Difster’s BestNetTech Profile

On the post: DOJ Signs New Rules To Let Intelligence Officials Access, Store And Search More Info About US Citizens

Difster ( profile ), 23 Mar, 2012 @ 10:34am

"DOJ Signs New Rules To Let Intelligence Officials Access, Store And Search More Info About US Citizens"

Of course they did. What did you expect?

On the post: Twilight Studio Issues Another Bogus Takedown, But Is Zazzle Partially To Blame?

Difster ( profile ), 23 Mar, 2012 @ 07:56am

Apparently idiotic takedown notices are the only way that Twilight can be even remotely entertaining.

On the post: Collection Society To Libraries: No Story Time For Kids Unless You Pay To Read Aloud

Difster ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2012 @ 10:20am

What?

GTFO.

On the post: Delusions Of Grandeur: Yahoo Officially Sues Facebook, Laughably Argues That Facebook's Entire Model Is Based On Yahoo

Difster ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2012 @ 10:16am

PTO

If books were just now being invented, we would be seeing patents on different genres of writing and different literary techniques. There would of course be lots of law suits if a little mystery was contained in a romance novel, etc.

It's time to do away with software patents including retroactively cancelling all existing patents. It seems pretty clear that software patents stifle innovation, not foster it.

On the post: WaPo's Kaplan Scolded For Demanding $300 From Student Trying To Sell One Of Its Books On eBay

Difster ( profile ), 01 Mar, 2012 @ 10:41am

DAAAAUUMMMMM

Normally I don't like lawyers much but that smackdown at the end was perfect.

On the post: Romney Campaign's Finance Co-Chair Accused Of Being SLAPP-Happy

Difster ( profile ), 21 Feb, 2012 @ 01:23pm

No way!

Ummm...what Constitutional authority is there for such a law?

I'm also pretty sure there are no Federal libel or slander laws, those things being reserved to the states.

On the post: RIAA Insists That, Really, The Music Industry Is Collapsing; Reality Shows It's Just The RIAA That's Collapsing

Difster ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2012 @ 11:14am

Concert Data

Are they just complaining about concerts by THEIR artists? Are these just concerts at major venues?

What I'd like to know is, are the declining concert revenues they are quoting just for RIAA artists?

I wonder if more artists are having concerts in venues not handled by the likes of TicketBastard, etc. so their sales are not showing up in the aggregate numbers? How can that be tracked? Just because an artist isn't playing a big venue doesn't mean they're not doing well on a tour. According to the old model, if you didn't get a tour sponsorship from a label you had no chance because they had a corner on promotions, etc. But that has changed now.

So it's possible that a lot of concert revenue has shifted from traditional venues to alternative venues.

I'm also curious to see how the RIAA numbers match up with general information about the economy.

On the post: Judge Says Americans Can Be Forced To Decrypt Laptops

Difster ( profile ), 25 Jan, 2012 @ 09:02am

Re: Re: Re: A "deadman switch" algorithm

Read the TruCrypt documentation on that and find out why inferring the presence of a hidden volume isn't a possibility.

On the post: What Is Ron Paul Thinking? Sues To Unmask Anonymous Internet Users

Difster ( profile ), 19 Jan, 2012 @ 01:05pm

Rock and a hard place

I think Ron Paul's campaign wants to prove this video was put out by the opposition, not his supporters. The fact that they used his name is sort of forcing his hand.

Then again, now that Huntsman has dropped out, maybe he should drop the suit.

On the post: Leaked Memo Confirms Apple, Nokia & RIM Gave Indian Gov't Backdoors

Difster ( profile ), 09 Jan, 2012 @ 08:17pm

Volunteering

The Indian government may have demanded it and got it, but American cell phone companies putting in CarrierIQ voluntarily.

But I trust our government. They'll only use it for good; really, they will. They just want to stop terrorists.

On the post: Johnson & Johnson Refuses To License Three HIV Drugs To Medicines Patent Pool; Invites Patent Override

Difster ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2011 @ 12:30pm

The Real Culprit

Let's see, the FDA forces companies like Johnson and Johnson to spend billions and billions of dollars on the approval process. Sometimes, perfectly good medicines don't get approved and that money is wasted.

