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Naw. NBC's style would be to also block the original plus all parodies that occurred before it aired on SNL because once it is on NBC they own all of the pre-derivative work.
I doubt that the ability to shut down cell phones would be nearly as effective as the government hopes. Based on the Arab Spring experience the effect is often anger, backlash, and even more intense acts of civil disobedience. People also learn to route around the blockage, and they get better at it the more the network is officially cut off.
I have been an advocate of ADA issues even before there was an ADA act. I actually gave my first speech on open access in 1971.
My long-term assertion about ADA issues is that making things accessible for people with disabilities usually makes life better for everyone. That assertion applies in this case. Getting rid of DRM would help the blind. In the process it would also help everyone else.
A temporary band-aid solution would be to require everyone who produces a DRM'ed device to also produce an array of devices for vision impairments. So they would have to produce versions Braile version, a talking version, large print, high contrast, and various types of color blindedness. Of course, that would be a huge expense for anyone producing a device that imposes DRM. Perhaps then the providers would understand the huge cost they are imposing on the rest of society.
But what else besides ad injection is the Megabox software going to do to with your system once it is installed? It could be sending anything back including keylogs and passwords. That is true of any software you install; it is always a matter of trusting the company that is providing the software not to do anything beyond what they say they will do. It is unlikely that I would install anything from a Dotcom-run company, especially if I was in the United States.
Of course, he could make it open source. That would raise the trust level a bit. In fact, he could release an API and let third-party clients connect with Megabox. That would bump up the trust factor a bit more if I was running software that I could trust to not send out unauthorized information. Megabox would still be raking in the cash because people would have to connect to his server and that is the place where the income is really generated.
I use Google News a lot. Hitting a paywall or registration to read the rest of the article annoys me. I usually just hit the back button and look for "more sources." I wish that Google would somehow devalue sites that block access to the actual story.
I do find myself clicking on a lot of ads in news sites that I visit. If I find a news story interesting, I guess it is reasonable that they would have ads that interest me.
This illustrates the silliness of the patent system. Breakaway technology has been around for centuries. In the middle ages there were breakaway weapon sheaths so that if an opponent grabbed your scabbard you could get away.
As you note, breakaway things around the neck are also well known.
Still, he could probably have gotten a patent on his "invention." If his patent examiner balked, the inventor's patent attorney would have deluged the examiner with additional BS until the examiner caved and awarded the patent. If they examiner held out longer than usual the patent might have had to be narrowed to hospital lanyards with exactly three break points.
The latter bit of specificity might cause minor problems for future trolling. For example, if they tried to sue someone for a breakaway clothes hanger that had two break points it would have been a little bit harder to win a patent suit in some jurisdictions. But trolling doesn't really require a strong suit. The patent holder could probably get some type of settlement on any type of breakaway feature on any type of object in the future.
Silly AC. You must be under the impression that the History Channel is about history.
The History Channel is about junk dealers. Their main lineup features a pawn shop, a Cajun pawn shop, junk pickers, restoring junk, and restoring junk cars.
In fairness, they are diversifying a little. They also feature some shows that illustrate that it is really cold when you get above the arctic circle. Last year they were featuring shows that make you glad that you don't hunt alligators, but I guess people picked up on that point after a couple of seasons.
I think local newspapers doomed themselves before they ever went online. I am talking about regional papers serving medium sized cities. A lot of them fired their expensive veteran reporters and started buying more content from syndicated sources. They stopped doing serious local reporting. Instead of quality reporting on local government they started just rewriting the meeting agendas and local government press releases. I remember the experience of reading the local paper and realizing that I had already readost of the "feature" stories online over the previous few days. The situation got even worse when local papers got bought out by syndicates.
I think local newspapers doomed themselves before they ever went online. I am talking about regional papers serving medium sized cities. A lot of them fired their expensive veteran reporters and started buying more content from syndicated sources. They stopped doing serious local reporting. Instead of quality reporting on local government they started just rewriting the meeting agendas and local government press releases. I remember the experience of reading the local paper and realizing that I had already readost of the "feature" stories online over the previous few days. The situation got even worse when local papers got bought out by syndicates.
