Expect to be sworn at, after he's finished looking up new Anglo-Saxon words and phrases, dismissed as a *tard and then proudly proclaiming that the case is closed and the bills will sail through without so much as a peep cause everyone is willing to sign their rights away to Hollywood.
I'm detecting the ghost of Sonny Bono here.
Competition? That's piracy, don't you know! Stealing an artist from a label is awful, horrible and will damage copyright fatally if it's allowed to continue you *tard you!
(I make no claim regarding the accuracy, veracity or grammatical and logical sense of the previous paragraph though it does accurately convey the writing and debating style of on easily identified Anonymous Coward and his/her knowledge level. [99.999999% chance it's a he].)
I love a good belly laugh first thing in the morning.
Now, if you don't mind I'm off to church.
BTW did you know that the entire bible is built from "pirated" work? (by your definition and the MPAA and RIAA's) Not one bit of "original" work in there. Just the work of others filched by the editors in both the Christian and Hebrew versions.
Heck, some even suspect they changed the names of the authors to hide their evil deed!
And after church I'm gonna go do some piracy, Arrggghh, laddie, I feel the urge coming on to climb aboard the good hip bittorrent and commit murder, mayhem and piracy!
Another thing I adore about you, is your fall back of insults and swearing when you have no other answer, particularly when you have no other answer.
"Everyone knows that entertainment content is by far the most pirated entity on the web."
Well, I guess it could be that way if you restricted the entire Intenet to the web but it isn't. Nor does it matter all that much. It's that Microsoft has learned to live with that fact in way that generates sales later.
Anyway, I kinda like the smell of horseshit.
And your excuse is? Too much Kool-Aid? Or is it trapped in a corner you can't get out of so you resort to attacks and insults?
He seems to. And that's what's so wrong about this entire debate. He isn't alone in that.
It's not that the recording and movie industries haven't cried wolf with each introduction of consumer copying and sharing technology and very handily survived all of them without draconian measures. They'll survive this too.
It's really quite funny to notice that while he's donned the Great American outfit that he's misses the point that most RIAA member companies are foreign owned, Sony, of course, and UMG and EMI, On the movie side of it's a fair number of them are too.
As you point out though, nice way to support American businesses. Innocent ones.
He's swallowed gallons of the kool-aid though so he can't help himself. It damages the synapses and removes all possibility of critical thought and analysis. All he has left is the mantra and the script.
this is what I just adore about you. You ask me to address piracy, I do.
I point out the MS products are the most pirated things in existence and you're response is "if tech companies can't find a way to make money without piracy" well after I've explained some of how MS does exactly that.
If all else fails fall back on the script. Then you ignore the most basic part of my response is outside of the United States SOPA/PIPA will change nothing except cause annoyance when the US attempts to extra-territorially enforce the law. After I've pointed out that the US can't.
Microsoft has joined with them as has been stated. Learn to read things you don't like reading. And Microsoft doesn't make public comments about much of anything now having learned a painful lesson around anti-trust and anti-competitive courts and all that. Silence is pretty much golden on these things. Better to work with others. So my statement stands.
As for piracy, I have said and I'll say again that neither SOPA or PIPA will stop or even substantively reduce it. It's likely to have the opposite effect. Check the definition of Streisand Effect if you want to know why.
Like too many other Americans you assume that the United States is the world can can set the rules for the planet. From 1945 till, just to draw a line in the sand, 1990 that was the case. (Where the actual line will be drawn won't be decided for a century or so from now and while I'd love to be around to find out I kinda doubt it.)
Not every other country on the planet is joining in on this. None, outside of China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other freedom loving lands are joining in on "filtering" DNS while at the same time telling China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and others to stop doing just that. Remembering that Hong Kong has long been the world capital of cheap fashion counterfeits I can see the Chinese making them easier to find instead of harder to find. And don't doubt that the won't if the State Department leans on them about an open Internet as these bills get closer to passage.
Canada isn't filtering DNS so getting alternate DNS from Canada ought to be easy for Americans and it's a perfectly legitimate thing to do for a host of other reasons. I can hear the gales of laughter from Berlin and Paris if you tell them to, and a polite "we'll think about it" from the UK.
Actually those countries won't because they DO want the benefits of DNSSEC which their security agencies have been hard at work it too. If the United States Congress decides to sit that one out then fine. It'll work without the United States.
One part of the whole trade issue thing comes when the US starts to tell internationally operating payment networks, say, not to fund a site in Poland because it's suspected of hosting a pirated song or two. It's not hard to imagine Poland telling the same companies "oh yes you will, if you want access to the rest of our market and the rest of the EU" or that other payment processors won't rush it to provide the money who aren't headquartered in the States.
