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  • On the post: Why Hollywood Is Doomed: It Takes Sensible Advice Like 'Make Good Movies' And Turns It Into A Screed About Piracy

    Russ ( profile ), 22 May, 2012 @ 09:19am

    Re:

    Coming soon to a Court near you: The Hollywood anti-defamation campaign. First up is the web site Rotten Tomatoes

  • On the post: Why Hollywood Is Doomed: It Takes Sensible Advice Like 'Make Good Movies' And Turns It Into A Screed About Piracy

    Russ ( profile ), 22 May, 2012 @ 09:14am

    Re:

    In fairness, the reference was to the IP intensive industries. Which movies and music are a small part, not the primary example as he would lead you to believe.

  • On the post: Why Hollywood Is Doomed: It Takes Sensible Advice Like 'Make Good Movies' And Turns It Into A Screed About Piracy

    Russ ( profile ), 22 May, 2012 @ 09:11am

    Hollywood through the ages

    And he's mostly right... because it goes right back to what Rob said. For the most part, they don't seem to make that many good movies these days. They've focused on crappy, formulaic, derivative flicks. Every so often a good film gets out, but Hollywood has become afraid to make good movies most of the time. Perhaps if it spent more time focusing on that, and less on whining about how it needs to be protected, it wouldn't have so many problems.

    The Hollywood model hasn't changed in the last 100 years. They follow Pareto's law (or for the more discriminating Sturgeon's law) and 80-90% of what they make is dross. 50 years ago it was star (Stewart, Gable, etc.) and genre driven(western anyone?); today they have added franchises to the mix but it is still quantity over quality. Critics have been forever suggesting better movies but Hollywood figures, it ain't broke so what to fix.

    They protected the studio system with the same vigor then as they do copyright today, for the same reason, control of the assets for exploitation. The only difference today is that they can monitize the library easier (although that has always been part of the Disney model)

  • On the post: How Big Music Companies Are Stealing Hundreds Of Millions In Royalties From Artists

    Russ ( profile ), 09 Mar, 2012 @ 10:18am

    Business Model

    It makes you wonder if the organizations involved can actually make money performing the activities they were organized to perform.

    Like a bank that loses money on checking and credit cards but makes money on the fees, these organizations seem to make their profit from retained earnings rather than contract fees.

  • On the post: Judge Says Bombarding Someone On Twitter With Offensive & Threatening Messages Is Free Speech

    Russ ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2011 @ 01:54pm

    Ars Technia

    They do a pretty good job of reviewing the ruling. As noted, it was the medium that decided the case. Because Blogs and Tweets require the participation of the recipient to be communication, rather than passive such as phone or email, it wasn't harassment. Also important was the fact as a public figure, the individual was not as protected from comment as a private person would be.

  • On the post: The Absurdity Of Comparing Copying To Stealing

    Russ ( profile ), 25 Jul, 2011 @ 01:49pm

    Smuggling

    Infringement is more akin to smuggling. Smugglers react to an artificial scarcity to provide what is desired. Nothing is stolen, in fact the total supply is increased unlike theft. The only loser is the holder of the economic benefits of the scarcity.

  • On the post: Here We Go Again: Operation In Our Sites Round 4 Kicks Off With More Domains Illegally Seized

    Russ ( profile ), 23 May, 2011 @ 12:59pm

    ICE =Customs

    Mike,

    "It's pretty sad, because Homeland Security and the Justice Department are supposed to be about defending the Constitution, not ignoring it."

    You should have a much better understanding of Customs history that I do. Customs since Roman times has always been about collecting the taxes and tariffs. Most of the time, the tariffs were supporting protectionist policies. In merry olde England, the tariffs didn't even need approval of Parliament. Although they are supposed to follow the constitution, Customs primary duty has not been protecting it but enforcing protectionist policies and collecting taxes

    The Customs Service doing the bidding of commercial interests is entirely consistent with 2000 years of tradition.

  • On the post: Homeland Security Doesn't Do Cost/Benefit Analysis; They Just Do Fear And Bluster

    Russ ( profile ), 10 May, 2011 @ 09:48am

    Regean

    That was my initial thought. We never fired a shot directly at the USSR but were able to force regime change by competing with them economically through the arms race.

    We cannot win the current arms race be cause of the asymmetrical nature of the threat/response

  • On the post: Best Selling Author Turns Down Half A Million Dollar Publishing Contract To Self-Publish

    Russ ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2011 @ 02:50pm

    Baen Fan

    I think that Baen represents many of the 'new' business models that Mike and others discuss. You failed to mention that they also have a web board that you can connect with many of the authors and over the years has been the source of about 25% of the publishers author stable.

    Baen also demonstrates the advantage of market focus. Not big in absolute terms but within it's niche, it has a strong following.

    A Cautionary tale; several of the authors will not participate in the web boards because of some trolls accusing them of stealing ideas.

    The vision that Jim Baen showed in building his publishing house has waned somewhat in the last few years since his death. I know that Eric Flint who is a strong advocate for what Jim was trying to achieve took over after that but as a working author, I don't think he has the same skill set Jim had.

