Angry Puppy 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Copyright Monopolies In The Middle Of Health Care Reform Debate As Well

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 07 Jan, 2010 @ 01:24pm

    ADA Codes

    The American Dental Association codes are available for anyone and are published many places on the web.

    http://support.previser.com/documentation/UsingPreviser/Appendixes/ADACodeTable.htm

    I suspect that dentists are not looking for any more reasons for people to dislike them.

  • On the post: CNN's Take On 'Book Piracy'

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2010 @ 12:51am

    Stating the Obvious

    Markets create themselves.

  • On the post: How China's Attempts To Censor The Internet Are Failing

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2010 @ 09:36pm

    Re: Tyranny will always fail - eventually

    No, tyranny never ends, it just changes form. It's up to all of us to limit it.

  • On the post: Is Hiding A New DRM Standard Behind The Guise Of 'It Works On Any Device' Really That Compelling?

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2010 @ 08:48pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: What is the Solution?

    I'm telling mom on you!

  • On the post: Is Hiding A New DRM Standard Behind The Guise Of 'It Works On Any Device' Really That Compelling?

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2010 @ 08:33pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: What is the Solution?

    Amy Winehouse?

    http://britishteeth.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/amy-winehouse1.jpg

  • On the post: Is Hiding A New DRM Standard Behind The Guise Of 'It Works On Any Device' Really That Compelling?

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2010 @ 08:13pm

    Re: Re: What is the Solution?

    But then everyone will copy Mickey Mouse and all of the Disney executives will be made homeless.

  • On the post: Is Hiding A New DRM Standard Behind The Guise Of 'It Works On Any Device' Really That Compelling?

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2010 @ 08:00pm

    What is the Solution?

    If a 'keychest' is not the solution to multiple device capability for DRM controlled media what is?

  • On the post: Is Hiding A New DRM Standard Behind The Guise Of 'It Works On Any Device' Really That Compelling?

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2010 @ 06:49pm

    Re: Sigh...

    Hmmmmmm! Disney Cupcakes - slobber, drool...

    Any and all content in this post is work of fiction and is in no way depicting any person living or dead or in any way ripping of a Fox Network animated series. Also, Disney only has the global public good in mind in all of business they partake in.

  • On the post: Despite Awful Customer Service, Woman Felt Forced To Buy Another Sony eBook Reader… Thanks To DRM

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2010 @ 04:47pm

    Technology Woes

    Aside from problems with Sony customer support (I have had many issues with Sony as a technician and customer - not the least of which was that root kit incident)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_CD_copy_protection_scandal

    The core of the problem is not DRM it's the way DRM is handled.

    If I buy a paper based book it's mine. I can read it, lend it to a friend, quote from it in my writing (attributing the source), or leave it on the public transit for someone else to read.

    Digital media should be the same. How about having all of the media in one common format and you can copy to and from any device. There just has to be a DRM code number to enter for the eBook that is registered to you and can be transferred to another user.

    There should also be a way to not allow the seller to delete your cop like Amazon did to Orwell's 1984 on Kindles.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html

  • On the post: Tomorrow Is National Book Burning Day; Thank Your Friendly Entertainment Industry Lobbyists

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2010 @ 11:27pm

    Re: Copyright and Profit

    I suppose I have been prevented from performing my job (research) in some way, but I can generally afford to get access to anything. I and other children past and present have and are being denied education by publishers demanding ridiculous sums from the public school system for text books.

    It's not this that is of concern here, it is the loss of knowledge or, more importantly, the ideas that are being lost. Nazi Germany's first efforts were to remove any ideas other than their own simplistic lies. Chairman Mao ordered all the intellectuals into the countryside to dig and farm or be imprisoned and executed. We now are losing ideas to due to indifference to anything but profit. I personally really like to have money and am not about to support a call for a sort of "copy anything you want" utopia. But seeing the cultural record disintegrate is hard to take. I've been witnessing this for decades. A loss of ideas is a loss of freedoms.

  • On the post: Tomorrow Is National Book Burning Day; Thank Your Friendly Entertainment Industry Lobbyists

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2010 @ 02:53pm

    Re: In summary

    The Hávamál (of which this is a verse) is from a time of passing down history through an oral tradition and it was profession to be a story teller and memorize history. Very important text was carved in stone and lasted for millennia. In this case you know of this passage from the Elder Edda a 12th century compilation of Icelandic poems. If it was copyrighted I doubt that it would have been known to you.

  • On the post: Tomorrow Is National Book Burning Day; Thank Your Friendly Entertainment Industry Lobbyists

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2010 @ 02:38pm

    Re: Selfish

    Yes, probably.

  • On the post: Tomorrow Is National Book Burning Day; Thank Your Friendly Entertainment Industry Lobbyists

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2010 @ 12:10am

    Re: Re:

    No, we can stop copyright holders from being greedy, it's called the law. The right of he individual (and in this case the corporation, mostly) has to be limited for the common good.

    Off the topic: This is a public forum and you are allowed to speak your mind but you're being dismissive and obtuse. Try to be constructive and persuasive instead.

