The Mighty Buzzard 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Why Do We Celebrate The 'Solitary' Experience Of Books But Decry The Social Experience Of Online Social Media?

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2012 @ 02:37am

    Re: Re: I'll give it a go

    I actually just meant they would be, on average, better quality be it fiction or non.

    As for politics and philosophy, we're doing that right now. Neither of us are experts and neither of us has anyone double checking for quality or content. What we produced would be better if we did.

    Don't get me wrong. I like a good stretch at icanhascheezburger or a debate on techdirt. Both of them are of little actual value though. However amusing they might be for a moment, that's as long as their value lasts.

  • On the post: When You Create Value It Doesn't Mean You Have To Capture Every Bit Of That Value

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2012 @ 01:44am

    Re: A better title

    When you create value, you should own every bit of it. That's not the issue here though. The issue here is people feeling entitled to things they didn't create.

    If I produce and start selling The Wheel, I'm entitled to continue producing and selling The Wheel when and how I like and to reap whatever profits I can from it. I am not entitled to any claim on The Cart, The Motorcycle, or The Car. I didn't think of them. I put forth no effort into producing them. I put no effort into bringing them to market.

    That's what money is, folks: solidified effort. If you didn't put forth the effort, you have no claim on the money. Anything that diverges from that line of thinking is always going to boil down to someone thinking they deserve something for nothing. That, not simply the desire for money, is what greed really is and yes it is wholly evil.

  • On the post: Why Do We Celebrate The 'Solitary' Experience Of Books But Decry The Social Experience Of Online Social Media?

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2012 @ 01:23am

    I'll give it a go

    A book is, in general, something that has had to survive enough challenges to its worth to make someone think it would be worth a few bucks to read. The author put a lot of time and effort into writing it and the editor spent plenty of their own time doing quality control on it.

    Social media, on the other hand, is essentially a million monkeys banging on keyboards. Huge areas of it are nothing but the mental diarrhea of its users. There is no barrier to entry and no quality control of any kind. Yes, you'll find a few gems in social media but they're buried in a mountain of shit.

    Competition is the difference. There is no competition in social media because there is no barrier to entry and no expected return. There are no consequences to publishing a mountain of garbage. Competition creates better products because the ones that lose die.

    It's like the old saying: If everyone is special, then no one is.

    P.S. Please, no comments citing specific examples; this is a macro principle and I'm well aware that both systems have their exceptions.

  • On the post: Hacking Society: It's Time To Measure The Unmeasurable

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 27 Apr, 2012 @ 07:25am

    Re: Re:

    Protests of government policies generally only work on things done within the two years before an election. That leaves senators safe 4/6 years and the president safe for half his term.

    The solution is both grass roots and organized lobbying pressure on the politicians. Using either one alone is simply cutting any effectiveness you hope to have in half. Fighting with half your strength because you dislike the other half makes you a fool.

  • On the post: Hacking Society: It's Time To Measure The Unmeasurable

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 27 Apr, 2012 @ 07:18am

    Re: Capital

    It's even more simple than that. Capitalism is about making money, full stop. If you focus only on the short term and die due to disruption, you're simply a failed capitalist.

    Crony capitalism is as far from true capitalism as socialism is. Protecting either the people or industry will always leave you worse off than if you'd simply forced products/services to sink or swim on their merits. The only thing that should be protected is the ability to compete, with neither the government nor industry permitted to stifle your ability to bring a product or service to market.

  • On the post: Hacking Society: It's Time To Measure The Unmeasurable

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 27 Apr, 2012 @ 07:10am

    Re:

    Do that and you'll invariably end up with something strongly resembling the fairness doctrine and that is just as foolish. Simply stop treating corporations as people and you solve the problem. They have no rights to participate as entities in politics and the government has no rights to directly tax them.

  • On the post: Tor Listens To Authors And Readers And Ditches DRM

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 27 Apr, 2012 @ 05:24am

    Re: Re: Re: Sales Killer

    True enough, though I expect publishing houses will eventually simply let distribution become a commodity and primarily handle marketing and editing. That's always been their only real value anyway.

  • On the post: Tor Listens To Authors And Readers And Ditches DRM

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 27 Apr, 2012 @ 12:38am

    Re: Sales Killer

    I'd guess it's because, even with somewhat lessened sales from DRM, the big publishers do do better marketing and make the authors more money.