Heck, the United States isn't the biggest consumer market on the planet anymore. China is. And that's been one of the hammers the US has been able to use till now is "wanna lose our market"? I can see some, if not a lot saying "we can live without it. We're still doing business in China, Brazil and India than you very much."
That hammer is long gone.
"There seems to be no end to the false bs and propaganda on this blog."
To which you've added a substantial amount of both in the debate over the bills.
Nor do you quite get it yet that piracy is in large measure a market failure by the pirated companies, if you like. The MPAA and RIAA because they've not and seem to have no interest in adapting to a permanently changed marketplace. As dangerous as fake pharmaceuticals are, the gray market exists because of the obscene pricing of drugs since the horrible mistake of being able to patent them was made. As much as I want to see that market vanish it won't until drug prices come down.
If you're concerned about the fashion industry they've survived without copyrights and patents for decades, fakes and counterfeits being churned out for decades and I see no reason to given a dress or suit design a copyright or patent when the "industry" they represent has done spectacularly well without it and will continue to do so. They just want on the gravy train. Economically even sillier when it's taken into account that they provide even less to the economy that Hollywood's tiny part of the GDP and that while they do employ people it's at best at minimum wage and at worst for less and in illegal sweatshops even inside the US.
So get this...it's called adapt to a permanently changed marketplace don't try to legislate it out of existence. You can't do things that way.
Oh and if SOPA/PIPA are going so well why is the PR being cranked up by Forbes and a crank lobbyist named Cleland at this late date? That doesn't sound at all like doing well to me. Cleland's article reads more like desperation.
The Senate bill is substantially different from the House bill so while as few as 5 Senators may have problems with their bill (for now), that's no guarantee that when it comes time to meld the two that that number won't grow.
This all after they get out from behind the beltway and "meet the people" back home again instead of well paid, well funded lobbyists.
Oh, and I am aware of the almost farcical nature of Senate elections in that you can be the most horrid legislator out there and you either have to commit a capital crime or die before being voted out.
It's an interesting article, though not totally unexpected as I'd expect Forbes to land on the side of the status quo even if, in this case, it doesn't defend capitalism in any way shape or form but simply wealth. Also to be expected from Forbes. (Not a shot at Forbes, as such, just that it's not all that unexpected, that's whose views they represent.)
Cleland himself has a long and, to him, proud record of being anti-Google so I'd likely take his opinions there with several large grains of salt. Particularly as most of his work and his attitudes about Google have been paid for by Verizon, AT&T, Comcast AND Microsoft. His views on openness are bit wonky too.
Probably why he mentions Yahoo and Google but neglects to mention that Microsoft is sitting between them at the table opposed to this bill.
Nor is the consensus for this legislation as broad as he might indicated or knowledgeable about what it can and cannot accomplish. The US Chamber of Commerce is a given, some AFL-CIO unions are a given as is the federation itself,sadly. The BBB I'm not at all surprised with though I wonder what their level of support will be as consequences both intended and unintended come to light. Collections of politicians have never impressed me much. Most of them will stick their finger in the wind and if opposition to this bill if felt they're change their mind so fast your head will spin. It's an impressive list but can that list vote? Nope. Does that list employ anyone? Or does it just lobby.
Oh, right.
Cleland works for lobbyists while moonlighting as a journalist.
No, I have no doubt that I didn't. Interpreted differently and I continue to,might be another way of putting it.
Still, each of us is entitled to an opinion and at least I put my real name to mine.
For what it's worth there does seem to be a real rush to get this thing through, a clear indication that all, if not most of that 2-1 majority don't understand what they're proposing and a fair number of them seem proud of that detail. Oh boy, let's just take Hollywood's word for it.
The other way is that was what supposed to be a done deal by the end of the year despite the numbers you cite isn't finished yet. Not something I'd want to go into an election with.
Will it pass in the end out of the US House. Yes. Will it pass through the US Senate intact, I doubt it.
But it's kinda fun to watch as rushed bad legislation always is. Even the kind I actually support and not oppose.
There is some truth to that. Though the Internet itself relies on DNS just as much as the Web does. DNS is one of the base technologies of the Internet used to find a particular site and predates the web by considerable length of time.
Which is why when you go to an IRC server you type /server cedar.bc.ca on the command line of the IRC client instead of having to remember the entire IP address number. IRC and technologies such as usenet and others predate the web by a decade or so. Remember, the World Wide Web is really just a protocol riding on the internet, not the internet itself.
