David Liu 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Broadcasters To Sue Time Warner Cable For Making It Easier For People To See Their Shows & Ads

    David Liu ( profile ), 28 Mar, 2011 @ 08:14am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    It would help your case if you had something to point to and source. Otherwise you're all fluff and no substance. You even undermine yourself with "justification for piracy, I think". Come back when you actually know for sure what you're talking about.

  • On the post: Should Have Known Better Than To Trust The NY Times: China 'Protest' Hangups Story Is Bunk

    David Liu ( profile ), 25 Mar, 2011 @ 01:16pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: But . . . but . . . journalism!

    I'm pretty sure S&M anime with animals would require the use of some tentacle monsters...

    At least I hope so; I cringe at the thought of rabbits and bears doing S&M in the woods when we're not looking...

  • On the post: Homeland Security Says They Could Strip Search Every Airline Passenger If They Wanted To

    David Liu ( profile ), 23 Mar, 2011 @ 02:21pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: 100 mile strip search

    It's a saying.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon_my_French

  • On the post: Great Moments In Legal Questioning: IT Boss In Cuyahoga County Cannot Identify A Photocopier

    David Liu ( profile ), 23 Mar, 2011 @ 01:36pm

    Re: Re: He has a VALID point.

    Pleaaaaaaase tell me that's not what you think a photocopier is...

  • On the post: The Changing Way That Math Is Taught To Children

    David Liu ( profile ), 12 Mar, 2011 @ 06:55am

    Re: Re: Seems harder

    Yeah, the second method is actually the exact same as the first, except you just use more lines and write everything out.

    In the "old" method, you'd be doing each base of 10 in one line:

    4x6 = 24 (Write down a 4, carry the 2)
    4x3 = 12 (then +2 from the carry, so write down 14)

    --> 144

    2x6 = 12 (Write down a 2, carry the 1)
    2x3 = 6 (then +1 from the carry, so write down a 7)

    --> 72 (shifted to left by a ten's place)

    Ending up with:
    144
    +72_
    ----
    864


    The only reason why the two methods look so different is because the numbers are so short and 2x36 is an easily remembered product. But in reality, no one remembers 5x5436 off the top of their head, so they go through the process of 5x6, 5x3, etc. just like in the second method. The only difference being that they write it on a single line instead of one for each individual product.

    In other words, the article is really about how people can't tell why they're the same thing.

  • On the post: Cheap eBook Authors Realize Even Cheaper Is Even Better

    David Liu ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2011 @ 12:24pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    There are probably fixed costs that need to be taken into account with using the service, so at the 99 cent level, the proportion of sale price to costs warrants the higher tax.

    Of course, I'm just talking out of my ass here, and Amazon could really just be a bunch of dicks who want the extra money at that lower price.

  • On the post: Fox Sends DMCA Takedown To Google To Remove Link To DMCA Takedown Sent By Fox

    David Liu ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2011 @ 11:36am

    Re: Re:

    Don't worry guys, soon enough there'll be a DMCA takedown to the entire world saying that we need to take down all knowledge of this ever happening from our minds.

  • On the post: Family Trying To Claim Ownership Of 'Urban Homesteading' Caught Plagiarizing After Moralizing On Plagiarism

    David Liu ( profile ), 04 Mar, 2011 @ 01:08pm

    I don't think he's seriously asking for fees and stuff, but rather just pointing out the evidence that the family should probably pay up if they are to continue with their current course of legal action.

  • On the post: If You Say Something In Public, You Can Be Quoted And If You Say Something On Twitter, That's Public

    David Liu ( profile ), 03 Mar, 2011 @ 04:27pm

    Re: Re: Exposing Privates

    At best, only used as a courtesy notification (which this reporter did).

    If we required people to get permission for everything, we wouldn't be able to be any sort of commentary, criticism, news reporting, etc. on lots of things because people would just refuse permissions.

    That's why we have fair use clauses in our copyright laws.

  • On the post: Some Discussion Around Children And Tablet Computing

    David Liu ( profile ), 01 Mar, 2011 @ 11:13pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: What's up with the final paragraph?

    As a WoW player myself, who has used wowhead since its inception, those placeholders actually made me turn off my adblockers for Wowhead. It was definitely a "Connecting with Fans" moment.

  • On the post: PayPal Turns Bradley Manning Defense Account Back On; Claims It Was A Paperwork Problem

    David Liu ( profile ), 25 Feb, 2011 @ 02:59pm

    Re: Response to: David Liu on Feb 25th, 2011 @ 2:04pm

    I'm willing to bet that an increased amount of donations due to the whole situation triggered some flags and required extra confirmation.

    PayPal didn't just block them out of nowhere for no reason. From what I can tell from statements on both sides, PayPal requested that CtR (Courage to Resist) link a bank account to the PayPal account. I assume this helps prevent fraud and/or helps PayPal get more information on the company, which they were obligated to do (look up "Know Your Customer", a government regulation). It's quite possible that the amount of donations through the account before were never enough to require PayPal to do this due dilligence (since obviously PayPal doesn't do extra checks on EVERY account they have).

