You're right, I hadn't thought of that. I think I was blinded by how ridiculous this whole thing is. A redirect to the front page could just have been bad coding.
If it had, instead, redirected to a nasty "you can't link to that page" message, then what I said above would still apply.
Agreed. Anti-circumvention laws are dumb, but given that they ARE law in Germany, I don't think the effectiveness of the preventive measures being circumvented is relevant.
I hate the word "devalue". There are really only two situations when it's used: by someone who is pretending a psychological or moral argument is a logical one, or by someone who is lying.
Or, I guess, three, by someone who is debunking one of the above usages.
My daughter wasn't even two when she said, "Put phone away, Dada" for the first time. It was a bit of a shock. And there's a good chance I was reading Techdirt when she said it.
But it has changed my behavior. I make sure I let her know when I'm checking email and will be with her in just a minute. I'm home with her from 3-530 every day (luxury of being a government contractor), and I do like to keep up on the important emails that come in while the rest of the world is working. But I work much harder now on balancing my attention between her and my internet connection.
In the interest of full disclosure - I have a website I've launched and am working to get going that could be described as Kickstarter for authors, minus the publicity and venture capital. So feel free to ignore me if you think I've crossed the line between "engaging in discussion" and "pimping my site".
I think the thing that Kickstarter really lacks that authors really need is the features tailored to selling and publicizing books, and specifically books. There's not really a community of authors working together to benefit all of the community. There aren't the features like you see on Amazon, the related books and "people who bought this also bought . . .". Kickstarter is a really cool site, it's well done, and they've probably done more to get crowdfunding into the mainstream than anyone, but I think too much of the responsibility is still on the author, and the author is still too much alone.
I don't think too many people browse Kickstarter for authors to support. If you want a book to read, you go to a bookstore or Amazon where there are plenty of books, and plenty of ways for potential readers to be introduced to your stuff because it's similar to something they knew they were looking for.
All that said, DH, I think it's great what you're doing, and appreciate the feedback you're sharing on how it's going. You're on the front end of this kind of model for making a living as a writer, and you not only have to overcome being relatively unknown, but also have to overcome the huge percentage of your potential fans who just don't understand what you're doing. Take my mother, for example. She is a voracious reader, but not what you'd call a computer expert. She just bought a Kindle and absolutely loves it. But there is absolutely zero chance that she'd be able to get your book onto her Kindle without me or some other tech support.
Anyway, congratulations on the success. Even if you don't get funded on Kickstarter, it sounds like you've made some good contacts, and you've advanced the cause of all your fellow authors.
"Why would you spend a lot of money trying to build a service in Canada when Canadians take so much without paying for it?" said Graham Henderson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association, which represents major record labels.
He's not talking about pirates - he's talking about the Canadian recording industry, taking 45% of gross revenue without doing anything to deserve it. The Canadian recording industry is made up of Canadians, right?
I'm not sure why the Wordpress model isn't more widely used. You essentially have three options - free and limited hosted at wordpress.com, paid and supported hosted at wordpress.com, or free and whatever you want hosted yourself.
Document hosting or nearly any sort of web application could function the same way. With the cost of cloud storage dropping daily, it seems like someone should be able to make this model work for tons of useful things, like embeddable PDF hosting.
I'm currently accepting venture capital to get right on this.
If anyone knows a little something about incompetence, it's an executive from the company that produced Windows Vista (and 95, and 98, and ME, and . . .).
Flickr is actually a great example of how the free accounts make the paid accounts more valuable. I've paid for an account for years - it's one of the few websites I actually pay money to. I do it for two reasons. One, I like having a backup of 30 gigs of photos or whatever it is I have up there.
But more importantly, it means that I can post pictures of my daughter, and her grandparents and aunts and uncles and all my contacts on free accounts can see them. Each additional person that I know who has a free account makes my account more valuable.
Flickr has other benefits, too (I'm really pissed that they no longer print to the Target three blocks from where I live, though), but it's a fantastic example of how the free part makes the paid part more valuable.
And yeah, I've read Mike's thoughts on broadband competition, and totally agree, though I don't see it happening any time soon. We can't even get FIOS in DC, which would at least make Comcast work a little harder.
The problem is, where is elsewhere? I live in downtown Washington DC, and my choices for broadband are Comcast cable and Verizon dsl. That's it. And much of the country has even fewer options than I do.
They should throw together a competing movie telling the real story. We'd see Zuckerberg in a flowing white robe, handing out hot meals to homeless children with a big smile on his face. We'd see the teenage girl saved from a suicide attempt by the friends she made playing Farmville. We'd see a couple, reunited after 20 years through a mutual friend using Facebook's Friend Finder, and we'd watch bits of their spectacular wedding.
