Spike 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (81)

• On the post: 30 Years Of The CD, Of Digital Piracy, And Of Music Industry Cluelessness

  

  Spike ( profile ), 20 Oct, 2012 @ 09:08am

  Re:

  The simple fact that CD's didn't have any DRM saved them many millions in development costs....

• On the post: 30 Years Of The CD, Of Digital Piracy, And Of Music Industry Cluelessness

  

  Spike ( profile ), 20 Oct, 2012 @ 09:06am

  DRM is simply a massive waste of man-hours and drives up prices of product due to the DRM scheme always having massive licensing fees and development costs.
  
  It costs a fortune and it isn't effective, so what is the point. You have to laugh at the blu-ray guys continuing to create new DRM schemes at our expense, annoying us with required firmware upgrades for every brand new disk, all while charging extortionist prices for physical disks.
  
  Whats to love here?

• On the post: Maine GOP Apparently Believes That Playing World Of Warcraft Makes You Unfit For Office

  

  Spike ( profile ), 05 Oct, 2012 @ 07:10am

  Re:

  They cant even step into "Our World" before attacking someone else for playing WoW.

• On the post: Maine GOP Apparently Believes That Playing World Of Warcraft Makes You Unfit For Office

  

  Spike ( profile ), 05 Oct, 2012 @ 07:08am

  If most of these morons in power actually lived in "Our World" over the current fantasy-land they currently live in, then "Our World" would be far better off.

• On the post: Justice Department Calls Megaupload Case A Success; Hands Out Cash To Cops To Do More Bogus Takedowns

  

  Spike ( profile ), 04 Oct, 2012 @ 07:29am

  Re:

  Thats ignoring the whole issue of how they turned something that should had been civil into criminal, just so Hollywood never had to pay for it.

• On the post: Justice Department Calls Megaupload Case A Success; Hands Out Cash To Cops To Do More Bogus Takedowns

  

  Spike ( profile ), 04 Oct, 2012 @ 07:26am

  Slam dunk? Not likely, nor was it ever.
  Of course its easy to assume that when one only has the DoJ's side of the story since the DoJ has been resisting the defense from even building a defense every step of the way, illegally.

• On the post: Oops: After Seizing & Censoring Rojadirecta For 18 Months, Feds Give Up & Drop Case

  

  Spike ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2012 @ 09:06pm

  So does this mean that Beshara and the other staff of NinjaVideo that were convicted will have their sentences overturned and get out of jail?
  
  Somehow I doubt it. How was that case any different than Rojadirecta? Oh yeah, it was on US soil where they couldn't even mount a proper defense.
  
  What about Richard O.Dwyer (TVShack)?
  
  This is nothing but a clusterfuck. The DoJ should be forbidden from doing this crap in the future.

• On the post: New Zealand Court Releases $4.83 Million To Kim Dotcom

  

  Spike ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2012 @ 08:58pm

  He abided by the DMCA fully. Just because his system de-duplicated files (hint, ALL the other cloud storage providers including the big names do this too), doesn't mean he ran foul of the DMCA.

• On the post: NZ Copyright Industry Claims New 'Three Strikes' Law Halved Movie Infringements After One Month: So What?

  

  Spike ( profile ), 27 Jul, 2012 @ 06:36am

  Re: Re:

  http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2009/04/study-pirates-buy-tons-more-music-than-average-folks/
  
  The industry still refuses to believe it. See the CRIA (Music Canada) note in the bottom paragraph.

• On the post: NZ Copyright Industry Claims New 'Three Strikes' Law Halved Movie Infringements After One Month: So What?

  

  Spike ( profile ), 27 Jul, 2012 @ 06:29am

  Re:

  I must further add with the second category, these people, if they cannot pirate, will not increase their media consumption, they will do without and purchase as usual with what they can afford and enjoy it.
  
  However if they start getting threats in the mail for casually torrenting that new album, they might not want to support such an industry any further thats giving the threats, since these people already buy their product, yet are getting attacked. Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
  
  Duh. :-)

• On the post: NZ Copyright Industry Claims New 'Three Strikes' Law Halved Movie Infringements After One Month: So What?

  

  Spike ( profile ), 27 Jul, 2012 @ 06:23am

  Higher sales because of three strikes? LOL, I love it.
  
