rorybaust 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (40) comment rss

  • On the post: FOIA Exemption B(5) Means Never Having To Let A Redaction Opportunity Slip By

    rorybaust ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2014 @ 12:23am

    if you having nothing to hide you have nothing to fear , or is that if you fear everything hide everything , they are the most transparent

  • On the post: Surprise: White House's Intelligence Review Task Force Suggestions Much More Than Just Cosmetic

    rorybaust ( profile ), 18 Dec, 2013 @ 03:22pm

    where are all the black bars

    So this report basically says that what Snowden said is true , which in itself is quite interesting since I don't think the US government have actually accepted that fact yet and admits that he was a whistle blower in a roundabout way amazing that the government has to concede that they abused their power so kudos to the US for releasing this or were they so worried about future leaks and that it would get out anyway.

    what I don't understand is where are all the black bars

  • On the post: Next From The Nanny State: Bloomberg Tries To Make You Not Think About Cigarettes

    rorybaust ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2013 @ 03:38pm

    the nannies were in Australia 1st

    welcome to Australia , all those are law , can't advertise , can't display , can't have logo's , all packaging covered in health warnings and graphic pictures of diseased body parts, but in a nanny state tobacco and cigarettes makes lots of taxes for the nannies so of course you can legally buy the stuff.

    and don't get us started on the speed camera's , but at least one of our ISP's iinet stood up to big content and walked away from a voluntary 3 strikes agreement. So yes in Australia the nannies are well advanced but at least we still have one ISP standing up for us, you win some lose a lot.

  • On the post: White House Petition Against CISPA Gets Over The 100,000 Signature Threshold

    rorybaust ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2013 @ 03:08am

    pesky people

    oh no , not another question to be answered, think the bar is just to be raised again , its pesky when people start taking things seriously and at our word.

  • On the post: Turns Out The NSA Doesn't Really Want Drop-In Visitors (With Cameras) At Their New Utah Spy Facility

    rorybaust ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2013 @ 02:39pm

    nothing a drone flyover could not achieve

    the really funny thing is the same technology that the US Govt use to spy on everyone could also be used to spy on this facility.

    I think the bad guys are already watching , keeping you own people in the dark seems counter intuitive

  • On the post: Bad Week For Carmen Ortiz: Admits To Botched Gang Arrest As Congress Kicks Off Swartz Investigation

    rorybaust ( profile ), 29 Jan, 2013 @ 12:45pm

    How many screw-ups do you get to make and keep such a job?

    5 the first 3 just alert you to the allegation of maybe your not being fair or reasonable in your prosecutions , the next 1 will move you into mediation and show you informational aides promoting you on how to improve your performance however if you get the 5th and final warning your career is slowed to 1/10th of the previous level and you can't switch jobs.

  • On the post: GEMA Takes Kim Dotcom's Mega Launch Party Video Down, Despite All Songs Being Cleared

    rorybaust ( profile ), 24 Jan, 2013 @ 03:02pm

    Because no music makes us buy no music, I suppose that's success, can't steal what you don't know , so it appears GEMA's aim is to eliminate piracy by eliminating the source.

  • On the post: Was An Advertisement In Vogue The Inspiration For The Star Wars Opening Crawls?

    rorybaust ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2013 @ 10:45pm

    In Vogue The Inspiration For The Star Wars Opening Crawls

    In a strange type of way it explains why so many others have copied that style of credits since, for it would have been the height of hypocrisy to get caught stopping others copying what you had already.

    I think we blame the artists way to much its the lawyers whom always seem to win any copyright dispute and its them lawyers whom help construct the law.

  • On the post: Microsoft Patents TV That Watches Back, Counts Heads, Charges Admission

    rorybaust ( profile ), 09 Nov, 2012 @ 12:35pm

    George Orwell

    I suppose its inevitable that in this ownership culture that they we find ourself in, to expect the heirs to the Estate of the late George Orwell will sue and to be fair I would suggest that his idea is as well formed and articulate as Microsoft's fiction so as to stand as prior art.

