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humbleforeigner

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  • Jan 25th, 2013 @ 12:42pm

    Re: Re: Suddenly, an idea...

    I don't know if the typo was deliberate, or a Freudian slip, but the first sentence:
    "Copyright which hunts indeed."

    Suddenly gave me a mental image of a copyright symbol stalking the land, hunting for prey :)
  • Jan 25th, 2013 @ 12:38pm

    A different take

    I find the words "This is a billion-dollar industry. This is about their self-interest." to be interesting. Could he be inviting, subtly, the game industries to send a few lobbyists his way? With some nice "campaign contributions" in their briefcases to make this go away?

    The open corruption within the politics of the USA raises this as a strong possibility in my mind.
  • Aug 10th, 2012 @ 10:43pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Biased source?

    *ahem*

    Fox News anyone?
  • Jul 7th, 2012 @ 3:22pm

    Re: Re: Please correct me if I'm wrong here....

    And extradition can only be merited if the charges being pressed would be a criminal offense if they had occurred in New Zealand. Evidence is absolutely required by the defense to defend that it is not.
  • Jul 6th, 2012 @ 2:01pm

    Re:

    The other take-away point from Article IV is:
    ...if the evidence be found sufficient, according to the laws of the place where the person sought shall be found, either to justify his committal for trial if the offense of which he is accused had been committed in that place...

    Which as I read it means that the charge that extradition is being sought after also must be a crime in the country where they are. If that is the case, then the evidence must be seen as it will needed to prove if Kim Dotcom has committed a criminal offense under New Zealand law, and not just a crime under US law.
  • May 5th, 2012 @ 11:01pm

    Re: Re:

    Hmm, so let's see...
    El-P, record label founder: Such a great guy
    Amanda Palmer, Independent artist: Flash in the pan
    Dan Bull, Independent artist: OMG! Filthy pirate! How dare he work around the artificial barriers to entry!

    Now, nothing against El-P, he seems to understand and accept how the world now works. That he was willing to come here and discuss it speaks volumes for him. What I want to know is why can't the RIAA shills, and their bought and paid for "artists", who post here under the name AC show the same level of understanding?
  • May 4th, 2012 @ 7:05pm

    Re:

    I suddenly had this running through my head when I read bob's comment :)
    (Sung to the tune of Daydream Believer)

    Bear up weepy team
    Oh what can it mean
    To a paywall believer
    And a big drama queen
  • Apr 26th, 2012 @ 11:26pm

    Weep for the future, weep for us all

    The current insanity of the ownership mentality has gone too far! How long until you are charged for merely looking at a painting, under the reasoning that you are making a mental copy. How long until you are charged for simply breathing because a ownership troll owns a plantation and some of "their" oxygen is in the air you are breathing. This needs to end, NOW!

    A revolution is way overdue, the government must be reminded that THEY ARE THERE TO SERVE OUR INTERESTS, not the interests of a chosen few. As for the content industries...they need to be reminded that We.Don't.Need.Them, if anything, they need us.
  • Apr 18th, 2012 @ 11:43pm

    A couple of replies

    I'm going to reply to a couple of postings here:
    First, everyone seems to be thinking that Kim Dotcom will be tried in the USA, what you seem to miss is that the NZ court has to OK the extradition, no OK, no extradition...and the criteria for extradition is very high.

    Second, can we please make it legal to shoot anyone who uses the phrase "Intellectual Property" seriously! There are patents, copyrights and trade secrets, and none of them are actual properties. If you want copyright you don't get patents or trade secrets, choose one.

    One last thought, it should be mandatory that if you sue over a patent any court proceeding must be stayed pending PTO review, and the PTO review is automatic. For each patent found invalid and rejected the plaintiff must pay the costs of the review.
  • Apr 17th, 2012 @ 11:43pm

    Sigh

    I swear that there should be a special Hell waiting for the judges that opened the door for software patents.

    I see them sitting there, hearing the most stupid software patents lawsuits forever. And then having the case referred back from the Infernal Court Of Appeal and having to listen to the same case...again...FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY!

    It is no less than they deserve.
  • Mar 16th, 2012 @ 7:25pm

    Re: Re: We must act in response to the greased politicians and their corporate lobbying groups.

    Hmm, a few points that you may want to take into account:
    1. ISP's are not distributing a thing, their customers may be, but they aren't
    2. Labels are not paying the creators, refer to Kenny Rogers and other artists being cheated by the label
    3. Google was built on providing search results, the ranking of said results determined by what people are actually selecting

    So yes, facts are stubborn things.

    And lest you bring up the decline in the Music industries profits, please read the following:
    http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120210/11270617732/how-much-collapse-recorded-music-s ales-revenue-was-due-to-end-illegal-price-fixing.shtml
    And realise that, yes, your revenue will drop once you are prevented from illegal price fixing. That and the fact that the labels are producing very little that is worth spending money on, so people will get from iTunes etc. the one or 2 tracks that they want.

