And the reason I have no plans to buy a Kindle any time soon, is that you cannot sell or give the book to someone else when you are done with it. It's pretty rare that I read a book twice; I normally give it to a friend when I'm done, and encourage them to do the same (not give it back to me).
While I admire Barry Eisler's embrace of e-book technology, Amazon's current "ownership model" (for lack of a better word) is a one-time license with no transferability, not a sale. This is why they were able to reach out and delete a book when they decided it was a mistake.
He has some excellent viewpoints on copyright, but Amazon is not the solution either.
Have you tried this service on the cruise ship? It's not high speed -- it's about the speed of dial-up, and of course, horrible latency. I brought a laptop with a local mail client (Thunderbird, of course), and downloaded all my e-mail in a batch, wrote responses off-line, then went back on-line to upload all my outgoing mail. Kept the connection time to just a couple minutes at a time.
Except most hotels are going to charge you for that modem call. Even the ones that offer "free local calls" (usually the cheap hotels that are giving you free WiFi too) often limit the free call duration to something like 30 minutes. And then I can't order room service while on-line. :-)
One thing I completely fail to understand. The per-minute or per-megabyte charges when you exceed your plan are usually FAR higher than the same rate within your plan. For almost anything I can think of, the cost per unit FALLS when you buy in larger quantities.
What is the economic driver behind this thinking, other than monopolistic practices that all the other post-pay carriers do the same thing? Why wouldn't carriers welcome these heavy users with unit costs that match or are somewhat lower than the plan unit costs?
Certainly, carriers would shun heavy users when the plan is unlimited, with no unit costs! But if a carrier offered a plan with decreasing charges as you bought more, the sting of not having "unlimited" (which never really is) would surely be lessened, with much happier and more loyal customers.
And if you say that there's only limited total radio bandwidth, then why do those same carriers offer you lower per-unit rates when you buy a bigger plan?
Wait, let's look at what this is called, DENIAL of service. DENYING an entity the ability to do its normal activity, like operating a web site, due to all this traffic, certainly SHOULD be illegal (and hopefully IS illegal).
The physical world equivalent would be forming a human chain to prevent people from entering a building -- and police will and do break those up.
Standing around with signs and bullhorns chanting is like having another web site, or posting messages on their web site. It does not actually interfere with their ability to operate (other than in the mind of potential customers/visitors).
If the kid was putting the Apple logo on parts that didn't come from Apple, that's clearly not going to fly, since there's substantial likelihood of confusion, and an implied endorsement, at the least.
Since there's no software involved in this, it sounds remarkably like the car companies' ongoing efforts to prevent others from manufacturing cheaper replacement parts.
Here's a recent article about just such an attempt in France:
Why bother with a DNS domain at all? If I owned an on-line casino, I'd go get an easy-to-remember IP address to host it all, like 7.11.7.11 or 21.21.21.21, and market the hell out of that.
No more DNS problems! Now, does anyone think DHS can tell every U.S. ISP with an international link to block a given IP address?
Umm, if he wrote the book, doesn't he still have the text on his own computer? Why scan anything? Or did he write it all out long-hand on paper?
Plus, then search engines will be able to index the text cleanly (e.g., someone's trying to find the origin of a quote that came from his book).
But yes, assuming this was not self-published, his publisher may well have a vested interest in blocking this, it's likely his contract explicitly prohibits him from circulating copies by any other channel.
The comment on the Paris Virgin Megastore being open on weekends reminds me that we still have problems like that in the U.S. Here in Illinois, it's illegal to buy a new car on Sunday, a law that the car dealers lobbied for and got years ago.
I'd LOVE to find a car dealer willing to challenge that and sell me a car on Sunday, but you know they all like the law!
Even today though, there are certain brands you simply cannot find discounted, or only at specific levels for specific time periods, as controlled by the manufacturer. Examples include Bose and Calvin Klein and all the fine cosmetics brands.
For example, ALL retailers put Calvin Klein underwear on sale for 25% off at the same time every year. They never discount it otherwise.
What's the law regarding searches of bank safe deposit boxes? Seems like a possible analogy here. If the police want to access my personal safe deposit box at the bank, what do they have to do? I would surely think this requires a warrant??? Or for that matter, even to ask the bank for my bank statement?
I don't recall Apple EVER putting that little "TM" or the "R in a circle" after the term "app store". Probably not a requirement, but certainly an important indication of their (lack of) intention.
On the post: State Appeals Court Says Stubhub Isn't Responsible For Actions Of Its Users
Entirely aside from StubHub facilitating "illegal activities" ...
Surely this falls under price fixing, like a manufacturer telling distributors they cannot sell the product for less than the MSRP?
