Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 6 Nov 2012 @ 9:12am
Re: Re: Do you not understand contracts, Mike?
They paid for the product, and now own it
(5) while Epic still intended to collect money for the sale of the album (which, again, would not count towards the recording commitment), Epic would not cover the cost of recording the album.
Reading comprehension fail... or have you now become so out of touch with humanity that you were actually referring to the band itself as "the product"? Could go either way...
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 3 Nov 2012 @ 12:02pm
Re: "it was a non-story"
The 'kerfuffle' was hardly limited to Amazon, but full marks for establishing as trivial a frame as possible for the gloss you want to apply.
Speaking of spin, that's a big bit right there and it looks to me like you're reading what you want into it. It doesn't say anywhere I can see that anything was "limited to Amazon", but is talking about the effect that very clearly happened on Amazon.
It wasn't a non-story. It was prominently reported in the Guardian and the New York Times and many other places.
I suppose that depends what you mean by "non story". I skimmed the links you provided and as far as I can see they all talk about one author that's been caught doing this and some about 1 other that is accused (but also counter-accuses his accuser it seems). If you measure by "amount of reporting" I guess it could be considered a major story, but 3 authors out of how many on Amazon? Personally I'd want a somewhat higher percentage of naughtyness than "barely measurable" before I'd call it major.
Maybe I missed the rest of "sock-puppeting" authors? I'll admit I didn't go looking for any more outside the links you gave but reading them, the (lack of substantive) content suggests to me that they are as much as anything an excuse to use the term "sock-puppeting". One article even goes as far as to wonder whether it matters at all.
A few writers of international stature have damaged their own reputations,
Again I counted 2 maybe 3. Are there more I missed?
several other writers of international stature felt moved to voice their opinions on the matter.
Which is the subject of the piece is it not? How a handful of people's "moral outrage" produced a wildly out-of-proportion response from Amazon?
TechDirt didn't comment on the scandal because apparently no-one at TechDirt figured there was a TechDirt angle
Well I can't speak for Techdirt, but from my take on what they mostly write about "several authors" complaining about false reviews:
Has no real technical angle - it could just as easily have been a print review, unless you're going to try and say that an author has never for example paid off a journalist for a favourable review which would be very similar in effect.
Has no copyright angle
Has no patent angle
Has no IP legal angle
Has no business model angle - until, that is, Amazon affect their business model of customer reviews by taking action, which appears to have been written about.
But calling it a non-story just makes you look like a smug douche.
Ad homenims unnecessary, especially when a "glass houses and stones" argument could be made.
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 2 Nov 2012 @ 7:03am
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Can you deny that on a global stage, it is more difficult to stand out than on a purely local stage?
False dichotomy there. You don't neccesarily need to "stand out" on a global stage, just get emough people to listen... the attention of a rather smaller percentage of the 2.3 BILLION people online is needed for "success" than of a few hundred thousand "locally" wouldn't you say?
That people today will compare local artists to their global counterparts, which was just not the case a hundred years ago?
So you're suggesting it was easier before the advent of the recording industry? How about before easy transport when perhaps all that was needed for a "career" was to be one of the top 3 singers in your village? Not sure what point you're trying to make here in relation to the internet - compared to, say, 40 years ago it actually looks easier to get global recognition now.
I'm not convinced you could ever make a career out of a hobbyist interest in pretty much anything, including music. Even the words "hobbyist" and "career" themselves contain the intimation of "amateur not really trying" vs. "dedicated professional putting in effort". Respective singing talent has little, if anything, to do with it looking at the immense amount of complete rubbish that "makes it" globally so I have to say the defining characteristics of success look to be more to be the amount of effort put it to making it happen and/or the luck of being in the right place at the right time with the right sound.
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 2 Nov 2012 @ 6:39am
Re:
Translation: we wouldn't have funded them, we wouldn't know how to market them, so we don't want to see them being successful lest they undermine our tepid production line.
Alternate Translation: We are the ultimate arbiters of quality, dammit! How dare the public like, much less pay for, anything we haven't approved!!?!?!?
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 2 Nov 2012 @ 6:00am
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Increased taxes do not always translate to an increased price of goods.
Weeelll.... perhaps it is a strawman generally, but in the case of Europe and cars I'm not so sure.. VAT for example is generally high in Europe and attaches to all purchases including cars and by comparison in the US it seems generally lower. Anecdotal evidence for luxury goods (the type I'd buy in the 'states) suggests that the US is cheaper generally by a roughly "dollars to pounds" ratio and cars are definitely cheaper (though there are feature/quality arguments there) - i.e. goods are often 1/4 to 1/3 cheaper in the US. Also, in the case of cars, take petrol prices... average US petrol price last time I looked was, oh, about $4/gallon? UK price currently translates as roughly double that and while that's one of the more expensive in Europe it's only by maybe 10%. So while it's probably not directly related to healthcare as suggested I'm not convinced the argument of higher taxes not leading to higher prices is exactly a strawman...
