TheBuzzSaw 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (268) comment rss

  • On the post: Irony: Eugene Roddenberry Might Sue You For Using A Replicator To Create Your Own Star Trek Prop

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 19 Oct, 2010 @ 10:44am

    grammar fail

    The terms used the wrong word. It said "it's" when it really meant "its".

  • On the post: Hollywood Got The FCC To Break Your TV Because It Thought You'd Pay $30 For A PPV Movie?

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 01 Oct, 2010 @ 05:11pm

    Failure.

    $30 for a one-time viewing? And I have to provide all my own hardware? Funny how technology continues to drive costs DOWN all while costs go UP.

  • On the post: My Challenge To Jim Urie Of Universal Music: Instead Of 'Drowning Out' Those You Disagree With, Let's Come Up With Solutions

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 24 Sep, 2010 @ 01:39pm

    Re: Re: That's a lotta money...

    Hehe it's just funny to me. It's perfectly reasonable to want to increase the number of people paying for content, but it's utter madness to suggest that me copying a song to my friend's computer makes the artist's bank balance go DOWN.

    copying != theft

  • On the post: My Challenge To Jim Urie Of Universal Music: Instead Of 'Drowning Out' Those You Disagree With, Let's Come Up With Solutions

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 24 Sep, 2010 @ 01:30pm

    That's a lotta money...

    OK... So, lemme get this straight... If piracy were magically prevented, we could expect to see a $58 billion surge in the economy?

  • On the post: Label Complains That Amazon Devalues Artists By Making Music Cheap

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 23 Sep, 2010 @ 08:28pm

    Hehe

    Nice comparison to the latte... When selling lattes, I have to restock on several materials and do considerable work to get the latte to customers at high quality. With this music, there are no materials anymore, and the distribution cost has hit the floor. Customers are not PAYING for the "value of the music" or "all the work that went into recording it". They are paying for a single digital unit. They SHOULD be really cheap.

  • On the post: Why It's Important Not To Call Copyright Infringement Theft

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2010 @ 02:05pm

    Re: Re: I blame kindergarten.

    Infringement against the artist's wishes is certainly disrespectful, but frankly, I don't think artists should have any say in what happens to their art after it is released. If I want to use chairs as firewood, the original creators have no say in that. I paid for the chairs; what I do after that is none of their business. If people want to share, let 'em.

  • On the post: Why It's Important Not To Call Copyright Infringement Theft

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2010 @ 01:16pm

    I blame kindergarten.

    Elementary schools teach kids that they can become whatever they want. Maybe we should condemn that practice now because now we see nothing but millions of "artists" who feel that because they "wanted" to become a singer, painter, whatever, they are immediately entitled a substantial paycheck. Copyright only goes to reinforce this mentality.

    Everyone (artists included) has a right to TRY to make money. I have zero problem with artists making money, but I have major problems with artists chasing down people transferring bits among one another. I am a software engineer. I make it a point to sell my talent, not my output. I am valuable because I am a field expert. Someone can request a custom solution because I have the expertise to deliver that solution, and I am paid accordingly. I am never going to trap myself into depending on royalty checks from a product that costs ZERO to reproduce (software).

    Infringement is not theft. There's nothing else to be said. Sure, sometimes I'll accidentally use "steal" in reference to someone pirating music/movies during casual conversation, but in a serious debate about facts, theft has no place. No one is suggesting that infringement is ethical, but only irrational artists call it stealing.

  • On the post: Is Free Parking Costing Us Billions?

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2010 @ 08:57am

    Yeah, you do that...

    Yeah, make it so no parking is free... and watch as retail sales plummet. Personally, I would exit my apartment far less. I'd order way more stuff online. I'd have to use my bike a lot more to get to the nearby places.

  • On the post: Blizzard Says DRM Is A Losing Battle, Better To Focus On Positive Value

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 28 May, 2010 @ 02:49pm

    It's doublespeak

    I hate this PR spin that Blizzard is putting out. They are talking about how DRM is a losing battle all while putting DRM into Starcraft II. Just because you don't explicitly code a "DRM module" does not mean the game has no DRM. The game mandates an online connection for any kind of multiplayer. This is a deliberate defect. If I am in a place with no Internet connection, I cannot play multiplayer at all. HOW IS THAT NO DRM?

    Blizzard wants to "unify" the community, but it does it through coercion and manipulation rather than just letting the features compete on their own accord! Battle.net 2.0 is a neat place, but I do not care for the greater community. I want a functional product. From where I live, the game is fairly laggy. Why do I have to pay $60 only to be watched every minute that I play?

    Sorry, Blizzard. No LAN, no sale.

  • On the post: Times Online Says Competitors Will Go Out Of Business Without A Paywall

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 25 May, 2010 @ 06:06pm

    News == Boring

    I don't even read news all that often. I definitely would never pay for it.

