Ah, now the French can sue anyone who uses the letter "h" in anything he writes!!! Better start turning all our office buildings into courthouses and all our hotels into prisons, so we can handle all the infringement cases of all the people who write anything using the letter "h".
Oops! I just did it at least 7 times above and more here. I better run and hide somewhere where the French can't find me.
I wonder how long will it be before some greedy idiot photographs a national landmark like the Washington Monument and then tries to assert copyright on the landmark itself?
This isn't copyright infringement, it's out and out copyright abuse, claiming rights that are not and were never granted by copyright law. And that in itself is a crime.
Hey guys! Ever seen about all these FEMA camps scattered all over the US? They're probably for all us Internet users so so when PTT passes they can put us all away for infringing copyright by all the millions of buffer copies our computers routinely make in the course of displaying Web pages, and all the buffer copies our digital TVs make of the data passing through them in the course of updating screen displays.
Yes, PTT is going to bring all temporary copies of all data anywhere under copyright protection, and since everything in the world is copyright by default, there's no escape. We'll all have to throw our TVs and computers in the river or expect the copyright police to come knocking our doors down and dragging us away. But if we do that they'll get us for illegal dumping and polluting the rivers. They'll get us either way.
[Yes this is sarcasm, but it is the truth that PTT will bring all copies of any form of data, even temporary buffer copies, under copyright protection. Utterly stupid. I think they want to make criminals out of all of us.]
To me this seems like the Schrödinger's Cat of copyright law. According to the record labels, if we're talking about it from the seller's perspective, it's a sale. But the second you flip the equation and look at it from the buyer's perspective, it's a license. The cat is simultaneously dead and alive. Either the major labels are full of it...
If congress would use some common sense in passing patent law instead of just listening to greedy corporations who want it all, we might not have all these patent parasites running around suing world plus dog with all these bogus, overbroad patents that are their only real invention. The rule ought to be, you don't own the invention, patent is unenforceable. If two or more people patent the same thing, patent is invalidated for obviousness. If you patent something that already exists, patent is invalid because of prior art. And so on.
Patent trolls are nothing but parasites and shouldn't be allowed to exist.
It's about time somebody showed some sense on all this IP overreaching. It's like the IP industry wants to lock everything up solid forever, do away with all safeguards against misuse, do away with any form of fair use and tilt everything completely in their favor. And the penalties for even minor infringement I would liken to 20 years at hard labor for jaywalking.
I wish somebody would pound some sense into the heads of these IP freaks that want everything all for themselves and nobody else and understand that this has to be a two-way street, not all take and no give.
The FT quotes an unnamed diplomat who suggests that this delay may "give enough time for the post-SOPA venom to clear," so that governments can quietly ratify ACTA in their national parliaments and in Brussels next year.
I suspect that is exactly their strategy--wait till the uproar dies down, then convene only the ACTA supporters and sneak it through when they think nobody's looking.
I see this nation on a fast track to implementing a police state, a surveillance state where our every move will be monitored, comments we make on Internet blogs will be monitored, our financial transactions, all will be monitored by our government. Already we have the TSA harassing passengers in airports, setting up checkpoints on highways, showing up at sports events etc. And now we have facial recognition software which with surveillance cameras on every street corner can aid police in locating and arresting any person they want to.
SOPA/PIPA to the best of my knowledge have no safeguards against false reporting, no due process before blocking a website, no way of an accused website of defending itself, etc. These bills if passed into law will be open to massive abuse. Any corporation or the US Government itself will have the power to shut down any website it doesn't like. And now we have ACTA and TPP each of which outdoes previous bills on restrictions. And worst of all these bills have been put on a fast track and have been negotiated in strictest secrecy by insiders, while the public has been left in the dark, except for what few documents have been leaked by insiders.
I see all of these as more tools to be used in implementing said police state than anything else. I could be wrong, I hope I am wrong. But that's what I see coming.
Hey Sherm! Why are you insisting on running a steam engine business model in the electric motor era?
And why do you tie down the pressure relief valve to get more power out of that creaky old steam engine? Go ahead, tie it down tight, but don't blame anyone else when the boiler blows to kingdom come and takes your creaky, obsolete business model with it.
You've fought tooth and toenail against every new technology that has come along, claiming it is going to destroy your entertainment industry, then when you've accepted and worked with that new technology you've greatly benefited from it. And now that the Internet and sharing has come along, it's deja vu all over again. You'd save all of us a lot of grief if you'd learn to accommodate to changes and give people what they want, instead of fighting every new thing that comes along and making bogus, grossly inflated damage claims when all the facts show the very opposite.