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 2 Nov 2012 @ 4:04am
Motive
You can understand, in theory, why that seems desirable. After all, if you can find the absolute best teacher of a subject, wouldn't it be great to allow anyone and everyone to sit in on his or her lectures?
Maybe I'm a cynic but that seems way to altruistic a motive to ascribe to the research there.
I suspect it's far more about money... If the lecturer can lecture to more people then you get to charge them all and get more money because the tech cost is going to be fixed and way less than another lecturer in the subject.
Yes, I know in reality if you managed it then lectures become non-scarce and there wouldn't be as much money in it as you think, but I'm guessing it hasn't been thought through that far.
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 1 Nov 2012 @ 12:20pm
Re: Re: Perfectly reasonable
One of my memories from my early childhood is my Dad filming a TV broadcast of a pro football game
And this right here fully justifies the warrantless wiretapping of ALL homes, public spaces, businesses, the implantation of recording devices into every human at birth so that heinous crimes like this can be tracked and the vile fiends like YOU caught, charged more money than your entire family for 10 generations can possible earn through their lives, flogged publically (all rights reserved) and locked up for the remainder of your unnatural life at your own expense... you villain you CAD, you BOUNDER, bllaaaaarghh!! Fnurghh, gllargh blaaaaaa grrnnnnnnn *crawls desperately towards tablets*
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 31 Oct 2012 @ 12:44pm
Re:
Sex crimes are about power over the victim, something that porn has very little, if anything, to do with creating a desire for.
True. On the other hand, I think it can have something to do with preventing its ultimate enactment for some by providing a (relatively) harmless fantasy outlet for such a desire.
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 31 Oct 2012 @ 12:37pm
Re: Re: Here's a thought...
Fair comment - bad wording on my part, what you said is pretty much what I was trying to get at. What I meant is that the porn comes first and the violence later, but like you say the fact that it's porn is likely irrelevant and if it wasn't porn it'd be some other trigger for the pre-existing crazy.
VAN DYKE
Show the average American teenage male a condom and his mind will turn to thoughts of lust.
TOBY
Show the average American teenage male a lug wrench and his mind'll turn...
- West Wing (Aaron Sorkin)
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 31 Oct 2012 @ 12:10pm
Here's a thought...
Well, for sex-crimes in general, they're dropping, and fairly significantly so. In the last 20 or so years, the United States has seen a 15% drop in forcible rape rates.
Here's a radical concept...
If the statistics show that then maybe, contrary to the moral-high-ground-brigade's constant chest beating, the wide availability of porn on average helps prevent sex crime rather than causing it.
I have no doubt that in some cases porn leads to violence, but I'd risk a reasonable wager that in a larger number of cases the easy availability of the fantasy escapism of whatever (icky or otherwise) subject one wants provides more of a safety valve for thoughts/feelings that might otherwise be physically expressed.
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 30 Oct 2012 @ 1:58pm
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Paywall!
... nope I think that about covers it. +1
Oh, except you missed:
Actually, I think HBO is ad-free. I've never seen an ad on it. I just put in the word "largely" to cover my butt.
Well, I don't get HBO, not being in the US and everything so I can't comment on the amount of overt advertising, though I'd imagine they spend a lot of time in self-promotion at least. On the other hand, since TV programmes are just as full of product placements as films, nope I'll go with still not ad-free.
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 30 Oct 2012 @ 12:21pm
Re: Re: Re: Re: Paywall!
Movies are largely ad-free although some are testing product placement
Testing????? Good god! Where have you been for the last 30 years? Movies are often largly either product placement vehicles or aimed firmly at maximising merchandising or both.
HBO is largely ad free? DVDs are largely ad free? So what you're saying is they don't have advestisments except for the advertisments?
There are plenty of ad-free media sources.
Well you still haven't named one that's actually ad-free so keep going.
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 30 Oct 2012 @ 12:02pm
Re: Maybe cheaper doesn't lead to better?
the last few years have given us some really incredible movies
Really? Could you name some then? I'm struggling to think of any memorable ones much less "incredible". I can think of lots of "pretty" ones, but that's hardly the same thing.
Production values count for something.
Oh god yes! I don't think people are suggesting that films should necessarily be done on a shoe-string, just that lavish production budgets to make things look prettier is not necesarily the be-all and end-all.
Would Avatar have been anywhere near as good if they'd only had a $10M budget?
Bad example. A/ Avatar pretty not good. B/ Avatar had exactly nothing other than special effects - take those away and the "story" left would have had trouble engaging anyone with an attention span north of 2 minutes.
Try Starwars as an example. How much of actual value was added to the film when it was "re-imagined" with a lavish effects budget?
On the post: Epic's 'Music First' Approach: Delay Album Release; Drop Band When They Leak It
Re: Re: Do you not understand contracts, Mike?
