Qyiet 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Hadopi Says French National Library Needs Unprotected Works… To Put Its Own DRM On

    Qyiet ( profile ), 04 Feb, 2013 @ 05:45pm

    Double Encrypt it

    I suggest they use ROT13.. twice to be extra certain.

  • On the post: Sen. Charles Grassley: An Unregulated Video Game Market Is A Dangerous Thing

    Qyiet ( profile ), 03 Feb, 2013 @ 01:08pm

    Re: brilliant point

    the problem with the slippery slope is that games don't teach you to slowly pump the brakes until you regain control of the vehicle.
    Actually on a greasy road I did slide my car, and regained control via pumping the brakes. AND I credit this to playing a car game. A few months before the incident I'd been playing a minor track racing game with a wheel controller. When I slid out I reacted the same way I would have in the game, and regained control of the car as fast as was possible. I'd not practiced that before in any way in the real world, but the reaction was natural and learnt from the game.

    While I don't think that computer games saved my life, I do think they saved me a few thousand dollars and a lot of mess.

  • On the post: Six Strikes Administrator: Loss Of Open WiFi Access At Cafes Is Acceptable Collateral Damage

    Qyiet ( profile ), 22 Jan, 2013 @ 12:42pm

    Re: Re: Cafe's arn't the only ones

    You know who I blame? The assholes who don't obey the law.

    In NZ if you use the internet to do something illegal apart from copyright infringement (lets say child porn) you are held responsible for your actions, not the account holder. This is the way it should be: if you break the law, you are responsible.

    So I don't hold 'the assholes who don't obey the law' responsible. They will always exist. I hold the media execs that can't be bothered tracking down the actual lawbreakers responsible, and the politicians that re-wrote the law on their request.
    I'm more disgusted by the politicians to be honest, throwing away basic principles of law, and adding overhead costs to the entire business sector on the say-so of vested interests like this is sickening.

  • On the post: Six Strikes Administrator: Loss Of Open WiFi Access At Cafes Is Acceptable Collateral Damage

    Qyiet ( profile ), 22 Jan, 2013 @ 12:11pm

    Cafe's arn't the only ones

    I've had to deal with this.

    My parents are partially retired (one is one isn't), and a fair portion of their income comes from rental properties that they have invested in over time.

    They run short term rentals (a few weeks to a few months) of fully furnished properties. As such you need to provide utilities: Power, phone and internet. I live in NZ so we have a 3 strike law in place already, and it holds the account holder responsible for any infringement by the users.

    Their guests are often international visitors to whom internet access is incredibly important. However there is no way that said guests are able to get an internet account setup for the short time they are staying.

    The liability this poses on the account owner and the costs associated are insane. This should be a matter of 'get a router, get an account'. But instead small business owners are looking at hiring an IT professional, doing complicated setups with expensive routers (filtering won't do the job here), and running VPN pipes overseas just so that your guests can check their mail.

    This is all just working around the law, not working within it. There IS no way for my parents to provide internet to their guests without exposing themselves to significant liability.

    -Qyiet

  • On the post: Former Chief Judge Of Patent Court: We Need To Strengthen, Not Weaken, The Patent System Because [Reasons]

    Qyiet ( profile ), 16 Jan, 2013 @ 12:09pm

    Could you craft a functioning patent system?
    My thoughts on this were to:
    1) limit the number of items that qualify for patent protection
    2) have an exponentially growing fee to renew that protection
    3) Allow that protection to be traded to protect a new idea
    4) Drop time as an expiration reason for patents

    The idea is only the top X innovations would protected by patents. Then allow the protection to be traded, creating a market for that protection.
    I think this would stop trolling as it would make acquiring protection for something that isn't being used too expensive. It might also stop the issues we have with scaling in that people would be able to actually review view all valid patents. Finally assuming that X was a reasonably small number, it should stop the patent bullying (as described by IBM) because no-one would be able to hold so many patents.

    I think a renewal fee that starts small and grows exponentially is also a good idea, as it will encourage patent holders drop even massively profitable monopolies as the exponential growth of costs kick in.

    I hope this would encourage a innovation, as it attempts to allow for the protection that maximalists insist is required for innovation, but at the same time encourages as turnover, and release into the public domain. With the exponentially growing renewal fee stopping the eternal patent from existing.

    So there is my 2c on how to fix the system.. what do you guys think: Would it work, can it be improved upon?

  • On the post: First Three Strikes Case In New Zealand Goes To Hearing

    Qyiet ( profile ), 15 Jan, 2013 @ 07:18pm

    Re: It's a conspiracy

    Actually that works. The 'skynet' law (as written) was obsessed with defining the account holder of the public IP address as liable for any infringement. If you run across a private IP network till you are outside of NZ: No legal problem. Also if you download the same data from a web server, or any system that doesn't use a peer to peer network protocol.. no issue.

    TLDR: Stupid law is stupid.