IRC, and other chat protocols and places like Usenet may become the best sources for file sharing/piracy once SOPA/PIPA passes, incidentally. Unless, of course, free speech in America is really down for the count to provide welfare for the RIAA and MPAA.
That's part of what, it seems, elected representatives in the USA don't get. The Internet can continue to exist without the web, the web can't exist without the internet. That's just one of the many technical flaws and complete misses in the bills as they currently exist. Which is why I can see judicial and legislative running around after they're passed sticking their fingers into the dyke, complaining about all these "new" leaks and ways people can "pirate" when they were there all along.
So in that sense it may lead people to rediscover things that have been there "forever" in internet years but kinda forgotten because of flashier, cooler looking grahics based stuff running over the HTTP protocol otherwise known as the Web which things bills fixate on.
As I mentioned though, when people wanting to get re-elected look at an alliance for lobbying purposes consisting of bitter, hated enemies as Yahoo, Microsoft and Google are lobbying against these bills they might pause to understand. Particularly as two of them have profits that make Hollywood money look like a spec of dust. Guess who can fill that campaign fund faster and fuller? Or an opponent's campaign fund. This is not a trio you want to annoy.
As I've mentioned, MS product is probably "pirated" more often in a day then RIAA/MPAA stuff is in the better part of a month. Most of that being downloaded by individuals who can't afford or wouldn't be buying the stuff in the first place. Microsoft goes after the money..corporate and government piracy where the market is pretty much dependent on them and the chances of extracting enough money to make it worthwhile are far better. Nor do they want to encourage competitive packages like Libre Office and Open Office which just happen to be free. MS does GET competing with free, even if it often doesn't look like they do. So, for that matter, does Adobe. With both the rule seems to be don't charge for it and unless you become a real pest we'll just look the other way. Oh, by the way, we do know where you live. Sooner or later you'll find you need or want the real thing and buy from us instead of LibreOffice for MS Office or TheGIMP for Photoshop.
All this of course just adds to the confusion over whether the phrase "May you live in interesting times" is a curse, blessing or combination of the two. For what it's worth, I think it's a blessing.
Do you think for one microsecond that I'm going to get "cloud" based software solutions like Office 365? I don't even use the disk based version!
It's a corporate targeted solution anyway, and more power to them if they can find a market there.
One of the annoyances of Win7 is that it tries to "stop security issues before they happen" just as Win8 will but it's as leaky as it ever was and Win8 will be too.
There are very good reasons for that but I doubt you're all that interested in wandering in the halls of techie stuff as you have neither interest in it or ability to understand it.
Nor am I moving to "cloud" based solutions. For example every picture I upload to Flickr is there to share not to store. I keep my own copies safely here, thank you.
Even moreso now given the insanity of SOPA and ICE I'm not about to trust my data to a cloud based solution based in the United States. (Or anywhere should it come to that.)
Anyway, I'm glad you're amused, even if you're mostly amused by fantasy of your own making and not reality.
They've always had the ability to change product and save files in incompatible ways. Hell, MS Office is infamous for it. And no, I don't have any recourse, except to switch which I did long ago.
If I were you, though, I'd watch things like your last sentence. If we shaped the world, WE have the power to change it.
So, thank you very much, we'll enjoy it as you freak out over fake issues like endless piracy, how poor and destitute the RIAA and MPAA are and several other things you get excited over.
I actually look forward to your posts, as illogical as they are and as full of untruths as they are (see, I even used Parliamentary language there to call you a liar) and how cowardly you are.
Reading you and imagining the foaming at the mouth as you type lightens up my day hugely.
The place won't be the same without you once you get bored of being alternately ignored or insulted. Never worry though. We know another troll will come along.
That's pretty standard along with the stuff that basically says "what you just acquired may or may not work. So sad, too bad. you're on your own."
All in all, I don't mind either. I got it now so change away. It works so change away. Just don't demand that I have an internet connection so it can call home. THAT, I'll block and then fake.
There's been, in the past few years, the idea pushed by sites like ZDNet and CNET that the browser is or SHOULD BE the operating system.
I know what utter crap that is but, as you say, there's a lot of people who don't know.
Nor do they know things like backup early and often and, in the case of data, synch to a place such deletions can't access.
It's true, literally speaking, that all I have is a license to my programs/apps whatever (let's just say executable files) but that data is MINE, created by me for my own use with said executable file.
Back up, export to something readable like a text file if necessary but get it the hell off the device. In some cases and situations I'll accept remote management as long as I'm fully aware of what it does and what I can do to bypass if I must.
