But seriously, how many examples of copyright being abused to suppress opposing opinions does it take before it's no longer "outliers" and "exceptions"? I'm reminded of a previous election where a band was trying to sue a politician they disliked because he was using one of their songs as his anthem. All the proper royalties had been paid, but he didn't get "permission."
Whaddaya mean, only criticize if I have a solution? I'm not a mechanic, but if my car is smoking, something is terribly wrong, and only an idiot will ignore it.
The big, glaring difference, is that if Netflix is the one limiting bandwidth to their customers, the customer can simply decide to choose a different service. When the telco/cableco decides to throttle specific connections, the customer is (usually) unable to express their unhappiness except by not using the internet.
You're saying that a restaurant arbitrarily taking 3 hours to bring out my sandwich is the same as the public bus system arbitrarily detaining me for three hours because I'm not buying bus station food.
The end result may be the same in this specific situation, for these specific customers, but my options are much more limited when it is my service provider screwing me over.
Re: Re: "the now-that's-theft dept" -- How cute. Criminals always brag.
I sometimes hope that this guy is a shill... paid by Mike!
His arguments are so flimsy and transparent, every time he shows up to spew his bile, those of us who care to rebut just get more skilled at expressing why his whole ilk's rhetoric is wrong.
He's (in my head) being paid to make us consider, inspect and communicate what, and more importantly, WHY we believe the things we do.
He's making us better at fighting this fight.
It helps me sleep at night, anyways. Because the alternative is just too sad...
The legal customers try to inform the public about how the site is broken, inaccessible, and/or a nightmare to use, and you dismiss it out of hand -and erroneously- as groupthink.
Frankly, actual customers who have experience with the product should have far greater authority than any press releases by a company with a vested interest in the product being sold. Advertising is not authority.
Nope. They are impartially reporting on factual events, and documenting legal proceedings. It's like a police ticker in a newspaper. It is not, and should not be, required for them to take the initiative to censor those events and documents. Just as it is not necessary, nor should it be, for a journalist to censor the names of arrestees, no matter how embarrassing the offense.
It is, however, required for a rightsholder to be specific as to EXACTLY which files and/or links are infringing. Given that these requests are not necessarily legitimate, it is in the websites' best interests to have the proceedings documented/recorded by a third party.
Method of obtaining approval for vague and all-encompassing patents, whereas they are used to enforce "ownership" in order to generate revenue for owner's business model.
It got rejected as "Obvious to those skilled in the field."
Well, the SKSE team chimed in and said that anyone and everyone is free to use their work; that forbidding paid mods violates their ideal for the community.
Part of the problem with adding paid mods so late in the game is that "modder's resource" packs are free. But maybe not free like that.
Some are free as in freedom, some are free as in hotdogs. Some authors don't mind how their work is used, some are actively forbidding paid uses.
How does this reflect on donations? Is that unacceptable, or only requiring payment?
Not malicious intent no, but not much thought either. They actively told at LEAST one modder, "As long as it's made for Skyrim, it's okay to use it," in reference to other peoples assets. Sure, they prefaced it with "IANAL," but it doesn't take a genius to figure out some of the glaring issues.
So no, not malicious intent. They were, however, blinded to the obvious by money flying through the air.
Really? Maybe we move in different circles, but most of the venom I saw was for one of two things:
1. The insultingly small amount of money going to the mod developers, or
2: Modders using the established popularity of their mods to lock UPDATES behind a paywall.
For me, it was #2. I have supported one of the modders involved in this fiasco since his first texture replacer, and considered one of his mods essential to my gaming experiece. When he locked his mod's bugfix update behind a barrier is the first time in my life I've considered actively pirating. However, I took the high road, and removed all of his mods from my build, and found the functionality I wanted elsewhere.
I then removed all of my endorsements, and blocked the author. I tracked his profile, hoping he would change his mind, but in the end, Bethesda blinked first. He's now on my permanent block list.
One other author I follow (Chesko, noted above) DID learn his lesson, and removed his update from the store. If I had cash, I would toss some in his cup. One of his problems right now, though, is that he used assets from other authors (aside from Fore) that were nominally "free-to-use" but the tacit understanding was that they would be FREE to use.
On the post: Photographer Successfully DMCAs Trump Jr.'s Skittles Image
Re:
How is it NOT racist?
On the post: Photographer Successfully DMCAs Trump Jr.'s Skittles Image
Re:
But seriously, how many examples of copyright being abused to suppress opposing opinions does it take before it's no longer "outliers" and "exceptions"? I'm reminded of a previous election where a band was trying to sue a politician they disliked because he was using one of their songs as his anthem. All the proper royalties had been paid, but he didn't get "permission."
On the post: Newspaper Association Of America Complains That Comedian John Oliver Failed To Solve Newspaper Biz Model Problem
To broadly paraphrase someone insightful:
On the post: The Cable Industry Wants Netflix Investigated... For Throttling Itself
Re: Re: Re: How long has this been going on?
