I am a PHP programmer and Web Developer that has a great interest in many subjects. One of which is consumer rights. I have a blog about consumer rights and other public issues that can be seen at http://www.pjerky.com.
With this in mind, I think that complainants should automatically be throttled on submits. When they reach a certain number in a short amount of time, they get denied further submissions until the existing ones have been validated and shown at least 60% valid. Anything below that threshold auto-locks their submission account for 90 days.
Basically, a way to enforce play nice and play by the rules or you get the boot. If they are found doing this with multiple accounts, they should be auto blocked across all accounts and have a lawsuit for abuse of the system automatically filed against them.
Thanks for the deal. I got the whole bundle of 10 courses for $15. That is a pretty sweet deal. I have been wanting to move beyond web development for awhile.
The funny thing about this is that I haven't been on Techdirt in about 6 months. I used to read all the time. But put it on the backburner due to so many other things going on in my life (like getting married).
So I came back to Techdirt last night to check out the stories and saw this. Great timing.
So here is a thought: what if a company, lets say Google for a quick logical leap here, decided to "help" Iran and it's people by using one or more of their experimental technologies to offer free internet access to everyone in Iran.
This technology would be wireless and be operated completely outside of the borders of repressive regimes and those that support them. Then gave them an easy way to access it within the country (preferably within all repressive regimes, North Korea **cough** **cough**).
Access to this would be complete free (maybe some insanely awesome WiFi extending tech or something easy to propagate to everyone within the borders. And said company would air-drop millions or billions of pamphlets to the citizens of these countries (maybe even including the tech needed to connect) that tell them how to connect and places to start going to find what they want (say google.com).
Then the people would finally have access to the information that the rest of the world does. The company playing ISP could benefit from even more ad revenue. And the regime will see their power slip away.
Does anyone else want to join my thought experiment here?
Lol, great comment. And yes it was a stupid comment. It was meant to be. Every once in awhile we get some first commenting comments in here and I thought I would throw one up for the hell of it.
What a bunch of blood sucking vampires. Can anyone convince some extremists to start a Jihad on companies like this? Of all the problems in this world, it is crap like this that makes Western society look monstrous. Scum like this, should at the very least, spend the rest of their lives in jail. They don't deserve any money from these patents.
This is also a big reason why I think patents should not be transferable. Or at least, have a limited number of transfers available.
Another idea would be to require all companies that have used patent lawsuit threats to extort money from others should be forced to pay back 300% of the money they took (plus legal fees) if any of the patents used in the threat later turn out to be invalid or had expired by the time the extortion occurred.
There should be a lot of limitations put on patents.
I live in the KC area and have all my life. Everyone I know, myself included, has nightmare stories dealing with AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner, and SureWest (the four major incumbents). I have found that everyone's internet has significantly slowed down over the last decade along with getting broadband caps, port and content filtering (Comcast I am looking at you and your torrent problem), and huge rate increases.
Personally, if Google is the fascist empire coming in and taking over then what does that make all the incumbents mentioned above? I would say it makes them evil Nazi dictators that rape and pillage and oppress everyone and are hell bent on national domination.
If Google is fascism I welcome it. It would be a damn sight better than the constant anal raping we are taking from the big four. At least the Google prison is cleaner, cheaper, and has far more wide open spaces to exercise in. It will be a huge trade up.
My rental agreement at my apartment complex is up in March and I intend to move into a Google Fiber hood if at all possible. Actually this article has reminded me to write a letter to Time Warner to put them on notice that, come March, I will no longer be doing business with them again. In that letter I will list all of their crimes against consumers.
So I have been wondering something for a while now. Why can't startup companies team up with non-RIAA labels that are not owned/controlled by the big 3 (or is it two now?) labels to form a new music group. This new group would never play/perform music from artists under the RIAA/EMI/Universal umbrella at all. They would have their own music.
This new organization can just completely ignore the old regime and establish its own new rules. It could set fair and competitive rules and rates that can adapt quickly to a changing world. It can help artists self-promote and give them tools and knowledge for this and for social media and for an online presence.
This new organization could sell only music from member artists and can allow pay-what-you-want models and loose licensing schemes.
Is all this possible? What is stopping this from being done (aside from motivation and inspiration)?
These days the punishment almost never fit the crimes. Especially when it comes to technology, copyright, and patent related dealings. And even more especially when it is an individual, instead of an organization.
This is what happens when the old ignorant guard is faced with a new world they don't understand and can't adapt to. They make mountains out of tiny little lumps in the ground (not even molehills). I think the idiots behind this prosecution deserve to be locked up, not this guy.
This guy literally did everything he was entitled to with his access to the system. He didn't commit any crime. And how the heck is he getting charged with damaging a computer? How is downloading information you have full access to damaging? He didn't even distribute it. Morons! These charges are what is criminal.
Agreed. Personally I wouldn't mind a private concert. I actually like her music. Its just icing on the cake that she is gorgeous (and 22). She can sing for me and "visually stimulate" me and I will do what I can to show my appreciation.
Lol indeed, if they open up the concert to others to attend and maybe turn it into a charity event for the school (donations collected from patrons) then it could turn into an even bigger good deed. Despite the silliness of sending a musician to perform at a school for the deaf.
Think of the PR goodwill that this could become if they opened the concert up to be free but with a front-row section allocated for students and staff at the school. Then make it a charity event to collect from concert patrons donations for the school. Maybe even have a secondary onsite contest (with donations) for meeting Taylor Swift.
They should come up with an HTML5 web interface using a very affordable subscription service as an alternative that can work in both mobile OSes through the browser.
Think about it. With the web interface they will never have to deal with this app store BS ever again. I bet they can do it and even constantly add improvements. That would be amazing.