At least Microsoft is being up front about this as opposed to a certain other iEverything company is.
Oh, and let's not forget what I consider malware no matter how it got there, CarrierIQ.
"But it'll make a hell for (VPN) service vendors and software creators."
I agree with the first half of the sentence, well kinda, but I'm willing to wager there are a ton of coders out there who have been working on apps since this mess landed (splatted?) and have solutions worked out already.
A stroll into the rep's local office to express oppostion has more weight that all of the above.
Staffers remember face-to-face meetings with upset constituents, the good old human-to-human contact thing. Its important to be polite, though, or all the staffer remembers is a wing-nut.
Which begs the question: Where will they stop in making things illegal which are perfectly legal now and necessary to keep the Internet secure and trustable?
What you're hinting at is that there's no end to this. Not that I disagree, once legislators start down this road on behalf of cause or for money in the campaign account or whatever it doesn't end.
So I guess that people in border downs won't be able to use a Canadian DNS as an alternate DNS or secondary one as they don't block sites or mess with it. (Our "updated" copyright act is bad but it doesn't get THAT bad.)
All to help a pair of industries that refuse to accept reality.
The old supply line is dead. Time for them to adapt or die.
There are trolls, and then there are trolls and then there are trolls who make no sense at all such as Jack Galt here. (And yes, I know where your user name comes from)
If you would care to explain in careful detail what you mean by a "much better internet" when this one seems to work beautifully.
And if you mention copyright, piracy and all that silliness Ayn Rand will likely puke her guts up in her grave.
Of course, this isn't about copyright, it isn't about the artist, about full or part time or casual jobs. As the commentary says it's about outlandish CEO salaries that seem based not on corporate performance but on, well, who knows.
There's nothing too much in either article linked to in the story I'd disagree with. Maybe a nit pick here and there. Not much more.
The late 90s and the past decade of this century have done more to cement mediocrity in music than anything else I can think of.
Home taping was gonna kill the record industry. It didn't.
High resolution video cameras whose output is almost indistinguishable from the best film based cameras there is was a massive threat to the motion picture industry not all that long ago but they use them now. Film is dead and buried.
The threat is still there that some indie place can come along and make a fantastic movie but it's not gonna happen as long as Hollywood controls the supply line to movie houses. Or rarely happen.
On the music side all the RIAA wants or needs now is a couple of genetically modified kids who look sexy, preferably one of each gender who can sorta dance. Singing doesn't matter as there's autotune for both recording and concert work, when the stars aren't lip synching.
Of course the back catalogue is valuable, extremely valuable so their upset about what they call piracy and the MPAA will jump on board because fewer people are going to movies so that must be from piracy too.
Now, if they could get rid of piracy, file sharing and evil stuff like that they can seize control of the distribution channels again and the CEOs can continue to make bazillions while not paying or nurturing new musicians, or risky bands or, well, MUSIC, as opposed to the sort of thing that would work well for Muzak in an elevator. Or movies remaking bad tv shows or even older bad movies and wondering why no one goes.
In the meantime it's the "pirates" and evil file sharers who fuel and break new indie acts and indie or foreign films, the few that actually get into theatres like The Ring.
If you can turn something into a copyright issue and frame it as "what about the starving artists" and "who cares about the starving artists" and actually get away with it you got a good gig there. Particularly as the MPAA and RIAA don't care one whit about them.
But we need laws to ensure that copyright is respected so that that bunch can salt away 8 and 9 figure incomes in perpetuity.
Oh, and get rid of all those pirates and freeloaders while we do it. Except you don't.
That's the fatal flaw here.
Screwing around with American DNS so that results for known "pirate" sites won't know on a search engine results list wont do it when no other country in the world is doing it. All cutting off the money supply to them does is piss other countries off as legit sites get tagged as "pirate" and the payment processors get caught in the middle between the US and other countries insisting they obey their laws and pay them while other processors spring up globally to get around that.
All this in aide of a false presumption that has more to do with not giving customers what they want at a price they want rather than visions of high seas piracy for profit.
And all for two free spending industries who contribute little to the GDP of the United States or to employment. All while the tech industry, an IP intensive industry if there ever was one, opposes these moves and contributes vastly more in both contribution to GDP and employment than the Hollywood gnomes ever will. Not to mention valuable exports.
Ahhh to live in la la land. Ahh to head up Hollywood companies or banks. Got a problem, go to government, they'll write you a cheque cause you're too big to fail or put you on life support and welfare cause you contribute almost their entire campaign funding.