>>They are writing news stories about the world I live in. I demand compensation.
Actually, this point has been raised before. Should newspapers be required to pay people or companies when the people do something newsworthy and the papers write stories about them? After all, aren't the newspapers freeloading on action performed by other people? It sounds crazy, but not really much worse that what a lot of the folks in the IP industry try to claim from time to time.
Google even gives out the commands to put in robots.txt so that they won't index the files.
Didn't Holland try a court-imposed version of this idea. If I recall correctly, it the newspapers that originally sued Google to exclude them ended up suing Google again demanding that they be let back in after their traffic plummeted.
Frank Gibeau? Is that you? I had assumed that most of the shill trolls on TD worked for the movie industry. I never thought about the gaming industry running AC accounts.
On second though, perhaps I am wrong about you being Frank Gibeau because your comments seem even further from reality than the original Gibeau article.
For one thing you say that advances in networking will greatly enhance the gameplay experience. Most console game play is done from homes. Have you checked the situation in the US home broadband market? The US is far behind the rest of the world, and at least one recent study has shown us getting even further behind. In fact, we might start going backwards. Big ISP's are playing with the idea of bandwidth caps in an attempt to thwart cable cutting, and this would throw a massive wet blanket on internet gaming.
An even bigger issue in your comment, and apparently in the original Gibeau article, is a failure to consider mobile gaming. Perhaps the next gen consoles will have much more spectacular hardware. However, the next gen of phones and tablets will still be far behind the current gen of consoles. So if the success of the next gen of video games is going to rely on incredible hardware to make them spectacular they probably will not be even playable on what is becoming a major platform of choice.
Sometimes I wonder if there will even be a next gen of consoles. Or, perhaps there will be a next gen but it will fall flat.
I am waiting for the DRM vendors to mount a counter-offensive. DRM is one of those industries we don't really need. Furthermore it isn't a very effective industry because nearly 100% of the DRM systems put on commercial software is broken within weeks of its release. But the DRM industry does represent a lot of money and has strong connections throughout the software industry. I don't see them going down quietly on this issue.
On the post: Becker & Posner: Time To Minimize Patent & Copyright Law
Re: tl;dr
On the post: Gangnam Style Shows What Can Happen When You Don't Lean On Copyright
Re:
On the post: California Governor Vetoes Bill Barring Gov't From Turning Off Mobile Phone Service
On the post: Why Everyone Should Care About DRM's Punishment Of The Visually Impaired
My long-term assertion about ADA issues is that making things accessible for people with disabilities usually makes life better for everyone. That assertion applies in this case. Getting rid of DRM would help the blind. In the process it would also help everyone else.
A temporary band-aid solution would be to require everyone who produces a DRM'ed device to also produce an array of devices for vision impairments. So they would have to produce versions Braile version, a talking version, large print, high contrast, and various types of color blindedness. Of course, that would be a huge expense for anyone producing a device that imposes DRM. Perhaps then the providers would understand the huge cost they are imposing on the rest of society.
On the post: Megaupload Farce Stirring Up Backlash Against Copyright Overreach
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Of course, he could make it open source. That would raise the trust level a bit. In fact, he could release an API and let third-party clients connect with Megabox. That would bump up the trust factor a bit more if I was running software that I could trust to not send out unauthorized information. Megabox would still be raking in the cash because people would have to connect to his server and that is the place where the income is really generated.
On the post: Megaupload Farce Stirring Up Backlash Against Copyright Overreach
Re:
On the post: Rupert Murdoch Admits Defeat: Now Wants London Times To Appear In Search Results
I do find myself clicking on a lot of ads in news sites that I visit. If I find a news story interesting, I guess it is reasonable that they would have ads that interest me.
On the post: Hospital Tech Declines To Patent His Invention, As Saving Lives Is 'More Important Than Money'
Re:
As you note, breakaway things around the neck are also well known.
