zegota 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (173) comment rss

  • On the post: How NBC Wanted Conan O'Brien Dump His Twitter Account

    zegota ( profile ), 11 Feb, 2011 @ 10:09am

    Re: Re:

    Someone tried about a month ago. Thanks for the reminder.

  • On the post: Humane Association Trademarked 'No Animals Were Harmed'; Threatens King's Speech With Infringement Claim

    zegota ( profile ), 07 Feb, 2011 @ 11:11am

    Re: Re:

    It's very possible -- but AHA's defense will likely be what I outlined, and I wouldn't be entirely surprised if they won (though if I had to bet, I'd say they'd probably lose).

  • On the post: Humane Association Trademarked 'No Animals Were Harmed'; Threatens King's Speech With Infringement Claim

    zegota ( profile ), 07 Feb, 2011 @ 10:03am

    As lame as this is, I disagree with you that there's no chance of confusion. It may very well be the case that the phrase has become generic, and that may invalidate their trademark, but I can understand the argument that using the phrase "no animals were harmed" is understood to mean "the AHA has ensured no animals were harmed..."

  • On the post: Star Wars Is A Remix

    zegota ( profile ), 04 Feb, 2011 @ 06:33pm

    This stuff is mostly common knowledge (Lucas readily admits nearly all of it), but I'd never thought of it in the context of copyright. Pretty cool.

  • On the post: You Would Think Sony Knew Better Than To Install A Rootkit In The PS3 [Updated]

    zegota ( profile ), 03 Feb, 2011 @ 02:52pm

    Yes, that ten-line IRC chat certainly proves it. -_-

  • On the post: Google's Childish Response To Microsoft Using Google To Increase Bing Relevance

    zegota ( profile ), 01 Feb, 2011 @ 02:35pm

    I've run across this!

    When I tried to market my own brand of cola, ZegCola. I used Coke as just one part of my recipe (the other part was water), and Coke was all "wahh wahh."

  • On the post: Have We Reached A Tipping Point Where Self-Publishing Is Better Than Getting A Book Deal?

    zegota ( profile ), 06 Jan, 2011 @ 12:05am

    Ugh, no thanks

    I'd be glad to trade any author for a publishing contract. In so, so many ways, the publishing industry is far different than the music industry. The main reason self-publishing is still mostly a no-go, is that you have absolutely no chance of getting in a physical store, which, unlike music nowadays, is a huge setback.

  • On the post: Hulu Realizes That It Can't Go Public Because Its Business Plan Is Hindered

    zegota ( profile ), 21 Dec, 2010 @ 10:03pm

    This is a nice idealistic article. Unfortunately, until the content comes from somewhere other than these big companies, nothing's going to change. Sure, some awesome upstart can come in seeking to shake up the status quo. But without support from the networks, they'll have absolutely nothing to put on their website, and will quickly fade into obscurity.

    Unfortunately, it's much harder to get away from this in the TV industry than in the recording industry. Nowadays, a talented musician can make and distribute an album without the huge upfront cost that it use to require. But making a TV show requires a lot of capital (there are some exceptions, like It's Always Sunny, but in general this is true), and unless there's a generous benefactor out there willing to grant a ton of money to some producers, we're kind of stuck with the shitty model from the 1950s.

  • On the post: Operation Payback And Wikileaks Show The Battle Lines Are About Distributed & Open vs. Centralized & Closed

    zegota ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2010 @ 10:48am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    To be fair, a "terrorist" is nothing more than someone who attempts to inflict fear on a population to get a desired result. Anon are definitely terrorists by definition. However, I'll admit it's a loaded word, and comparing a bunch of script-kiddies to a group that kills thousands of people is irresponsible.

  • On the post: Ubisoft's New DRM: Vuvuzelas

    zegota ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2010 @ 04:22pm

    Re:

    Most likely untrue on the first count, as it's probably not popular enough for anyone to crack, and many super popular DS games have still not been cracked.

