Maltesh Notovny’s Comments

• Mar 27th, 2013 @ 6:12am

  (untitled comment)

  on Dumb Policy: Store Charges $5 Just To Look At Goods, To Keep People From Looking And Then Buying Online
  Back in 2011, I made a tongue-in-cheek comment suggesting bookstores charge admission to milk the "just-looking" customers.
  
  http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111214/06322517083/local-bookstores-call-boycott-am azon-advertising-their-prices.shtml#c1087
  
  I didn't actually think there'd be stores insane enough to do it.
• Dec 3rd, 2012 @ 6:03am

  Re:

  on Don't Promise $1 Million For Your Lost Laptop Via YouTube & Twitter If You're Not Prepared To Pay
  If a reward is publicly offered, a reasonable person would expect to receive that reward on completion of the task. If you don't want to risk paying out a reward, don't offer one.
  
  I'd also expect a sensible person to keep backups of data he values at more than $1 million.
• Oct 10th, 2012 @ 10:35am

  (untitled comment)

  on PETA Vs. Pokemon
  I don't know about you, but if someone had told me not to roundhouse kick snapping turtles in the face when I was young, I'd still have two feet.
• Aug 20th, 2012 @ 1:57pm

  Baen's done it quite a few times.

  on Publisher Angry Robot Bundles Free Ebook With Physical Copies And Triples Sales
  Baen's done a number of hardcover books shipping with CDs containing dozens of free ebooks. When I bought the hardcover copy of War Of Honor back in '02, it came with a CD containing all the other Honor Harrington books up until then, and about two dozen other ebooks.
  
  There are maybe five other science fiction series I probably wouldn't have taken a chance on (and purchased books from) without that CD.
• Mar 27th, 2012 @ 1:16pm

  Re: But ... but ... but ... piracy!

  on Harry Potter And The Missing Middlemen: Where The Pottermore Store Goes Wrong
  The ePubs are digitally watermarked, and downloadable only eight times, but if you pull off a successful download, you can put it on as many devices as you have access to, at least, that's how I read the PaidContent article.
  
  Admittedly, not as easily as buying it in the iBook store or the Kindle store. And there's the whole potential "If we find your copy out for share, we'll retaliate against you" angle.
• Feb 16th, 2012 @ 11:46am

  (untitled comment)

  on RIAA/IFPI Explored Possible Lawsuit Against Google For Not Ranking iTunes Above Pirate Bay
  I imagine iTunes gets ranked lowly because Apple doesn't want you searching for music through Google. Apple wants you searching for music through iTunes apps or desktop applications, and everything about the iTunes web presence points to that.
• Feb 13th, 2012 @ 10:12am

  (untitled comment)

  on How Publishers Repeated The Same Mistake As Record Labels: DRM Obsession Gave Amazon Dominant Position
  I think it was Cory Doctorow who said "Anyone who thinks any kind of DRM can protect an eBook has never met a typist."
• Jan 31st, 2012 @ 1:54pm

  (untitled comment)

  on Warner Bros. Just Keeps Pushing People To Piracy; New Deal Also Delays Queuing
  If they aren't already available, I imagine third-party queue-management apps that autoqueue a movie when it becomes available on Netflix will exist within a week or two.
  
  They probably already exist, though, so they'll just become more popular.