ShadowNinja 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Spotify (Basically) Tells Its Free Users, 'Go Pirate!'

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 31 Mar, 2017 @ 12:17pm

    Re:

    The thing is the biggest name people are the least likely to be hurt by this.

    It's the less famous people who are hurt because of no free exposure to potential fans.

    Services like Spotify often suggest music to listen to based on what music you currently play and seem to enjoy.

  • On the post: Spotify (Basically) Tells Its Free Users, 'Go Pirate!'

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 31 Mar, 2017 @ 12:18pm

    I guess I'm more glad now that I have a paid Spotify account just so that I don't have to listen to the ads.

  • On the post: FCC Boss Takes Aim At Efforts To Bring Broadband To The Poor

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 30 Mar, 2017 @ 07:03am

    Re:

    That's true of too many of Trump's appointees.

    His head of the department of energy advocated for abolishing the department of energy when he ran for president.

  • On the post: Trump's Internet Brigades Shocked To Realize The Government Just Sold Them Out On Privacy

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 30 Mar, 2017 @ 11:58am

    Drones show the problem with 'regulations = bad' mentality

    Gosh, it's almost as if some regulations are actually necessary, and one has to intelligently debate the subtle, often-complicated nuance of each implementation!

    That's the very problem with Trump's rule that for every 1 new regulation 2 old ones have to go.

    Take a look at the drone market for an example of why this won't work. Previously there was one and only one regulation on drones, none are allowed for ANY reason period, not for toys, not for businesses to deliver products, nothing.

    But now that drones are allowed for more and more things, you need more and more regulations to regulate the drones. Are there a lot more drone regulations than there used to be before? Heck yeah. But do we have more freedoms when it comes to owning and using drones then we used to? Well duh of course anything is a step up from no drones at all.

  • On the post: Tractor Owners Using Pirated Firmware To Dodge John Deere's Ham-Fisted Attempt To Monopolize Repair

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 30 Mar, 2017 @ 06:10am

    The obvious fix

    There's an obvious fix to the dirty businesses tactics of companies like John Deere and others, make it effectively illegal by making it no longer financially viable.

    If companies want to claim you don't actually own the stuff and are just renting or leasing it from them, then some things need to change to make it just like actual renting.

    • All repairs, taxes, and fees are paid by the 'actual' owner John Deere/etc, and not the renter.

    • Nobody pays for the entire cost of the car up front when renting it, so John Deere and others can't charge the full value of a car or tractor up front while still insisting to own it.

    • And of course, John Deere and others must clearly say up front you are renting their stuff and NOT buying it. Failure to do so makes them guilty of deceptive marketing practices, and open to whatever penalties there are already on the books for doing so.

  • On the post: Consumer Broadband Privacy Protections Are Dead

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 29 Mar, 2017 @ 05:24am

    Re: Looking for a positive

    Now courts can decide the 1st and 4th amendments in place of congress which seems to despise said 1st and 4th amendments.
    Aw how cure, this person thinks the courts will actually defend our rights. The same courts that have done nothing about Civil Asset Forfeiture being a 4th amendment violation for decades. The same courts that have done next to nothing to stop the NSA and other government branches massive spying us.

  • On the post: Chicago Agrees To Make Red Light Camera System Barely Less Corrupt By Increasing Grace Period By 0.2 Seconds

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 28 Mar, 2017 @ 06:38am

    The grace period doesn't matter, either way I'd be more likely to cause an accident by panicking and slamming to a stop when I otherwise would just drift through as the light turns yellow and red.

    And either way I'd still avoid their city like the plague because of the cameras, because I don't like the idea of getting into a car accident because of the cameras encouraging unsafe behavior.

  • On the post: Court Says Posting Georgia's Official Annotated Laws Is Not Fair Use, And Thus Infringing

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2017 @ 12:46pm

    Re:

    Hey, we've gotta keep those private prisons filled somehow!

    We really can't afford to pay another big penalty to the private prisons if their prison occupancy rates drop too low.

    (Yes this is a real thing, google 'Adam ruins everything private prisons' for a pretty good YouTube video on just how messed up it is)

  • On the post: Congress Leaks Draft Bill To Move Copyright Office Out Of The Library Of Congress

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 24 Mar, 2017 @ 09:00am

    A 10 year term why?

    At first I thought this didn't sound all that bad, until this line:

    a Presidentially appointed position, with 10-year terms, and who could only be removed by the President.

    There's a grand total of one whole position, Director of the FBI with a 10 year term.

    The reason for the FBI's 10 year term is try to insulate them from politics more (which Comey has obviously failed to do with all his recent controversial decisions in the last election, but that's not the point here).

    But why does the head of a copyright department need a 10 year term? What partisan politics are there that justifies trying to insulate them from politics? Copyright and IP isn't a partisan issue that one party supports and other opposes.

  • On the post: Australian Govt.: Just Kidding On That Whole Safe Harbors Reform Thing, Guys

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 24 Mar, 2017 @ 08:52am

    All of a sudden I understand why internet companies might charge Australian users so much more for the same goods.

    They have to have money to hire lawyers to cover their butts from this kind of insanity.

  • On the post: Congress Just Voted To Kill Consumer Broadband Privacy Protections

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 23 Mar, 2017 @ 01:51pm

    Re:

    All Republicans voted for it except two who were out.

