sambo 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: DJs' 'Dihydrogen Monoxide' April Fool's Prank Results In Suspension And Possible Felony Charges

    sambo ( profile ), 03 Apr, 2013 @ 09:26pm

    imagine the outrage

    Imagine the outrage if they had told people they were getting bombarded with advertisements and other messages via high frequency sound waves.

  • On the post: Expose A Blatant Security Hole In AT&T's Servers, Get 3.5 Years In Jail

    sambo ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2013 @ 02:12pm

    Quick, get him on the ticket

    "His entire adult life has been dedicated to taking advantage of others, using his '______ _____' to violate other's privacy, to embarrass others, to build his reputation on the backs of those less skilled than he,"

    Sounds like every politician on earth!

  • On the post: Six Strikes Is Just 'Soft SOPA'

    sambo ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2013 @ 01:21pm

    Some of you Yanks are crazy....

    Seems like many of your politicians are happy to let one certain industry lobby group fight to keep your machine-guns, while happy to let another industry lobby group or 2 fight to take away your access to the internet.

    Given that knowledge is power, which represents the greater attack on The Land of the Free...?

  • On the post: UK Politician Says EU Site Wants To 'Brainwash' Children With Propaganda About Democratic Principles

    sambo ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2013 @ 01:11pm

    unless

    "Our children need to be protected from this type of political propaganda because they are vulnerable and easily manipulated.

    ?

    Political propaganda on vulnerable kids is a form of child abuse"

    Unless......

    You are using a well known newspaper to spread yours!

  • On the post: eBay Banishes Demons, Djinns, Work-From-Home Schemes And Other Hellspawn

    sambo ( profile ), 18 Aug, 2012 @ 11:53pm

    Oh No!

    Oh no.

    This is a tragedy.

    Where are the MPAA/RIAA going to find the magic wand that will stop piracy?

  • On the post: New Zealand Judge Won't Rubberstamp Kim Dotcom Extradition; Orders US To Share Evidence

    sambo ( profile ), 30 May, 2012 @ 03:11pm

    This case looks watertight

    So apparently US Prosecutors have just admitted that even they can't find the documents for disclosure....

    They are just following the old 4 steps to save the MPAA/RIAA strategy.

    How does it go again?

    1. Find/arrest 'bad guy/Straw man etc?'.
    2. Make some stuff up and shout loudly and incoherently (Pirates, no seriously, Pirates!!!) and assume everybody else will go along with it (PIRATES!!!!!)
    3. ?????
    4. Hooray! We've stopped file sharing!

    That damn step 3. Get's em every time.

  • On the post: The Latest In Hollywood Mathematics: A 46.3% Employment Increase Equals 'Countless Jobs Lost'

    sambo ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2012 @ 05:18pm

    winners and losers.

    It's obvious isn't it - the reason they don't count the 46% increase in employment is because all the new employees are the lobbyists and lawyers needed to fight the 'good' fight.....

  • On the post: Smart TVs: Not Such A Smart Idea

    sambo ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2012 @ 01:05pm

    Re: Re:

    OF course you can.

    Even better if you have a smart phone you can just buy an app that will do it.

    If you have an Android phone and are running Windows one of my mates has a great app, check the Android Market for 'MyRemote' free and paid versions there.

    It has ability to use the

    Sure there are

  • On the post: Smart TVs: Not Such A Smart Idea

    sambo ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2012 @ 12:58pm

    not so Smart

    $200???

    How about a $15.00 HDMI cable instead.....

  • On the post: Newspaper Boss Says Newspapers Need More Money… Because New Media Steals & May 'Destroy Civil Society'

    sambo ( profile ), 10 Feb, 2012 @ 12:16pm

    new media "sometimes give credibility to news that maybe should not have credibility."

    When I read this I thought he must have been talking about Fox News.....

  • On the post: A Question For SOPA Supporters: How Will You Gauge SOPA's Success?

    sambo ( profile ), 16 Nov, 2011 @ 01:49pm

    To me it looks like it's already succeeding

    I don't live in the U.S.

    I find this whole SOPA / PIPA law quite disturbing and depressing.

    Anywhere else in the world where special interest groups get to write special laws that exist only for their own benefit and get what they want by paying off elected representatives to do their bidding, it's called corruption.

    In the U.S. and the power of the lobbyists, it seems it's just 'how you do business'.

    With the U.S. economy in such a mess and the tech industry providing more hope for jobs than any other sector, that your own government would so blindly seek to introduce such bizarrely thought out and ill-informed legislation and regulation that could in effect kill the golden goose just seems to prove again that something is seriously not right at the top.

    I have heard it said that sometimes Americans can be surprised at the level of animosity felt towards your country by people from other elsewhere.

    Your government decisions on things like SOPA /PIPA just help ramp up that feeling of ill will - which is a real shame because as most of the posters on this site alone show, that it's not really the American people who are the problem. The will of the people just does not really seem to matter.

    Campaign dollars speak loudest.

  • On the post: Patents As Theft: How Oracle & Microsoft Seek To Profit From Android Despite Having Nothing To Do With It

    sambo ( profile ), 11 Jul, 2011 @ 03:22pm

    and up next - Home baking!

    After recently securing the broad patent #10337780C rev 1.0
    "method of mixing basic ingredients to achieve deliciousness"

    It has recently been announced that the wheat, sugar and chicken farmers (with the support of the Microsoft, MPAA and the RIAA) have created a new body whose responsibility will be to collect the new 'cake and biscuits' tax from all bakes goods sold at church and school fundraisers.