All while howling about the lazy bums on real welfare who can't feed their families cause their out of work and about top lose their homes through, mostly, no fault of their own.
On the post: TtfnJohn's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
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I'm detecting the ghost of Sonny Bono here.
Competition? That's piracy, don't you know! Stealing an artist from a label is awful, horrible and will damage copyright fatally if it's allowed to continue you *tard you!
(I make no claim regarding the accuracy, veracity or grammatical and logical sense of the previous paragraph though it does accurately convey the writing and debating style of on easily identified Anonymous Coward and his/her knowledge level. [99.999999% chance it's a he].)
On the post: TtfnJohn's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
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I love a good belly laugh first thing in the morning.
Now, if you don't mind I'm off to church.
BTW did you know that the entire bible is built from "pirated" work? (by your definition and the MPAA and RIAA's) Not one bit of "original" work in there. Just the work of others filched by the editors in both the Christian and Hebrew versions.
Heck, some even suspect they changed the names of the authors to hide their evil deed!
And after church I'm gonna go do some piracy, Arrggghh, laddie, I feel the urge coming on to climb aboard the good hip bittorrent and commit murder, mayhem and piracy!
On the post: TtfnJohn's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
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"Everyone knows that entertainment content is by far the most pirated entity on the web."
Well, I guess it could be that way if you restricted the entire Intenet to the web but it isn't. Nor does it matter all that much. It's that Microsoft has learned to live with that fact in way that generates sales later.
Anyway, I kinda like the smell of horseshit.
And your excuse is? Too much Kool-Aid? Or is it trapped in a corner you can't get out of so you resort to attacks and insults?
You're almost amusing, know that?
On the post: TtfnJohn's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
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It's not that the recording and movie industries haven't cried wolf with each introduction of consumer copying and sharing technology and very handily survived all of them without draconian measures. They'll survive this too.
It's really quite funny to notice that while he's donned the Great American outfit that he's misses the point that most RIAA member companies are foreign owned, Sony, of course, and UMG and EMI, On the movie side of it's a fair number of them are too.
As you point out though, nice way to support American businesses. Innocent ones.
He's swallowed gallons of the kool-aid though so he can't help himself. It damages the synapses and removes all possibility of critical thought and analysis. All he has left is the mantra and the script.
On the post: TtfnJohn's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
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I point out the MS products are the most pirated things in existence and you're response is "if tech companies can't find a way to make money without piracy" well after I've explained some of how MS does exactly that.
If all else fails fall back on the script. Then you ignore the most basic part of my response is outside of the United States SOPA/PIPA will change nothing except cause annoyance when the US attempts to extra-territorially enforce the law. After I've pointed out that the US can't.
Tell me something, are your synapses firing?
On the post: TtfnJohn's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
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As for piracy, I have said and I'll say again that neither SOPA or PIPA will stop or even substantively reduce it. It's likely to have the opposite effect. Check the definition of Streisand Effect if you want to know why.
Like too many other Americans you assume that the United States is the world can can set the rules for the planet. From 1945 till, just to draw a line in the sand, 1990 that was the case. (Where the actual line will be drawn won't be decided for a century or so from now and while I'd love to be around to find out I kinda doubt it.)
Not every other country on the planet is joining in on this. None, outside of China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other freedom loving lands are joining in on "filtering" DNS while at the same time telling China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and others to stop doing just that. Remembering that Hong Kong has long been the world capital of cheap fashion counterfeits I can see the Chinese making them easier to find instead of harder to find. And don't doubt that the won't if the State Department leans on them about an open Internet as these bills get closer to passage.
Canada isn't filtering DNS so getting alternate DNS from Canada ought to be easy for Americans and it's a perfectly legitimate thing to do for a host of other reasons. I can hear the gales of laughter from Berlin and Paris if you tell them to, and a polite "we'll think about it" from the UK.
Actually those countries won't because they DO want the benefits of DNSSEC which their security agencies have been hard at work it too. If the United States Congress decides to sit that one out then fine. It'll work without the United States.
One part of the whole trade issue thing comes when the US starts to tell internationally operating payment networks, say, not to fund a site in Poland because it's suspected of hosting a pirated song or two. It's not hard to imagine Poland telling the same companies "oh yes you will, if you want access to the rest of our market and the rest of the EU" or that other payment processors won't rush it to provide the money who aren't headquartered in the States.
Heck, the United States isn't the biggest consumer market on the planet anymore. China is. And that's been one of the hammers the US has been able to use till now is "wanna lose our market"? I can see some, if not a lot saying "we can live without it. We're still doing business in China, Brazil and India than you very much."