You're saying that a restaurant arbitrarily taking 3 hours to bring out my sandwich is the same as the public bus system arbitrarily detaining me for three hours because I'm not buying bus station food.
The end result may be the same in this specific situation, for these specific customers, but my options are much more limited when it is my service provider screwing me over.
On the post: Appeals Court Says US Government Cannot Deny Trademarks For Being 'Disparaging'
Re: Hail to the Redskins!
On the post: FCC: Sorry, No -- Net Neutrality Does Not Violate ISPs' First Amendment Rights
Re:
On the post: FCC: Sorry, No -- Net Neutrality Does Not Violate ISPs' First Amendment Rights
Re:
On the post: Angry Couple Using Trademark To Bully Oyster Bar Over Menu Item Names
The late restaurant...
The doors were nailed shut because it was such a deep sleeper...
On the post: The GTA 5 Wildlife Documentary Is Why Rockstar Was Smart To Embrace Fan Films
Re: Re: Following your prior story today, I bet they were paid. -- You even say it's fake!
On the post: This Week In Techdirt History: August 16th - 22nd
Re: Re: "the now-that's-theft dept" -- How cute. Criminals always brag.
His arguments are so flimsy and transparent, every time he shows up to spew his bile, those of us who care to rebut just get more skilled at expressing why his whole ilk's rhetoric is wrong.
He's (in my head) being paid to make us consider, inspect and communicate what, and more importantly, WHY we believe the things we do.
He's making us better at fighting this fight.
It helps me sleep at night, anyways. Because the alternative is just too sad...
On the post: Photographer Loses Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Against Mapmaker That Used His Photo With His Explicit Permission
Re: Re: What an idiot
On the post: Woman Catches Cop Beating Handcuffed Suspect; Police Union First In Line To Shoot The Messenger
Re: Brutal reality
Because he got no debilitating injuries, it wasn't really (alleged) excessive force?
Her recording the incident prevented it from escalating?
Because it didn't go farther, she didn't have a right to record the officers?
You listed a bunch of things, then just... quit. I can't tell what you were trying to say.
On the post: Spanish Police Park In Handicapped Spot, Fine Person Who Caught Them For 'Impugning Their Honor'
Re: Re:
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re: Re: Re:
Frankly, actual customers who have experience with the product should have far greater authority than any press releases by a company with a vested interest in the product being sold.
Advertising is not authority.
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re: Uber
Invention is creating something new. Innovation is creating something that people want.
Someone else invented the smartphone, or at least it's component parts. Apple innovated by releasing the iPhone.
Someone else invented the minicab and the internet. Uber and Lyft innovated by combining them in a way that people want.
On the post: Anti-Piracy Activist Issues Takedown To Chilling Effects To Take Down Her Takedown Notice To Google
Re:
It is, however, required for a rightsholder to be specific as to EXACTLY which files and/or links are infringing. Given that these requests are not necessarily legitimate, it is in the websites' best interests to have the proceedings documented/recorded by a third party.
On the post: Why Does The US Patent Office Keep Approving Clearly Ridiculous Patents?
I filed a patent for a...
It got rejected as "Obvious to those skilled in the field."
On the post: Valve Tries Out Paid Mods Platform; It Fails Completely
Re: Re: Also, people are entitled.
Part of the problem with adding paid mods so late in the game is that "modder's resource" packs are free. But maybe not free like that.
Some are free as in freedom, some are free as in hotdogs. Some authors don't mind how their work is used, some are actively forbidding paid uses.
How does this reflect on donations? Is that unacceptable, or only requiring payment?
It's, ugh.
It's a mess right now.
On the post: Valve Tries Out Paid Mods Platform; It Fails Completely
Re:
So no, not malicious intent. They were, however, blinded to the obvious by money flying through the air.
On the post: Valve Tries Out Paid Mods Platform; It Fails Completely
Re: Also, people are entitled.
1. The insultingly small amount of money going to the mod developers, or
2: Modders using the established popularity of their mods to lock UPDATES behind a paywall.
For me, it was #2.
I have supported one of the modders involved in this fiasco since his first texture replacer, and considered one of his mods essential to my gaming experiece. When he locked his mod's bugfix update behind a barrier is the first time in my life I've considered actively pirating. However, I took the high road, and removed all of his mods from my build, and found the functionality I wanted elsewhere.
I then removed all of my endorsements, and blocked the author. I tracked his profile, hoping he would change his mind, but in the end, Bethesda blinked first. He's now on my permanent block list.
One other author I follow (Chesko, noted above) DID learn his lesson, and removed his update from the store. If I had cash, I would toss some in his cup. One of his problems right now, though, is that he used assets from other authors (aside from Fore) that were nominally "free-to-use" but the tacit understanding was that they would be FREE to use.
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