  • On the post: Best Selling Author Turns Down Half A Million Dollar Publishing Contract To Self-Publish

    Russ ( profile ), 21 Mar, 2011 @ 03:15pm

    Consulting Business

    This actually is nothing new, many businesses face these choices today and have for years. That publishing game simply had a high barrier to entry that has gone away. This is the classic employee or free lance conundrum.

    Reminds me of the consulting business. Free lance has better upside returns with higher risk. employee had some stability but traded that for no big rewards. Both of them depended on the marketing of the consultant. It just depended on who was doing the marketing.

  • On the post: Best Selling Author Turns Down Half A Million Dollar Publishing Contract To Self-Publish

    Russ ( profile ), 21 Mar, 2011 @ 03:05pm

    self publishing

    Remember that a not insignificant number of writers will self-publish to maintain control of the material rather than let an editor alter the sacred word. These guys (far cry, hurt locker types) are going to go biblical on the pirates.

    first born son, stealing manna from the mouth, etc.

  • On the post: What Corruption Looks Like: 87% Of Congressional Reps Supporting Comcast/NBC Merger Got Money From Comcast

    Russ ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2011 @ 01:20pm

    Corruption of the Soul

    One problem is how corruption is defined. Rep Rangel being a recent example of someone who the monetary connection was tenuous but whose behavior was corrupt.

    these Rep's remind me of Sgt Schultz. By not asking any questions they can truthfully say "I know nothing!"

  • On the post: Yet Another Court Explains To The Obama Administration That The 4th Amendment Means You Need To Get A Warrant

    Russ ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2010 @ 09:17am

    Re: Obama???

    The point is that Obama runs the Justice department and although there may be options to bypass due process in law, the choice to do so and to litigate that position is entirely an administrations choice.

    I don't accuse of Obama doing anything new, I point out that he isn't doing anything different. When your platform is 'change' and nothing changes, you can expect to get called on it.

  • On the post: Yet Another Court Explains To The Obama Administration That The 4th Amendment Means You Need To Get A Warrant

    Russ ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2010 @ 08:15am

    Re: Change... not for the better.

    I disagree that his administration is worse than the previous in this regard; not that it is any better. There is not a whit of difference between Bush's and Obama's approach to respecting the Constitution.

    Where I am encouraged is that the Court's are now reflecting on the implications of this disregard and calling them on it. The farther we get from 9/11, the more we realize the sky is not falling and there is no need to panic.

  • On the post: Homeland Security Gets Walmart To Tell You To Inform On Your Neighbors

    Russ ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2010 @ 04:24pm

    Re: Police State

    I mean getting to the end state will resemble that frog in hot water.

  • On the post: Homeland Security Gets Walmart To Tell You To Inform On Your Neighbors

    Russ ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2010 @ 04:22pm

    Police State

    These stories make me cringe. Perhaps there is a corollary to the second law of thermodynamics: Security always tends to a Police State unless acted on by an outside force.

    Although we are not there yet, I suspect that it will resemble more a slowly changing environment like the frog in the hot water than an event like 1917 or 1945.

  • On the post: US Copyright Group Sued For Extortion, Conspiracy & Fraud

    Russ ( profile ), 29 Nov, 2010 @ 02:15pm

    Standing

    Doubt if the merits get a hearing. I expect it to be thrown out on standing or invalid class.

    Was there anything in there about an actual plaintiff be represented?

  • On the post: Uh, No, Using An iPad On A Flight Won't Get You On The No-Fly List

    Russ ( profile ), 27 Oct, 2010 @ 03:57pm

    Banned in Boston

    Airlines maintain a list of flier's that aren't welcome anymore. I believe that it only applies to that airline. I remember being on a flight where they had to escort a passenger off the plane to spend the night in Cook County jail and we were told he would be on the airline no fly list. This was before 9/11.

    I am sure it is not the same as the TSA no-fly list unless the idiot made terroristic threats.

  • On the post: Why Would Attorney General Eric Holder Cite Debunked Stats About 'Piracy'?

    Russ ( profile ), 21 Oct, 2010 @ 02:05pm

    Re: Re: Huh?

    You should read here more often, there are examples on a weekly basis of bad copyright and patents stopping companies from developing software.

    Take the MS case where some company claims the patent on aspects of XML that forced MS to alter Word to remove functionality.

    Just because bad IP hasn't reached the worst case conclusion that you would expect, doesn't mean it doesn't adversely impact software development.

    What if Apple had won the GUI case? There would only be one graphical OS.

    What if UC had control of UNIX through copyright and/or patents?

    What if UI had patented the Browser?

  • On the post: Why Would Attorney General Eric Holder Cite Debunked Stats About 'Piracy'?

    Russ ( profile ), 21 Oct, 2010 @ 01:57pm

    Ghost writer

    I am sure that Holder did not write this speech, did not question the content or apply any intellectual energy on this speech.

    He read it off a teleprompter like any other good actor.

    Not to say he doesn't fundamentally agree with the concept, its just unimportant for him to understand.

    I totally agree that the law of unintended consequences will come to bite the US (and the content industry)

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