vivaelamor 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Composer Jason Robert Brown Still Standing By His Position That Kids Sharing His Music Are Immoral

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 16 Jul, 2010 @ 12:41pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    "I would LOVE to see where the Supreme Court said that it's not theft. Can you point the way?"

    I can do that for you: Dowling v United States

    I quote: "The language of 2314 does not "plainly and unmistakably" cover such conduct. The phonorecords in question were not "stolen, converted or taken by fraud" for purposes of 2314. The section's language clearly contemplates a physical identity between the items unlawfully obtained and those eventually transported, and hence some prior physical taking of the subject goods. Since the statutorily defined property rights of a copyright holder have a character distinct from the possessory interest of the owner of simple "goods, wares, [or] merchandise," interference with copyright does not easily equate with theft, conversion, or fraud. The infringer of a copyright does not assume physical control over the copyright nor wholly deprive its owner of its use. Infringement implicates a more complex set of property interests than does run-of-the-mill theft, conversion, or fraud."

  • On the post: Composer Jason Robert Brown Still Standing By His Position That Kids Sharing His Music Are Immoral

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 16 Jul, 2010 @ 12:34pm

    Re: The chicken may not be copyritten but.....

    "There may not be a copyright on the 'idea' of a chicken (though I wouldn't be surprised if some company's got a patent) but the moment someone 'fixes an expression in a tangible medium' it automatically copyrighted."

    As soon as you create something which is living then it is no longer a fixed expression. Even a dead chicken would be organic matter and difficult to argue as a fixed expression.

  • On the post: Early Indications Say Paywall For The Times Is A Dreadful Failure

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 16 Jul, 2010 @ 12:18pm

    Not much of an attempt

    From the comments on their '10 new features' promo video I gather that the few who have subscriptions are less than thrilled by the lack of an option to remember their login. To me that speaks volumes about how much thought they put into this move, not even taking measures to ensure the new mandatory login is as painless as possible.

    Plus, they list 'real name' comments as a feature. I would hope that the majority of people, being as barely privacy aware as they are, would not view losing the option of anonymity as a good thing. They're likely to have few enough people using their comment system as it is, do they really potentially want to discourage them from posting in any way. How hard could it be to moderate a pay-walled site.

  • On the post: Copyright Serves Middlemen, Not Content Creators

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 16 Jul, 2010 @ 11:40am

    Re: Re:

    "Yeah we get it, you spent a few days in your little hole coming up with that so now you have to use it in every comment thread..."

    Thankfully it's quicker to write greasemonkey scripts to block that sort of crap than it is to write/post it. Plus, they can be shared!

  • On the post: Oh No! Run And Hide! Kids Getting High With MP3s! Moral Panic! Moral Panic!

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 16 Jul, 2010 @ 03:12am

    Re: Re:

    "Man! Can't a guy get a rest and take a break with some fun? I'm sure Mike gets tired of nothing but copyright junk!"

    It used to be that people would complain that too many articles were about copyright.

  • On the post: Don't Be A Jerk To A Minor In Louisiana Or Say Anything Sexually Suggestive In Scotland

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 14 Jul, 2010 @ 01:39pm

    Next on Mock the Week

    I can't wait for this to be brought up on Mock the Week, my guess: "Isn't a Scot asking for permission to say 'fuck you' rather like an Englishman asking for permission to comment on the weather?"

  • On the post: Don't Be A Jerk To A Minor In Louisiana Or Say Anything Sexually Suggestive In Scotland

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 14 Jul, 2010 @ 01:32pm

    Re: Re:

    "Bloody iPhone keyboard!"

    The iPhone has a what now? *fondles his N900*

  • On the post: Lack Of Food Copyright Helps Restaurant Innovation Thrive

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 14 Jul, 2010 @ 01:08pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    'You might want to re-read the article title. It says lack of copyright "helps" the industry thrive, not merely "the industry thrives despite a lack of copyright."'

    Fair enough, I don't agree with that title either.