That hammer is long gone.
"There seems to be no end to the false bs and propaganda on this blog."
To which you've added a substantial amount of both in the debate over the bills.
Nor do you quite get it yet that piracy is in large measure a market failure by the pirated companies, if you like. The MPAA and RIAA because they've not and seem to have no interest in adapting to a permanently changed marketplace. As dangerous as fake pharmaceuticals are, the gray market exists because of the obscene pricing of drugs since the horrible mistake of being able to patent them was made. As much as I want to see that market vanish it won't until drug prices come down.
If you're concerned about the fashion industry they've survived without copyrights and patents for decades, fakes and counterfeits being churned out for decades and I see no reason to given a dress or suit design a copyright or patent when the "industry" they represent has done spectacularly well without it and will continue to do so. They just want on the gravy train. Economically even sillier when it's taken into account that they provide even less to the economy that Hollywood's tiny part of the GDP and that while they do employ people it's at best at minimum wage and at worst for less and in illegal sweatshops even inside the US.
So get this...it's called adapt to a permanently changed marketplace don't try to legislate it out of existence. You can't do things that way.
Oh and if SOPA/PIPA are going so well why is the PR being cranked up by Forbes and a crank lobbyist named Cleland at this late date? That doesn't sound at all like doing well to me. Cleland's article reads more like desperation.
Sheesh!
On the post: TtfnJohn's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
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This all after they get out from behind the beltway and "meet the people" back home again instead of well paid, well funded lobbyists.
Oh, and I am aware of the almost farcical nature of Senate elections in that you can be the most horrid legislator out there and you either have to commit a capital crime or die before being voted out.
On the post: TtfnJohn's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
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Cleland himself has a long and, to him, proud record of being anti-Google so I'd likely take his opinions there with several large grains of salt. Particularly as most of his work and his attitudes about Google have been paid for by Verizon, AT&T, Comcast AND Microsoft. His views on openness are bit wonky too.
http://www.prwatch.org/node/8419
http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2009/06/google-cr itic-paid-by-microsof.php
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Scott-Cleland-Google-Using-21x-The-Ban dwidth-They-Pay-For-99475
http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2008/02/net-neutralitys-not-anti-pro perty-its-about-our-property.ars
Probably why he mentions Yahoo and Google but neglects to mention that Microsoft is sitting between them at the table opposed to this bill.
Nor is the consensus for this legislation as broad as he might indicated or knowledgeable about what it can and cannot accomplish. The US Chamber of Commerce is a given, some AFL-CIO unions are a given as is the federation itself,sadly. The BBB I'm not at all surprised with though I wonder what their level of support will be as consequences both intended and unintended come to light. Collections of politicians have never impressed me much. Most of them will stick their finger in the wind and if opposition to this bill if felt they're change their mind so fast your head will spin. It's an impressive list but can that list vote? Nope. Does that list employ anyone? Or does it just lobby.
Oh, right.
Cleland works for lobbyists while moonlighting as a journalist.
On the post: TtfnJohn's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
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Still, each of us is entitled to an opinion and at least I put my real name to mine.
For what it's worth there does seem to be a real rush to get this thing through, a clear indication that all, if not most of that 2-1 majority don't understand what they're proposing and a fair number of them seem proud of that detail. Oh boy, let's just take Hollywood's word for it.
The other way is that was what supposed to be a done deal by the end of the year despite the numbers you cite isn't finished yet. Not something I'd want to go into an election with.
Will it pass in the end out of the US House. Yes. Will it pass through the US Senate intact, I doubt it.
But it's kinda fun to watch as rushed bad legislation always is. Even the kind I actually support and not oppose.
On the post: TtfnJohn's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
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Which is why when you go to an IRC server you type /server cedar.bc.ca on the command line of the IRC client instead of having to remember the entire IP address number. IRC and technologies such as usenet and others predate the web by a decade or so. Remember, the World Wide Web is really just a protocol riding on the internet, not the internet itself.
IRC, and other chat protocols and places like Usenet may become the best sources for file sharing/piracy once SOPA/PIPA passes, incidentally. Unless, of course, free speech in America is really down for the count to provide welfare for the RIAA and MPAA.
That's part of what, it seems, elected representatives in the USA don't get. The Internet can continue to exist without the web, the web can't exist without the internet. That's just one of the many technical flaws and complete misses in the bills as they currently exist. Which is why I can see judicial and legislative running around after they're passed sticking their fingers into the dyke, complaining about all these "new" leaks and ways people can "pirate" when they were there all along.
