David Liu 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (163)

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

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 15 Feb, 2011 @ 02:32pm

  Re:

  Actually Apple is only taking 30% royalty on the app itself (i.e. the royalty they take for bringing a user to the service.) After that, subscriptions go 100% to the service itself, and Apple takes nothing from it.

• On the post: Once Again, If You Don't Offer Authorized Versions Of Released Content, Don't Be Surprised If People Get Unauthorized Copies

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 11 Feb, 2011 @ 12:00pm

  Re: No excuse...

  I don't even own a CD player any more. I don't even have a DVD drive on my computer either, built in 2010. I install all my games through Steam or other online distribution means. What would one do with a useless disc?

• On the post: Japanese Government Study Shows Anime 'Piracy' Could Boosts Sales

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 07 Feb, 2011 @ 02:00pm

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

  But does this even matter? Unless the anime industry is also in the rental industry, the anime companies have zero responsibility to care about the bottom line of rental shops. Pointing out the diminished sales of rental shops when it doesn't affect the bottom line of the anime industry in the slightest means nothing.

• On the post: Microsoft Highlights Why Google's 'Cheater' Accusations Ring Hollow

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 04 Feb, 2011 @ 03:48pm

  Re: Re: Re: Two headed hydra that can't agree

  Yeah, I don't quite get it either.
  
  It's not like Google really wasted a lot of time, money, and effort to catch Microsoft in the act, and once it did, it tossed up a blog post about it. Honestly to me, it seems like Google's doing exactly what Techdirt says it should, by socially shunning Microsoft for "cheating". Maybe it should've done it a little more snarky to come out quite a bit more ahead, but still, from what I've read, it's good enough.
  
  I don't quite get why Mike says "Google complaining about Microsoft using clickstream data is a waste of time". It isn't. It puts Google in the better light socially, exactly what Mike has set forth in the past. It's been really hard to read these Google vs Bing articles in the past couple days, since it's a glaring hypocrisy in every one of the articles.

• On the post: Lee Harvey Oswald's Brother Sues Funeral Home For Selling Oswald's Old Coffin

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 25 Jan, 2011 @ 11:01am

  Re: Re:

  IANAL, but isn't digging up bodies illegal without an exhumation order?

• On the post: Artist Facing 15 Years In Jail For The Crime Of Videotaping His Own Arrest

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 25 Jan, 2011 @ 10:57am

  From the article:
  "The Chicago Police, he said, have been expanding their recordings of ordinary civilians, with blue-light cameras, cameras in patrol cars, and the like. The justification for these recordings is that what happens in public is public, and there should be no expectation of privacy."
  
  If that's true, there's a massive double standard going on here. That just really pisses me off.

• On the post: Will Hollywood Kill The Golden Goose By Squeezing Netflix Dry?

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 20 Jan, 2011 @ 10:45am

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

  I find this to be very much true. I usually check Hulu or Netflix before any of the non-legitimate streaming sources. They could be showing me ads all day long and raking in revenue, but whenever I don't find it online, it's straight to torrents or don't even bother watching.

• On the post: Battling Wikileaks And The Art Of War

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 15 Dec, 2010 @ 01:51pm

  Re: Re: Re: Neat Piece :)

  That's because you're identifying the wrong enemy.
  
  The government has identified WikiLeaks as the enemy, when the real enemy is the public. The government has identified as conquering the internet as the way to engage in battle, when the real way to engage is to actually engage with the people with empathy.
  
  Taking your hydra analogy, it's obvious that engaging in battle will only create more hydra heads. But what if you were to sidestep the whole situation by convincing the hydra to become your ally?

• On the post: Does Saying You Wouldn't 'Buy' A Congressional Seat Mean You Don't Care About Politics?

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 15 Dec, 2010 @ 01:39pm

  Re: Change the Question

  Well, even then, the entire question hints at corrupting democracy itself.
  
  If you really look at the question hard enough, it boils down to:
  "How much would you pay to elect your chosen representative by buying votes off?"
  
  Majority of people probably would say zero to this.

• On the post: US Is Apparently Torturing Bradley Manning, Despite No Trial And No Conviction

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 15 Dec, 2010 @ 01:04pm

  Re:

  I'm pretty sure one of the rules of whistleblowing is to not go to the people who are involved. You go to an outside party who has authority over those involved. Since the data involves pretty much everyone in government, the next best bet is to release it to the public who hopefully still has some power over the government.

• On the post: Some Good, Some Bad In New Ruling On Whether Or Not WoW Bot Infringes Copyright

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 14 Dec, 2010 @ 06:12pm

  Re: Re: Its ok to use loopholes if Mike likes you, but not if he does not..

  Then again, everything that comes out of his mouth is pretty funny.

• On the post: Appeals Court Says Emails Are Protected By The 4th Amendment

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 14 Dec, 2010 @ 06:05pm

  Re: Likely to be overturned

  Wouldn't this overturn the third party doctrine though?

• On the post: Military Threatens To Court Martial Anyone Using USB Drives Or Other Removable Media

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 10 Dec, 2010 @ 02:22pm

  Re: Re: Why Did They Allow It In The First Place

  Isn't that what unsecured networks and computers are for?

• On the post: Military Threatens To Court Martial Anyone Using USB Drives Or Other Removable Media

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 10 Dec, 2010 @ 02:20pm

  Re:

  I'm sorta hoping that these computers are in locked cabinets with limited access to the internals. Because once you have actual physical access to that, you basically can do anything with enough know how.

• On the post: Military Threatens To Court Martial Anyone Using USB Drives Or Other Removable Media

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 10 Dec, 2010 @ 02:18pm

  Re: Let me count the ways

  I'm not exactly knowledgeable on classified computers, but for the most part, they don't have any of those ports, and aren't connected to the internet. Honestly, sneaking the tools in to do any of that stuff should be the bottleneck that's checked.

• On the post: Operation Payback May Now Start Focusing On Actually Digging Through Wikileaks Leaks For Details

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 10 Dec, 2010 @ 02:06pm

  Re:

  Err, you do realize that this article basically tells you flat out that they're doing what you think they should be doing, right?

• On the post: Is Operation Payback A Crime… Or Just The Modern Equivalent Of A Sit In?

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2010 @ 04:53pm

  Re:

  Most.
  
  Operation Payback doesn't use botnets to achieve its attacks.

• On the post: Is Operation Payback A Crime… Or Just The Modern Equivalent Of A Sit In?

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2010 @ 04:52pm

  Re: Re: Re:

  Wrong.
  
  http://encyclopediadramatica.com/LOIC

• On the post: Is Operation Payback A Crime… Or Just The Modern Equivalent Of A Sit In?

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2010 @ 04:48pm

  Re: Ignorance Must Be Nice, Guys

  That's the entire point of any protest. If everyone could just ignore the people protesting without a single bit of inconvenience, then there would literally be no point to the protest.

• On the post: Operation Payback And Wikileaks Show The Battle Lines Are About Distributed & Open vs. Centralized & Closed

  

  David Liu ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2010 @ 04:40pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

  Keyword being independent. You mention large groups of people who have beef with WikiLeaks. That's exactly what I'm getting at. It's much less likely that the attack on WikiLeaks was some random group doing it for the lulz than a politically motivated attack, possibly government endorsed.

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