. . .
Oh, and suing your customers back to the stone age is no way to attract new business.
Re: Yes, it was Google-- and the people Google pays....
Oh, and I guess Google has 400 million people working for them? If I recall right this is about how many people joined this protest.
Even if Google and Wikipedia hadn't joined in, it would have made very little difference. And I don't buy Carey Sherman's argument that piracy costs the US economy 19 million jobs, when his little fiefdom only has 10,000 total working for him.
Do all those who settled get any of their money back?
If trolls who litigate using bogus patents were required to repay all the money collected when said patents are invalidated, it might provide some disincentive for this kind of extortion.
Hmmm... About this idea of requiring a separate license for each buffer copy your computer makes to show an image... Videos generally run at 30 frames per second. Now think of a 10 minute You Tube video... this would be 1800 separate images per minute, or 18,000 separate licenses for that 10 minute video. If the MPAA decided to license these copies at $10.00 per each, it would cost you $180,000 just for licenses to watch that 10 minute video. Now suppose you wanted to watch a 90 minute video. $1.8 million clams for that 90 minutes.
Yes I know this is ridiculous, but this whole idea of requiring a license for buffer copies is just as ridiculous and I want to show just how ridiculous it is. If this passes, no one will be able to afford just to turn his computer on, let alone access the Internet in any meaningful way. Or we'll be criminals and they'll have to build thousands of new prisons to house all of us. But these entertainment industry pointy haired bean counters never think of things like this, all they think about is how can they milk more $$$$$$$$$ from the public and everybody else.
I think I'll not watch the Super Bowl at all. ICE might decide to seize all my TV sets and arrest me for infringing copyright by watching the ultra-hyper-super-over-the-moon copyrighted game. ;-)
In all efforts to stamp out piracy by legal force, the burn-your-barn-to-get-rid-of-the-rats principle still applies.
You lose your barn, but the rats just go elsewhere and infest and set up shop in somebody else's barn. And the Whack-a-mole goes on until there aren't any barns left to burn. Then they infest your house, and you gonna burn your house down? I don't think so. Getting a cat would be a much more practical solution.
How much better it would be if the powers that be would make some legal way to share files and content owners to make some decent money off of it (by some form of licensing maybe?) rather than burn the Internet to the ground and make criminals of all of us who use it.
On the post: Do You Need Permission To Take A Photo With A Chair In It? You Might In France...
Re:
On the post: Do You Need Permission To Take A Photo With A Chair In It? You Might In France...
Re: Re:
Oops! I just did it at least 7 times above and more here. I better run and hide somewhere where the French can't find me.
On the post: Do You Need Permission To Take A Photo With A Chair In It? You Might In France...
Re:
This isn't copyright infringement, it's out and out copyright abuse, claiming rights that are not and were never granted by copyright law. And that in itself is a crime.
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
PTT and ephemeral copies
Yes, PTT is going to bring all temporary copies of all data anywhere under copyright protection, and since everything in the world is copyright by default, there's no escape. We'll all have to throw our TVs and computers in the river or expect the copyright police to come knocking our doors down and dragging us away. But if we do that they'll get us for illegal dumping and polluting the rivers. They'll get us either way.
[Yes this is sarcasm, but it is the truth that PTT will bring all copies of any form of data, even temporary buffer copies, under copyright protection. Utterly stupid. I think they want to make criminals out of all of us.]
On the post: It's Time To Let Politicians Know That Using Secretive Trade Agreements To Meddle With The Internet Is Unacceptable
Re: Re:
On the post: Schrödinger's Download: Whether Or Not An iTunes Music Sale Is A 'Sale' Depends On Who's Suing
The RIAA is an oxymoron...
On the post: One Reason Why The USPTO Granted Ridiculously Stupid Internet Patents: Patent Examiners Were Banned From Using The Internet
Patent trolls
Patent trolls are nothing but parasites and shouldn't be allowed to exist.
On the post: Lithuanian Minister Of Justice Says ACTA Is Unnecessary, Doesn't Actually Help Creators And It's Time To Reevaluate IP
Re: ACTA, Patents and trolls oh my
I wish somebody would pound some sense into the heads of these IP freaks that want everything all for themselves and nobody else and understand that this has to be a two-way street, not all take and no give.
