That was Mike pointing out it was highly unlikely that Inman would add additional charities that countered the goals of the original 2. It's rather unlikely there even is such a charity.
He claimed to have been working for funnyjunk for 5-6 months, and in that time he never thought to check the claims?
He also didn't think to file the DMCA agent form until May 25th or so. (Not reading that article again to confirm.) So it took him 4-5 months to have the site properly comply with the DMCA. Quality lawyer there.
The lawsuit was by farmers in the Rio Grande do Sul state and the appeal's not been decided yet by the supreme court. All they've said is that any decision they make will apply to the entire country instead of just that one state. This ups what Monsanto will have to pay back if they lose. Before they just had to reimburse the farmers in that one state, now they'll have to reimburse all the soybean farmers in the entire country of Brazil.
Of course, all of this should make you wonder: was a patent really needed for the sake of encouraging companies to put databases of recipes online?
Obviously not, or DietGoal wouldn't have anyone to sue. They'd have to be out there working to convince companies to license their patent and actually put recipes online.
Of course that would be harder, and probably not make as much money.
We've had the "super-fan" thing in the past, it worked fine
I find it amusing that he's so worried about a few large donors having undo influence because... historically we've had something similar happen before. Back when the great classical composers were doing their thing the vast majority of them would be sponsored by one person, often a monarch. And somehow, even being horribly influenced by one "super fan", they managed to produce what are widely recognized as some of the greatest works of music ever made. That includes composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Handel, Mozart, etc.
I still don't see where the parent's faith comes into this at all. There don't appear to be any reports that the kid's mom is a Christian, fundamentalist or otherwise, though suddenly that conclusion is being jumped to. Oh, I see. South Carolina. It must be then!
To be honest, if you've read the book, it's hard to see how anyone could jump the conclusion it's pornographic unless they have an axe to grind of some kind. Which opens up the possibility that the parent's Christian and overly touchy about some things. So while it may be an assumption it's not unreasonable in this case. Ender's Game is not even remotely pornographic.
So if the parent isn't a Christian with an axe to grind, they've still got issues of some kind.
That theory seems to have been invented wholesale by Orson Scott Card (author of Ender's Game) in an interview. There's an update to the story linked at the very top that says the claims the teacher was reading pornography off the Internet (which came from Card) are patently false.
The other two books are another young adult novel and an Agatha Christie novel, neither of which are pornographic.
It was a foregone conclusion, LS always was going to use the upper 20mhz as well, that was always in their plans, even after the testing started showing massive interference (like everyone predicted but LS). Their investors should be raising holy hell with LS, they got ripped off, pure and simple.
Yes it's too bad they wasted a lot of money on a doomed project. But not something to regret unless it was your money. They really didn't help the market. Maybe they were planning to be open in some ways, but their antagonistic attitude towards the GPS people, and really engineers in general, have set the stage for the next innovative startup that comes along that wants to use some satellite spectrum that's not adjacent to GPS and actually has a sound business plan that won't violate the laws of physics to have an uphill battle thanks to LS.
That's what we should be regretting: that LS's totally botched implementation has set back the market segment quite a bit. Not that they failed, that they failed in the way they did.
From what I've read, LightSquared actually passed up on the chance to get some different satellite spectrum from Dish Networks a while back, spectrum that's not adjacent to GPS and wouldn't have had the same interference issues. So we could have had both, GPS and a nation-wide wireless Internet service, but LS was too dead-set on using their GPS-adjacent spectrum and (and insisting the laws of physics didn't apply to them) for that to happen.
That's the real thing to regret: that LS's management was so incompetent.
Competition is nice, but LightSpeed's kind of the poster child for bad business plans (and decisions), so I'm not feeling any loss for them failing. I don't think they've helped matters any either, because they were so antagonistic towards GPS makers (and engineers, they were were trying to violate the laws of physics) they've set the whole business segment back a long ways. The next innovative company that comes along with a real, workable, business plan that would use satellite spectrum's going to have an uphill battle now.
So in the end, they've actually made things worse, not better.
That is precisely the kind of 'scrappy' that I wrote about in the article. As you and Artp noted, I somewhat glossed over the spectrum purchase part. What I wrote about, and what will be missed, is this venue of open and free thought, unlimited by any legacy.
That kind of thinking isn't very useful when you're and idiot in all the ways that count. Ignoring the laws of physics, passing up the opportunity to get different satellite bands (as I understand it, they passed up the chance to get some bandwidth from Dish networks that was in a range of frequencies where interference wouldn't have been an issue, but they passed on the chance and put all the eggs in the adjacent-to-GPS-band they already had. Now Dish is moving ahead with similar plans.), and when reality proved that you really can't do what they wanted without interference, they started whining like a spoiled toddler saying it's everyone else's fault. (It's not, as any Electronics Engineer and/or undergrad can tell you.)
Maybe LS had a few creative ideas, but when it came to the really important stuff (business plans, ignoring the laws of physics) they blew it big-time. So their creativity counts for nothing. And they aren't going to be missed. What we actually need are creative business plans that are actually possible to implement. If your business plan violates the laws of physics it's a joke, not a plan.
