That's another good quote. It's pretty obvious where you stand, given the parts of my quotes you choose to emphasize the most, and I suppose it's pretty obvious where I stand too.
It's a good thing piracy is really far down on your list of immoral things though, since my point is that we aren't going to get anywhere by arguing the morality of it all. By the time you've started arguing on that level, you've just descended into petty fanwank and strayed away from the philosophy of what makes a good business model or not, which is the sort of thing we should be discussing instead.
That's actually a really good point. A complete lack of feedback will just cause someone to abandon something. Piracy is at least feedback, indicating that there's an interest in something that's waiting to be harnessed in other ways.
That doesn't address the morality argument though, but that's honestly a really bad argument to try to press no matter which side you're on. The question of morality and copyright infringement is a thoroughly grey area, and to declare one side of it to be wholly right or wrong does nothing but expose your bigotry. Some of the more noteworthy thoughts I've seen about it are...
"Peer-to-peer file sharing and Terror? Terror? Do they not have dictionaries there? There's another T word you cocks might like, too. — give it a try: it's called 'Tenuous.' The only people terrorized by peer-to-peer file sharing are vastly potent multinational businesses, gripped by the realization that they sell carriages in a world of bullet trains." "It is not a mischaracterization to say that conversations with the hardcore PC community about software theft follow these tenets: - There is no piracy. - To the extent that piracy exists, which it doesn't, it's your fault. - If you try to protect your game, we'll steal it as a matter of principle. It's like, who wouldn't want to bend over backward in their service?" - Jerry Holkins
"Piracy is not raiding and plundering Best Buys and FYEs, smashing the windows and running out with the loot. It’s like being placed in a store full of every DVD in existence. There are no employees, no security guards, and when you take a copy of movie, another one materializes in its place, so you’re not actually taking anything. If you were in such a store, you’d only have your base moral convictions to keep you from cloning every movie in sight. And anyone who knows how to get to this store isn’t going to let their conscience stop them, especially when there is no tangible 'loss' to even feel bad about." - Paul Tassi
"No matter how you cut it, The Pirate Bay is ultimately just a collection of thieves. However, its chief rival is the RIAA: An even larger and more vicious collection of thieves. Which makes TPB the lesser of two evils - kind of like Robin Hood. Except instead of money, they're giving pornography and pirated episodes of The Celebrity Apprentice to the poor." - Cracked.com
You're going to have to prove that a robbery actually took place first. Even if the guy had actually been recording with Google Glass, grainy, tilted, fuzzy-sounding amateur recordings are not going to put DVDs, Blu-Rays, and Netflix out of business.
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
BY
SECURING FOR A LIMITED TIMES TO AUTHORS AND INVENTORS THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO THEIR RESPECTIVE WRITING AND DISCOVERIES.
70+ years is not limited in any way except an extremely perverted one.
I think Edward Snowden said basically the same thing. Some privacy and spying is important because you want to keep an eye on your powerful neighbors lest they suddenly turn evil. But you don't want to invade their piracy and dig up everything about them constantly unless you want to give them a darn well justified reason for kicking your butt after they find out.
That's a pretty selfish way to live. Though, I admit I wish there was a feasible way to use the Republicans as long as they're gonna try to use us like this. Too bad we can't kick them to the curb as easily when we don't need them anymore.
I'm surprised at the bulletproof 9-0 ruling, seeing as the justices can't always agree on what flavor chocolate is. I hope they continue to say what we've been saying this whole time.
It's actually a huge relief to see the TPP is also going to infuriate environmentalists. As much as I'm for protecting the only planet we have, environmentalists can be some of the most religious people on the planet, determined to bulldoze everything in their path with their sermons, but for once that's looking to be a really good thing. I hope the TPP continues to enrage all kinds of people who aren't copyright reformists so it feels like less of an us vs. them scenario.
I'm not sure commerce could happen if the internet was locked down. All the permanent security holes that would open up would make it too dangerous for conducting business. But yeah, you're probably right in that someone would just invent a new internet and everyone would just migrate to it.
If the internet dies now, we're looking at a large-scale economic collapse. All businesses are reliant upon it now; to suddenly ruin that in the way Cory postulates would to be bomb everyone back into the stone age. Can you even begin to imagine the backlash that would come from that?
At the risk of being the devil's advocate, the detractors here don't seem very tech-savvy at all. Since Techdirt is a technology-oriented site, all the advice they get is technical, like running NoScript and Adblock or using Duck Duck Go. Those are all concepts that people like them just don't seem capable of understanding for one reason or another.
That may just accelerate mainstream media's spiral into obsolescence. The three main 24-hour news networks (CNN, Fox, and MSNBC) already have reputations as the most unreliable sources of news in the country, and people have been gradually drifting away from TV in droves.
We should at least make sure that Stephen Colbert and/or Jon Stewart report on this though, I'll grant.
I am never forget the day my first book is published. Every chapter I stole from somewhere else. Index I copy from old Vladivostok telephone directory. This book was sensational! Pravda - well, Pravda - Pravda said: "Zhil-bil korol kogda-to, pree nyom blokha zhila"[1] It stinks. But Izvestia! Izvestia said: "Ya idoo kuda sam czar idyot peshkom!"[2] It stinks.