On the post: Amazon Freaks Out About Sock Puppet Reviews And Deletes A Bunch Of Real Reviews
Re: "it was a non-story"
Maybe I missed the rest of "sock-puppeting" authors? I'll admit I didn't go looking for any more outside the links you gave but reading them, the (lack of substantive) content suggests to me that they are as much as anything an excuse to use the term "sock-puppeting". One article even goes as far as to wonder whether it matters at all.Again I counted 2 maybe 3. Are there more I missed?Which is the subject of the piece is it not? How a handful of people's "moral outrage" produced a wildly out-of-proportion response from Amazon?Well I can't speak for Techdirt, but from my take on what they mostly write about "several authors" complaining about false reviews:
Has no real technical angle - it could just as easily have been a print review, unless you're going to try and say that an author has never for example paid off a journalist for a favourable review which would be very similar in effect.
Has no copyright angle
Has no patent angle
Has no IP legal angle
Has no business model angle - until, that is, Amazon affect their business model of customer reviews by taking action, which appears to have been written about.Ad homenims unnecessary, especially when a "glass houses and stones" argument could be made.
On the post: Amazon Freaks Out About Sock Puppet Reviews And Deletes A Bunch Of Real Reviews
Re: Re: Well, Amazon is now big enough that it doesn't have to care:
On the post: The Proof That Movies Won't Get Made Any More Is That... More Movies Are Being Made Today
Re:
On the post: The Proof That Movies Won't Get Made Any More Is That... More Movies Are Being Made Today
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: German Company Wants To Protect Its Use Of The '@' Sign: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Words
On the post: The Proof That Movies Won't Get Made Any More Is That... More Movies Are Being Made Today
Re: Re: Re: Re:
I'm not convinced you could ever make a career out of a hobbyist interest in pretty much anything, including music. Even the words "hobbyist" and "career" themselves contain the intimation of "amateur not really trying" vs. "dedicated professional putting in effort". Respective singing talent has little, if anything, to do with it looking at the immense amount of complete rubbish that "makes it" globally so I have to say the defining characteristics of success look to be more to be the amount of effort put it to making it happen and/or the luck of being in the right place at the right time with the right sound.
On the post: The Proof That Movies Won't Get Made Any More Is That... More Movies Are Being Made Today
Re:
On the post: The Proof That Movies Won't Get Made Any More Is That... More Movies Are Being Made Today
Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Rather Than Reinventing Education By Teaching A Million People At Once, Can We Perfect Teaching One Person At A Time?
Motive
I suspect it's far more about money... If the lecturer can lecture to more people then you get to charge them all and get more money because the tech cost is going to be fixed and way less than another lecturer in the subject.
Yes, I know in reality if you managed it then lectures become non-scarce and there wouldn't be as much money in it as you think, but I'm guessing it hasn't been thought through that far.
On the post: John Mellencamp: Thou Shalt Not Permit The Internet To Derail Our Gravy Train
Re: Stolen
On the post: John Mellencamp: Thou Shalt Not Permit The Internet To Derail Our Gravy Train
Re: Re: Perfectly reasonable
On the post: John Mellencamp: Thou Shalt Not Permit The Internet To Derail Our Gravy Train
Re: Re: tldr
out_of_the_blue speaks
bombastic gibberish well
total ignorance
On the post: Anti-Pornography Guy Politicizes 10 Year Old Girl's Murder
Re:
On the post: Anti-Pornography Guy Politicizes 10 Year Old Girl's Murder
Re: Re: Here's a thought...
On the post: Anti-Pornography Guy Politicizes 10 Year Old Girl's Murder
Here's a thought...
If the statistics show that then maybe, contrary to the moral-high-ground-brigade's constant chest beating, the wide availability of porn on average helps prevent sex crime rather than causing it.
I have no doubt that in some cases porn leads to violence, but I'd risk a reasonable wager that in a larger number of cases the easy availability of the fantasy escapism of whatever (icky or otherwise) subject one wants provides more of a safety valve for thoughts/feelings that might otherwise be physically expressed.
On the post: HuffPost Moderates Comments To Please Advertisers [Updated: Or Not]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Paywall!
Oh, except you missed:
Well, I don't get HBO, not being in the US and everything so I can't comment on the amount of overt advertising, though I'd imagine they spend a lot of time in self-promotion at least. On the other hand, since TV programmes are just as full of product placements as films, nope I'll go with still not ad-free.
On the post: HuffPost Moderates Comments To Please Advertisers [Updated: Or Not]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Paywall!
HBO is largely ad free? DVDs are largely ad free? So what you're saying is they don't have advestisments except for the advertisments?
Well you still haven't named one that's actually ad-free so keep going.
On the post: Hollywood Still Resisting The Idea That Cheaper, Better Films Is The Way To Beat TV
Re: Maybe cheaper doesn't lead to better?
Oh god yes! I don't think people are suggesting that films should necessarily be done on a shoe-string, just that lavish production budgets to make things look prettier is not necesarily the be-all and end-all.
Bad example. A/ Avatar pretty not good. B/ Avatar had exactly nothing other than special effects - take those away and the "story" left would have had trouble engaging anyone with an attention span north of 2 minutes.
Try Starwars as an example. How much of actual value was added to the film when it was "re-imagined" with a lavish effects budget?
On the post: Hollywood Still Resisting The Idea That Cheaper, Better Films Is The Way To Beat TV
Re: Re: What about certain genres?
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