    I understand there are courts in the USA where these concepts are not as incredulous as I may think and that they are actually given credence.

    To think ones imagination can now just be patented as a working concept just to thwart and actual inventor down the track. Not even George saw that one coming.

  • On the post: The Social Networking Patent Thicket Consists Of At Least 30,000 Patents

    rorybaust ( profile ), 10 Apr, 2012 @ 04:03pm

    Its Obvious

    I now know the reason patents exist and the selling of AOL patents sealed it , obviously when you have stopped innovating in the good old days all you had was history to reminisce about but these days thanks to software patents that history is a weapon and the new innovators are all too willing to shell out big bucks for it. If Facebook is worth 100 Billion why not share it around and buy the arsenal to defend your out of proportion valuation from those whom having once had it (read Yahoo) realise they are no longer the next big thing , but of course like you did before they must have copied and no doubt been influenced by you so they must pay.

    Who says history is boring , when it comes to software its like winning the lottery a 2nd time around.

  • On the post: Desperation Of SOPA/PIPA Supporters On Display At CES

    rorybaust ( profile ), 11 Jan, 2012 @ 03:00pm

    Desperation Of SOPA/PIPA Supporters On Display At CES

    I had heard a rumour the Muppets were back and it appears it's true.The Muppets are a wonderful creation but at the end of the day they are voiced by others and we spend an awful lot of time in laughter at their antics. However the irony is the real Muppets are out doing something to stimulate their careers.

  • On the post: Former 'Anti-Piracy Investigator' Explains How He Fed Police Cases, Inflated 'Piracy' Stats

    rorybaust ( profile ), 04 Oct, 2011 @ 04:37pm

    statement from AFACT, attributable to executive director Neil Gane:

    Update: Delimiter has received the following statement from AFACT, attributable to executive director Neil Gane:

    AFACT rejects the claims made by Mr Warren who worked for AFACT as a sub contracted Private Investigator for three and a half years and who only makes these allegations after his services were no longer required. Independent and globally recognised researchers IPSOS & Oxford Economics have calculated the loss to the Australian movie industry as a result of movie theft. They are the ones qualified to gather statistics and to comment on their robustness ? not disgruntled former employees.

    The IPSOS & Oxford Economics report entitled ?Economic Consequences of Movie Piracy? can be found here (PDF).

  • On the post: Juror Using iPhone To Look Up Definition Of 'Prudence' Leads To Mistrial

    rorybaust ( profile ), 15 Sep, 2010 @ 09:38pm

    http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/dictionaryhome.aspx

    Its is dictionary on line , a simple search would have found it , not so surprising , if you remember for a lot of people this was the first encyclopedia that they ever used so looking for info

  • On the post: Australian Newspaper Says The Only Way To Get Its iPad App Is To Subscribe To The Paper Version

    rorybaust ( profile ), 26 Jul, 2010 @ 09:42pm

    If you don’t like toffy adding an apple won’t make it taste better (a toffy apple approach to news)

    I am the Australian that first submitted this story, I follow this site and I must credit it so much with giving me the courage to write my self. I did a piece on this issue as well at my blog. We live in a society where entitlement is seen as a right and no longer needs to be earned. The preoccupation with one’s self and the constant need for satisfaction of our every need appears to be an all persuasive trend and like the flu in winter time is also very catching. The state of play in society however does provide for a two-way street, for companies and industries that embrace this need of their customer’s. The path to success for these organizations will be paved in gold, however for industries that have not yet recognised this and that are in fact having their own delusional thoughts of entitlement, their paths detours somewhat and lets just hope that no one has turned the light off in that tunnel just yet.

    I think that the newspaper industry is a classic example of an industry that is failing to adapt to the new digital landscape and that the unprecedented success in their past has created a sense of entitlement, but in this new landscape they have neither adapted nor are they ready to compromise

    the whole article is at my blog.

