Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 3 Aug 2011 @ 11:46am
Re:
My kids have many teachers that use Facebook as a means for contact, when they need help with an assignment, or even for extra credit.
There was a news story a month or two ago about one of the charter schools who require that their teachers have times in the evening where students and parents can contact them for assistance with assignments - and how Facebook has made it easy for teachers to do this without causing undue disruptions to the rest of their lives.
Great law. Make it illegal for teachers to be able to assist their students in the ways that make it easy for both teachers and students.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 2 Aug 2011 @ 1:37pm
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Besides, there's no way of knowing if Zediva hacked around CSS or actually streamed everything to the end-user, including the encryption.
First, yes, there's a way of knowing. The obvious way of actually investigating their operations to see how their DVD players and servers are setup.
Second, the DVD player does the decrypting, and these appear to be standard DVD players with a valid license to decrypt CSS. Once the content comes out the output port of the DVD player, it is no longer encrypted.
There's no DMCA anti-circumvention case here, otherwise you can bet that would've been the argument.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 10:13pm
Re: It's not about banning cryptography
My reading of the regulation is that Pakistan is requiring that all traffic can be monitored and that the signaling information cannot be encrypted. I could be wrong, but my understanding of the term "signaling information" is the set of mechanisms and algorithms allowing for call setup and breakdown, billing, and administrative functions. It seems to me the actual traffic, be it voice or data, can be encrypted but their has to be a way for the monitoring system to understand it (i.e. a backdoor).
Even if your interpretation is correct, that would still outlaw VPN and any other type of encrypted proxies. VPNs encapsulate a normal packet, including all header and signalling information, between two points. Once the packet arrives at the other end of a VPN, it is decryted, the extra VPN header stripped, and the packet is sent on its way. There is no way to track that packet after it reaches the end of the VPN with only the information you had by monitoring the encrypted packet.
No sane business would operate with their data following over an open network without encryption. Many business based in other countries, notably banks (or anyone dealing with financial information) and those dealing with medical information are legally required to protect that data with encryption.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 9:39pm
Re: Our Current Patant and Copyright Systems are un-American
I agree.
The one American idea that patents appeal to is this: Greed. Greed is at the heart of the "American dream" of starting with nothing and getting rich through those ideas you stated - and greed itself is not always bad, much good can come of it if properly managed and checked.
Greed is the reason that even the hundreds of companies that are being actively harmed by patents still continue to support and defend the broken system. The irrational belief that if their company suddenly comes up with some new idea, that they can lock it up, prevent anyone else from using it, and make oodles of money.
Incidentally, it is this same irrational belief that causes many of the poorest people in the country to support tax cuts for the rich, because one day they want to be one of those rich, even if it will certainly cost them more in their own taxes or cuts to services.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 28 Jul 2011 @ 11:27am
Re: Re: Re:
Oh come on. Open your eyes and look. How come recorded music was an $XX billion dollar business, and today it's only half of that? At the same time, the number of people with devices to play recorded music has taken off, from computers to MP3 players to Ithing enabled cars, and all of them are walking around with memories full of music.
You answered your own question.
The money went elsewhere.
20 years ago, very few people had computers. Almost no one had a mobile phone. Video games were for kids, and certainly not all of them. Practically all discretionary entertainment spending went to recorded music and movies.
Now. Almost everyone has a computer. There are more mobile phones in the world than there are people - and many are now smart phones. Most males under 40 have some game console or pricey computer to play games - and gaming among females has risen dramatically. The amount of discretionary entertainment spending is the same (if anything, its less as the wealth disparity in this country has increased significantly in the same time period). So recorded music now has to compete with all those other things for the same amount of money. And as we've seen in the past, the amount of money spent on music related things has actually increased - its just that spent on recorded music is dropping rapidly.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 28 Jul 2011 @ 5:31am
Re: Re: Re:
Josh, even if the rights only cost them a couple of hundred dollars for this particular show, it isn't worth it. The demand is null.
Economics fail. Please read and understand supply/demand pricing before commenting on it. Supply of this good is infinite. Demand is zero, or near to it. That's two reasons price should be near zero. If it is hundreds of dollars, it is obviously over-valued.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 27 Jul 2011 @ 1:50pm
Re: Re: Re: This story bubbles over with BS
And why is coming to the US to watch the content not a legitimate choice?
Choices:
-Pay $2 to see content in comfort of own home. This method costs you $2, costs the provider (Amazon) a trivial amount of bandwidth.
-Pay hundreds of dollars to drive/fly hundreds of miles to a friend or to a hotel, passing through an international border, being subject to invasive searches, then pay $2 to see the content. Bandwidth costs for Amazon would be the same.
-Break the law, pay almost nothing for a proxy server or to have a friend break the law (distributing!) the content to you.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 27 Jul 2011 @ 1:04pm
Re: Re: Re:
What article are you reading? The one I read said:
"Except copyright prevents me from paying $1.99 and downloading a copy of ‘The Dreaming Field‘ for myself,"
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 27 Jul 2011 @ 1:01pm
Re:
First off, if you are a writer on a show, you can almost always get a copy of your work from the studio. In fact, many studio contracts have that exact clause in them, to allow screener copies to go to the key people involved.
