Michael 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (127)

• On the post: Senators Reveal That Feds Have Secretly Reinterpreted The PATRIOT Act

  

  Michael ( profile ), 26 May, 2011 @ 06:18pm

  For today, I couple of heroes.

• On the post: Syrian Government Posting Pro-Government Messages On Pages Of Dissidents After Getting Their Passwords

  

  Michael ( profile ), 24 May, 2011 @ 11:04pm

  Creepy

  Thursday: Gee, thank god for National Security :D
  Wednesday: I hate the police!
  Tuesday: Taxes suck :(

• On the post: Julian Assange Doesn't Do Irony Well: Threatens His Own Internal Leakers With $20 Million Penalty

  

  Michael ( profile ), 13 May, 2011 @ 12:30pm

  This story has too much of an artificial-controversy taste to it, considering how politicized wikileaks is.

• On the post: Julian Assange Doesn't Do Irony Well: Threatens His Own Internal Leakers With $20 Million Penalty

  

  Michael ( profile ), 13 May, 2011 @ 12:28pm

  It seems reasonable to me, considering that leaks from wikileaks include giving away information on sources.

• On the post: Off The Deep End: People Claiming That Supporting Creative Commons Is Being Anti-Creator

  

  Michael ( profile ), 11 May, 2011 @ 11:04am

  It strikes me as an almost Objectivist fantasy where there are special "Creator" individuals who bless the rest of us with their works. The threat always seems to be that if we don't appreciate and nurture them appropriately ($$$) they'll all disappear...

• On the post: Utah Legislators Want Extra Tax For Owners Of Hybrid & Electric Vehicles

  

  Michael ( profile ), 04 May, 2011 @ 03:44pm

  They had to have literally thought to themselves "Who would have money that we haven't squeezed out of them yet?"

• On the post: Big Hollywood Directors Seem To Think People Will Actually Pay $30 To Watch Movies At Home

  

  Michael ( profile ), 02 May, 2011 @ 07:10pm

  I think you've spoken before about the difficulty of assigning a price to infinitely abundant goods.
  Many of the people involved in this scheme are woefully ignorant of the real value of their movies.

• On the post: Is It Rude To Link To Someone Without First Asking Permission?

  

  Michael ( profile ), 27 Apr, 2011 @ 07:07pm

  Legal to Threaten

  It may be legal to link to someone's site, but that doesn't mean people won't threaten to sue anyway.
  
  A teacher I had in high school 2005 once taught a brief introduction to internet usage and avoiding plagiarism etc.
  
  He told us about how he used to use a certain copyright lawyer's blog as a reference, until receiving a threat from the lawyer for linking to the site. My teacher settled.

• On the post: Crowdfunding Makes Sense… But Does Crowd Creative Decision Making?

  

  Michael ( profile ), 25 Jan, 2011 @ 08:51am

  They're also making the fans compete against each other. That isnt' a good feeling. To have paid into something, and then be reminded that there's this other group of people who already paid into the same thing, but they disagree with you... and there's MORE of them...

• On the post: Wikia Owned Wikileaks.com Domain; Assange Ignored Attempts To Hand It Over

  

  Michael ( profile ), 22 Jan, 2011 @ 01:00pm

  Re: Bad at Basics

  There is some strategic advantage to leaving domain registration info outdated when you want to protect the current registration from takedowns and interruptions.

• On the post: A Lesson In Venn Diagrams… And Who Gets Paid To Touch Your Junk

  

  Michael ( profile ), 29 Dec, 2010 @ 03:09pm

  Wrong again

  The original is an accurate Venn diagram. The labels within overlapping areas are simple not exhaustive.

• On the post: Shouldn't The Patent Office Be Able To Reject A Bad Patent Application For Real?

  

  Michael ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2010 @ 12:42pm

  Re: Public Patent

  I mean, in the same way that you shouldn't be able to patent something that is already patented, couldn't this make a faster or simpler way of checking if someone is submitting repetitively?

• On the post: Shouldn't The Patent Office Be Able To Reject A Bad Patent Application For Real?

  

  Michael ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2010 @ 11:56am

  Public Patent

  Whenever a patent is rejected, it should be converted into a new patent owned by no-one, similarly to how the Public Domain works.
  
  It would effectively un-patent that concept. For good?

• On the post: A Look Back: Remember When Camera Phones Were A Dumb Idea?

  

  Michael ( profile ), 10 Dec, 2010 @ 07:21pm

  Go Techdirt

  Lol stick it to them.
  I'd say it's easy to predict how "cool" something will be on a given day. You can just shallowly declare everything to be lame and you'll be correct most of the time.
  This is the lazy person's approach. Lazy tech bloggers do it. But someone devoted to one platform tends to do so also. Steve Jobs will trash anything his company doesn't provide, even if he's secretly trying to produce his own version of it at the time.
  It's a good sign of when someone's wasting your time.

• On the post: Want To Know Why Visa & Mastercard Cut Off Wikileaks? Because Its Latest Leak Was About Them…

  

  Michael ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2010 @ 05:29pm

  WikiLeaks Representation

  When will wikileaks be able to start legally defending itself from all of these abuses?

• On the post: TSA Told To Tell Children That Groping Them Is A Game… Horrifying Sex Abuse Experts

  

  Michael ( profile ), 03 Dec, 2010 @ 02:22pm

  "Make It Easier?"

  Easier for who: the child or the paid child molester?

• On the post: FTC Wants Do-Not-Track Browser System… But Does The Government Need To Be Involved?

  

  Michael ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2010 @ 06:44pm

  It paves the way for a formal system similar to the no-call list and our current semi-standard "Unsubscribe" features in email lists.
  
  When that is in place, it is easier to put pressure on the companies/websites that are abusing individual's information.

• On the post: NY Times Becomes A Trademark Bully Over A Logo For A Newspaper That Hasn't Existed In 40+ Years

  

  Michael ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2010 @ 07:40pm

  Neighborhoodies

  No link to neighborhoodies?

• On the post: DirecTV Pays Studios To Help Confuse Customers Further

  

  Michael ( profile ), 21 Apr, 2010 @ 01:35pm

  The studios are basically taking bids from any company that Netflix is going to kill. Whoever pays up gets to stay in business for just a little bit longer.
  
  Maintaining the delayed release agreement with Netflix is key for them. As long as they can go to Blockbuster and say "Now you pay MY price for these rentals, or you won't have anything to offer that Netflix doesn't do better."

• On the post: No Surprise: MPAA Wouldn't Reveal Data On How It Came Up With Bogus 'Piracy' Numbers

  

  Michael ( profile ), 21 Apr, 2010 @ 10:37am

  Why can't someone just accuse them of lying outright? They forged the data to influence legislation.
  They're liars.

Next >>