  • On the post: Tomorrow Is National Book Burning Day; Thank Your Friendly Entertainment Industry Lobbyists

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 02 Jan, 2010 @ 11:46pm

    History and Culture Can Not be Left to the Copyright Holder

    I'm watching a Monty Python documentary while I read this article and the responses. Terry Gilliam said he found out that the BBC was about to record over all of the Monty Python's Flying Circus old episodes because the tapes cost 90 Pounds each and they needed them for "football matches and horse shows". So, to save the show, literally, he bought all of the tapes. Twenty years later, when Python became in demand again, the BBC had to come begging him for the master tapes.

    Ted Turner has saved much of the old nitrate films by buying all of those old classics and remastering them for his successful TCM network. I's good that he could
    see the value of old works. However, his efforts are restricted to Hollywood, what have we lost from the 1920's school of French surrealism? We did lose part of Fritz Lang's brilliant 1927 'Metropolis' but, because the copyright expired in 1953 there was an effort to find and reconstruct the film and it was announced they has found most of the original and Turner is going to show it in 2010 (hopefully) with the original score.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(film)#Restorations_and_re-releases

    If the copyright was still in play this would all not be possible and the mother of all science fiction movies would have been lost forever. I believe 'Avatar' will be gone in 83 years. A DVD only lasts a few to a maximum of about 20 years (about 40 minutes on the dash of a car on a hot day). Don't argue with my estimates. I have been using using CD's since the 1980's and some of my earlier music and computer data is not recoverable. DVD technology is even less robust. Don't look for Blueray to be any better.

    Johnnie Carson once complained that NBC had destroyed much of the original Tonight Show recordings. He said it wasn't all brilliant television, but it was part of American culture.

    Recently, NASA erased the moon landing recordings:

    "An exhaustive, three-year search for some tapes that contained the original footage of the Apollo 11 moonwalk has concluded that they were probably destroyed during a period when NASA was erasing old magnetic tapes and reusing them to record satellite data."

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106637066

    I am certain that this mindless corporate and government behavior is repeated often everywhere in the world. They are carrying out the actions of the firemen in F 451 every day.

    I can understand corporations and individuals wanting to maximize profits from a creative investment but without the public or (as in Gilliam's case) private involvement I can see much of our collective past being lost.

    Perhaps the best solution is to enact a global law that requires all copyrighted works to be kept by the holders in a fail safe archive and if they refuse to pay for the storage the work goes public.

    I only write technical material and may never get around to typing out the novel or two I have in mind, but this article has convinced me to call my lawyer next week and make sure my will clearly states that anything I wrote becomes public domain upon my death. Otherwise, my death may be the final word of me.

  • On the post: Court Dumps Class Action Lawsuit Saying Apple iPod Responsible For Hearing Loss

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 31 Dec, 2009 @ 11:31am

    Self Inflicted Wounds

    I hear MP3 players on the transit system while on my way to work every weekday. There is always one or two people in a train car of 30+ playing the music so loudly I can clearly make out the beat and often the lyrics from 20 feet away. These people create their own hearing loss.

    I would to sue these mouth breather, over volume players for making the rest of us suffer the incredibly obnoxious and substandard music being pounded through our skulls twice a day.

  • On the post: Post TSA's New Security Rules And Get A Visit And Subpoena From Homeland Security

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2009 @ 05:40pm

    Re: this isn't about security theatre

    In defense of the "cops" (I assume you mean the front line security people) they are people like you and me doing what the can with what they have to use and what the know, both of which are lacking. It's the near treasonous TSA directors and the idiot bureaucrats that are the f-wads.

  • On the post: Post TSA's New Security Rules And Get A Visit And Subpoena From Homeland Security

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2009 @ 05:27pm

    Re: Re: Re: this is why i dont trust TSA

    I doubt the costs would be proportionately higher in the USA - much of the money given to TSA seems to be wasted. I agree that doing your best is not easy, but saving lives is not cost effective?

    I dislike that attitude. Going the easy and cheap route is why GM is still nearly bankrupt and is getting more bailout money (for GMAC). It's indicative of the lazy and corrupt corporate culture that creates much of the problems facing the world.

    So, what is the cost effective ratio of blown up aircraft to security expenditure?

  • On the post: Post TSA's New Security Rules And Get A Visit And Subpoena From Homeland Security

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2009 @ 02:53pm

    Re: this is why i dont trust TSA

    TSA is a corporation whose purpose is to make money. Hiring ex-police officers with experience and training would cause reductions in profits due to rightful demands for better pay. Your average TSA (and most lower level airport security people) are under thirty, have a high school or equivalent diploma and no prior security training. They make less than $30,000 per year - if they are full time. They have the education, skills, and training of parking lot attendants.

    See:

    Why Have 67,000 TSA Employees Left Their Jobs?

    http://www.analyst-network.com/article.php?art_id=1778

    It's hard to say if it's your father or brother who is the lucky one. It sure isn't the air traveler or the country.

    Israel is considered to have the among best airport security. They hire highly paid experts with special training in behavior analysis, profiling, interrogation, anti-terrorism, and martial arts/weapons.

  • On the post: Post TSA's New Security Rules And Get A Visit And Subpoena From Homeland Security

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2009 @ 02:21pm

    Re: invasive strip searches

    Yes, but 1 in about 10 of us would fly really, really often.

  • On the post: Why Is The NY Times Running A Ridiculous, Conflicted Op-Ed Against Google?

    Angry Puppy ( profile ), 29 Dec, 2009 @ 01:29am

    Re: DAMMIT!

    Bwahahahahahahahahahahahah!

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