On the post: Best Selling Author Barry Eisler On Copyright, Piracy And Why SOPA/PIPA Are 'Extremely Disturbing'
The problem with Amazon e-books ...
While I admire Barry Eisler's embrace of e-book technology, Amazon's current "ownership model" (for lack of a better word) is a one-time license with no transferability, not a sale. This is why they were able to reach out and delete a book when they decided it was a mistake.
He has some excellent viewpoints on copyright, but Amazon is not the solution either.
On the post: SOPA Sponsors: Pass SOPA To Protect The Troops; Everyone Else: WTF?
Pass SOPA, save the children!
SOPA will save the children, the troops, jobs, the economy, heck, maybe even prevent global warming and bring about peace in the Middle East.
On the post: Do The Authors Of The Felony Streaming Bills Even Know What The Details Of Their Own Bills Mean?
So why is Klobuchar so focused on getting it passed?
On the post: What's The Most Expensive WiFi You've Seen?
Re: Re: You've clearly never taken a cruise
On the post: What's The Most Expensive WiFi You've Seen?
On the post: Wireless Carriers Finally Cave On Overage Fees; Reluctantly Agree To Stop Treating Customers Like ATMs
Overage charges?
What is the economic driver behind this thinking, other than monopolistic practices that all the other post-pay carriers do the same thing? Why wouldn't carriers welcome these heavy users with unit costs that match or are somewhat lower than the plan unit costs?
Certainly, carriers would shun heavy users when the plan is unlimited, with no unit costs! But if a carrier offered a plan with decreasing charges as you bought more, the sting of not having "unlimited" (which never really is) would surely be lessened, with much happier and more loyal customers.
And if you say that there's only limited total radio bandwidth, then why do those same carriers offer you lower per-unit rates when you buy a bigger plan?
On the post: Find A Massive Security Hole At American Express? If You're Not A Cardholder, It Doesn't Care
Re: Re: why he didn't use the phone number supplied
On the post: Lawyer For Accused: DDoS Is A Legal Form Of Protest
DENIAL of service
The physical world equivalent would be forming a human chain to prevent people from entering a building -- and police will and do break those up.
Standing around with signs and bullhorns chanting is like having another web site, or posting messages on their web site. It does not actually interfere with their ability to operate (other than in the mind of potential customers/visitors).
On the post: Police Ticket Guy Who Helped Direct Traffic After Traffic Light Failure; Then Leave Without Handling Traffic
The man got a citation?
On the post: Apple Sues Teen Who Sold Repair Parts To Make Your iPhone Into A Mythical White iPhone
Selling replacement iPhone parts
Since there's no software involved in this, it sounds remarkably like the car companies' ongoing efforts to prevent others from manufacturing cheaper replacement parts.
Here's a recent article about just such an attempt in France:
http://www.ipfrontline.com/depts/article.aspx?id=25172&deptid=7
On the post: NY Stock Exchange Claims Trademark On Any Depiction Of Trading Floor, Threatens TPM
Trademarking an image
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050202/1946248.shtml
On the post: Feds Seize More Poker Sites
Seizing casino Internet domains
No more DNS problems! Now, does anyone think DHS can tell every U.S. ISP with an international link to block a given IP address?
On the post: Author Walter Jon Williams Asks For Fans To Help Him 'Pirate' His Own Works Better
Author scanning his own work?
Plus, then search engines will be able to index the text cleanly (e.g., someone's trying to find the origin of a quote that came from his book).
But yes, assuming this was not self-published, his publisher may well have a vested interest in blocking this, it's likely his contract explicitly prohibits him from circulating copies by any other channel.
On the post: The End Result Of Superinjunctions: The Count The 'Can't Be Nameds' Game
Re: An appropriate response:
On the post: Ross Pruden's Favorite Techdirt Posts of the Week
Blue laws
I'd LOVE to find a car dealer willing to challenge that and sell me a car on Sunday, but you know they all like the law!
On the post: Death Of iFlow Reader Due To Apple Changes Shows Why Betting On Closed Platforms Is Risky
Isn't this illegal? We went through this with CD price fixing a decade ago (when CDs were important):
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2000/05/cdpres.shtm
Even today though, there are certain brands you simply cannot find discounted, or only at specific levels for specific time periods, as controlled by the manufacturer. Examples include Bose and Calvin Klein and all the fine cosmetics brands.
For example, ALL retailers put Calvin Klein underwear on sale for 25% off at the same time every year. They never discount it otherwise.
On the post: Senator Leahy Wants To Update Digital Privacy Law; Some Good, Some Bad
Searching e-mail on ISP servers
On the post: Amazon Uses Steve Jobs Words Against Him In App Store Dispute
Trademarking "app store"
On the post: Targeted Advertising? Patented! Bunch Of Media Companies Sued
Patenting the patent troll business process?
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