    The problem that caused the whole snafu was that CtR refused to give the bank information, which then resulted in the shutting down of the account. On one hand, CtR definitely had reason to be suspicious of PayPal, since PayPal refused to handle donations to WikiLeaks, but PayPal also had its hands tied by government regulations in this account (because of Know Your Customer obligations).

    So Paypal had no other choice but to shut it down. Of course, with a public outcry supporting CtR as a legitimate business for helping Bradley Manning (rather than some fraudulent business claiming as such), that probably provided enough to fulfill the KYC obligations, allowing PayPal to reinstate the account.

    That's my take on the whole matter. Not some malicious intent, but rather stupidity and silliness.

  • On the post: PayPal Turns Bradley Manning Defense Account Back On; Claims It Was A Paperwork Problem

    David Liu ( profile ), 25 Feb, 2011 @ 02:04pm

    Err, Paypal did tell them.

    From the previous article on the subject:
    ?They said they would not unrestrict our account unless we authorized PayPal to withdraw funds from our organization?s checking account by default. Our accounting does not allow for this type of direct access by a third party, nor do I trust PayPal as a business entity with this responsibility given their punitive actions against WikiLeaks?an entity not charged with any crime by any government on Earth.?

    And it seems like it was exactly that. As much as I would like to continue to vilify PayPal, it seems like this was a matter of miscommunication on both sides, which was promptly resolved (within one day).

  • On the post: Once Again, As The MPAA Whines About 'Piracy,' It Had Record Results At The Box Office

    David Liu ( profile ), 24 Feb, 2011 @ 02:50pm

    Re:

    I think the bigger argument Mike is making is that clearly there's money to be made and piracy is not as big of an issue as the MPAA thinks it is. Instead of putting piracy as it's #1 priority, the MPAA should be focusing on why it's still making money and expanding that goal.

    Mike's not saying that the MPAA should be grateful for what it's getting and shut up. It's saying that the MPAA could be doing smarter things with their time and money.

  • On the post: Maybe Super Cheap Video Games Are Helping, Not Destroying, The Video Game Industry

    David Liu ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2011 @ 12:18pm

    Re: Re:

    I have a couple of those games. I rarely if ever, play through them. The funny part is though, I still keep on buying new games.

  • On the post: Maybe Super Cheap Video Games Are Helping, Not Destroying, The Video Game Industry

    David Liu ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2011 @ 12:15pm

    Re: Nintendo has always been the worst

    The thing about the Steam DRM is that it's DRM done right.

    It's not something that really gets in your way, and if you put up with it, it provides added value through the fact that your games will always be there on any machine that has Steam. It's not "just a little more reasonable". It's something that the users feel that makes sense and like.

    DRM that treat users like criminals put gamers off. Steam doesn't give that feeling.

  • On the post: Maybe Super Cheap Video Games Are Helping, Not Destroying, The Video Game Industry

    David Liu ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2011 @ 12:08pm

    Re: Re:

    And not only could work in theory, but does work in practice for many many online MMOs.

  • On the post: Does Re-Imagining Lord Of The Rings From The Perspective Of Mordor Violate Tolkien's Copyrights?

    David Liu ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2011 @ 12:32pm

    Re: Re: We lose a lot ...

    I don't really think that'd actually happen though.

    I'm not a writer nor a publisher, but I would think that the book market, with its gatekeepers at the ready, kick out all these cheap knockoffs and never let them enter the market if they weren't any good. And if the hack writers were to release them online, they'd most likely languish in obscurity for being hack job releases. Finally, if they were to become popular and/or any good, they would still not be recognized as canon.

    I read a lot of random doujinshi (i.e. fanfic comics based on existing japanese comics), and I don't make the mistake of believing that what I read in these fanfics are to be part of the canon of the original work. I think you think too little of the original readers. They can tell what the original work is from the hack slamjobs that others might try to put out.

  • On the post: Did Watson Succeed On Jeopardy By Infringing Copyrights?

    David Liu ( profile ), 17 Feb, 2011 @ 03:24pm

    Re: Re:

    Well it could mean that the licensing fees were free to them. The second statement after it should be an extra qualifying statement that testifies to that fact, meaning that they used texts only which were free to license and use.

  • On the post: Sony Continues To Attack PS3 Jailbreakers: Threatens To Cut Them Off From PlayStation Network

    David Liu ( profile ), 17 Feb, 2011 @ 11:31am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    I'm pretty sure that people were hacking long before the PS3 was jailbroken.

    Case in point: Call of Duty MW1&2 and Black Ops all had hackers and cheaters online. Treyarch may blame the "insecurity" of the platform, but the fact is that games were hacked long before the jailbreak came out.

  • On the post: How Come No One Calls Out Pandora For False Promise Of Profitability?

    David Liu ( profile ), 15 Feb, 2011 @ 02:34pm

    Re: Re:

    Wait, ignore me entirely. I read the rules horribly horribly wrong. God I wish there was a edit option.

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