So in that sense it may lead people to rediscover things that have been there "forever" in internet years but kinda forgotten because of flashier, cooler looking grahics based stuff running over the HTTP protocol otherwise known as the Web which things bills fixate on.
As I mentioned though, when people wanting to get re-elected look at an alliance for lobbying purposes consisting of bitter, hated enemies as Yahoo, Microsoft and Google are lobbying against these bills they might pause to understand. Particularly as two of them have profits that make Hollywood money look like a spec of dust. Guess who can fill that campaign fund faster and fuller? Or an opponent's campaign fund. This is not a trio you want to annoy.
As I've mentioned, MS product is probably "pirated" more often in a day then RIAA/MPAA stuff is in the better part of a month. Most of that being downloaded by individuals who can't afford or wouldn't be buying the stuff in the first place. Microsoft goes after the money..corporate and government piracy where the market is pretty much dependent on them and the chances of extracting enough money to make it worthwhile are far better. Nor do they want to encourage competitive packages like Libre Office and Open Office which just happen to be free. MS does GET competing with free, even if it often doesn't look like they do. So, for that matter, does Adobe. With both the rule seems to be don't charge for it and unless you become a real pest we'll just look the other way. Oh, by the way, we do know where you live. Sooner or later you'll find you need or want the real thing and buy from us instead of LibreOffice for MS Office or TheGIMP for Photoshop.
All this of course just adds to the confusion over whether the phrase "May you live in interesting times" is a curse, blessing or combination of the two. For what it's worth, I think it's a blessing.
On the post: Microsoft Reminds Everyone: You Do Not Own Your Software
Re:
It's a corporate targeted solution anyway, and more power to them if they can find a market there.
One of the annoyances of Win7 is that it tries to "stop security issues before they happen" just as Win8 will but it's as leaky as it ever was and Win8 will be too.
There are very good reasons for that but I doubt you're all that interested in wandering in the halls of techie stuff as you have neither interest in it or ability to understand it.
Nor am I moving to "cloud" based solutions. For example every picture I upload to Flickr is there to share not to store. I keep my own copies safely here, thank you.
Even moreso now given the insanity of SOPA and ICE I'm not about to trust my data to a cloud based solution based in the United States. (Or anywhere should it come to that.)
Anyway, I'm glad you're amused, even if you're mostly amused by fantasy of your own making and not reality.
They've always had the ability to change product and save files in incompatible ways. Hell, MS Office is infamous for it. And no, I don't have any recourse, except to switch which I did long ago.
If I were you, though, I'd watch things like your last sentence. If we shaped the world, WE have the power to change it.
So, thank you very much, we'll enjoy it as you freak out over fake issues like endless piracy, how poor and destitute the RIAA and MPAA are and several other things you get excited over.
I actually look forward to your posts, as illogical as they are and as full of untruths as they are (see, I even used Parliamentary language there to call you a liar) and how cowardly you are.
Reading you and imagining the foaming at the mouth as you type lightens up my day hugely.
The place won't be the same without you once you get bored of being alternately ignored or insulted. Never worry though. We know another troll will come along.
On the post: Microsoft Reminds Everyone: You Do Not Own Your Software
Re: Louis C.K. love-fest...
All in all, I don't mind either. I got it now so change away. It works so change away. Just don't demand that I have an internet connection so it can call home. THAT, I'll block and then fake.
On the post: Microsoft Reminds Everyone: You Do Not Own Your Software
Re: The Scariest Part
I know what utter crap that is but, as you say, there's a lot of people who don't know.
Nor do they know things like backup early and often and, in the case of data, synch to a place such deletions can't access.
It's true, literally speaking, that all I have is a license to my programs/apps whatever (let's just say executable files) but that data is MINE, created by me for my own use with said executable file.
Back up, export to something readable like a text file if necessary but get it the hell off the device. In some cases and situations I'll accept remote management as long as I'm fully aware of what it does and what I can do to bypass if I must.
At least Microsoft is being up front about this as opposed to a certain other iEverything company is.
Oh, and let's not forget what I consider malware no matter how it got there, CarrierIQ.
Ain't tech fun!
On the post: SOPA Markup Runs Out Of Time; Likely Delayed Until 2012 [Update: Or Not...]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Much to do about nothing
I agree with the first half of the sentence, well kinda, but I'm willing to wager there are a ton of coders out there who have been working on apps since this mess landed (splatted?) and have solutions worked out already.
On the post: SOPA Markup Runs Out Of Time; Likely Delayed Until 2012 [Update: Or Not...]