  • On the post: Lack Of Food Copyright Helps Restaurant Innovation Thrive

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 14 Jul, 2010 @ 01:02pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Now sounds like a good time

    "But by creating (or enhancing) a financial incentive, it encourages proprietors to make and distribute copies of their works (for a price)."

    That pretty much sums up the argument in favour, yes. However, it doesn't seem very convincing without any evidence to back it up.

  • On the post: Lack Of Food Copyright Helps Restaurant Innovation Thrive

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 14 Jul, 2010 @ 12:57pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Now sounds like a good time

    'The "limited time" part means after that time the work can be freely shared.'

    That is not a facility of copyright, that is a limitation on copyright. Otherwise you'd have to consider a pill's maximum dosage to be a facility of the pill.

  • On the post: Lack Of Food Copyright Helps Restaurant Innovation Thrive

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 14 Jul, 2010 @ 11:25am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Poor clearing houses!!!

    "His statement is not "logic"; it is a statement of belief. A belief I agree with, by the way."

    What is belief, if not blind faith, without logic? If he had merely stated his belief then I wouldn't have even bothered disagreeing. My issue was with how he portrayed his belief, as if it was backed up by statements that appeared meant to be taken literally, but were false.

  • On the post: RIAA Accounting: Why Even Major Label Musicians Rarely Make Money From Album Sales

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 14 Jul, 2010 @ 10:57am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Steve Albini Said It First: Don't Credit Courtney Love

    "Seems he taught Courtney Love a thing or two."

    I get the impression that they weren't too fond of each other: 'Steve Albini, on Courtney Love, who Yoko’d up the recording sessions: “I don’t feel like embarrassing Kurt by talking about what a psycho hose-beast his wife is especially because he knows it already."

    Courtney Love, in retaliation: “The only way Steve Albini would think I was a perfect girlfriend would be if I was from the East Coast, played the cello, had big tits and small hoop earrings, wore black turtlenecks, had all matching luggage, and never said a word.”'

  • On the post: RIAA Accounting: Why Even Major Label Musicians Rarely Make Money From Album Sales

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 14 Jul, 2010 @ 10:53am

    Re: Steve Albini Said It First: Don't Credit Courtney Love

    "I'm usually pretty much in complete agreement with the stance that Techdirt takes on copyright, digital rights, etc., but I found it pretty ironic that Mike Masnick didn't check his sources very well. The Courtney Love article referenced near the beginning of this piece is a pretty blatant rip-off of the article Steve Albini (producer, "Big Black" singer, etc.) wrote back in the 90's in "Maximum Rock 'n' Roll" about where the money goes when a band gets a $250,000 advance. Courtney's article may be a bit more up-to-date, but it's just rehashing what Mr. Albini wrote about 20 years ago. If you doubt this, give it a read: http://www.negativland.com/albini.html ."

    Why would Mike give Steve Albini credit for something Courtney Love wrote, solely because the articles are on related subjects and Albini happened to write his first? There is nothing in Courtney's article that suggests that it is even inspired by Albini's article, let alone influenced by it. I gather that the two are reported to be not fond of each other, but let's not presume she ripped him off without some actual evidence beyond the fact that they can both do basic math.

    'It's one thing to rail against copyright and the bullmalarkey of the RIAA. It's another thing to not give credit where attribution is due. Maybe I'm just a middle-aged ex-punk with a chip on my shoulder, but I think that crediting the person who wrote the definitive (and original) study on "where they money goes in a recording contract advance" is the right thing to do. '

    If you're really intent on staging some sort of pissing contest between Love and Albini then I'd point out that out of the two of them, Love is the one with an actual lawsuit on the issue. As well, while Albini's article is indeed basically a rant, Love's goes a lot deeper and is actually somewhat positive in looking for a solution.

  • On the post: Even US Intellectual Property Organization Concerned About ACTA Being Too Broad & Changing US Laws

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 14 Jul, 2010 @ 12:59am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    '"Identicons"? Hashed IP addressess turned into icons.'