  • On the post: Forbes Recognizes That There Are Better Business Models Than Pure Advertising

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 11 May, 2010 @ 11:14pm

    Wow

    WHAT? The corporations are not always right? How long have you been sitting on this information?

  • On the post: AT&T (And Friends) Still Hard At Work Making Up Net Neutrality Job Loss Figures

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2010 @ 12:00pm

    Why are these people entitled jobs?

    Why is it that jobs disappearing is a terrible event but millions of people occupying USELESS job positions is perfectly acceptable? We can all agree that people losing their jobs is never a happy occurrence, but they act like having a job is some sort of human right. I think it sets a terrible precedent to have jobs just for the sake of having jobs. I guess we live in an age where having a marketable skill is unfair competition to the uneducated labor force.

  • On the post: North Carolina Demands Amazon Reveal Every Detail Of Purchases By NC Residents

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 20 Apr, 2010 @ 02:20pm

    LOL @ taxes

    I remember arriving at the tax form that requested a list of all purchases I made online. The funny thing about this is that I could not be honest about it even if I wanted to. I buy so much stuff from so many vendors online, there is no practical way I could gather up that information. And what incentive do I have to hunt down this information? So that I can pay more in taxes? Not very motivating...

  • On the post: The Number of People Giving Up TV for the Web Is Slowly Gaining Pace

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 14 Apr, 2010 @ 10:38am

    TV will not be missed.

    My wife and I received DISH Network as a gift from her mother. It was nice to watch a few of our favorite shows, but the sad reality is that we only watch maybe 5 of the 100+ channels available. Plus, in the age of the Internet, scheduled broadcast times are incredibly archaic. I want the media to fit around my schedule.

    Now, I am an avid user of Miro, Netflix, and the web in general. I plan on buying a Boxee Box once it comes out. I will definitely not be renewing my DISH subscription when it expires this year. It costs way too much for such little benefit. The DVR aspect makes it tolerable, but it's still ridiculous. If I forget to set a recording timer, I've lost the show forever, essentially. With online podcasts and whatnot, I can miss it by a week and still watch it.

    When I move, I'm going to pour my money into a godly Internet connection. That'll give me way better TV than DISH/DirecTV could ever provide.

  • On the post: Can You Still Say DRM Is Effective When It Creates Security Vulnerabilities, Performance Degradation, Incompatibilities, System Instability And 'Other Issues'? [Update]

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 09 Mar, 2010 @ 01:25pm

    Re: Open GL?

    Also, my favorite part is how DirectX is not even fully available to all Windows users. Windows may dominate the market, but DX10 requires Vista, and DX11 requires 7. If you run Windows XP, you are doomed to DX9 without special cracks. OpenGL's latest updates are open to everyone.

  • On the post: Can You Still Say DRM Is Effective When It Creates Security Vulnerabilities, Performance Degradation, Incompatibilities, System Instability And 'Other Issues'? [Update]

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 09 Mar, 2010 @ 01:04pm

    Re: Open GL?

    So, coding for Windows and XBox only is the current market? Funny. I liked coding once and having my game run on three operating systems. That's what my current two projects are doing.

  • On the post: Don't Blame Your Community: Ad Blocking Is Not Killing Any Sites

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2010 @ 12:37pm

    Excellent

    I read through the Ars article just before I found the writeup here. The attitude of the site operators really amazed me. They were never super blunt about it, but they basically stated, "If you block our ads, you are useless dead weight to us. Leave." Really? You'd rather not try to reel me in as a customer? You would rather I leave with bitter feelings? You would rather I remove your RSS feed and stop sharing Ars articles with other people (likely non-users of ad-blocking software)?

    It doesn't matter what business you are in. If you find yourself lecturing your customers about how you make money, you're doing it wrong. Customers do not need to care how a business stays in operation. Customers want something; the business can either provide it or block them. I agree with many of the comments posted by others on the Ars article: "Just put up a paywall and be done with it!"

  • On the post: Ubisoft's Annoying New DRM Cracked Within Hours Of Release

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2010 @ 10:39am

    Post it!

    Get this up on the Techdirt Facebook page. I wanna share it on my wall.

  • On the post: Confused Musician Threatens Google, Blog Because Her Works Are Found Elsewhere On The Internet

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 24 Feb, 2010 @ 09:53am

    Army of Hackers

    I thought I was part of the Masnick Elite! Why did you crush my dreams???

  • On the post: Philly City Council Members Want To Sue Facebook And Twitter Over Flash Mob Snowball Fight

    TheBuzzSaw ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2010 @ 07:58pm

    Huh?

    Facebook? Twitter? They may as well sue the Internet. Email and a plethora of other services could have just as simply formed a mailing list to organize this horrific snowball assault.

Next >>