seeded". The miscategorization issue is subjective, but an authority like TF is likely to be better at categorizing torrents.

    In short, the standards are incredibly bad. If you did the equivalent in biology, you'd probably be retracting the paper right about now.

  • On the post: Paul Allen's First Attempt At Patent Trolling Flops As He Forgets To Say Who Actually Violated What And How

    pringerX ( profile ), 13 Dec, 2010 @ 10:24am

    For every successful patent troll, there are probably a dozen miserable failures. What's worrisome is that there are successful ones at all.

  • On the post: One Way To Deal With Child Bullying: Have The Whole Internet Stand Up For You

    pringerX ( profile ), 10 Dec, 2010 @ 08:04am

    Re: Re: Re: Ugh...

    I have a theory. It's not bullying that's dangerous, it's isolation. Almost without exception everyone gets hit by some bullying (if you didn't, then you were probably the bully), some people more so than others. The ones who can't cope (that we see in all these news stories) are the ones that don't have a place to 'belong'. I got picked on for being smart, but I had a small group of friends who shared my interests. They got targeted too, but we made it through because we were all in a group that accepted each other.
    Bullying isn't going away. But I think kids these days are becoming increasingly disconnected emotionally, which makes them easier to become isolated. And this is exacerbated by the increased communicative connections (Internet, etc.), which makes it easier for bullies (intentional or passive) to pick on them.

  • On the post: So WikiLeaks Is Evil For Releasing Documents… But DynCorp Gets A Pass For Pimping Young Boys To Afghan Cops?

    pringerX ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2010 @ 10:48am

    Re: Re:

    I think some folks mistook my post for sarcasm. Venting is normal and human (and probably good for you now and then). The outrage at this incident is totally justified, but just jumping on board the rage bandwagon won't get much done. To Mike's credit, he must have the patience of a saint to have blogged about the issues he does for so long.

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