Wendy Cockcroft 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: The Rorshach Test Of The Covington Catholic Boy's DC Encounter Now Extends To Bogus Lawsuits And Confidential Settlements

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2020 @ 07:44am

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

    You're right, Leigh. Any kid who puts that hat on knows exactly what it means and what it says to others about you and about how you feel about them if they disagree with you. He chose to wear that hat. Why not another? Why not a plain one?

  • On the post: The Rorshach Test Of The Covington Catholic Boy's DC Encounter Now Extends To Bogus Lawsuits And Confidential Settlements

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2020 @ 07:40am

    Re: Re: Re: It’s like a bad who’s on first routine with you

    Most Mendacious Hypocrite of the Year?

  • On the post: Chinese Court Says AI-Generated Content Is Subject To Copyright Protection

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2020 @ 07:21am

    Re: Re: Re: Somebody had to make this call.

    Heh! That's where neoliberalism gets you -- following the money means you don't necessarily look at where it's leading you to. Needless to say, the left-leaning folk have been warning about this for decades and now they get to say, "I told you so!" There's a lot to be said for limited protectionism, particularly where retaining skillsets is concerned. It's why I'm friendly with lefties while not always agreeing with them. When they're right, they're right.

  • On the post: Chinese Court Says AI-Generated Content Is Subject To Copyright Protection

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2020 @ 07:17am

    Re: Re: Re: AI Production

    Agreed. Actually, copyright began as an exercise in censorship before it became about the publishers' income stream, then a magic money tree that never stops producing money. I think the conflation of copyright with trademarks and patents is why they are now all about rent-seeking rather than creation as such.

  • On the post: Appeals Court Makes The Right Call Regarding Non-Commercial Creative Commons Licenses

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2020 @ 05:26am

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

    @Catsup, the printing press was invented in China. The Germans borrowed the idea.

  • On the post: Appeals Court Makes The Right Call Regarding Non-Commercial Creative Commons Licenses

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2020 @ 05:25am

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

    @bhull242, the printing press was invented in China. Since their alphabet has at least 72 glyphs, it didn't take off. They also invented the typewriter, which failed for the same reason. When the West got hold of these things they took off because our alphabet has only 26 letters.

  • On the post: Appeals Court Makes The Right Call Regarding Non-Commercial Creative Commons Licenses

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2020 @ 05:21am

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

    historical context of patents and their impact on the American way of life. America's power is built on telling copyright and patent holder to get bent. Case in point: Hollywood. It began as an attempt to escape Edison, who was always trying to chase down infringers. Basically, rampant IPR piracy had a bigger and better impact on America than IPR law conformity, which is why music tends to sound the same and Fast and Furious 9 is in production.

  • On the post: Appeals Court Makes The Right Call Regarding Non-Commercial Creative Commons Licenses

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2020 @ 05:13am

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

    What are you more in favor of, economic and social mobility, or tyranny and government control, without end? Copyright enforcement logically leads to tyranny and government control in order to force people to stop copying things.

  • On the post: Appeals Court Makes The Right Call Regarding Non-Commercial Creative Commons Licenses

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2020 @ 05:11am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    As an example, name a country with more valuable and long lasting contributions to humanity than the USA. Greece. They gave us the building blocks of civilisation including principles still in use today in the following areas:

    • Architecture
    • Mathematics
    • Philosophy
    • Ethics
    • Science
    • Language
    • Medicine
    • Civil engineering
    I'd say the same for Rome, which borrowed heavily from Greece. We still use elements of their:
    • Language
    • History
    • Warfare tactics
    • Architecture and construction techniques
    • Roads (in the UK and across Europe, where they built them)
    • Civil engineering
    • Franchising and regime change principles (they wrote the book on this, having perfected the Greek client state system)
    • Administration and record keeping techniques
    China gave us the following during the Renaissance. We were too ungrateful and rude to thank them for:
    • Paper
    • Fireworks
    • Printing
    • Civil engineering
    • Ice cream
    Among other things.

  • On the post: Chinese Court Says AI-Generated Content Is Subject To Copyright Protection

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2020 @ 04:49am

    Re: Somebody had to make this call.

    We weren't beaten to the punch; we transferred much of our manufacturing capacity to China and -- surprise, surprise -- their economy expanded to the point where they can do as they please and we're afraid of the economic implications of calling them on it. Self-own, much?

  • On the post: Shocking Absolutely No One, Ring Admits Employees Improperly Accessed Customers' Data

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2020 @ 04:45am

    Re: Re: Re: Caveat emptor

    Sigh! Okay, how did you find out about IOT security being weak? You don't "just know" it. Someone has to explain this to you at some point. Being rude about people who would be glad to learn if someone just pointed them in the right direction doesn't make them want to learn from you. As I said, I only know about this from TD. I don't see information about it elsewhere, except in the tech press. It's not widely reported.

  • On the post: Shocking Absolutely No One, Ring Admits Employees Improperly Accessed Customers' Data

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2020 @ 04:43am

    Re: Re: Re: Caveat emptor

    The fact that the camera can send data to your mobile phone.. The fact that the data are stored somewhere other than on your home computer is enough to know what's wrong with the device. If you're tech savvy. Joe Punter thinks it only goes to his phone. I would have if I didn't read TD.