I personally feel that the absence of a healthy sense of humor may be a form of mental retardation, myself, because a healthy sense of humor I would define as having a robust intellectual quality to it, like the sort exhibited by the best of the world's raconteurs or even the good-natured riffing from Mystery Science Theater 3000. There's something very aware and even prophetic about an accomplished comedian.
I read both decisions, but as a lawyer and not a lay person
That may have been your fatal flaw right there. I dunno much about law, but a lot of laymen are livid over what the NSA's been up to, and it's pretty obvious that anyone who agrees with that organization is on the wrong side of history. If you can only see this case as a lawyer and not a common person, you're essentially seeing things in a vacuum, cut off from the greater world. You need to be able to translate back and forth between legalese and layman's terms if you want to be understood and effective, especially since laymen are the biggest influence on law in the end.
A parable for copyright conflicts (and many other things)
One day, making tracks In the prairie of Prax, Came a North-Going Zax And a South-Going Zax.
And it happened that both of them came to a place Where they bumped. There they stood. Foot to foot. Face to face.
"Look here, now!" the North-Going Zax said, "I say! You are blocking my path. You are right in my way. I'm a North-Going Zax and I always go north. Get out of my way, now, and let me go forth!"
"Who's in whose way?" snapped the South-Going Zax. "I always go south, making south-going tracks. So you're in MY way! And I ask you to move And let me go south in my south-going groove."
Then the North-Going Zax puffed his chest up with pride. "I never," he said, "take a step to one side. And I'll prove to you that I won't change my ways If I have to keep standing here fifty-nine days!"
"And I'll prove to YOU," yelled the South-Going Zax, "That I can stand here in the prairie of Prax For fifty-nine years! For I live by a rule That I learned as a boy back in South-Going School. Never budge! That's my rule. Never budge in the least! Not an inch to the west! Not an inch to the east! I'll stay here, not budging! I can and I will If it makes you and me and the whole world stand still!"
Well... Of course the world didn't stand still. The world grew. In a couple of years, the new highway came through And they built it right over those two stubborn Zax And left them there, standing un-budged in their tracks.
Re: Re: Techdirt Weak (sic) In Review: as usual, most interesting resolutely ignored.
Ow, no. OJ Simpson is a TERRIBLE example to use. It's not like Kim Dotcom attempted to murder anyone. You're inadvertently suggesting that he's a guilty person who should get off scott free due to procedural errors, which would make his case a tragedy even if he wins.
You can point out how preservation of due process should be kept as the most sacred standard though. It's especially important to have rock solid standards like that because some laws, like copyright-related ones, experience flux more often than others and may ultimately be rendered as obsolete as the typewriter in this modern era.
Bah, that's awfully Scroogey of you, don't you think? I think it's less of a lie and more of a game of pretend parents play with their kids. Who doesn't love doing things like that? Then when you grow up and you're no longer eligible to play (at least in theory), you feel kind of sad but somehow you're still glad that you had the chance to participate.
On the post: Copyright Troll Perfect 10 Loses Once Again, Setting More Good Precedents For Copyright Law
Re: Random thought...
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
It's a good thing piracy is really far down on your list of immoral things though, since my point is that we aren't going to get anywhere by arguing the morality of it all. By the time you've started arguing on that level, you've just descended into petty fanwank and strayed away from the philosophy of what makes a good business model or not, which is the sort of thing we should be discussing instead.
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re: Re: Re: Re:
That doesn't address the morality argument though, but that's honestly a really bad argument to try to press no matter which side you're on. The question of morality and copyright infringement is a thoroughly grey area, and to declare one side of it to be wholly right or wrong does nothing but expose your bigotry. Some of the more noteworthy thoughts I've seen about it are...
"Peer-to-peer file sharing and Terror? Terror? Do they not have dictionaries there? There's another T word you cocks might like, too. — give it a try: it's called 'Tenuous.' The only people terrorized by peer-to-peer file sharing are vastly potent multinational businesses, gripped by the realization that they sell carriages in a world of bullet trains."
"It is not a mischaracterization to say that conversations with the hardcore PC community about software theft follow these tenets:
- There is no piracy.
- To the extent that piracy exists, which it doesn't, it's your fault.
- If you try to protect your game, we'll steal it as a matter of principle.
It's like, who wouldn't want to bend over backward in their service?"
- Jerry Holkins
"Piracy is not raiding and plundering Best Buys and FYEs, smashing the windows and running out with the loot. It’s like being placed in a store full of every DVD in existence. There are no employees, no security guards, and when you take a copy of movie, another one materializes in its place, so you’re not actually taking anything. If you were in such a store, you’d only have your base moral convictions to keep you from cloning every movie in sight. And anyone who knows how to get to this store isn’t going to let their conscience stop them, especially when there is no tangible 'loss' to even feel bad about."