We should regret LightSquared's failure to grasp the laws of physics?
Apparently you have no clue about the laws of physics. As has been pointed out numerous times by many, many people, LightSquared's failure was their own damn fault and what's more, they should have seen it coming.
This isn't GPS receiver's faults. The band that LightSquared wanted to use is directly adjacent to the GPS bands. And it was licensed, properly, for satellite broadcast. That means very low power signals. The terrestrial signals LightSquared wanted to use are, literally, over 1,000 times as powerful. Let's see you make out a candle lit in front of a spotlight while staring into the spotlight and see how well you fare. It might be possible, but it's very, very difficult. Filters that can filter out that kind of power level are about the size of a scuba tank. I don't think people are going to be willing to lug their GPS receivers around on their backs because some idiots refuse to grasp the laws of physics.
The only thing to regret here is that LightSquared is run by idiots who should have known better, were undoubtedly told multiple times by their own engineers that this was impossible, but they continued to forge ahead anyway. Any shareholders should sue them into oblivion. If they're privately held, their investors should raise holy hell with them. This wasn't an example of creativity, this was an example of idiocy trying to blame everyone else for their own failures.
Re: Re: Piracy might drop in the short run, but not the long run
Piracy won't stop. People have been exchanging material with friends since floppy disks in the 80's.
It's been going on much, much longer than that. At the very least a couple of centuries, probably longer. Back in August Mike posted about how France kept upping the penalties when people kept infringing on (exclusive) fabric patterns. Eventually they went all the way to the death penalty and killed some 16,000 people. It didn't stop the copying then either.
But you're absolutely correct, this won't cause much of a delay, if any. The only reason I think it may cause a noticeable drop briefly is because it may take a few weeks for all of the file locker companies to settle down on what they're going to do. Until then, it'll be a bit chaotic and can't really settle down, so pirating may drop due to that. But it will go back up again.
Piracy might drop in the short run, but not the long run
And pirating will not drop one bit, nor will they make an extra dime.
It's possible pirating will drop, but only for a short while until the dust settles and all the dedicated pirates move on to the next big thing. (Whether there's another technology, or just finding new, preferred file lockers to use.) I'm sure the copyright maximalists will cheer this brief drop as proof that their actions are making a difference, then either ignore the piracy rate going back up, or use that as an excuse to demand yet more over-bearing and damaging laws/lawsuits/etc. against yet more technology.
I'm starting to think this isn't a war about copyright, it's a war on technology, because that nasty technology is disruptive and makes it too easy to copy stuff.
And yes, I do think this is a war now. The copyright maximalists and the US government have essentially wiped out an entire technology with unproven allegations (MegaUpload's not had their day in court, it's entirely possible they could be found not guilty, in part if not fully). That's definitely an attack, and a rather nasty one at that.
Here's a list someone posted on a message board a short while ago:
MegaUpload - Closed.
Rapidshare - status unknown
FileServe - Closing does not sell premium. File sharing already disabled.
FileJungle - Deleting files. Locked in the U.S..
UploadStation - Locked in the U.S..
FileSonic - the news is arbitrary (under FBI investigation). No longer allows sharing files.
VideoBB - Closed! would disappear soon.
Uploaded - Banned U.S. and the FBI went after the owners who are gone.
FilePost - Deleting all material (will leave executables, pdfs, txts)
Videoz - closed and locked in the countries affiliated with the USA.
4shared - Deleting files with copyright and waits in line at the FBI.
MediaFire - Called to testify in the next 90 days
What I find most disturbing is the sites that are simply banning all US IPs. We're quickly becoming pariahs online, and this will likely continue. After all, we've essentially wiped out a useful sector technology of overnight, and this is making a lot of people (NOT just pirates) very, very angry at us the world over.
Who's going to develop anything that might be used to infringe -- even if it has mainly productive non-infringing uses -- if it may lead to such a horrible and drawn out process?
I'm sure that's the whole point. All that new technology interferes with existing business models, and the entertainment companies don't want to change. If you can't adapt, you try to stop the world changing.
I would find it infinitely amusing if, say, The Pirate Bay bought it and put up a torrent tracker on the site (or some other site that would royally tick off Righthaven's masters).
Or maybe just slap up a webpage that says "RightHaven sued me and all I got was this lousy domain."
On the post: Carreon Admits His Original Threat Letter Was A Mistake, But Keeps On Digging Anyway
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On the post: Carreon Admits His Original Threat Letter Was A Mistake, But Keeps On Digging Anyway
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On the post: Carreon Admits His Original Threat Letter Was A Mistake, But Keeps On Digging Anyway
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On the post: Monsanto May Be Forced To Repay Brazilian GM Soybean Royalties Worth Billions Of Dollars
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On the post: Carreon's Full Filing Reveals He Donated To Oatmeal Campaign Himself, Plus Other Assorted Nuttiness
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On the post: Funnyjunk's Lawyer Charles Carreon Just Keeps Digging: Promises He'll Find Some Law To Go After Oatmeal's Matt Inman
Re: Re:
That's why it's particular shocking to see him behave this way, in the past he was one of the good guys. Now... now he seems to have gone nuts.