Still, he could probably have gotten a patent on his "invention." If his patent examiner balked, the inventor's patent attorney would have deluged the examiner with additional BS until the examiner caved and awarded the patent. If they examiner held out longer than usual the patent might have had to be narrowed to hospital lanyards with exactly three break points.
The latter bit of specificity might cause minor problems for future trolling. For example, if they tried to sue someone for a breakaway clothes hanger that had two break points it would have been a little bit harder to win a patent suit in some jurisdictions. But trolling doesn't really require a strong suit. The patent holder could probably get some type of settlement on any type of breakaway feature on any type of object in the future.
On the post: Police Delete Aftermath Footage Of Suspect Shot 41 Times
That way it doesn't matter if the police delete the footage on my camera. Their only option is to beat me senseless out of frustration.
On the post: Shockingly, Kickstarter Doesn't Work For Every Movie (Psst: Neither Does The Old System)
On the post: Shockingly, Kickstarter Doesn't Work For Every Movie (Psst: Neither Does The Old System)
Re: Re:
The History Channel is about junk dealers. Their main lineup features a pawn shop, a Cajun pawn shop, junk pickers, restoring junk, and restoring junk cars.
In fairness, they are diversifying a little. They also feature some shows that illustrate that it is really cold when you get above the arctic circle. Last year they were featuring shows that make you glad that you don't hunt alligators, but I guess people picked up on that point after a couple of seasons.
On the post: David Byrne: One Of My Albums Sat On The Shelf For A Year Because Label Wanted DRM And I Didn't
Re:
On the post: Newspaper Ad Revenue Fell Off Quite A Cliff: Now On Par With 1950 Revenue
On the post: Newspaper Ad Revenue Fell Off Quite A Cliff: Now On Par With 1950 Revenue
On the post: DailyDirt: Crazy Weather We're Having
We already crashed the interwebs once this week. Let's give the techies a few more days to clean out the tubes before we do something like that.
On the post: French Publishers Want In On German Plan To Force Everyone To Pay To Link To News
Re:
Actually, this point has been raised before. Should newspapers be required to pay people or companies when the people do something newsworthy and the papers write stories about them? After all, aren't the newspapers freeloading on action performed by other people? It sounds crazy, but not really much worse that what a lot of the folks in the IP industry try to claim from time to time.
On the post: French Publishers Want In On German Plan To Force Everyone To Pay To Link To News
Re: Re: And Google is in a catch 22
Didn't Holland try a court-imposed version of this idea. If I recall correctly, it the newspapers that originally sued Google to exclude them ended up suing Google again demanding that they be let back in after their traffic plummeted.
On the post: EA: Withholding The Next Great Videogame Franchise For The Next Console Is Good Business
Re:
On second though, perhaps I am wrong about you being Frank Gibeau because your comments seem even further from reality than the original Gibeau article.
For one thing you say that advances in networking will greatly enhance the gameplay experience. Most console game play is done from homes. Have you checked the situation in the US home broadband market? The US is far behind the rest of the world, and at least one recent study has shown us getting even further behind. In fact, we might start going backwards. Big ISP's are playing with the idea of bandwidth caps in an attempt to thwart cable cutting, and this would throw a massive wet blanket on internet gaming.
An even bigger issue in your comment, and apparently in the original Gibeau article, is a failure to consider mobile gaming. Perhaps the next gen consoles will have much more spectacular hardware. However, the next gen of phones and tablets will still be far behind the current gen of consoles. So if the success of the next gen of video games is going to rely on incredible hardware to make them spectacular they probably will not be even playable on what is becoming a major platform of choice.
Sometimes I wonder if there will even be a next gen of consoles. Or, perhaps there will be a next gen but it will fall flat.
On the post: Ubisoft Learns Hitting Customers Over The Head And Calling Them Thieves Is Not Good Policy
On the post: HBO Hooks Up Nordic Cord Cutters; Offers Standalone Streaming Service
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