  • On the post: Shocking Absolutely No One, Ring Admits Employees Improperly Accessed Customers' Data

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2020 @ 02:53am

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

    I'm convinced it was the trolls who were harassing me some years ago. They did everything else (including trying to plant keyloggers on my PC, which my anti-malware always caught, so they never succeeded), why not that? And they hacked into other targets' accounts, so why not try to get into mine? I was locked out of my own email account for three days because they'd tried to guess the password so many times. I switched to another email provider, where I see less frequent attempts to break in, which are always thwarted by 2FA. Since they don't appear to have tried anything more than try to guess my password I'll assume it's just random spammers trying to use my account as you described. But yes, I've experienced actual direct harassment from people who bragged about targeting me. When I left that community, it tailed off and stopped. The point is, my methods work perfectly well for me. I'm not stupid enough to leave the kind of information online that could be used for social engineering so, as far as I'm concerned, they're bomb-proof.

  • On the post: Shocking Absolutely No One, Ring Admits Employees Improperly Accessed Customers' Data

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2020 @ 09:00am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    If that's true, how come I've had multiple attempts to break into my accounts and no one has succeeded?

  • On the post: Company Says It's Built A Marijuana Breathalyzer, Wants To Roll It Out By The Middle Of This Year

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2020 @ 07:18am

    Re: Two questions

    Here's the law in the UK: https://knowthescore.info/drugs-facts/drugs-and-the-law/drug-driving/ Basically, if you fail any of the tests they have for impairment, you get charged whether the drugs you ingested were legally acquired or not. It's not about the drugs taken, it's about being blasted out of your mind to the point where you can't see properly, spot hazards, etc.

  • On the post: Chinese Court Says AI-Generated Content Is Subject To Copyright Protection

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2020 @ 06:00am

    Re: AI Production

    IPR, and copyright in particular, has become so grotesquely twisted from its original purpose that the new, distorted view means that whoever owns the thing that did the work owns the work. David Slater used that logic when claiming copyright over the monkey selfie. The object of the law is no longer to create an incentive to create, it's to provide the owner of the thing, and of the thing that created the thing, a never-ending income stream. Incentive, schmincentive.

  • On the post: Shocking Absolutely No One, Ring Admits Employees Improperly Accessed Customers' Data

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2020 @ 05:50am

    Re: Caveat emptor

    That's not how they're advertised bobob. They're sold (in the UK) as a way of keeping an eye on your property remotely. This is what their ads look like to me: Exterior walleye view of someone in a hoodie sauntering around the back of someone's house. He ducks behind a chair and bends down to pick something up. Unseen male speaker: Hi Billy, what are you doing? Billy: Just getting my ball. Exterior view of someone approaching, who then appears to look through the glass of the front door. Unseen female speaker: Can I help you? Potential burglar turns and flees As far as Joe Punter knows, the doorbell camera and mic are hooked up to his mobile phone. He's not aware that any film is being stored anywhere else for anyone else to see. He's not stupid, just uninformed. And that's the way Ring likes it. As I've stated many times before I get most of my tech information from TD. If not for TD, I wouldn't be aware that the IOT is something you confront with a crucifix and holy water instead of welcoming the Shiny New Thing with open arms. Alas, not all of us read TD or the tech press, and I don't tend to see these stories in the MSM. My daily Metro doesn't carry these cautionary tales and it's not widely discussed on the internet, except in tech circles. This is what consumer protections are for.

  • On the post: Shocking Absolutely No One, Ring Admits Employees Improperly Accessed Customers' Data

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2020 @ 05:39am

    Re: Re:

    I also recommend 2FA. I've lost count of the number of bad actors trying to break into my emails, etc., who were thwarted by this. RE: hard-to-remember passwords, choose a random word you don't often use (so no one else will guess it). Replace the vowels with numbers and add an exclamation mark to the end. Job done. Of course this means that if I log into my emails from work, I have to check my mobile phone for the PIN provided by my email service, but that's a minor inconvenience compared to the hassle of having my emails hijacked by a spammer sending all sorts of malware in my name, etc.

  • On the post: Ajit Pai Hits CES… To Make Up Some Shit About Net Neutrality

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2020 @ 05:27am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: CES _ Pai

    *...a narcissistic, delusional, bankrupt conman who somehow managed to get elected to high office.** ...a narcissistic, delusional, bankrupt conman who was elected to high office due to the continuing machinations of the right wing press, dark money, and Russian interference. All of that stuff keeps him in office when he should have been booted from the ballot ages ago.

  • On the post: George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue Is In The Public Domain And Gerswhin's Nephew Is Worried Someone Might Turn It Into Hip Hop

    Wendy Cockcroft ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2020 @ 05:23am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Indeed. One of the reasons I'd do a jig of joy if copyright were abolished tomorrow is that they'd be forced to grow the hell up, leave home, and oh, the horror -- get a damn job! Copyright was never meant to be some kind of social welfare net. If artists want life insurance, life assurance, or pension schemes, etc., they should figure that stuff out or perhaps their publishers, etc., can partner with service providers that offer those schemes. It's not copyright's job to fill in for those.

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