On the post: Lithuanian Minister Of Justice Says ACTA Is Unnecessary, Doesn't Actually Help Creators And It's Time To Reevaluate IP
Failed business model logo
http://craphound.com/images/failedbizmodelcleft.jpg
On the post: 'The Economist' And 'Financial Times' Already Writing Off ACTA As Dead
Re:
They're going to keep trying until either they succeed or until the entrenched corporate interests behind this stop feeding them money.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Never forget this!
On the post: 'The Economist' And 'Financial Times' Already Writing Off ACTA As Dead
ACTA strategy
I suspect that is exactly their strategy--wait till the uproar dies down, then convene only the ACTA supporters and sneak it through when they think nobody's looking.
This is just as dishonest as ACTA itself.
On the post: Park Ranger Tases Guy Walking Dogs Without A Leash
Tazing people in the park...
But I guess they never consider that angle.
On the post: Big News: Germany Says It Won't Sign ACTA [Update: ... Yet]
Re:
No they'll wait till they think nobody's watching, then they'll convene only those in favor of it and do it in secret.
Gotta watch these politicians, they're sneaky.
On the post: If The RIAA Wants To Talk About Misinformation Campaigns, Let's Start With The RIAA's Misinformation Campaign
Police state
SOPA/PIPA to the best of my knowledge have no safeguards against false reporting, no due process before blocking a website, no way of an accused website of defending itself, etc. These bills if passed into law will be open to massive abuse. Any corporation or the US Government itself will have the power to shut down any website it doesn't like. And now we have ACTA and TPP each of which outdoes previous bills on restrictions. And worst of all these bills have been put on a fast track and have been negotiated in strictest secrecy by insiders, while the public has been left in the dark, except for what few documents have been leaked by insiders.
I see all of these as more tools to be used in implementing said police state than anything else. I could be wrong, I hope I am wrong. But that's what I see coming.
On the post: People Realizing That It Wasn't Google Lobbying That Stopped PIPA/SOPA
Steam engines vs electric motors
And why do you tie down the pressure relief valve to get more power out of that creaky old steam engine? Go ahead, tie it down tight, but don't blame anyone else when the boiler blows to kingdom come and takes your creaky, obsolete business model with it.
You've fought tooth and toenail against every new technology that has come along, claiming it is going to destroy your entertainment industry, then when you've accepted and worked with that new technology you've greatly benefited from it. And now that the Internet and sharing has come along, it's deja vu all over again. You'd save all of us a lot of grief if you'd learn to accommodate to changes and give people what they want, instead of fighting every new thing that comes along and making bogus, grossly inflated damage claims when all the facts show the very opposite.
. . .
Oh, and suing your customers back to the stone age is no way to attract new business.
On the post: People Realizing That It Wasn't Google Lobbying That Stopped PIPA/SOPA
Re: Yes, it was Google-- and the people Google pays....
Even if Google and Wikipedia hadn't joined in, it would have made very little difference. And I don't buy Carey Sherman's argument that piracy costs the US economy 19 million jobs, when his little fiefdom only has 10,000 total working for him.
Get real!
On the post: The Web Is Saved: East Texas Jury Says Eolas Patents Are Invalid
Eolas patents
If trolls who litigate using bogus patents were required to repay all the money collected when said patents are invalidated, it might provide some disincentive for this kind of extortion.
On the post: The Real Goal Of Regulating Buffer Copies? So Hollywood Can Put A Tollbooth On Innovation
Re: Re: I am against regulation, but...
Yes I know this is ridiculous, but this whole idea of requiring a license for buffer copies is just as ridiculous and I want to show just how ridiculous it is. If this passes, no one will be able to afford just to turn his computer on, let alone access the Internet in any meaningful way. Or we'll be criminals and they'll have to build thousands of new prisons to house all of us. But these entertainment industry pointy haired bean counters never think of things like this, all they think about is how can they milk more $$$$$$$$$ from the public and everybody else.
On the post: ICE Seizes 300 More Sites; Can't Have People Watching Super Bowl Ads Without Permission
Re: Re:
On the post: Supreme Court Denies Appeal For The Pirate Bay Founders
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
You lose your barn, but the rats just go elsewhere and infest and set up shop in somebody else's barn. And the Whack-a-mole goes on until there aren't any barns left to burn. Then they infest your house, and you gonna burn your house down? I don't think so. Getting a cat would be a much more practical solution.
How much better it would be if the powers that be would make some legal way to share files and content owners to make some decent money off of it (by some form of licensing maybe?) rather than burn the Internet to the ground and make criminals of all of us who use it.
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