  • On the post: Toshiba: You Can't Have Repair Manuals Because They're Copyrighted And You're Too Dumb To Fix A Computer

    Qyiet ( profile ), 12 Nov, 2012 @ 12:58pm

    Re: Injuries

    I got my share of cuts from sharp computer cases, but I can't say it was even close to every time.

  • On the post: Windows 8's Arbitrary App Certification Rules Could Block Skyrim And Other Huge Games

    Qyiet ( profile ), 22 Oct, 2012 @ 02:36pm

    Re: Re: Do your job, Zachary

    4) Claiming Windows 8 won't run anything outside the Windows Store...... Did I make that claim? I don't think so.
    The first line of the story you quoted did. "Because no software can ship on this future platform without it going through the Windows Store" So you put that claim front and centre.

    Who is talking about RT devices?

    Those of use who are technically literate assumed you were talking about RT devices because of the quote above stating that the only way to get software onto the platform was via the store. This is only (mostly) true for WinRT.

  • On the post: Windows 8's Arbitrary App Certification Rules Could Block Skyrim And Other Huge Games

    Qyiet ( profile ), 22 Oct, 2012 @ 01:35pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: As i understand it this is all OPTIONAL

    Well.. the file copy dialogs are much better. The multi-screen environment I use is better supported, It seems* to do everything faster, and I get much better management tools.

  • On the post: What Would You Like To Hear In A Techdirt Podcast?

    Qyiet ( profile ), 02 Aug, 2012 @ 04:15pm

    I'm lazy

    So a recap of the week's news that techdirt saw fit to cover, and any followups would be good from my PoV.

  • On the post: Friendly Pirate Challenges Minecraft Creator To Quake 3 Battle

    Qyiet ( profile ), 12 Apr, 2012 @ 02:27pm

    Re:

    Given some of the people rumored to be have been selected to play should the Bethesda Q3 trademark settlement have gone ahead, I don't like the odds of anyone but actual paid pro-gamers taking notch.

  • On the post: UK Judge Attracts Libel Tourists With $775k Award To New Zealand Cricket Player Over Defamatory Tweet

    Qyiet ( profile ), 01 Apr, 2012 @ 02:36pm

    Re: compensation..

    As a public figure Chris Cairns needs to man up and learn to take twitter comments in his stride.

    If Modi was a dick to Chris apart from that, and somehow managed to cost him extra seasons (possible, but debatable, Cairns was getting long in the tooth) and that was illegal then he should be punished for that, not by proxy over a tweet.

  • On the post: Australian Police To Go Wardriving, Telling People To Lock Up Their WiFi

    Qyiet ( profile ), 25 Mar, 2012 @ 03:59pm

    Re:

    Out of interest I ran a packet sniffer on my laptop for the 46 secs it took me to login to my bank account. I was going to make a mock billboard with the data.

    According to word I have 11,100 pages of flat text (and of course my password is encrypted somewhere in there) I *can't fit* that on a billboard.

  • On the post: Australian Police To Go Wardriving, Telling People To Lock Up Their WiFi

    Qyiet ( profile ), 25 Mar, 2012 @ 03:07pm

    Re: Re:

    I look at it like locking your door that has a glass panel on it. Anyone can break the panel and come in. It's security via politeness.

    It just says "I'm not giving you direct entry here", as opposed top open that says "Come get your network connection here".

  • On the post: Why Do The Labels Continue To Insist That 'Your Money Is No Good Here?'

    Qyiet ( profile ), 20 Mar, 2012 @ 01:09pm

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

    Wow, I never realized Somalia was doing so much to try and help the environment.

  • On the post: If You're Going To Compare The Old Music Biz Model With The New Music Biz Model, At Least Make Some Sense

    Qyiet ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2012 @ 11:36am

    Re:

    Look carefully at your favorite artists latest record. Is it still on a standard record label?
    I'm also pretty sure Nine Inch Nails, my favorite band since high school dumped their record lable in 2007.

  • On the post: Photographer Appeals Ruling Saying It's Not Infringement To Have Vaguely Similar Photos

    Qyiet ( profile ), 07 Feb, 2012 @ 04:13am

    Re:

    I don't know when you changed your avatar, but I'm suddenly more reluctant to annoy you sir.

  • On the post: Hollywood Studio Execs Upset That President Obama Didn't Stay Bought; Insist They Won't Donate More

    Qyiet ( profile ), 19 Jan, 2012 @ 11:26am

    Award that man points

    for correct use of the word quixotic. Well done sir.

  • On the post: Wikipedia Considers Blackout To Protest SOPA

    Qyiet ( profile ), 12 Dec, 2011 @ 04:55pm

    Woah, woah..

    Hold on there.. how about we just block wikipedia to the USA. While I appreciate there is bound to be all sorts of stupid flow on effects to the rest of the world if this law goes through I don't think we need to get ahead of the game here.

  • On the post: House Judiciary Committee Refuses To Hear Wider Tech Industry Concerns About SOPA

    Qyiet ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2011 @ 06:34pm

    What kind of democracy is that?

    What kind of democracy is that?
    The best kind that money can buy.

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