  • On the post: Court Says Border Patrol Can Take Your Laptop For Off-Site Search If They Have Reasonable Suspicion

    rorybaust ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2010 @ 08:41pm

    Court Says Border Patrol Can Take Your Laptop For Off-Site Search If They Have Reasonable Suspicion

    So for example if I have set up on my laptop a link to my home computer , they could then search that through access allowed as user on my laptop.

    It seems that the courts have not put there life to a scrutiny that they expect others to endure.

  • On the post: Google Admits It Was Accidentally Collecting Some Open WiFi Data

    rorybaust ( profile ), 14 May, 2010 @ 05:28pm

    Re: Re:

    I interpreted your first article as yes they are collecting this data, but so what they are not using it, that some data is collected although not warranted or wanted but because of the methodology used.

    Yes I agree with all of these statements.

    Like if I use a net to fish for a particular fish but as a consequence of the net I catch others, it was not my intention and I have no use for the other fish. My use of the net is not illegal, the unintended fish I have caught are not prohibited. I am not using the unintended collected fish.

    However at the time of your first post Google had not suspended the collection of said data and although you did note privacy concerns of the data collected you pointed out correctly that the owners of the WIFI hotpot's had put their data out there, and there are ways to hide this, although a hidden public WIFI kinda defeats the purpose. It seemed to be pro Google with warnings to users,

    Now that Google have suspended the collection under pressure of media and governments,and this should be applauded, but they still have not done anything wrong. It appears your stance has changed and is stronger, if it is not then I have wrongly interpreted this post.

    " Google, clearly, should have known better and should have more carefully understood the code it was using and what it was collecting."

    and this is the change I see from the last post, why should Google have to refrain from legal activities because someone might get annoyed or paranoid, I am not saying you say they should, but the tone hints that way.

    Is it not also like the argument that Viacom says the Google should know if material is infringing copyright, so and since there is so much infringing content maybe they should just abandon You Tube.

    But at the end of the day I respect your site and value your interpretations, I just thought your position had shifted and that is fine if that position was taken with our access to all the data,but to me this did not appear the case.

    So as I said, the comment was my interpretation, If I was wrong I apologize.

  • On the post: Google Admits It Was Accidentally Collecting Some Open WiFi Data

    rorybaust ( profile ), 14 May, 2010 @ 04:32pm

    sorry I have to agree with the Anonymous Coward, your last post on this played the no harm no big deal, however your stance has moved . It was obvious that this type of data would be collected but it is the user that put it out there. The fact that Google acknowledged it points to the fact that they are open.

    It would be like me complaining about people knowing my name, and attacking me for this post and me complaining that they abused privacy by using my name, my be Anonymous Coward has the right idea.

    sorry I love this site but the inconsistency in post says to much to bear.

  • On the post: Student Punished For Facebook Study Group Files $10 Million Lawsuit

    rorybaust ( profile ), 23 Mar, 2010 @ 01:41pm

    It would appear that these days you play by the rules set by others $750 per song seems ridiculous.

    The school over stepped the boundary for them to realize this I think a $10 million slap is appropriate.

    It called fighting back. plus he could always argue that he would like to pay for his entertainment and that that missing grade has cost him the big paying job so to afford the outrageous cost of ebooks and electronic downloads it justified.

    more power to him, there needs to be consequences to these unfair actions and it appears that only money speaks more the pity, but play by the sword die by the sword.

  • On the post: Record Labels Basically Admit That Statutory Damages Out Of Proportion As They Ask For Third Jammie Thomas Trial

    rorybaust ( profile ), 11 Feb, 2010 @ 01:07pm

    why not

    I think that this is more about showing the greed, Jamie has nothing to loose. Every time the judge looks a lit harder the awarad goes down. The Lawyers are pro bono , its on every tech news site.

    Its just more bad press for the RIAA, plus it makes people angry so I like it.

  • On the post: If Resources Aren't Scarce, Why Do You Need A Market?

    rorybaust ( profile ), 13 May, 2007 @ 08:27pm

    Love the article but!

    I love the article and it makes great points, however the air argument worries me because of the nature of governments I think they might go with the regulated air idea.