And yet, she's a writer and doesn't have one.
Second, Amazon chooses only to buy the rights for the US, and chooses not to buy the rights for other countries because it isn't economically viable. Netflix (you know, that old company) only just made it into Canada in the last year or so.
All this shows is that purchasing the "rights" is absurdly expensive and ultimately detrimental to the creators of the works. Again its content companies drastically overvaluing some piece of paper that says they own a part of culture.
For that matter, Amazon doesn't sell electronics and other stuff in Canada, because it isn't economically viable.
Dealing with shipping and international customs for physical goods is entirely different than transmitting infinitely copyable bits across the internet. Again, all this shows is that national and regional restrictions on data/content/information are entirely arbitrary, counterproductive, and a relic from a world that no longer exists.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 27 Jul 2011 @ 10:05am
Re: Re: Re: I actually disagree this time
You choose what to do.
You're exactly right.
I pay for a cable subscription, and am in an area that can receive free over the air broadcasts. But if I want to watch a show from Fox without jumping through needlessly inefficient hoops, the only convenient option Fox has left me is an "unauthorized" option. And I will choose to use that option.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 25 Jul 2011 @ 7:46pm
Re: air pressure
Just for fun, doing the math, water would boil at 100ºF at about 18,000m (18km) above sea level. (assuming the equation I'm using doesn't break down as I'm not sure it was meant to go that high)
Just FYI, Mount Everest is just short of half that altitude.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 25 Jul 2011 @ 11:28am
Re: Re: Re:
I'd love to go through that post line by line and show how every single line is either a lie, deliberately disingenuous, or factually wrong, but its not worth talking to a brick wall. I'll stick with pithy:
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 22 Jul 2011 @ 7:36am
Re: Sad to see this...
If what you say is true, then you need to speak up against the bad actors that are tarnishing your profession's reputation.
I see two possibilities.
1) You are one of the tiny percentage of patent lawyers that remain reputable. Unfortunately, that means the rot has gone too far and the system really can't be saved.
2) You are actually in the majority. The silent majority. So stop being silent, speak up, and get these assholes that are ruining your reputation thrown out.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 22 Jul 2011 @ 7:26am
Re:
or must license it out. (Be proactively seeking licensees in fact).
That'll just add another layer for the lawyers to exact their tax on. Instead of shell patent holding companies, there would all so be shell licensing companies.
On the post: New Missouri Law May Make It Illegal To Friend Your Former Teachers On Facebook
Re:
There was a news story a month or two ago about one of the charter schools who require that their teachers have times in the evening where students and parents can contact them for assistance with assignments - and how Facebook has made it easy for teachers to do this without causing undue disruptions to the rest of their lives.
Great law. Make it illegal for teachers to be able to assist their students in the ways that make it easy for both teachers and students.
On the post: Court Shuts Down Zediva: Apparently The Length Of The Cable Determines If Something Is Infringing
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
First, yes, there's a way of knowing. The obvious way of actually investigating their operations to see how their DVD players and servers are setup.
Second, the DVD player does the decrypting, and these appear to be standard DVD players with a valid license to decrypt CSS. Once the content comes out the output port of the DVD player, it is no longer encrypted.
There's no DMCA anti-circumvention case here, otherwise you can bet that would've been the argument.
On the post: LA Police Admit That Red Light Camera Payments Are Now 'Voluntary'
Fair Debt Collection Act
On the post: Reports Claim That Pakistan Is Trying To Ban Encryption Under Telco Law
Re: It's not about banning cryptography
Even if your interpretation is correct, that would still outlaw VPN and any other type of encrypted proxies. VPNs encapsulate a normal packet, including all header and signalling information, between two points. Once the packet arrives at the other end of a VPN, it is decryted, the extra VPN header stripped, and the packet is sent on its way. There is no way to track that packet after it reaches the end of the VPN with only the information you had by monitoring the encrypted packet.
No sane business would operate with their data following over an open network without encryption. Many business based in other countries, notably banks (or anyone dealing with financial information) and those dealing with medical information are legally required to protect that data with encryption.
On the post: Could The Supreme Court Invalidate Software Patents?
Re: Re:
On the post: Intellectual Ventures' Response To This American Life: Oh Those Crazy Reporters Don't Understand Disruption
Re: Our Current Patant and Copyright Systems are un-American
The one American idea that patents appeal to is this: Greed. Greed is at the heart of the "American dream" of starting with nothing and getting rich through those ideas you stated - and greed itself is not always bad, much good can come of it if properly managed and checked.
Greed is the reason that even the hundreds of companies that are being actively harmed by patents still continue to support and defend the broken system. The irrational belief that if their company suddenly comes up with some new idea, that they can lock it up, prevent anyone else from using it, and make oodles of money.
Incidentally, it is this same irrational belief that causes many of the poorest people in the country to support tax cuts for the rich, because one day they want to be one of those rich, even if it will certainly cost them more in their own taxes or cuts to services.