    If the Music industry wants to increase revenues:
    start producing quality that people will pay for
    start making it easier and more convenient for us to buy the music
    stop treating your customers as thieves
    stop treating the artists you rely on as serf's
  • Mar 14th, 2012 @ 10:22pm

    I'm confused

    I must admit to no small amount of confusion here. If I have paid my phone company for x amount of data traffic, and they have accepted my money, how can they have any say in how I use the data I have paid for? Is this some sort of uniquely American thing?

    I have a mobile data plan with my phone company in New Zealand, and I can tether whatever I want to my phone with no issues or threats of extra charges, mainly because I HAVE PAID FOR IT. Why does the American public let the telco's do this without calling them to account?
  • Mar 13th, 2012 @ 11:24pm

    You Are Misinformed

    I have seen comments about the "justice system" or the "misjustice system", but I think you are misinformed...America does not *have* a justice system, it has a legal system...there is no justice in it any more. Justice, in America, is now the domain of the lawyers and rich and powerful, you, as a mere peon, have no access to justice anymore. Let's take a hypothetical example, $rich_mega_corp has done something very wrong, you don't want to enrich a lawyer too much, so you take them to court, now you need to ask:
    - Can you afford the initial trial?
    - Can you afford the inevitable appeal, on appeal, on appeal?
    - How far can you go before you are bankrupt?

    If you are a normal person, the answers are: Barely, no and not far. An appeal against a court verdict should be a very, very serious move, not a business as usual step. If you appeal you are questioning the judge, jury and entire legal process, serious penalties should be levied against both the client and lawyer for a failed appeal where the law was correctly applied.

    Until such a time, when appeals are serious, you will end up with the rich and powerful making endless appeals until their opponents cannot afford to continue.

    At its root, privilege means private law
  • Feb 24th, 2012 @ 11:10pm

    I have often wondered

    Why someone who invents something to make the world a better place, pouring in time, effort and sheer creativity gets 17 years to recoup the cost they have paid. While another who makes a catchy song gets, effectively, forever. When did music or literature become vastly more important than inventions?
  • Feb 24th, 2012 @ 7:44pm

    Re: Re:

    Which is the model the allofmp3 (remember them) used. The cost of a track was based on the MB size of the track, and you chose the kbs quality of the track and encoding, and hence the size.

    My understanding is that they did remit royalties to the Russian collection agency, but the label's etc. never claimed it. My guess is that they were afraid to legitimise the business model and would be unable to impose artificial constraints. Also, the artists would rise or fall based solely on the merits of their music, and not by the promotion of the label.

    To the labels, allofmp3 was evil incarnate and needed to be crushed at all costs, and it was.
  • Feb 22nd, 2012 @ 10:33pm

    Hmm

    Let's see, "flawed understanding of the law" and "historical facts are no one's property". Well, if their lawyers did not understand the historical FACTS part, then they deserve to be disbarred! My understanding of lawyers is that they serve 2 functions; provide sound legal advice to their clients, act as agents of the court. In this case the legal team involved failed on both counts. They failed to recognise that historical facts cannot be owned, and they made baseless legal threats that supposedly had the full weight of the courts behind them.

    These lawyers should be disbarred at the very least.
  • Feb 17th, 2012 @ 1:38pm

    This seems appropriate

    "Picasso had a saying: 'Good artists copy, great artists steal.' We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas...I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, poets, artists, zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world."

    - Steve Jobs (1955 – 2011)
  • Feb 14th, 2012 @ 9:19pm

    Dear USA

    Can I ask on behalf of the rest of the world, please go home.

    Now, don't get me wrong, some of you seem quite nice. But, what we mainly see are your tourists, and your insane laws...and honestly, the tourists are nicer.

    We don't really need your "Free Trade Agreements", we were doing quite well thank you. We don't need your SOPA or PIPA. We don't need your ACTA or TPP (you really need to stop infecting international treaties and so on with your brand of "Intellectual Property" madness).

    In conclusion, please go home and put your own house in order, it really needs your attention.

    Regards
    The Rest Of the World
  • Feb 13th, 2012 @ 10:43pm

    If...

    The only way I could ever put the slightest iota of support to this, would be if the politicians, who advocate and vote for this, accept to have their entire web browsing history, Google searches and all, on a publicly accessible website. After all, if you have nothing to hide...

    Oh, and the website would be real-time, and it would be for any Internet account under any of their family.

    If they don't accept that, then what are they hiding?
  • Feb 8th, 2012 @ 9:46pm

    *sigh*

    SOPA, PIPA, ACTA and TPP, of all of them TPP is the most accurately named...

    Toilet Paper Politics
    Where the politicians wipe their ass on the rights of people and the legislative process of their country.

    As Billy Connolly said "I think, roughly, the desire to be a politician, should ban you for life for ever being one."

    Link here http://www.ibras.dk/comedy/billy_connolly.htm

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