On the post: Patent Holder Sues Basically Anyone Who Offers Recipes Or 'Meal Planning' Online
Definitely wasn't needed
Of course that would be harder, and probably not make as much money.
On the post: It's Amazing The Lengths 'Music Supporters' Will Go To In Trying To Trash Success Stories
We've had the "super-fan" thing in the past, it worked fine
So what's the problem again?
On the post: Parent Claims 'Ender's Game' Is Pornographic; Teacher Who Read It To Students Put On Temporary Leave
Re: Re: I see it the other way
So if the parent isn't a Christian with an axe to grind, they've still got issues of some kind.
On the post: Parent Claims 'Ender's Game' Is Pornographic; Teacher Who Read It To Students Put On Temporary Leave
Re: Re: My guess
The other two books are another young adult novel and an Agatha Christie novel, neither of which are pornographic.
I think a parent overreacted badly.
On the post: Why You Should Regret LightSquared's Setbacks
Re: Re: sigh, please learn some basics
Yes it's too bad they wasted a lot of money on a doomed project. But not something to regret unless it was your money. They really didn't help the market. Maybe they were planning to be open in some ways, but their antagonistic attitude towards the GPS people, and really engineers in general, have set the stage for the next innovative startup that comes along that wants to use some satellite spectrum that's not adjacent to GPS and actually has a sound business plan that won't violate the laws of physics to have an uphill battle thanks to LS.
That's what we should be regretting: that LS's totally botched implementation has set back the market segment quite a bit. Not that they failed, that they failed in the way they did.
On the post: Why You Should Regret LightSquared's Setbacks
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That's the real thing to regret: that LS's management was so incompetent.
On the post: Why You Should Regret LightSquared's Setbacks
Re: Re:
So in the end, they've actually made things worse, not better.
On the post: Why You Should Regret LightSquared's Setbacks
Re: Re: Re: Whose problem was it?
Maybe LS had a few creative ideas, but when it came to the really important stuff (business plans, ignoring the laws of physics) they blew it big-time. So their creativity counts for nothing. And they aren't going to be missed. What we actually need are creative business plans that are actually possible to implement. If your business plan violates the laws of physics it's a joke, not a plan.
On the post: Why You Should Regret LightSquared's Setbacks
We should regret LightSquared's failure to grasp the laws of physics?
This isn't GPS receiver's faults. The band that LightSquared wanted to use is directly adjacent to the GPS bands. And it was licensed, properly, for satellite broadcast. That means very low power signals. The terrestrial signals LightSquared wanted to use are, literally, over 1,000 times as powerful. Let's see you make out a candle lit in front of a spotlight while staring into the spotlight and see how well you fare. It might be possible, but it's very, very difficult. Filters that can filter out that kind of power level are about the size of a scuba tank. I don't think people are going to be willing to lug their GPS receivers around on their backs because some idiots refuse to grasp the laws of physics.
The only thing to regret here is that LightSquared is run by idiots who should have known better, were undoubtedly told multiple times by their own engineers that this was impossible, but they continued to forge ahead anyway. Any shareholders should sue them into oblivion. If they're privately held, their investors should raise holy hell with them. This wasn't an example of creativity, this was an example of idiocy trying to blame everyone else for their own failures.
On the post: Megaupload Shutdown Means Other Companies Turning Off Useful Services
Re: Re: Piracy might drop in the short run, but not the long run
But you're absolutely correct, this won't cause much of a delay, if any. The only reason I think it may cause a noticeable drop briefly is because it may take a few weeks for all of the file locker companies to settle down on what they're going to do. Until then, it'll be a bit chaotic and can't really settle down, so pirating may drop due to that. But it will go back up again.
On the post: Megaupload Shutdown Means Other Companies Turning Off Useful Services
Piracy might drop in the short run, but not the long run
I'm starting to think this isn't a war about copyright, it's a war on technology, because that nasty technology is disruptive and makes it too easy to copy stuff.
And yes, I do think this is a war now. The copyright maximalists and the US government have essentially wiped out an entire technology with unproven allegations (MegaUpload's not had their day in court, it's entirely possible they could be found not guilty, in part if not fully). That's definitely an attack, and a rather nasty one at that.
On the post: Megaupload Shutdown Means Other Companies Turning Off Useful Services
It's actually really, really bad
What I find most disturbing is the sites that are simply banning all US IPs. We're quickly becoming pariahs online, and this will likely continue. After all, we've essentially wiped out a useful sector technology of overnight, and this is making a lot of people (NOT just pirates) very, very angry at us the world over.
I really doubt this is going to end well.
On the post: Japanese Supreme Court Says Developer Of File Sharing Software Not Guilty Of Infringement Done By Users
On the post: Righthaven.com Domain Auction Has Begun
Re: Re: confused
Or maybe just slap up a webpage that says "RightHaven sued me and all I got was this lousy domain."
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