Richard 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Lindsey Graham: Boycott The Olympics Because Snowden, Putin, Hitler And Stalin (Oh My?)!

    Richard ( profile ), 18 Jul, 2013 @ 02:24pm

    Re:

    I was under the impression Jesse Owens did a marvelous job showing Hitler's ideology up in 1936.

    An impression which was sadly false.

    In fact Hitler did not treat Owens any worse than any other non-German athlete.

    Owens said "Hitler had a certain time to come to the stadium and a certain time to leave." "It happened he had to leave before the victory ceremony after the 100 meters. But before he left I was on my way to a broadcast and passed near his box. He waved at me and I waved back. I think it was bad taste to criticize the 'man of the hour' in another country."[13]"


    The people who mistreated him were Americans.

    He never received any acknowledgement from FDR and he had to ride the freight elevator to get to the reception for Olympic athletes at the Waldorf Astoria after the games.

    In Germany he was allowed to stay in the same hotels as white athletes - not so in the US at the time...
    see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens

  • On the post: Copyright Intensive Firms Are Excessively Profitable

    Richard ( profile ), 17 Jul, 2013 @ 01:47am

    Capitalists don't like capitalism

    Actually the problem exists in all companies. At root the point is that capitalists don't actually like capitalism. All companies try to create monopolies for themselves. The ones who are able to use copyright to do this have an extra advantage and so are more successful.

  • On the post: Anyone Traveling Into The UK Can Have Their Phones Seized And Data Downloaded Without Cause

    Richard ( profile ), 16 Jul, 2013 @ 08:00am

    Re: Re:

    Sorry - should read "as Walter Wolfgang found out in 2005"

  • On the post: Anyone Traveling Into The UK Can Have Their Phones Seized And Data Downloaded Without Cause

    Richard ( profile ), 16 Jul, 2013 @ 06:29am

    Re:

    Sadly I have to disagree with you there. You are wrong but the reality is even worse. In fact the UK did a lot of these bad things before the US. We are the testing ground.

    Also bear in mind that the things you have to do to be considered a "terrorist" are extremely easy - as found out in 2005.

  • On the post: Obama To Angry Europeans: Hey, Come On, You Guys Spy On Us Too, Right? Right?

    Richard ( profile ), 02 Jul, 2013 @ 01:07pm

    How we have fallen

    Since the days of Henry Stimson who said:
    "Gentlemen do not read each others mail"

  • On the post: Sen. Dick Durbin: Journalists Deserve Protection But We'll Decide Who's Actually A Journalist

    Richard ( profile ), 02 Jul, 2013 @ 07:37am

    Simple Answer

    Why not use George Orwell's definition of journalism
    "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations."

    Of course it seems that Durbin's defintion is the exact opposite.

    (with thanks to That One Guy) for bringing this quote to my attention last week.)

  • On the post: The Result Of Stupid Protectionism: Microsoft Kinect Can't Be Used On Microsoft Windows PCs

    Richard ( profile ), 28 Jun, 2013 @ 02:45pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Plus the $400 fee seems to be for the pre-production device - not just for the license.

  • On the post: US Officials Realizing That Snowden May Have Copied Info On Almost Everything The NSA Does

    Richard ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2013 @ 04:44am

    Re: Re: Re: Security

    Especially if he is a subcontractor and not even a regular employee.

  • On the post: American Bankers' Association Claims Routing Numbers Are Copyrighted

    Richard ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2013 @ 04:39am

    Re: Re: Re:

    OCLC owns all copyright rights in the Dewey Decimal Classification, and licenses the system for a variety of uses.

    That does not prove that there actually are any such rights!

  • On the post: Joel Tenenbaum Loses Again; Bad Cases With Lying Defendants Make For Bad Law

    Richard ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2013 @ 03:05am

    Re:

    The worst of it is that he didn't even go down making a principled stand - so he is not even a
    decent quality martyr.

  • On the post: Donald Trump Thinks The Extradition Process Is Too Slow, Suggests Just Killing Edward Snowden

    Richard ( profile ), 25 Jun, 2013 @ 08:01am

    Re: This shows that Trump doesn't think before he speaks

    A government that doesn't care about due process might well treat Trump the same way that the Russians have treated
    Khodorkovsky

  • On the post: Up Is Down, Day Is Night, And Keeping Mobile Phones Locked Increases Consumer Choice?

