Dave Miller’s Comments

• Mar 20th, 2014 @ 2:54pm

  Re: Re: Re:

  on Microsoft Looked Through Reporter's Hotmail And MSN Chat Accounts To Identify Windows 8 Leaker
  http://www.microsoft.com/privacystatement/en-us/core/default.aspx?Componentid=pspOtherInformationMod ule&View=Description
  

  We also may share or disclose personal information, including the content of your communications: ... To protect the rights or property of Microsoft or our customers, including enforcing the terms governing your use of the services.

  
  
  Reading your personal information is a given, sharing it is what they explicitly give themselves permission to do.
• Jul 17th, 2013 @ 1:33pm

  Terror number?

  on NSA Official Admits Agency's Surveillance Covers Even More People Than Previously Indicated
  I wonder how many of those hops were Kevin Bacon...
• Aug 31st, 2012 @ 5:41pm

  Spam filters?

  on DailyDirt: Will Refill Cartridges For Food Printers Be Insanely Expensive?
  But what if what I want is Spam?
• Jun 20th, 2012 @ 1:30am

  Am I really the only one who thought...

  on Because We All Know What Skype Was Missing Was Intrusive Advertising, Microsoft Has Decided To Add It
  ..."Magnum: Pleasure Hunt 2" was a condom ad?
• Jun 5th, 2012 @ 9:34am

  Re:

  on Fan-Made Movie Edits: Another Cultural Loss At The Hands Of Copyright
  "it's just someone else's work with his fingers on it."
  
  Isn't that all art?
• Mar 9th, 2012 @ 2:48pm

  Re:

  on Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. Using Trademark Law To Prevent The Use Of Public Domain Stories
  See now, I don't quite get the logic that illustrations of nudity somehow detract from the established characters in the Barsoom stories. Am I the only one who remembers that pretty much everyone on Mars was nude most of the time in them?
• Nov 1st, 2011 @ 4:40pm

  Toothpaste?

  on Well, If Firefighters Support E-PARASITE Law... Then You Know It Must Make Sense
  Where do I buy this counterfeit toothpaste? Surely it must be cheaper than the stuff I'm paying $2 for at Walmart.
• Oct 12th, 2011 @ 3:48pm

  Bluetooth?

  on That Didn't Take Long: Amazon Sued For Patent Infringement For New Kindle Fire Tablet
  The Kindle Fire doesn't support bluetooth. That's one of it's documented downsides. It also doesn't support "low bandwitdh" networks, it's wifi only. And, given that it's wifi only, I'm not even sure where they're going with the whole network failover concept, unless they mean failing over from one wifi network to another.
  
  Overall, fishing in entirely the wrong lake.
• Sep 29th, 2011 @ 12:10pm

  Re: Universities are about higher learning & freedom right?

  on University Police & Administration Freak Out Over Nathan Fillion Firefly Poster; Censor, Threaten Professor
  "But I can about guarantee that no mass gunman ever started their rampage at the behest of a poster."
  
  Particularly a poster that advocated the killing of, and only of, armed aggressors.
• Sep 2nd, 2011 @ 11:01pm

  I actually blogged this very idea years ago...

  on If TV Companies Released Authorized Torrents With Ads, Would People Download Them?
  And I'm pretty sure I got the idea from something I read on TechDirt at the time: Digital �Piracy� of Broadcast Content
  
  Oh, and I invented the DVR in 1992, too. I'm just that ahead of the times. :)
• Jul 25th, 2011 @ 5:17pm

  Soylent Jell-o is Purple!

  on DailyDirt: Is Eating Healthy Foods Getting Easier?
  We truly are living in the future.
• Mar 28th, 2011 @ 1:39pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

  on Do We Really Want Judges Determining What Art 'Says'?
  Then if creating art of the same value as Prince's is so trivial, why are you wasting time trolling Techdirt forums, when you could be creating "art", and rolling in cash?
• Mar 28th, 2011 @ 1:10pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re:

  on Do We Really Want Judges Determining What Art 'Says'?
  What you are saying here is that art is defined by the effort necessary to recreate it. Yes, you might be able to reproduce exactly what Prince did in a few minutes. But art is not just the physical actions, it is the effort and time spent to decide what to do and how to do it.
  
  So while it might be trivial to reproduce this piece of art, it may very well not have been trivial to create it. And isn't the disparity between the effort to create art and reproduce it the thing that has copyright maximalists in a tizzy?
• Mar 22nd, 2011 @ 3:21pm

  Re: Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Mar 21st, 2011 @ 11:24am

  on Best Selling Author Turns Down Half A Million Dollar Publishing Contract To Self-Publish
  Bingo!
• Mar 19th, 2011 @ 12:13am

  Re: Interesting question to ponder

  on When Will We Have To Grant Artificial Intelligence Personhood?
  "But I dont think that any artificial intelligence will EVER have to be defined as a person. They dont have souls..."
  
  Neither do I, and neither do you. Prove otherwise.
• Feb 28th, 2011 @ 3:33pm

  Re: Re:

  on ICE Boss: It's Okay To Ignore The Constitution If It's To Protect Companies
  Article 1, Section 8:
  
  "The Congress shall have Power [...] To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;"
  
  Yes, that grants Congress the power to create and administer copyright (which they have done, voraciously), but I believe Mike's opinion is that not only has Congress gone well beyond the stated intent of the clause, but that it's very possible that this clause is just as obsolete as the subsequent Militia clauses.
• Feb 1st, 2011 @ 3:25pm

  Re: There's a difference though...

  on Google's Childish Response To Microsoft Using Google To Increase Bing Relevance
  I may be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure that Windows does not ship with the Bing toolbar.
• Jun 24th, 2010 @ 7:01pm

  Why not write a book?

  on Yet Another Person, Upset With Search Result Snippets, Sues Yahoo
  Rather than sit around whining and suing people, why not do like Wes Moore and write a book about it?