    The farmers representative, Mr Auld McDonald was quoted as saying "it's only fair that we are properly compensated for the use of the ingredients that we have.

  • On the post: Zappos Uses Mechanical Turk To Correct Spelling/Grammar Errors In Reviews… And It Increases Sales

    sambo ( profile ), 03 May, 2011 @ 03:07pm

    I am sure that the RIAA and MPAA are working on a similar program.

    It will work something like this:

    The words 'share' & 'copy' will automatically become 'steal, stolen or theft'.

    'Community' becomes 'thieving criminal bastards'

    'Fair use' becomes 'child abuse/r'

    All negative comments will be permanently changed to:

    'The RIAA/MPAA are your family. File sharing hurts your family. You are putting corn farmers out of work and
    with the reduction of revenue available for our hand-picked, talent-free (but good looking don't you think? Have you seen that little girl Justin Bieber? Whoa!) Pop superstars - the makers of Autotune are struggling to survive.

    Resistance is futile'

  • On the post: Did Homeland Security Seize… And Then Unseize… A Dynamic DNS Domain?

    sambo ( profile ), 16 Feb, 2011 @ 04:24pm

    They seem so cluess maybe the dept should be instead referred to as 'Homeland Obscurity'

  • On the post: Supreme Court Says No Cameras In The Courtroom

    sambo ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2010 @ 12:48pm

    Hopefully this means no more Judge Judy....

  • On the post: France's Latest Plan: Tax Google, Microsoft And Yahoo To Fund Record Labels

    sambo ( profile ), 07 Jan, 2010 @ 12:19pm

    just think where it could go from here!

    While we are at it, why not add a special drinking tax.

    Every time somebody drinks from a glass they should be taxed. After all, are'nt the glass manufacturers profiting off drink manufacturers and utilities suppliers who get the water to the taps?

    And what about school student/people using pens and pencils, text books? They might actually able to make some money using these tools so tax 'em I say

  • On the post: F1 Racing Looks To Embrace The Internet, Rather Than Fight It

    sambo ( profile ), 20 Dec, 2009 @ 02:29pm

    Sounds like a good move.

    It would be quite easy for them for e.g. to show the main race feed for free then charge for say, access to the on-car camera feeds.

    It would be quite amazing (and even perhaps a bit nauseating) to watch a whole race from the perspective of one of the drivers.

  • On the post: Does Google Need Permission From Philip K. Dick's Estate For The Nexus One?

    sambo ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2009 @ 12:45pm

    Don't these people even bother to check a dictionary?

    I think people here are looking to hard and missing the obvious.

    Meaning of the word 'nexus' according to freedictionaryonline.com
    nex·us (nkss)
    n. pl. nexus or nex·us·es
    1. A means of connection
    2. A connected series or group.
    3. The core or center

    So google are making a phone and calling it after word that means 'a means of connection' or a 'connected series or group'. Isn't that exactly what a mobile phne is? Really struggling to see how this has got anything to do with Philip K Dick's descendants

    These pretzels are making me thirsty...... (cue lawsuit from the makers of Seinfeld for quoting them without permission.....

  • On the post: Lily Allen No Longer in Favor Of Kicking People Offline… Just Cutting Back Their Bandwidth

    sambo ( profile ), 25 Sep, 2009 @ 05:49am

    Techdirt going mainstream

    I have been an avid reader of the site (and very occasional commenter) for the past few years. As a budding music producer I have always thoroughly enjoyed the ongoing discussiond on Techdirt regarding the new frontier of music.

    I could not believe my eyes when I logged onto my local newspaper in Melbourne, Oz and it may have taken Lily Allen but who do I see but to see Mike and Techdirt being quoted (and correctly linked to!).

    Great work as always Mike. Your arguments are always fluid and well backed up with strong evidence and/or measured opinion. I hope that this 'stoush' with Ms Allen draws more and more people to Techdirt, not only to read but to also contribute to the ongoing and evolving discussions.

    The more healthy, informed public debates like this the better for all.

  • On the post: How Copyright Can Be Viewed As Anti-Property

    sambo ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2009 @ 03:15pm

    what if real property law was actually like current IP law

    Without wanting to put ideas is any more lawyers heads, this article made me think a little about what the world would be like if IP like laws were applied to Real Estate property law.

    IP law focuses heavily on copyright and 'ownership of design' if you like. Imagine this was applied to the house that you own.

    You want to build a new home. You would perhaps look at some display suites or engage a respectable firm to design and build your dream house. Most architects and developers copyright their designs for their range of homes.

    If we were to apply IP like laws to this process then basically the firm that came up with the design would have complete control of their design. Just imagine if you wanted to renovate, extend or God forbid, sell you property for a profit.

    Under IP like property law, to renovate you would be first required to seek permission from the firm to modify your house to ensure that you did not 'dilute the original design in case causing of harm to the idea or trademark of the original designer'. If you were lucky to get approval for your renovations you would be of course be charged a substantial fee for the priviliedge. If not you could be sued if you went ahead anyway.

    Then when time comes to sell your home, any (or perhaps all) profit that you may have made would then have to be handed over to the design firm, after all, you are profiting from their idea are you not?

    Current IP law is like property law? I think not.

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