  Seriously, there is a category of pirates that don't buy anything period. If they cannot pirate it, they certainly wont go out and buy it either. These guys know how to do without if something isn't available for free, but chances are, it probably is available somewheres no matter what the laws are and they will find it. Nothing changes for these types.
  
  People that buy and pirate both (unsurprisingly this category makes up a high percentage simply because they cannot afford everything they wish to consume), may continue to buy stuff they really enjoy provided they aren't alienated by the industry. People do have fixed incomes, their rate of movie/music purchases most likely will remain static, and if they want to pirate something, as the above category, will find it no matter what the laws are.
  
  Three strikes regimes are just pissing taxpayer money away and possibly alienating people that already buy product from the movie/music industry. Do you think annoying your customers is good business sense?

• On the post: Attendee At Batman Shooting Plans To Sue Warner Bros For Making Batman Too Violent

  

  Spike ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2012 @ 12:48pm

  Nothing wrong with violent movies, but at least rate them appropriately. All the modern Batman's as they exist should had been R or toned down a LOT to PG-13. They're WAY too dark for PG-13.
  
  The ratings system is broken and biased, but being run by the MPAA it is of no surprise. PG-13 movies are very profitable.

• On the post: Attendee At Batman Shooting Plans To Sue Warner Bros For Making Batman Too Violent

  

  Spike ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2012 @ 12:46pm

  Nothing wrong with violent movies, but at least rate them appropriately. All the modern Batman's as they exist should had been R or toned down a LOT to PG-13. They're WAY too dark for PG-13.
  
  The ratings system is broken and biased, but being run by the MPAA it is of no surprise. PG-13 movies are very profitable.

• On the post: Press Speculates Batman Shooter Must Have Played Video Games; They're Right: He Loved Guitar Hero

  

  Spike ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2012 @ 08:59am

  How come violent Hollywood films never get blamed?
  
  Oh right, they spend the most lobbying dollars, and of course CNN owned by a media conglomerate has nothing to do with it either. :-)
  
  Violent PG-13 films FTW!

• On the post: MPAA Points To Its Roster Of Crappy Online Services And Asks What We're Complaining About

  

  Spike ( profile ), 14 Jul, 2012 @ 06:11am

  They want to pass all these new laws and create backroom dealings, yet they cannot even see that they created this whole mess in the first place. They had 20 years while the internet evolved into the high bandwidth machine it is today, they had plenty of warning to innovate. Any internet expert always knew that mass file sharing would take control away from big content once broadband speeds evolved.
  
  Our politicians are so bought.

• On the post: MPAA Points To Its Roster Of Crappy Online Services And Asks What We're Complaining About

  

  Spike ( profile ), 14 Jul, 2012 @ 06:07am

  ?At the end of the day, stealing shows and movies out of convenience still harms the people who work hard to make them,? Bedingfield added.
  
  Out of convenience? Well it looks like thats the only part they managed to get close to correct, but more often its the *ONLY* alternative.

• On the post: FBI Continues To Insist There's No Reason For Kim Dotcom To Be Able To See The Evidence Against Him

  

  Spike ( profile ), 06 Jul, 2012 @ 06:07am

  It would be so pathetically easy to pick out bad apples out of 33 million emails, while blatantly ignoring all the emails that will prove his innocence.

• On the post: FBI Continues To Insist There's No Reason For Kim Dotcom To Be Able To See The Evidence Against Him

  

  Spike ( profile ), 06 Jul, 2012 @ 06:06am

  33 million emails? I wonder who the FBI blew to obtain that.

• On the post: Exceptionally Troubling Ruling In The UK: Owners Of Links Site Guilty Of 'Conspiracy To Defraud'

  

  Spike ( profile ), 28 Jun, 2012 @ 05:20am

  All this tells me is they finally found a judge they can buy out.
  
  Seriously, what other country does private interests get exclusive access to the evidence?
  
  You only have to look at the last 2 letters in FACT's acronym to see that they are full of shit.
  
  Copyright Infringement is NOT Copyright Theft. Perhaps they should change their name first, it might just give them a bit more credibility. :-)

• On the post: UK Politician Speaks Out Against The Travesty Of Trying To Deport Richard O'Dwyer To Feed Hollywood's Anger

  

  Spike ( profile ), 27 Jun, 2012 @ 06:48pm

  A Labour MP? Talk about covering your ass and trying to win support. It was the Labour party that enacted this stupid one-sided extradition treaty with the United States in the first place!

Next >>