Richard 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (7496)

• On the post: Legacy Recording Industry Claims Pandora Is Playing A 'Sick Joke' In Seeking The Same Rates Others Pay

  

  Richard ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2013 @ 12:22pm

  Re: Re: Matthew Cline's Post

  This would have meant that Pandora would be liable as the distributor for non-licensed, copyrighted material, and liable for the "up to $150,000.00" fine per infringing copy.
  But surely - under their twisted doctrines - not supplying that information would amount to contributory infringement (if anyone else did it of course)

• On the post: Microsoft Said To Give Zero Day Exploits To US Government Before It Patches Them

  

  Richard ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2013 @ 08:15am

  Re:

  Read the article properly. The point is that they send information to the government before they release the fix - not before they have the fix.
  
  Plus, following your logic, why not release the details to other friendly governments and major corporate and educational clients?
  
  As things stand they have just told such people to switch straight away to open source - or be hacked by the US government.

• On the post: FBI Boss: Collecting Billions Of Phone Records Could Prevent Next 9/11, Boston Bombing — Despite Not Having Prevented The Originals

  

  Richard ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2013 @ 06:54am

  Re: If only we had say the 20th 9/11 hijacker in jail before 9/11

  If only we had not been so misguided as to create the whole Islamic fundamentalist movement in the first place - thanks to the misguided anti-soviet polies of Carter, Reagan, and Bush (Mk1).
  
  "In the late 1980s, Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, concerned about the growing strength of the Islamist movement, told President George H. W. Bush, "You are creating a Frankenstein."[33]" from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone
  
  And as I write this it seems that the US is determined to repeat the mistake by supplying arms to the Syrian rebels. Some of those weapons will inevitably end up in the hands of Al Qaeda.

• On the post: FBI Boss: Collecting Billions Of Phone Records Could Prevent Next 9/11, Boston Bombing — Despite Not Having Prevented The Originals

  

  Richard ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2013 @ 06:45am

  Re: It could

  Over the longer term, things will certainly develop.
  
  Not necessarily.
  
  All those failed prophecies (heavier than air flight is impossible, you (Einstein) will never amount to anything, we don't like their sound (the Beatles) etc) are noteworthy because they are unusual.
  
  Other predictions like:
  
  Perpetual motion machines are impossible.
  
  DRM will not prevent widespread infringement.
  
  The next terrorist attack will not be predicted (because it will be different from the last one.
  
  Have a well deserved reputation for remaining true.

• On the post: FBI Boss: Collecting Billions Of Phone Records Could Prevent Next 9/11, Boston Bombing — Despite Not Having Prevented The Originals

  

  Richard ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2013 @ 06:36am

  Re: Delusions

  As happened in the case of the recent fatal attack on an off duty soldier in Britain.
  
  The suspects were well known to the security services - they had even tried to recruit one of them but they failed to predict the attack.
  
  It puzzles me how people who, when challenged about their failure, say "well it's like searching for a needle in a haystack" but then turn round and demand a bigger haystack.

• On the post: Dear Politicians: Exposing US Dirty Laundry Isn't Aiding The Enemy

  

  Richard ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2013 @ 03:30am

  Re: Re: Of course we are the enemy

  Let the real public decide what to do, and hold accountable who is at fault.
  
  Unfortunatley that would probably degenerate into
  
  "Let the mass media bosses decide what to do, and hold accountable who is at fault."
  
  since most of the public still listen only to them...

• On the post: Dear Politicians: Exposing US Dirty Laundry Isn't Aiding The Enemy

  

  Richard ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2013 @ 04:18am

  Enemies created by the US

  In any case the supposed current enemy was actually created by the US itself http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone.
  
  At the time they were responding to those who they thought were their enemies but who later turned out not to be (at least to the same extent).
  
  The moral here is that you do not really know who the enemy actually is most of the time.

• On the post: Dear Politicians: Exposing US Dirty Laundry Isn't Aiding The Enemy

  

  Richard ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2013 @ 01:38am

  Exposing US Dirty Laundry Is Aiding The Enemy

  Exposing US Dirty Laundry Is Aiding The Enemy.
  
  
  
  
  Provided you remember who the enemy actually is.
  
  The enemy is the public.