    Richard ( profile ), 24 Jun, 2013 @ 02:59pm

    Nominative determinism

    Nominative determinism Michael Moroney

  • On the post: Ed Snowden Leaves Hong Kong, Seeks Asylum In Ecuador, As US Officials Flip Out

    Richard ( profile ), 24 Jun, 2013 @ 03:31am

    Re:

    Not that far.

    After all you started the war in question for dubious (and somewhat unclear) motives at a time when the Britian was trying to deal with the threat of Napoleon. You invaded a peaceful country (Canada) and part of your motivation was to try and dispossess the Indians (who were being supported by Britain).

    The episode of the burning of Washington was symptomatic of incompetence. Only a fool starts a war from such a weak position.

    As for "without infringing a political, civil or religious right" I doubt if many native Americans or Canadians would agree with that.

  • On the post: Copyright Exceptions Gaining Ground Around The World — But Not For The Blind

    Richard ( profile ), 22 Jun, 2013 @ 06:54am

    Re: Re: Re:

    I'm not sure if this means that no one wants to circumvent DRM to do something legal, or that no one cares about circumvention of DRM being illegal.

    Actually I suspect the truth is that no one cares enough either way to bother to go through the hoops necessary to use this procedure.

  • On the post: Copyright Exceptions Gaining Ground Around The World — But Not For The Blind

    Richard ( profile ), 21 Jun, 2013 @ 03:41pm

    Re:

    n typical UK fashion, they have basically done similar to the US.

    Actually the UK have not copied the US in that. They actually started the whole anti-circumvention thing some years before the DMCA and the EU directives.
    However there is a cimbersome workaround as follows.

    Permitted acts

    Whilst it may be legitimate for right holders to use these tools to prevent copyright infringement, they can also prevent permitted activities that fall under copyright exceptions.

    The exceptions for use of DRM protected works are narrow, but if you consider your use falls under one of the exceptions you may request a workaround to the protection measure from the right holder.

    Under UK copyright law, if the right holder does not provide an effective workaround, you may issue a ?notice of complaint? to the Secretary of State. If your complaint is upheld the Secretary of State may issue directions on how to ensure that you are able to make use of the work in the way permitted by law.

  • On the post: Latest Stupid DRM Idea: Ebooks With Corrupted Texts That Vary By Customer

    Richard ( profile ), 21 Jun, 2013 @ 07:13am

    Re:

    Convert to ascii, convert back , job done!

  • On the post: Trading Lives For Freedom Is The American Way

    Richard ( profile ), 21 Jun, 2013 @ 01:28pm

    Reversal

    Of course - whilst trading real freedom for spurious safety at home they were happy to give up safety for the citizens of Iraq in the cause of a "liberty" that has yet to be achieved. The same is true to a greater or lesser extent in many other countries of the world.

    The reality is that this is actually driven by the need politicians feel to be seen to be doing something.

    At home they achieve it by sacrificing freedom in the cause of marginal improvements in safety.

    Overseas the need to be seen to be acting decisively takes the forms of military expeditions that cost many lives in the hope of achieving "liberty" which never really seems to be realised.

    What we need is a government that is biased towards inaction!

  • On the post: Latest Stupid DRM Idea: Ebooks With Corrupted Texts That Vary By Customer

    Richard ( profile ), 21 Jun, 2013 @ 07:10am

    Piracy

    And to think that authors used to complain that pirates didn't care about the integrity of the text:

    Here is Martin Luther:

    Now, the damage might still be
    sufferable, / were it not for the fact that they
    handle my books so wrongly and infamously. For
    what they do is to print these in such a hurry /
    that when they come back to me, / I cannot
    recognise my own books! / Here something has been
    omitted, / there something is displaced, / there
    again the wrong word is printed, / and everywhere
    one sees a lack of revision.

    Now it will be the offical version that has the errors!

  • On the post: Is Encryption Effective Against Snooping? German Government Says No, Snowden Says Yes

    Richard ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2013 @ 10:21am

    Re:

    Given sufficient resources and time (the more resources, the less time) you can break any code.

    Provably incorrect. The one time pad is theoretically unbreakable, although practically unusable for most ordinary purposes. Having said that, if you were planning a terrorist attack...

  • On the post: Why The Tech Industry Should Be Furious About NSA's Over Surveillance

    Richard ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2013 @ 01:23pm

    Re:

    Not long.
    The infamous Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) in the UK was brought in under the excuse of "terrorism" was soon used by local authorities for all kinds of trivial matters

    http://requestinitiative.org/2012/08/local-councils-misusing-ripa-law-to-spy-on-citizens/

    and eventually to spy on their own councillors

    http://raedwald.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/council-ripa-misuse-to-cost-millions.html

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