Re: Re:
Staffers remember face-to-face meetings with upset constituents, the good old human-to-human contact thing. Its important to be polite, though, or all the staffer remembers is a wing-nut.
On the post: SOPA Markup Runs Out Of Time; Likely Delayed Until 2012 [Update: Or Not...]
Re: Re: Re: Unbelievable
What you're hinting at is that there's no end to this. Not that I disagree, once legislators start down this road on behalf of cause or for money in the campaign account or whatever it doesn't end.
So I guess that people in border downs won't be able to use a Canadian DNS as an alternate DNS or secondary one as they don't block sites or mess with it. (Our "updated" copyright act is bad but it doesn't get THAT bad.)
All to help a pair of industries that refuse to accept reality.
The old supply line is dead. Time for them to adapt or die.
On the post: Apple Abuses Patent System Again To Obstruct W3C Open Standard
Re: Re: "Apple Abuses Patent System Again To Obstruct W3C Open Standard"
Apple fanbois, whatever else their failings are generally post in mutisyllabic words with decent grammar.
On the post: Apple Abuses Patent System Again To Obstruct W3C Open Standard
Re: Good for Apple.
If you would care to explain in careful detail what you mean by a "much better internet" when this one seems to work beautifully.
And if you mention copyright, piracy and all that silliness Ayn Rand will likely puke her guts up in her grave.
On the post: Apple Abuses Patent System Again To Obstruct W3C Open Standard
Re: Since when is playing by the rules obstruction?
Please tell me what planet you're from.
On the post: Alan Greenspan: Failed To Predict Bubble Popping... And Failed In Predicting Home Taping Would Kill Music
There's nothing too much in either article linked to in the story I'd disagree with. Maybe a nit pick here and there. Not much more.
The late 90s and the past decade of this century have done more to cement mediocrity in music than anything else I can think of.
Home taping was gonna kill the record industry. It didn't.
High resolution video cameras whose output is almost indistinguishable from the best film based cameras there is was a massive threat to the motion picture industry not all that long ago but they use them now. Film is dead and buried.
The threat is still there that some indie place can come along and make a fantastic movie but it's not gonna happen as long as Hollywood controls the supply line to movie houses. Or rarely happen.
On the music side all the RIAA wants or needs now is a couple of genetically modified kids who look sexy, preferably one of each gender who can sorta dance. Singing doesn't matter as there's autotune for both recording and concert work, when the stars aren't lip synching.
Of course the back catalogue is valuable, extremely valuable so their upset about what they call piracy and the MPAA will jump on board because fewer people are going to movies so that must be from piracy too.
Now, if they could get rid of piracy, file sharing and evil stuff like that they can seize control of the distribution channels again and the CEOs can continue to make bazillions while not paying or nurturing new musicians, or risky bands or, well, MUSIC, as opposed to the sort of thing that would work well for Muzak in an elevator. Or movies remaking bad tv shows or even older bad movies and wondering why no one goes.
In the meantime it's the "pirates" and evil file sharers who fuel and break new indie acts and indie or foreign films, the few that actually get into theatres like The Ring.
If you can turn something into a copyright issue and frame it as "what about the starving artists" and "who cares about the starving artists" and actually get away with it you got a good gig there. Particularly as the MPAA and RIAA don't care one whit about them.
But we need laws to ensure that copyright is respected so that that bunch can salt away 8 and 9 figure incomes in perpetuity.
Oh, and get rid of all those pirates and freeloaders while we do it. Except you don't.
That's the fatal flaw here.
Screwing around with American DNS so that results for known "pirate" sites won't know on a search engine results list wont do it when no other country in the world is doing it. All cutting off the money supply to them does is piss other countries off as legit sites get tagged as "pirate" and the payment processors get caught in the middle between the US and other countries insisting they obey their laws and pay them while other processors spring up globally to get around that.
All this in aide of a false presumption that has more to do with not giving customers what they want at a price they want rather than visions of high seas piracy for profit.
And all for two free spending industries who contribute little to the GDP of the United States or to employment. All while the tech industry, an IP intensive industry if there ever was one, opposes these moves and contributes vastly more in both contribution to GDP and employment than the Hollywood gnomes ever will. Not to mention valuable exports.
Ahhh to live in la la land. Ahh to head up Hollywood companies or banks. Got a problem, go to government, they'll write you a cheque cause you're too big to fail or put you on life support and welfare cause you contribute almost their entire campaign funding.
All while howling about the lazy bums on real welfare who can't feed their families cause their out of work and about top lose their homes through, mostly, no fault of their own.
Someone's priorities are all screwed up here.
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