taoareyou 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: The Misconceptions Of 'Free' Abound; Why Do Brains Stop At The Zero?

    taoareyou ( profile ), 30 Jun, 2011 @ 12:54pm

    Re: Muscat is confused

    Yes, free ancillary products and services actually add value to the product or service you intend to monetize.

  • On the post: Righthaven: Blame Our Clueless Lawyer, But Don't Sanction Us, For Failing To Name Stephens Media As An Interested Party

    taoareyou ( profile ), 30 Jun, 2011 @ 12:48pm

    Re:

    "The obligation to disclose Stephens Media as an interested party pursuant to Local Rule 7.1-1 was certainly not appreciated by Righthaven's undersigned outside counsel, who has been licensed to practice before this Court since 1998"

    Doesn't this imply the counsel was licensed to practice law in that state? If so shouldn't he be aware of local rules of practice?

  • On the post: The Misconceptions Of 'Free' Abound; Why Do Brains Stop At The Zero?

    taoareyou ( profile ), 30 Jun, 2011 @ 12:03pm

    Two Words: Angry Birds

    You can go to iTunes and download a free version of Angry Birds. It's basically a free preview. If you like it, you can buy the "full" game and get all the levels.

    So they give something away free, which lets people experience the product and generate sales.

    Not only that, I was at an amusement park recently and saw big stuffed versions for sale and as prizes for the various skill games.

    They made a game with cute characters, gave a limited version away that was still enjoyable enough for people to want more and were willing to pay for more. Then they license other products based on their characters. Characters that became hugely popular because of the freely available lite version of the game.

  • On the post: Leaping The Uncanny Valley: Japanese Pop Star Turns Out To Be A Computer Generated Mashup

    taoareyou ( profile ), 30 Jun, 2011 @ 09:43am

    Re: Re: movie "S1mone"

    The companies will still have to pay the puppeteers behind the digital actors. Their expressions, timing, inflections will still have to be programmed. Having a digital actor does not mean you have an AI capable of acting.

  • On the post: Details Emerge On Best Buy's 'Music Cloud' Service

    taoareyou ( profile ), 30 Jun, 2011 @ 07:31am

    Re: Re: Not Far From the Truth

    Sometimes you have to make a choice. Are screen protectors overpriced? Sure. So is a $30 USB cable. Option A. Buy the screen protectors at the price given. Option B. Don't and take the risk of getting permanent scratches on your $600 smartphone.

    Nobody gets perfect deals and lowest possible prices 100% of the time. It's not as if we are unaware, but we compare price against convenience. If the price is acceptable for the perceived convenience, we will make the purchase.

  • On the post: Details Emerge On Best Buy's 'Music Cloud' Service

    taoareyou ( profile ), 29 Jun, 2011 @ 04:58pm

    Not Far From the Truth

    I went to Best Buy last week to buy some screen protectors for my phone. For ONE plastic sticky plastic rectangle around 3in by 5in they wanted $20. I thought that was a little insane and THEN the guy offered to put it on for me...for $8.99. Seriously. Nine bucks to apply the $20 sheet to my phone.

    As I put up the box I noticed another box with the exact same plastic made by the exact same company...but you get three larger sheets for the price of the one smaller one already cut to size. I told the guy I would buy the three pack for twenty bucks instead of the single sheet.

    He countered me, "But you will have to use scissors with those."

    I told him it would be ok, I learned how to use scissors back when they allowed them in Kindergarten.

  • On the post: Apparently 'Hacked Sony PS3 & Got Sued For It' Looks Good On The Resume

    taoareyou ( profile ), 29 Jun, 2011 @ 12:14am

    Re: Re:

    Yes, hacking is to gain unauthorized entry to a computer or device. Cracking is to remove protection (generally some sort of CD check or other DRM) from software to make it usable by anyone.

  • On the post: Capcom's Resident Evil DRM Is Evil: You Get To Play The Game Once And That's It

    taoareyou ( profile ), 28 Jun, 2011 @ 01:40pm

    What's next?

    Think Amazon and Apple will sell e-books that, once you turn the page it is gone forever? lol

  • On the post: Could Apple's MusicMatch Be A Tool To Identify Infringers?

    taoareyou ( profile ), 28 Jun, 2011 @ 09:39am

    Consider this

    I get all my music from sites like Jamendo which offers free licensed music for download and sharing. It is quite possible that a lot of this music has been shared thousands of times over, legally. Just because an mp3 is shared does not mean it is infringement. Will they manually review every file that shows up in this manner? If not, it could get very embarrassing for them.

  • On the post: Does A 27-Second Video Showing How To 'Hack' The NYT Paywall Violate The DMCA?

    taoareyou ( profile ), 28 Jun, 2011 @ 06:20am

    However

    Even with this savvy bit of tech knowledge, I'm still not interested in going to their website.