    I second this motion: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Identicon

  • On the post: Another UK Hairdresser Fined For Turning On Her Radio

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 13 Jul, 2010 @ 02:39am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    I always use <em> and </em>, which works in both plain text and html input.

  • On the post: Another UK Hairdresser Fined For Turning On Her Radio

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 13 Jul, 2010 @ 02:32am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Sigh...

    "After about 10 nested responses they just turn into one-word-per-line replys that take a couple of flicks with the scroll wheel to read. That's pretty poor site design."

    You can fix this by logging in and setting your preference to variable width rather than fixed width. Alternatively, it's fairly easy to fix with a greasemonkey script.

  • On the post: Lack Of Food Copyright Helps Restaurant Innovation Thrive

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 11 Jul, 2010 @ 03:49am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Poor clearing houses!!!

    "Ah, I see. Well, that's the difference between "truth" and "facts." Whether or not the accused has been determined to have met the criteria for having committed the crime of murder is not something that is usually subject to any sort of interpretation. He either committed the crime, or he did not, and the process itself is inteded to be (though perhaps sometimes falls short of being) an objective one."

    Admittedly my example was piss poor, but you miss my point, which was to point out the absurdity of your statement. Had you offered something more substantive to base your argument on then I would have taken your statement to be a mere expression, and not interpreted it so literally.

    "However, something more subjective, like whether copyright is "good" or "bad" I think very much falls into my personal philosophy of the truth usually being in the middle. We can readily see that there are both good things and not-so-good things that come out of it, so to label it as merely a tool of the rich to oppress the not-as-rich is rather narrow-minded."

    Techdirt is rife with examples of the negative effects of copyright, both anecdotes and studies. By what are you even measuring the positive effect of copyright? The copyright industries tend to point to their own success as the primary evidence, ignoring the fact that building an industry is not the supposed purpose of copyright.

    'To carry your murderer example a bit further, this might be like trying to label him as "evil". He has committed an evil act, to be sure, but is there nothing at all about him that is anything but evil?'

    I fail to see how that is analogous, but then my example was crappy in the first place. A better analogy would have been one pinched from Wikipedia: "Some would say that arsenic is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet, but others claim it is a toxic and dangerous substance. The truth is somewhere in between...". The difference there being that I have seen more evidence that arsenic is necessary than copyright.

    "I usually (not always, but usually) head to the middle ground first, while being open-minded enough to consider all the facts to determine if that is the right place to stay. The middle ground is most likely where the most accuracy in describing the problem is to be found, as well as mostly likely the place where the best answer is to be found."

    That isn't the issue here, I don't have a problem with guessing. I have a problem with people making arguments without anything substantial to back them up.

  • On the post: Lawyers Doing Real Time Jury Googling

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 10 Jul, 2010 @ 04:48pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    "Well, which drug causes constant absurd paranoia, TAM?"

    To some people, it would seem, oxygen.

  • On the post: Do We Really Want An ASCAP For News?

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 10 Jul, 2010 @ 04:16pm

    Re: I produced the product, your nothing but a theif

    "Come try and take my product, and I will be happy to take your life."

    Keyboard hero alert? Big talk, little dan.

  • On the post: Lack Of Food Copyright Helps Restaurant Innovation Thrive

    vivaelamor ( profile ), 10 Jul, 2010 @ 04:00pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Now sounds like a good time

    "Actually, I think it's fair to say that copyright ASSUMES sharing is already taking place, else, how is it that the copier is able to make a copy?"

    If allowing someone to view a painting is sharing then yes, sharing is a prerequisite to copying.

    "The disclosure requirement of a patent seems to be related to the fact that the novel elements of the invention may not be readily detectable merely by observing the finished product on a store shelf. Not so with a copyrighted work. The painting on the wall is itself the entire expression, and is disclosed to the public by it's mere display in the markteplace. No further "sharing" requirement makes sense in that case."

    Well said.

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