Eric Stein’s Comments

• Mar 26th, 2015 @ 9:55am

  These are the metaphors, this is the explanation

  on Bad Copyright Laws Scaring Off Necessary Investment In New Digital Platforms
  I think this is the kind of article that techdirt was created for. This is the article I would have wanted to send to my father. It's one of the clearest explanations of the drag of copyright I've seen here in a long time. Bravo Mike, this feels like the mission.
  
  Music island seem like a place where Lord of the Flies is played out daily.
• Apr 29th, 2010 @ 9:53pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Partly

  on Apple: Closed, Proprietary Systems Are Bad (Unless They're Our Own)
  It may be easy to you to throw Brooks' experience, but mine is spread across 193 Macs used by teachers and students, and I could tell which ones had been running flash games because those were the ones I had to re-image every week or two. It's ridiculous to argue that that cross-compiled software is going to offer as high quaility an experience as software developed with tools made for the platform.
  
  The single greatest selling point, the thing that allows us to call it better, is the user experience. I remember when photoshop was a Mac-only program. Now the Mac version looks like bastardized windows software. This is what Apple is trying to prevent for the iPhone/iPad. If they don't, what makes them worth buying. Without the user experience, what are they beyond just being cool, and if they're just cool, how long does that last?
• Apr 22nd, 2010 @ 5:53pm

  Re: Happen all the time

  on iPhone Hits Just Keep On Coming For Apple: Sued Over Liquid Damage Sensors
  I completely disagree with both this and the msg from the vibration resistant GPS user, except on the point that drop and vibration resistant gear is much more expensive than standard gear. Think for a minute about what in takes to make a phone water resistant and you'll see that phones are not much more difficult than watches to make water resistant, and some of the cheapest from Timex and Casio are good for 200 meters. How much extra should a water/humidity resistant cost? I don't know precisely but it seems like somebody's ignoring a chance to charge a premium. Unless, of course the wireless companies would prefer to charge people for replacement phones with "water" damage.
• Mar 12th, 2010 @ 9:45am

  Terms of service :: sounds like "scam me"

  on FCC Scammed Out Of Millions In Telco Scam
  It seems to me that the underlying problem is not connecting people who need this service to a free alternative. Who pays $390 an hour for vidchat?
• Nov 26th, 2009 @ 2:20pm

  Print on demand

  on Stop Wallowing And Start Doing Cool Stuff With Business Models, The Wil Wheaton Edition
  I'd like to tell you about a guy who's been a print on demand guru since the '80s when he had a section on GEnie. Don Lancaster, who also has a lot of useful things to say about patents.
  
  http://www.tinaja.com/patnt01.asp
  
  About book on demand
  http://www.tinaja.com/bod01.asp
  
  I think he'd agree that you can't let the preconceptions of publishing (or any) industry keep you from getting your stuff out there.
• Nov 16th, 2009 @ 8:41am

  Re: Re: Unfashionably Late

  on New Economics Paper Explains How Shorter Copyright Stimulates More Music
  I forgot to add, most people who understand how movies are made will tell you that the film editor is usually the person most responsible for the quality of the final product.
• Nov 16th, 2009 @ 8:27am

  (untitled comment)

  on New Economics Paper Explains How Shorter Copyright Stimulates More Music
  And this is where you compound your error. It's as if you have this vision of the commercially successful artist at the white end of the scale and the remixer, editor, interior decorator, plumber at the black. Every artist is building on what came before.
  
  Elvis stole from the R & B artists. The Beatles stole from Goffin & King. Disney stole from the brothers Grimm. Original thought, true art is a lie we tell ourselves because we can't see that the shoulders we stand on are so broad that we confuse them with the ground. The ones who aren't screaming, the ones who "actually" create have been the most successful at believing this lie.
• Nov 16th, 2009 @ 3:02am

  Unfashionably Late

  on New Economics Paper Explains How Shorter Copyright Stimulates More Music
  Perhaps the problem with seeing remixing as art comes from a lack of understanding about what is possible in remixing.
  
  You could compare remixing to film editing. I would consider anyone who thought Walter Murch wasn't an artist an example of a person ignorant of what is possible in film editing, but then, he doesn't write or shoot or act, so I'm sure many people have never even heard of him.
  
  A remixer can add and subtract elements to a song to the extent that even the artist being remixed might need to be shown the original elements.
  
  I most like Fran Lebowitz's take on all of this:
  
  "Original thought is like original sin. It happened before you were born to people you could not have possibly known."
• Oct 26th, 2009 @ 3:10pm

  Re: If Warner Brothers had been smart

  on Warner Bros. Shuts Down Harry Potter Themed Dinner For Infringement
  One might say that these companies believe that denying choice is not only a fair use of their right, but that it works to enhance their power by framing the exchange in such a manner as to make the person on the receiving end of the notice feel powerless.