  • On the post: eBook Pirates Tend To Be Older And Well Off, Which Means They Pirate Because Of Human Intuition On Economics

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 23 Mar, 2017 @ 08:37am

    Re: heheheh

    Not to mention DRM and outdated technologies dying out and becoming unusable also reduce the value of e-books.

    If I buy a physical book I can re-read it whenever I want forever, as long as I don't lose the book or let it get so badly damaged it falls apart.

    E-Books however can often be stolen from me whenever the publisher wants to. And who knows if the Kindle/etc. format will still be readable in the future.

    My brother is a pastor, and he said all the older pastors warned him to keep backups of his old sermons in txt files, because many of them lost their lost sermons by using now unsupported word document formats. Txt files on the other hand are unlikely to ever become completely unreadable with time.

  • On the post: Netflix Is No Longer Worried About Net Neutrality Now That It's Massive And Successful

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 23 Mar, 2017 @ 08:31am

    Re:

    And that's a bad thing why?

    Communism and Capitalism have a lot of the same core foundations (including support for free public education). Just because Communism failed doesn't mean all it's ideas were bad, 8 out of 10 of Karl Marx's core principles of communism are well practiced in all capitalist countries in the world.

  • On the post: Third Circuit Appeals Court Says All Writs Orders Can Be Used To Compel Passwords For Decryption

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2017 @ 02:03pm

    Re:

    Not to mention what if someone is framed because another person put an encrypted file on their computer, and they then report that person for say possessing child pornography on their computer?

    The accused literally can't prove themselves innocent by providing the password, because they won't know it. The accused will never need to be brought to trial, the prosecutors can just keep a wrongly accused person in jail forever.

  • On the post: Arkansas Legislators Want To Make Corporate Whistleblowing Illegal

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2017 @ 06:10am

    Re: Re: Talking Points

    Then we don't even need a whistle blower or video evidence, because everyone knows it's true!

  • On the post: Industry-Hated Game Emulators Save Two Video Games For Posterity

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 21 Mar, 2017 @ 10:59am

    Re:

    Not to mention it also shows just how absurd the length of copyright terms are that they're even protected in the first place.

    No one in their right mind would ever think games like Sonic the Hedgehog 1 are sellable and commercially viable games anymore these days. That's why even Sega doesn't sell it anymore.

    There's only a small handful of Sega Genesis games that have retained their value today. But the people who own the copyright on them don't sell them anymore, it's just collectors on Ebay who sell them.

  • On the post: California Lawmakers Looking To Make Bad Law Worse By Banning 'False' Political Speech

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 20 Mar, 2017 @ 07:46am

    Re:

    Hey this is the state that almost outlawed Dihydrogen Monoxide for being too dangerous, until one of their staffers told them Dihydrogen Monoxide is the chemical name for water.

  • On the post: Georgia Lawmakers Look To Go Down Porn-Censoring Unconstitutional Rabbit Hole

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2017 @ 10:14am

    Re: Obamacare set a nasty precedent

    Umm... this is WAY different then Obamacare in so many ways.

    • The Federal government and States have different powers. What's legal for one to do isn't necessarily legal for the other to do.
    • The mandate wasn't crafted to be a tax to raise money, it was crafted to push people to get health insurance to prevent the market from spiraling out of control (due to people only buying insurance when they're sick and then canceling it). There's no pressing issue that not taxing 'porn' will cause to get worse.

  • On the post: Judge Grants Search Warrant Demanding Info On Everyone Who Searched For A Certain Person's Name

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2017 @ 01:18pm

    The ricin false arrest makes this even scarier

    The earlier ricin false arrest on such flimsy evidence a few years ago makes this ruling even scarier.

    For those don't know/forgot, a summary of the ricin issue.

    • Someone sent letters laced with ricin to several prominent politicians, including a US senator, and President Obama, as well as at least one judge.

    • The letters were signed 3 initials.

    • Law enforcement asked the US senator who he knew with those initials who might have done this. The Senator said he only knew of one guy with those initials, a famous Elvis impersonator in his state who performed at a few of his personal events (including his wedding).

    • Based solely on that 'evidence' from the senator, and some quick finding of the Elvis impersonator having a few mental health issues over the years, the police arrested the Elvis impersonator for the crime.

    • Within a week the police were forced to let the Elvis impersonator go when they did more investigation, and found the guy who actually did it, who had signed the letter with a different set of initials than his own in order to throw off the cops and frame someone else.

    So yeah, in that case literally anyone with those same initials could have been thrown in jail if the US senator had thought of them and brought them to the police's attention.

  • On the post: Google Fiber's About-Face Provides Useful Lessons For A Broken Broadband Industry

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 16 Mar, 2017 @ 07:55am

    Re:

    I would argue for at least a second redundant network ran by different folks than the first. I'd also argue the deployment should be mandated to anywhere within determined conditions such as radius from the center of the towns, population density and possibly others with farther places attended by wireless solutions when deploying the physical solution gets too onerous comparing to what's going to be earned from providing the service.
    In other words, we should just admit the free market has failed and replace it with the government. Or alternately heavily regulate the private companies like utilities (which had a lot of the same lack of competition issues in the past). There's certainly times when the free market works out better. But the current state of the ISP market and rampant abuse of their dominant positions by companies like Verizon and Comcast has proven that this is one of those cases where the free market just doesn't work.

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