    And the second count, that's absolutely false. Only people who cannot afford it will pirate? That's insanity. If we're going to claim that every downloaded copy = lost sale is a faulty argument, you can't go around espousing stuff like this. DS piracy was very popular in my circle of friends before the DRM started, and we all had no trouble buying plenty of games before the R4 came out, and after its obsolescence.

    Problem is, once you get into pirating, it's hard to justify buying anything to yourself. It's a lot more difficult to pirate the big-budget games now, so I've gotten back into buying, including a lot of the games I downloaded before.

  • On the post: Ubisoft's New DRM: Vuvuzelas

    zegota ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2010 @ 02:53pm

    Nintendo DS (and PSP, for that matter) piracy is absolutely rampant. I'm normally 100% against DRM, but I've yet to hear about a legitimate user having problems with any of the DRM that gets put into DS games (that yes, can be broken, but sometimes it's harder than you think. Bowser's Inside Story is still uncracked on some cards, and that game's over a year old). In fact, some companies do use this in creative ways, and allow pirated version to exist as a sort of demo that cuts off after a certain point, instead of just disallowing play all together.

  • On the post: Newspapers Say: Shut Up And Get Scanned And Groped

    zegota ( profile ), 23 Nov, 2010 @ 12:15pm

    Re: Re: Re: You really want to see heads explode?

    Most businesses would favor single-payer healthcare. Why wouldn't you? It effectively means you no longer have to provide healthcare for your employees.

    Health insurers are the big exception, obviously.

  • On the post: City Paper Mocks Competitors For 'Policies' Over Stewart/Colbert Rallies

    zegota ( profile ), 27 Oct, 2010 @ 08:07am

    Re:

    11.1: After your dismissal, our team will put you in contact with Fox News, who will immediately offer you a multimillion dollar contract as long as your promise to continue said intolerant laughter.

  • On the post: Don't Be Confused By Amazon's Ebook Sales Claims

    zegota ( profile ), 21 Sep, 2010 @ 05:54am

    "This week in Duh Magazine..."

    Marketing uses misleading figures to make their products look good!

  • On the post: Betcha Loses Its Big Bet: Court Now Says It's Illegal Gambling

    zegota ( profile ), 07 Sep, 2010 @ 07:53pm

    Re:

    You can debate if it's moral or pragmatic, but states have every right to make laws like this.

  • On the post: Misguided Insult To Misguided Injury: HP Sues To Stop Mark Hurd From Taking New Job

    zegota ( profile ), 07 Sep, 2010 @ 07:24pm

    Re: One of us has misread, and I think it's you, Mike:

    Without commenting on the rest of the issues, many (most?) employees of large companies dislike upper management and executives, and especially the CEO.

  • On the post: Righthaven Sues Senate Candidate Sharron Angle

    zegota ( profile ), 07 Sep, 2010 @ 10:25am

    HA!

    "I've seen some people think that, because of this lawsuit by Righthaven, if she gets elected, perhaps she'll speak up for better copyright laws..."

    AHAHAHAHA! Ahaha! Oh man! That's good!

    Seriously though, do you have a link to these "some people," cause anyone who knows anything about Angle, and politicians in general, knows that is insane.

  • On the post: Did Activision Violate Arnold Schwarzenegger's Publicity Rights With Austrian Accented Thor?

    zegota ( profile ), 05 Sep, 2010 @ 01:59pm

    Re:

    This is the in-game voice. You either have a different version, or you're trolling.

  • On the post: Kristin Hersh Turns An Album Into A Book

    zegota ( profile ), 29 Jul, 2010 @ 09:18pm

    Re: Re: Could you elaborate?

    If that typo was purposeful, it's brilliant.

  • On the post: Copyright Lawsuit Plaintiff Demands $27 Million; Gets $500

    zegota ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2010 @ 03:20pm

    Re: Re: Re: Damages awarded

    The coffee was hot past the point of safety. It was hot to the point where 2 seconds of exposure gives you third degree burns. No other restaurant had coffee that hot. Spilling Burger King coffee on yourself likely results in an annoying burn that might leave a mark for a while. Spilling that McDonald's coffee on yourself resulted in needing a god damn skin graft.

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