Since when does a company's profits or "intellectual property" (a concept which is farcical in and of itself) come before helping a disabled child communicate with the world? Since when does it come before doing the right thing or bettering our world with tools that truly help people and fill a need (especially such a crucial one)?
I would say never. Never should a company's profits or IP come before filling such crucial needs. The real problem is that the greedy companies behind the patents don't want to offer their product for fair and reasonable prices and they will punish anyone that does it in their stead.
Personally I think such companies should receive severe penalties for this kind of persecution. Your profits are not more important than people and helping those in need with such a critical tool.
We are not talking about a product that no one needs like a smartphone. We are not talking about entertainment like movies and music. We are talking about something that these kids really can't live without. Not without greatly diminishing their quality of life.
They could easily put it on the Amazon Android Store. That would help for now. Or they could just sell it directly from their website with instructions on how to download and install it on their Android device.
I really find it despicable that Apple and Google would so easily cave when there have been no judgements made in this case at all. Cowards!
Would you care to name any names? That would be awesome to know who that quote came from. Personally I have seen that as the prevalent attitude in Congress for years.
Re:
I got the bundle
The funny thing about this is that I haven't been on Techdirt in about 6 months. I used to read all the time. But put it on the backburner due to so many other things going on in my life (like getting married).
So I came back to Techdirt last night to check out the stories and saw this. Great timing.
Free Internet To The Blugeoned Masses
This technology would be wireless and be operated completely outside of the borders of repressive regimes and those that support them. Then gave them an easy way to access it within the country (preferably within all repressive regimes, North Korea **cough** **cough**).
Access to this would be complete free (maybe some insanely awesome WiFi extending tech or something easy to propagate to everyone within the borders. And said company would air-drop millions or billions of pamphlets to the citizens of these countries (maybe even including the tech needed to connect) that tell them how to connect and places to start going to find what they want (say google.com).
Then the people would finally have access to the information that the rest of the world does. The company playing ISP could benefit from even more ad revenue. And the regime will see their power slip away.
Does anyone else want to join my thought experiment here?
Re: Re: Re: cool story
Re: Re: Re: The Entire Government is a Fiddle
Re: Re: Re: The Entire Government is a Fiddle
Re: The Entire Government is a Fiddle
The Entire Government is a Fiddle
Re: My thought
Vampires
This is also a big reason why I think patents should not be transferable. Or at least, have a limited number of transfers available.
Another idea would be to require all companies that have used patent lawsuit threats to extort money from others should be forced to pay back 300% of the money they took (plus legal fees) if any of the patents used in the threat later turn out to be invalid or had expired by the time the extortion occurred.
There should be a lot of limitations put on patents.
Re: Re: Well
Re: Re: 'seems to misunderstand what the word
Personally, if Google is the fascist empire coming in and taking over then what does that make all the incumbents mentioned above? I would say it makes them evil Nazi dictators that rape and pillage and oppress everyone and are hell bent on national domination.
If Google is fascism I welcome it. It would be a damn sight better than the constant anal raping we are taking from the big four. At least the Google prison is cleaner, cheaper, and has far more wide open spaces to exercise in. It will be a huge trade up.
My rental agreement at my apartment complex is up in March and I intend to move into a Google Fiber hood if at all possible. Actually this article has reminded me to write a letter to Time Warner to put them on notice that, come March, I will no longer be doing business with them again. In that letter I will list all of their crimes against consumers.
I have been wondering something for awhile now
This new organization can just completely ignore the old regime and establish its own new rules. It could set fair and competitive rules and rates that can adapt quickly to a changing world. It can help artists self-promote and give them tools and knowledge for this and for social media and for an online presence.
This new organization could sell only music from member artists and can allow pay-what-you-want models and loose licensing schemes.
Is all this possible? What is stopping this from being done (aside from motivation and inspiration)?
Re: Punishment fits the crime?
This is what happens when the old ignorant guard is faced with a new world they don't understand and can't adapt to. They make mountains out of tiny little lumps in the ground (not even molehills). I think the idiots behind this prosecution deserve to be locked up, not this guy.
This guy literally did everything he was entitled to with his access to the system. He didn't commit any crime. And how the heck is he getting charged with damaging a computer? How is downloading information you have full access to damaging? He didn't even distribute it. Morons! These charges are what is criminal.
Re:
This could really be made into even better PR.
Think of the PR goodwill that this could become if they opened the concert up to be free but with a front-row section allocated for students and staff at the school. Then make it a charity event to collect from concert patrons donations for the school. Maybe even have a secondary onsite contest (with donations) for meeting Taylor Swift.
This could be really cool actually.
Web interface should be the next step
Think about it. With the web interface they will never have to deal with this app store BS ever again. I bet they can do it and even constantly add improvements. That would be amazing.
Re:
I would say never. Never should a company's profits or IP come before filling such crucial needs. The real problem is that the greedy companies behind the patents don't want to offer their product for fair and reasonable prices and they will punish anyone that does it in their stead.
Personally I think such companies should receive severe penalties for this kind of persecution. Your profits are not more important than people and helping those in need with such a critical tool.
We are not talking about a product that no one needs like a smartphone. We are not talking about entertainment like movies and music. We are talking about something that these kids really can't live without. Not without greatly diminishing their quality of life.
Re: An advantage of Android
I really find it despicable that Apple and Google would so easily cave when there have been no judgements made in this case at all. Cowards!
Re:
More comments from Pjerky >>
Pjerky’s Submitted Stories.
Submit a story now.
Tools & Services
TwitterFacebook
RSS
Podcast
Research & Reports
Company
About UsAdvertising Policies
Privacy
Contact
Help & FeedbackMedia Kit
Sponsor/Advertise
Submit a Story
More
Copia InstituteInsider Shop
Support Techdirt