  • On the post: RIAA Keeps Trying To Spin Hadopi's Clear Failure Into A Success Story

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2012 @ 05:28pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    See, if the *AA would just come out and say that, I'd have more respect for them.

  • On the post: Valve Tries To Charge People Based On How Likable They Are: Trolls Pay Full Price

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2012 @ 04:25am

    Re: For TechDirt Comments

    Nah, we already deal with them just fine. Ridicule and mocking have always been effective social stimuli and I expect they'll continue to be in the future. Plus, it's fun.

  • On the post: Valve Tries To Charge People Based On How Likable They Are: Trolls Pay Full Price

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2012 @ 04:19am

    Re: Re:

    Moreover, it's unfair to judge people based on their likableness and character.

    Screw that. That is one thing people should absolutely be judged upon. I've done it since before I even learned the word "asshole" and plan on continuing to do it until I stop breathing. I'd even go as far as to say it's the primary criteria that people should be judged on in the majority of situations.

  • On the post: Rep. Zoe Lofgren Quizzes US Register Of Copyrights Over Close Connection To Industry

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 20 Apr, 2012 @ 08:58am

    Re:

    ... they need to get things moving to stop it from happening ...

    What makes you think that anyone in Congress actually sees that as a desirable result? Lofgren and friends likely put on a dog and pony show for the voters with no desire or intent to see any results from it.

    Why pass up fat campaign contributions and extremely well paying future consulting jobs by doing something when you can just talk sternly and continue with business as usual? It's not like they have to worry about whoever runs against them not taking *AA money.

    The only real choice is would we prefer a red or blue condom for when they fuck us.

  • On the post: Rep. Zoe Lofgren Quizzes US Register Of Copyrights Over Close Connection To Industry

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 20 Apr, 2012 @ 08:43am

    Re: Would this be another good time to repeat . . .

    Mildly funny and just about as accurate as the *AA version.

  • On the post: Court Says Dutch Anti-Piracy Organization Overreached; Won't Shut Down Pirate Party Proxy Site

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 18 Apr, 2012 @ 12:19am

    Re:

    Agreed. This of course necessitates that BREIN withdraw their complaint as the paperwork lists the addresses of proxies.

  • On the post: Court Says Dutch Anti-Piracy Organization Overreached; Won't Shut Down Pirate Party Proxy Site

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 18 Apr, 2012 @ 12:16am

    Re:

    Damn, I should have been a judge instead of a sysadmin. I'm lucky to even get free, if terrible, coffee while at work.

  • On the post: Judge Preserves Megaupload Evidence For Now, While Gov't Tries To Pin Blame On Hosting Company

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 16 Apr, 2012 @ 10:30pm

    Re: Re:

    Nobody ever says the gun manufacturers are responsible for hunting accidents, or shooting murders, even though the gun manufacturers are well aware that it happens, because we all know that would be stupid.

    You've obviously not spent much time around anti-gun people. That's said quite often.

  • On the post: Homemade Hardcovers: Yet Again, Anti-Circumvention Interferes With Fair Use

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 12 Apr, 2012 @ 01:52pm

    Re: Big fat double standard.

    Didn't you know? You don't own anything with DRM on it, you just have an extremely limited license to use it.

  • On the post: Breaking: U.S. Sues Apple, Publishers Over eBook Price-Fixing

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 11 Apr, 2012 @ 11:51am

    Re: Re:

    They'd rather pay lawyers. And the claim that they can't be guilty of price fixing when no other retailers were involved kind of holds water there. As far as I'm aware, it's legal to try and fix the price you're receiving and you're allowed to set most any price you like as long as it's not discussed with your peers in the industry.

  • On the post: UK Community Gives Up Waiting For High Speed Broadband: Digs Its Own Fiber Trenches

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2012 @ 11:18pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Privately funded sounds just fine and dandy. Several private individuals is peachy keen. When people start using phrases like "the community" or "the people" though, they either mean local government ran or a huge mess where nepotism, cronyism, and protectionism are the words of the day.

    Individuals can be awesome people. The People and The Community are greedy asshats who manage to be both self-serving and self-destructive at the same time.

  • On the post: UK Community Gives Up Waiting For High Speed Broadband: Digs Its Own Fiber Trenches

    The Mighty Buzzard ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2012 @ 10:14pm

    Re: Re:

    Pretty good rant but government run competition is not the answer to government supported monopolies. That's like smacking your thumb with a hammer to take your mind off of a headache.

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