• On the post: The Current Surveillance State Is The End Result Of Two Consecutive Presidents Rewriting Their Job Descriptions

  

  Richard ( profile ), 12 Jun, 2013 @ 11:06am

  Re:

  It's strange - but, at home, safety trumps democratic rights. However abroad, in Iraq, Afghanistan etc etc it seems that killing large numbers of civlians in the name of "freedom and democracy" is fine.
  
  Doublethink much!

• On the post: Sony At E3: Look How Unlike Microsoft We Are!

  

  Richard ( profile ), 12 Jun, 2013 @ 07:07am

  Re: It has been no secret -- Even I've heard it! Techdirt LATE, as usual.

  Had your day in the sun, now you're rapidly aging out of the 18-34 year old (physically) category,
  
  So is the average console player. The new 14 year olds are playing "app style" games on their smartphones.

• On the post: Sony At E3: Look How Unlike Microsoft We Are!

  

  Richard ( profile ), 12 Jun, 2013 @ 06:59am

  Re: Re:

  but they have as much incentive to do the same things their publishers do
  Actually not true - their incentives are much more skewed towards avoidign obscurity.

• On the post: Sony At E3: Look How Unlike Microsoft We Are!

  

  Richard ( profile ), 12 Jun, 2013 @ 06:56am

  Re: Re:

  Kinda like how Sony filed a patent on setting up the sort of restrictions Microsoft ended up implementing
  
  So why aren't Sony suing Microsoft for infringement?

• On the post: Majority Of Americans Okay With NSA Dragnet… Or, Wait, Not Okay With It; Depending On How You Ask

  

  Richard ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2013 @ 09:01am

  Re: just buy asking the question

  just buy asking the question
  
  Did you mean the "u" in "buy" - or was it a Freudian slip...

• On the post: DailyDirt: Changing The Way We Think About Charity

  

  Richard ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2013 @ 03:11am

  Re:

  Doesn't it all just become like this guy:
  http://www.jonlajoie.com/kickstarter

• On the post: DailyDirt: Changing The Way We Think About Charity

  

  Richard ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2013 @ 03:01am

  Re: Scrooge saves the world

  And for getting results, nothing beats...
  
  
  The John Lewis Partnership.

• On the post: DailyDirt: Changing The Way We Think About Charity

  

  Richard ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2013 @ 02:58am

  Re: Scrooge saves the world

  To pursue the first goal, donors must demand results-- real results, not just children's letters in crayon. And for getting results, nothing beats...
  
  
  Communism - Chinese style...

• On the post: Sen. Lindsey Graham, Verizon Customer: I'm GLAD The NSA Is Harvesting My Data. Because Terrorists.

  

  Richard ( profile ), 10 Jun, 2013 @ 06:31am

  Re: I have to laugh

  I want to live in your world Tim where none of the terrorists exist,
  
  For all practical purposes you ARE living in that world.
  
  The chances of being a victim of terrorism are vanishingly small.
  
  Extreme measures might have seen for public safety during the second world war in Britain - when the bombs were being dropped and killing nearly 1000 people per day but even then wiser councils saw that bombing of civilian targets was at best a waste of military resources and at worst a public relations disaster that only spurred tose under attack to greater efforts.
  
  Thos who say "because terrorism" should relaise that their response is exactly what the terrorists want and playing into their hands.
  
  The best response to terrorism is to do absolutely nothing!
  (including the media not reporting on it).

• On the post: Edward Snowden: Whistleblower Behind Leaks Outs Himself

  

  Richard ( profile ), 10 Jun, 2013 @ 01:43am

  Re: Re:

  Learn to think for yourself.
  
  I'm sure I've seen that line somewhere before ..
  
  Learn to reference properly!

• On the post: Edward Snowden: Whistleblower Behind Leaks Outs Himself

  

  Richard ( profile ), 10 Jun, 2013 @ 01:37am

  Re: Re: Re:

  The Chinese government has the right to veto extradition from Hong Kong if they deem it to be a matter of national security or foreign policy.
  
  Before that the US government would have to prove to the Hong Kong authorities that the request was not politically motivated.

• On the post: NSA Spying Revelations Start To Cause Outrage In Europe; China Next?

  

  Richard ( profile ), 08 Jun, 2013 @ 03:55am

  Re:

  But remember - the telephone sanitisers were a mistake, they turned out to have been useful. I don't was to die of a disease transmitted by a dirty telephone.

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