  • On the post: That Didn't Take Long: Turntable.fm Blocked To All Non-US Users

    taoareyou ( profile ), 27 Jun, 2011 @ 10:03am

    Just relaunch it showcasing new music from new artists. The artists can pay the site for promotion. Let those who demand money to be heard go find someplace willing to pay the artists to promote their music. The cost for promotion will be considerably less I suspect than what it costs to get wide coverage elsewhere.

  • On the post: Prince: Digital Music Has A Different Impact On Your Brain

    taoareyou ( profile ), 27 Jun, 2011 @ 09:12am

    Re: Re: Re:

    I thought CD's were digital music.

  • On the post: Judge Not At All Impressed By Apple's Lawsuit Against Amazon Over 'App Store' Name

    taoareyou ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2011 @ 09:30pm

    Re:

    It's not hard to imagine lots of things. Unfortunately for Apple, the case won't be decided on what their lawyers can "imagine".

  • On the post: Judge Not At All Impressed By Apple's Lawsuit Against Amazon Over 'App Store' Name

    taoareyou ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2011 @ 09:24pm

    Re: popularized vs invented

    Popularizing a generic term does not equal innovation.

  • On the post: Facebook, Roger Ebert And The Pointlessness Of The Jerk Patrol

    taoareyou ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2011 @ 01:03am

    I'm Surprised Actually

    I can't believe there hasn't been some group form up whose express purpose is to be offended by something, ANYTHING and go to every major Facebook group and complain and try to have to group shut down.

    Seriously, if they can do flash mobs where people actually go meet someplace, I'm sure they could organize even larger Facebook group complaint mobs. I bet you could get thousands to complain just for the griefing factor. Imagine if you could get 5,000 complaints from offended Facebook users. I wonder how fast they could get any group shut down.

    It would certainly cause FB to at least consider with more clarity what would cause a take down.

  • On the post: Irish Hotel The Latest To Sue Google Over Autocomplete Suggestions

    taoareyou ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2011 @ 02:31pm

    Curious

    If a man buys some spray paint and uses it to paint a business' name and the word scam on the wall of another business, who does the company who's name was painted sue?

    Does it sue the company on who's wall the word was painted?

    Does it sue the manufacturer of the paint or perhaps the store where the paint was purchased?

  • On the post: French Government Looks To Create Great Firewall Of France

    taoareyou ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2011 @ 12:09pm

    Re: All of the but but but's in one sentence

    Please educate yourself:
    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/defence

  • On the post: There Really Are Privacy Issues Out There; Facebook Using Facial Recognition Is Not One Of Them

    taoareyou ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2011 @ 11:51am

    Recognition

    If you work in any city, on an average business day, your face is probably showing up on several hundred cameras: traffic cams, ATM cams, store security cams, office security cams, etc. I think it's also a safe bet that if the government wanted to find you, they already have facial recognition software and access to pretty much any of those cams.

    Upset about your friends tagging you faster on Facebook? Yes, I'm sure the government would love you to be concerned about that instead.

  • On the post: Another Appropriation Artist Loses Copyright Lawsuit; Are We Nearing The End Of Appropriation Art?

    taoareyou ( profile ), 10 Jun, 2011 @ 11:32am

    Not a Photo

    If the copyright on the photo is based on depth of field, framing, lighting, and all that, don't those apply to a photograph? If he put together his own version of the photograph, even if it is obviously based on that photograph, it is still his own manual interpretation. There are many details in the photograph which are and cannot be reproduced exactly in the method chosen.

  • On the post: Police Arrest A Bunch Of Folks In Europe For Linking To Infringing Content

    taoareyou ( profile ), 10 Jun, 2011 @ 08:56am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Although one could argue that an unauthorized copy of content is in fact illegal.

    Personally, I agree that linking to something is not a violation of law. If I drive around town and locate all the best places to find prostitutes then I put this information on the Internet, I am technically pointing people to something illegal. I'm not a lawyer, but that information I provided is publicly available, I'm just compiling it.

    Some people may visit my site and go visit the prostitutes, which would be illegal (at least in my town). But I am not responsible for their actions.

    Linking to websites that offer illegal things is really the same in my eyes. The information is publicly available. I am not telling anyone to do anything illegal. I am just compiling the information. Each person is responsible for their actions. But as far as I know, giving directions to prostitutes or naming websites isn't against the law in the US.

    I also agree with those who point out that such websites are free research for those people looking to find illegal content online. I'm sure the police could use my theoretical prostitute site to set up stings.

    On the subject of the child porn links site. I think it would make a difference if it was a list of direct links set up by the website owner. That could infer that the site owner has visited and viewed these sites and that, from what I understand is quite illegal.

    The owner of a torrent site is unlikely to have personally visited, downloaded and viewed/listened to the unauthorized content.

    In one case, the site owner is committing a crime certainly, in the other case, maybe not.

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