On the post: Another Day, Another Study That Says 'Pirates' Are The Best Customers... This Time From HADOPI
Re: Re: Re:
You answered your own question.
The money went elsewhere.
20 years ago, very few people had computers. Almost no one had a mobile phone. Video games were for kids, and certainly not all of them. Practically all discretionary entertainment spending went to recorded music and movies.
Now. Almost everyone has a computer. There are more mobile phones in the world than there are people - and many are now smart phones. Most males under 40 have some game console or pricey computer to play games - and gaming among females has risen dramatically. The amount of discretionary entertainment spending is the same (if anything, its less as the wealth disparity in this country has increased significantly in the same time period). So recorded music now has to compete with all those other things for the same amount of money. And as we've seen in the past, the amount of money spent on music related things has actually increased - its just that spent on recorded music is dropping rapidly.
On the post: Writer Explains How Copyright Has Prevented Her From Ever Seeing TV Shows She Wrote
Re: Re: Re:
Economics fail. Please read and understand supply/demand pricing before commenting on it. Supply of this good is infinite. Demand is zero, or near to it. That's two reasons price should be near zero. If it is hundreds of dollars, it is obviously over-valued.
On the post: Writer Explains How Copyright Has Prevented Her From Ever Seeing TV Shows She Wrote
Re: Re: Re: This story bubbles over with BS
Choices:
-Pay $2 to see content in comfort of own home. This method costs you $2, costs the provider (Amazon) a trivial amount of bandwidth.
-Pay hundreds of dollars to drive/fly hundreds of miles to a friend or to a hotel, passing through an international border, being subject to invasive searches, then pay $2 to see the content. Bandwidth costs for Amazon would be the same.
-Break the law, pay almost nothing for a proxy server or to have a friend break the law (distributing!) the content to you.
On the post: Writer Explains How Copyright Has Prevented Her From Ever Seeing TV Shows She Wrote
Re: Re: Re:
"Except copyright prevents me from paying $1.99 and downloading a copy of ‘The Dreaming Field‘ for myself,"
On the post: Writer Explains How Copyright Has Prevented Her From Ever Seeing TV Shows She Wrote
Re:
And yet, she's a writer and doesn't have one.
Second, Amazon chooses only to buy the rights for the US, and chooses not to buy the rights for other countries because it isn't economically viable. Netflix (you know, that old company) only just made it into Canada in the last year or so.
All this shows is that purchasing the "rights" is absurdly expensive and ultimately detrimental to the creators of the works. Again its content companies drastically overvaluing some piece of paper that says they own a part of culture.
For that matter, Amazon doesn't sell electronics and other stuff in Canada, because it isn't economically viable.
Dealing with shipping and international customs for physical goods is entirely different than transmitting infinitely copyable bits across the internet. Again, all this shows is that national and regional restrictions on data/content/information are entirely arbitrary, counterproductive, and a relic from a world that no longer exists.
On the post: Blue Cross / Blue Shield Says Study Pointing Out Failures Of Its Doctors... Violates Its Trademark
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Once we've passed nickel/iron inner core level, what's below that?
On the post: Fox Decides To Drive Fans To Piracy, Rather Than Giving Legitimate Options
Re: Re: Re: I actually disagree this time
You're exactly right.
I pay for a cable subscription, and am in an area that can receive free over the air broadcasts. But if I want to watch a show from Fox without jumping through needlessly inefficient hoops, the only convenient option Fox has left me is an "unauthorized" option. And I will choose to use that option.
On the post: How Should Law Enforcement Handle Being Filmed? Officer Lyons Provides The Perfect Example
Sound
On the post: Getting Past The Myth That Copyright Is Needed To Produce Content
Re: Nothing to do with Copyright
Yes, its economics. Which is entirely the point. Copyright has nothing to do with how much the original creators of the work make.
Glad to see you're starting to understand.
Now can we dispense with copyright, since it doesn't work?
On the post: Associated Press Carelessness Reaches Boiling Point
Re: air pressure
Just FYI, Mount Everest is just short of half that altitude.
On the post: Looking At Security Theater Through The Lens Of The Utøya Massacre
Re:
You say that like it is a bad thing to defend freedom.
On the post: 54-Year Old School Teacher Who Doesn't Know How To Download Movies First To Be Kicked Off The Internet In France
Re: Re: Re:
Governments don't pass laws to cater to anyone.
One word: Lobbyists.
Aren't you one of them?
On the post: Patent Troll Nathan Myhrvold Declares Patent Trolling To Be A Good Thing
Re: Sad to see this...
I see two possibilities.
1) You are one of the tiny percentage of patent lawyers that remain reputable. Unfortunately, that means the rot has gone too far and the system really can't be saved.
2) You are actually in the majority. The silent majority. So stop being silent, speak up, and get these assholes that are ruining your reputation thrown out.
On the post: Patent Troll Nathan Myhrvold Declares Patent Trolling To Be A Good Thing
Re:
That'll just add another layer for the lawyers to exact their tax on. Instead of shell patent holding companies, there would all so be shell licensing companies.
Next >>