Damien Sturdy’s Comments

• Mar 29th, 2012 @ 8:57am

  It also hurts users/listeners/customers.

  on UK Entertainment Industry: Fair Use Hurts Economic Growth
  ...I proposed to my other half in a computer game, with a small piece of Nickelback music that had words that had meaning to us. Youtube pulled the video from everywhere except the UK and then removed the audio in the UK.
  
  Fair Use is fair use. I'm not paying WMG to show people how I proposed. Feels like a punch in the face by a company I chose to support. I'm not making money from it. They're not losing money for it.
  
  In fact they have lost money by blocking, because I'm now going out of my way to ensure I do not buy music from WMG or it's child labels.
  
  I do believe you should be able to protect your IP, I don't believe that being this anal about it is productive.
  
  
  But then maybe this is a childish stance on my behalf- I don't know, I don't care. :-)
• Nov 8th, 2011 @ 6:02am

  Re:

  on Are There Any Legal Issues If Amazon Accidentally Gives Away Thousands Of Your Ebooks For Free?
  Only one mistake, resulting in 6000+ Downloads, does not mean there were 6000 mistakes. The downloads were price tagged free, and downloaded without mistake. The mistake was in the code that lowered prices, and this would have happened once.
• Nov 2nd, 2011 @ 4:00am

  Are they really telling people to convert?

  on Ding Dong: Another DRM Is Dead... And With It All The Files You Thought You Bought
  Does RAX contain lossy compressed audio? if so asking them to back them up/re-rip will be a lossy procedure.
  
  I don't know much about Rhapsody so I may be talking out of my arse if they aren't using lossy compression, but have you heard a double-encoded MP3?
  
  *rips ears off*
  
  "Oh Hello, We notice you leased some music. Sorry, though, we've decided not to provide you with access anymore."
• Nov 1st, 2011 @ 3:16am

  Piracy on Android is a problem from a different angle.

  on Don't Complain About Piracy When You Create Crappy Games
  I'm going to switch angles for a second. From watching the market for a while, I have noticed that the problem with Android, in regards to Piracy and GOOD applications, is that you can easily download someones APK, Extract it, Swap the text in an XML file, then resign it with your own key. For example, there were several SNES Emulators on the market- but each one was the same app repackaged and sold by a different "developer". I am not keen on a market that allows such rampant piracy. As a developer I have accepted that casual piracy will occur, but when it is entirely possible for someone to rip my app and resell it for themselves, that becomes a problem.
  
  He should have been more concerned with this possibility (which is more of a risk than a few friends copying an APK.)
• Sep 5th, 2011 @ 5:49am

  This is funny, but I'm not sure it's going to be any good.

  on Record Label Execs Suddenly Upset That False Copyright Claims Can Take Down Videos
  All this is going to lead to is making it more difficult to file a claim. That might sound like a good thing, but what happens if little old me has one of his tracks used in another video? It won't stop the big guys filing a DMCA notice, but it'll prevent the small players from doing so, and you can argue that it's more important for us to protect our small revenue.
  
  
  It needs to be open, but it needs to be sensible, this much is true.