Because of government requirements, the price of medicine is much higher than it would be otherwise under pure market conditions.

So why shouldn't J&J or any other company hang on to their patents, charge what the market will bear and make their profits?

Bring prices down by getting government out of the way and returning to market conditions.

There is a lot of medicine sitting on shelves that can't be sold because there would be "too much risk" to people who are already dying.

As long as the risks are known, shouldn't that be up to the patients and their doctors to decide and not the government?

On the post: Lawmakers Propose Resale Right For US Artwork To Harm Young Artist & Help Already Successful Ones

Difster ( profile ), 28 Dec, 2011 @ 09:32am

But can they sue?

If this goes through, how long will it be before an artist sues the holder of a valuable piece of art for refusing to sell it so he can get his cut?

Because if I'm holding a valuable piece of art and I don't sell it, I'm denying that artist revenue right?

On the post: How SOPA 2.0 Sneaks In A Really Dangerous Private Ability To Kill Any Website

Difster ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2011 @ 10:13am

Here's The Plan

As soon as this gets signed by the President, start generating fake letters from fake law firms representing whoever and starting abusing the process. Take everything down. Take down Amazon.com. Take down iTunes. Take down PayPal. Take down some of the little guys. Abuse it so bad that it gets national attention and MUST get reversed.

On the post: Should Online Newspaper's Comments Be Protected By Journalism Shield Laws?

Difster ( profile ), 14 Dec, 2011 @ 11:21pm

Equal Treatment

Shield laws should either A) Protect everyone who does any sort of reporting at all or B) Be eliminated.

Just because someone works for a "recognized news source" should not give someone any extra protection under the law than some random blogger conveying information across the inter tubes.

No one should ever be compelled by law to give up a source of information. Either facts matter or they don't.

The law needs to catch up with technology and it needs to favor liberty.

On the post: Oh Look, I've Done 40,000 BestNetTech Blog Posts

Difster ( profile ), 13 Dec, 2011 @ 01:43pm

Free Doesn't Work

You need to start charging a premium subscription fee for your posts. Obviously you would be WAY more successful if we had to pay you in order to read what you write.

But noooooooo you want to give it all away for free and hurt the people that are trying to charge for their content. Everybody knows that all of top quality content is by paid subscription only, look at the NY Times paywall as a prime example.

Mike, why do you hate the quality content producers?

On the post: Washington State Guarantees Cheap And Open Courses & Courseware For Students

Difster ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2011 @ 01:07am

Blame Student Loans

A big part of this problem is directly attributable to the student loan bubble that's nearly ready to pop.

Government backed school loans from which one can never declare bankruptcy have escalated costs for all aspects of a college education. It's not just that students are forced to use the books professors tell them to, the universities and publishers all know that it will get paid for (mostly) through student loans. The market is so distorted the demand curve is starting to resemble a Picasso painting.

The government needs to get out of the student loan business so that tuition and book prices can reach some sort of real market equilibrium. That would of course mean there are fewer people in college but that's not such a bad thing either.

On the post: What Exactly Makes A Pop-Up Mall A Pop-Up Mall? On Second Thought, Who Cares?

Difster ( profile ), 31 Oct, 2011 @ 02:08pm

I think the organizers of the Christchurch center should send a big box of rotting kiwi's to Roger Wade in response to the legal threat.

On the post: If Even The Death Penalty Won't Stop Infringement… Perhaps A Different Approach Is Needed

Difster ( profile ), 09 Aug, 2011 @ 09:54am

Strawman

Anonymous Coward is looking for a straw man in a bit stack.

On the post: Verizon Tells Customer To Get A Lawyer & A Subpoena To Get An Itemized Bill

Difster ( profile ), 17 Jul, 2011 @ 09:26pm

Next Up

In related news, this week Verizon will be signing over all copyright authority of their printed bills to Righthaven who will then sue Verizon customers under the DMCA for circumventing copyright protections by opening the envelope.

On the post: Can We Subpoena The Monkey? Why The Monkey Self-Portraits Are Likely In The Public Domain

Difster ( profile ), 13 Jul, 2011 @ 11:25pm

Righthaven Monkeys

By the end of next week, Righthaven will be suing everyone and claiming that the monkeys signed the copyright over to them.

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