On the post: Deep Linking Could Be Infringement In Germany If Website Puts Even Ridiculous Weak Attempts To Block It
Re: Re: Re:
If it had, instead, redirected to a nasty "you can't link to that page" message, then what I said above would still apply.
On the post: Deep Linking Could Be Infringement In Germany If Website Puts Even Ridiculous Weak Attempts To Block It
Re:
On the post: Is There Anything Lamer Than Facebook Threatening Lamebook With Trademark Infringement?
i like this
On the post: Debunking The Claim That Giving Away Music 'Devalues' It
"Devalue"
Or, I guess, three, by someone who is debunking one of the above usages.
On the post: The Boy Who Mistook An iPhone For His Mother
Broke my heart
But it has changed my behavior. I make sure I let her know when I'm checking email and will be with her in just a minute. I'm home with her from 3-530 every day (luxury of being a government contractor), and I do like to keep up on the important emails that come in while the rest of the world is working. But I work much harder now on balancing my attention between her and my internet connection.
On the post: Washington DC Pulls Down Internet Voting Trial After Hackers Program It To Play UMich Fight Song
Re: Re: out of context
On the post: Our Own Dark Helmet Shares Lessons From Crowdfunding Experiment
Kickstarter is great, but maybe too generic?
I think the thing that Kickstarter really lacks that authors really need is the features tailored to selling and publicizing books, and specifically books. There's not really a community of authors working together to benefit all of the community. There aren't the features like you see on Amazon, the related books and "people who bought this also bought . . .". Kickstarter is a really cool site, it's well done, and they've probably done more to get crowdfunding into the mainstream than anyone, but I think too much of the responsibility is still on the author, and the author is still too much alone.
I don't think too many people browse Kickstarter for authors to support. If you want a book to read, you go to a bookstore or Amazon where there are plenty of books, and plenty of ways for potential readers to be introduced to your stuff because it's similar to something they knew they were looking for.
All that said, DH, I think it's great what you're doing, and appreciate the feedback you're sharing on how it's going. You're on the front end of this kind of model for making a living as a writer, and you not only have to overcome being relatively unknown, but also have to overcome the huge percentage of your potential fans who just don't understand what you're doing. Take my mother, for example. She is a voracious reader, but not what you'd call a computer expert. She just bought a Kindle and absolutely loves it. But there is absolutely zero chance that she'd be able to get your book onto her Kindle without me or some other tech support.
Anyway, congratulations on the success. Even if you don't get funded on Kickstarter, it sounds like you've made some good contacts, and you've advanced the cause of all your fellow authors.
On the post: Canadian Recording Industry Demands 45% Of Revenue; Then Blames 'Pirates' For No Streaming Music Services
He's telling the truth
He's not talking about pirates - he's talking about the Canadian recording industry, taking 45% of gross revenue without doing anything to deserve it. The Canadian recording industry is made up of Canadians, right?
On the post: Scribd Puts User Docs Behind A Paywall Without Them Realizing It
A lot of room in that space
Document hosting or nearly any sort of web application could function the same way. With the cost of cloud storage dropping daily, it seems like someone should be able to make this model work for tons of useful things, like embeddable PDF hosting.
I'm currently accepting venture capital to get right on this.
On the post: Yahoo Happily Admits It Manipulates Ad Auctions To Get Advertisers To Bid More
Yahoo?
On the post: Intel Confirms HDCP Master Key Is Out
Re: Re: What was the key?
On the post: Intel Confirms HDCP Master Key Is Out
What was the key?
On the post: Microsoft Exec Says 'Open' Means 'Incompetent'
Incompetence experts
On the post: Big Brother In Your Garbage Cans
Re: Re: Disable the chip
On the post: Lessons In Smart Trademark Management: Free Licensing Of The Mark From Twitter
How unfortunate
On the post: Software Startups Realizing That Cookie-Cutter Freemium Doesn't Always Work Well
Re:
But more importantly, it means that I can post pictures of my daughter, and her grandparents and aunts and uncles and all my contacts on free accounts can see them. Each additional person that I know who has a free account makes my account more valuable.
Flickr has other benefits, too (I'm really pissed that they no longer print to the Target three blocks from where I live, though), but it's a fantastic example of how the free part makes the paid part more valuable.
On the post: Another ISP Fighting US Copyright Group Subpoenas; Why Aren't More ISPs Protecting Your Privacy?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Another ISP Fighting US Copyright Group Subpoenas; Why Aren't More ISPs Protecting Your Privacy?
Re: Re: Re:
And yeah, I've read Mike's thoughts on broadband competition, and totally agree, though I don't see it happening any time soon. We can't even get FIOS in DC, which would at least make Comcast work a little harder.
On the post: Another ISP Fighting US Copyright Group Subpoenas; Why Aren't More ISPs Protecting Your Privacy?
Re:
On the post: How Should Facebook Respond To The Social Network Movie?
Facebook the Movie
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