- Paul Tassi
"No matter how you cut it, The Pirate Bay is ultimately just a collection of thieves. However, its chief rival is the RIAA: An even larger and more vicious collection of thieves. Which makes TPB the lesser of two evils - kind of like Robin Hood. Except instead of money, they're giving pornography and pirated episodes of The Celebrity Apprentice to the poor."
- Cracked.com
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re:
On the post: Mike Taylor's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
Re: Creatir/consumer dichotomy ?? what !!!!!
BY
SECURING FOR A LIMITED TIMES TO AUTHORS AND INVENTORS THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO THEIR RESPECTIVE WRITING AND DISCOVERIES.
70+ years is not limited in any way except an extremely perverted one.
On the post: European Court Of Human Rights Fast-tracks Case Against GCHQ; More Organizations Launch Legal Challenges To UK Spying
Re: A touch of hypocrisy?
On the post: Surprise: Republican Party Says NSA Surveillance Programs Are Unconstitutional And Must End
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Interesting...
On the post: Supreme Court Overturns CAFC Yet Again; Explains Basic Patent Law To The 'Patent' Court
Perfect KO
On the post: Wikileaks Releases TPP Environmental Chapter; Once Again Shows Why Negotiators Wanted Details Hidden
On the post: Hollywood Needs The Internet More Than The Internet Needs Hollywood... So Why Is The W3C Pretending Otherwise?
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Anyway, I'll check out your link, but based on the URL alone, I'm sure I won't like it.
...
...
...
Dammit, I shouldn't be enjoying this site. I'm a bad person.
On the post: Hollywood Needs The Internet More Than The Internet Needs Hollywood... So Why Is The W3C Pretending Otherwise?
Re: Re:
On the post: Hollywood Needs The Internet More Than The Internet Needs Hollywood... So Why Is The W3C Pretending Otherwise?
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
On the post: The Lies The USTR Is Spreading About Fast Track Authority To Push TPP Through Congress
Re: The good news
We should at least make sure that Stephen Colbert and/or Jon Stewart report on this though, I'll grant.
On the post: Shia Labeouf Brilliantly Parodies Intellectual Property With Plagiarized Apologies And Defense Of Plagiarism
Re: Plagiarize!
Every chapter I stole from somewhere else.
Index I copy from old Vladivostok telephone directory.
This book was sensational!
Pravda - well, Pravda - Pravda said: "Zhil-bil korol kogda-to, pree nyom blokha zhila"[1] It stinks.
But Izvestia! Izvestia said: "Ya idoo kuda sam czar idyot peshkom!"[2]
It stinks.
On the post: New Year's Message: Optimism On The Cusp Of Big Changes
Re:
On the post: District Court Tosses ACLU's Lawsuit Against NSA With Very Regrettable Decision That Props Up Agency Rhetoric
Re: Re: Re:
That may have been your fatal flaw right there. I dunno much about law, but a lot of laymen are livid over what the NSA's been up to, and it's pretty obvious that anyone who agrees with that organization is on the wrong side of history. If you can only see this case as a lawyer and not a common person, you're essentially seeing things in a vacuum, cut off from the greater world. You need to be able to translate back and forth between legalese and layman's terms if you want to be understood and effective, especially since laymen are the biggest influence on law in the end.
On the post: Vast Majority Of US Businesses Say Intellectual Property Is Not Important
A parable for copyright conflicts (and many other things)
In the prairie of Prax,
Came a North-Going Zax
And a South-Going Zax.
And it happened that both of them came to a place
Where they bumped. There they stood.
Foot to foot. Face to face.
"Look here, now!" the North-Going Zax said, "I say!
You are blocking my path. You are right in my way.
I'm a North-Going Zax and I always go north.
Get out of my way, now, and let me go forth!"
"Who's in whose way?" snapped the South-Going Zax.
"I always go south, making south-going tracks.
So you're in MY way! And I ask you to move
And let me go south in my south-going groove."
Then the North-Going Zax puffed his chest up with pride.
"I never," he said, "take a step to one side.
And I'll prove to you that I won't change my ways
If I have to keep standing here fifty-nine days!"
"And I'll prove to YOU," yelled the South-Going Zax,
"That I can stand here in the prairie of Prax
For fifty-nine years! For I live by a rule
That I learned as a boy back in South-Going School.
Never budge! That's my rule. Never budge in the least!
Not an inch to the west! Not an inch to the east!
I'll stay here, not budging! I can and I will
If it makes you and me and the whole world stand still!"
Well...
Of course the world didn't stand still. The world grew.
In a couple of years, the new highway came through
And they built it right over those two stubborn Zax
And left them there, standing un-budged in their tracks.
On the post: Clive Thompson's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
Re: Re: Techdirt Weak (sic) In Review: as usual, most interesting resolutely ignored.
You can point out how preservation of due process should be kept as the most sacred standard though. It's especially important to have rock solid standards like that because some laws, like copyright-related ones, experience flux more often than others and may ultimately be rendered as obsolete as the typewriter in this modern era.
On the post: DailyDirt: Here Comes Santa Claus
Re: I say give them the unvarnished lie!
Next >>