David Woodhead’s Comments

• Nov 7th, 2013 @ 12:43pm

  Re: Alaska

  on Al Gore And Tim Berners-Lee Condemn NSA Surveillance: Appalling And Unconstitutional
  I'm pretty sure Sarah could see Alaska from her house, as that's where her house was sitting. What she couldn't see from there was Russia, but as you say she never claimed she could.
  
  Still glad that she's not your VP though. A scary thought.
• Sep 14th, 2013 @ 1:18pm

  What a week

  on Rikuo's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
  I missed half of these, so thank you Rikuo for bringing them to my attention.
  
  It really has been a hell of a week for insane activity and legal decisions. I think the UK is getting pretty dysfunctional in many ways, but the good ol' US of A is a hard act to follow. Perhaps screwed up government ought to be an Olympic event.
• Sep 13th, 2013 @ 9:35am

  (untitled comment)

  on NYC Tracking E-ZPass Tags All Over The City, Without Telling Drivers
  @arkiel:
  
  Build faraday cage. Break circuit when you need to pay. Easy.
  
  This must be some new usage of the word 'easy' with which I'm not familiar.
• Aug 13th, 2013 @ 10:50am

  Re: Re: Re: Re: It's time to ban out_of_the_blue for life

  on Vietnamese Officials Say New Censorship Law Is About Protecting Copyrights
  To Gwiz: I agree that banning is not the way to go, and that Mike would lose the moral high ground if it could be argued that there was any censorship going on other than the user reporting mechanism (not that I think that Mike's aiming for a moral high ground, but you know what I mean).
  
  To be scrupulously fair, there have been a few times over the past year when OOTB has written something that has been reasonably insightful and not barking mad, and on those occasions his comments have been left unreported - and have even received some favourable responses. However, for several weeks now it's just been getting more and more bizarre (or out of the blue, if you will).
  
  So leave things as they are, and just keep reporting the wilder flights of fancy and continual ad hominem attacks. Who knows: at some point this could be used as a case study in someone's PhD thesis on how to deal with attempted disruption to online discussion groups.
• Jul 25th, 2013 @ 11:51am

  re post #1

  on Why Does Rep. Mike Rogers Always Mock The Internet And Its Users?
  "I promise come voting time there will be a day of reckoning for those I get to vote for over this matter."
  
  No, there really won't - that's the sad thing. The system does not allow you, or anyone else, to cast a vote which will make an actual difference.
• Nov 13th, 2012 @ 10:10am

  TiVo did this in the UK

  on You Can Take The Company Out Of The DRM Business, But You Can't Take The DRM Business Out Of The Company
  No, it's not really a DRM thing. However ...
  
  For those of us in the UK who were early adopters of TiVo, this is nothing new. The Series 1 TiVo programme guide got withdrawn in June 2011, turning our perfectly working boxes into expensive paperweights. Fortunately a group of enthusiasts who so loved their TiVos got together and created an alternative EPG.
  
  So, for those of you in the US where I believe TiVo has a much bigger market: beware. They could do it to you.
• Sep 26th, 2012 @ 1:53pm

  Re: AC#1

  on So What Can The Music Industry Do Now?
  Oh, give it a rest why don't you.
  
  Copying has never reduced conventional sales, whether by casette, CD, V1000 / V2000 (remember them?), Betamax, VHS, DVD, digital or any other medium that I've forgotten. I've bought more original vinyl, CD or DVD media than you can imagine, as a result of listening to copies of originals that I wouldn't have been prepared to shell out the cash for: sight / listening unseen.
  
  Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.
• Sep 7th, 2012 @ 9:23am

  Re:

  on Far Beyond Filtering: Is The GOP Looking To Shut Down Porn Producers?
      War on alcohol
  
      War on drugs
  
      War on piracy
  
      Now war on porn
  
      People love to throw money away, don't they?
  
  Don't forget the war on terror. That one's not cheap.
  
  I've always loved the idea of declaring war on an abstract noun ...
• Sep 5th, 2012 @ 11:32am

  Re:

  on Big Banks Finally Punishing Employees For Fraud... Like The Call Center Guy Who Used A Fake Dime 50 Years Ago
  A fraud conviction is supposed to be a complete, unequivocal red flag for those involved in banking, and he has one. I think it's not worth a guy losing his job over, but there's no legitimate way to carve out this particular situation from the law without making a mess of things.
  
  Really? Is it really the case that the combined might of the entire judicial system and financial regulatory authorities of the US is unable to distinguish a teenager making a cardboard dime from a financial fraudster?
  
  Because if that's the case then your country is screwed.