Thomas 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (33)

• On the post: Senators Wyden & Udall Ask If The NSA Is So Confused About Its Own Capabilities, Why Do We Trust Them With All That Data?

  

  Thomas ( profile ), 17 Sep, 2013 @ 09:29am

  Plausible deniability

  I think the NSA actually wants people to believe they're lying with no way of proving it. That makes them look competent with no recourse to stop them.
  
  I mean afterall, shouldn't an intelligence agency be good at lying?

• On the post: Apple Learns That Suing A Key Supplier May Not Be So Smart; Samsung Jacks Up Prices On Apple

  

  Thomas ( profile ), 12 Nov, 2012 @ 03:32pm

  Re: Trevor

  Not exactly. Apple wants no competition for devices. Their margin on their own devices is huge. They would rather pay Samsung double what they are now and have an iPhone monopoly than pay 1/2 and only have 1/2 the market share.

• On the post: Australian Government Announces That It Is Dropping Mandatory ISP Filtering…But Still Wants Filtering

  

  Thomas ( profile ), 08 Nov, 2012 @ 04:03pm

  Re: Maybe I'm missing something...

  It's illegal to host I'm sure, and illegal to look at.
  
  However, it's not actively filtered. So you could browse a site hosted in a country where it isn't illegal, and most likely get away with it.
  
  That's the thing about the internet that has lawmakers scratching their heads. It's become so easy to visit other countries, they don't know how to enforce laws any more. That's why so many of these attempts seem amateurish and perplexing (at best).

• On the post: Yes, Apple, You Have To Tell The UK Public That Samsung Didn't Copy You

  

  Thomas ( profile ), 19 Oct, 2012 @ 09:44am

  This isn't going too far

  This is just the kind of punishment needed to make companies think twice about frivolous lawsuits.

• On the post: What Public Domain? Why A Letter Written In 1755 Is Still Covered By US Copyright Law

  

  Thomas ( profile ), 19 Sep, 2012 @ 10:19am

  Re:

  Just put a reasonable limit on length of time and that fixes 90% of the problems (even something semi-ridiculous like 50 years would be better than what we have now).

• On the post: This Goes Beyond Tablets: Apple, Amazon & Google Are Betting On Economic Philosophies

  

  Thomas ( profile ), 13 Sep, 2012 @ 01:35pm

  Amazon Prime

  I think you're ignoring a big aspect of Amazon's plan.
  
  They want everyone to sign up for Amazon Prime. That means enticing people to use even more of their services (remember free 2 day shipping on everything). Amazon Prime also has a ton of video on demand available to subscribers.
  
  So, I think the Kindle's plan is more complicated than you posited and you can't summarize in one sentence.

• On the post: The Math Says HBO Shouldn't Go Direct, But They Left Innovation Out Of The Equation

  

  Thomas ( profile ), 12 Sep, 2012 @ 12:35pm

  Content producers don't really have to innovate

  HBO's main business these days is making things people want to see. Not giving access to people trying to see it.
  
  I'm not sure it would be in their interest to get in that business. Partnering with other companies who provide the access and focusing on making content is probably what HBO should do.
  
  Now getting HBO on Hulu or Netflix might be a very wise decision.

• On the post: Does Setting Up A Paywall Suddenly Make Your Readers Erudite & Intellectual vs. Crass & Tacky?

  

  Thomas ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2012 @ 01:09pm

  Slideshows

  One minor point is that slideshows on websites are absolutely designed to get more page view as each picture opens a new page with more ads.
  
  If you're not relying on ads for income it would remove the incentive to make these annoying slideshows, but not the content in them.
  
  So you should get less annoying slideshows.

• On the post: Fan Fiction: A Revisionist History And Future

  

  Thomas ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2012 @ 02:51pm

  Re: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead

  I scrolled down here to post about this, and found you're post at #1. Well done.

• On the post: Under Logic Of German 'Pay To Link' Proposal, If A German Publication Wastes My Time, I Can Send Them A Bill

  

  Thomas ( profile ), 24 Aug, 2012 @ 09:33am

  Wouldn't this mean Google would have to pay money to every website on the planet?

• On the post: Apparently The Purpose Of Copyright: Keeping Our Ancestors' Promise To Noah Webster

  

  Thomas ( profile ), 24 Aug, 2012 @ 09:14am

  Selling someone else's work vs sharing it

  It looks like he missed the biggest reason behind Webster's worries.
  
  Someone was profiting from someone else's work. This is definitely unethical and what copyright laws should be written to protect.
  
  It is totally different from sharing work with someone else.

• On the post: Band Calls 1st Amendment A 'Buzzword' In (Plagiarized) C&D To Mitt Romney Over (Licensed) Use Of Song

  

  Thomas ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2012 @ 01:26pm

  Could a band sue on the grounds that using on of their songs could make the crowd think it was implicitly supporting a candidate?

• On the post: Back And Forth Cloning Battles With Zynga Continue With New EA Chapter

  

  Thomas ( profile ), 08 Aug, 2012 @ 10:01am

  In other news all the stupid Facebook games are exactly the same.