Brendan 's BestNetTech Comments

Latest Comments (416) comment rss

  • On the post: Valve Tries To Charge People Based On How Likable They Are: Trolls Pay Full Price

    Brendan ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2012 @ 08:44pm

    For BestNetTech Comments

    Since it's free to post, and Mike is committed to a fully open discussion with ACs, we need to find another way to make annoying posters pay.

    I say make them pay with effort and time, using Captchas or something similar. The more annoying a user is considered by the community, the more captchas they must complete before posting. The most unwelcome posters could still submit, but would have to answer 5 or 10 captchas. They need to really want to post that annoying message.

    This could run off the stats of the Insightful/Funny/Report buttons, or add new buttons for general positive/negative contribution.

    Track by user account, if logged in. If not logged in, track by IP and/or cookie and/or browser fingerprint. If blocking cookies, javascript and anonymizing via TOR or similar, a default low-value treatment should be applied.

    While I recognize that there are posters anonymizing themselves via these means (proactive hiding beyond simply posting as AC) are doing so for legitimate reasons, I suspect that the overwhelming majority of such posters are troll-ish in nature.

    Anyone like the idea of slowing down the trolls and annoying ACs, or is it too exclusionary? I would like to explicitly state that no one should be prevented from posting, only annoyed as they annoy us.

  • On the post: Men At Work Musician Found Dead; Ridiculous Copyright Ruling Against Band Blamed

    Brendan ( profile ), 20 Apr, 2012 @ 10:01am

    Re: Re: Re:

    I was really confused for a few moments. Your snowflake is highly similar to the ridiculous GP, and I thought you were him/her/it.

  • On the post: Court Says Dutch Anti-Piracy Organization Overreached; Won't Shut Down Pirate Party Proxy Site

    Brendan ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2012 @ 08:57pm

    Re:

    The Pirate Bay does host any content. I serves directions on where to find content elsewhere. Some of that content is infringing in many jurisdiction. Though, importantly, not _all_ of the content is infringing in all jurisdictions. Some content is protected free speech. You don't get to block that stuff.

  • On the post: NYTimes Columnist Stirs Up A Controversy That Will Only Drive Human Trafficking Further Underground

    Brendan ( profile ), 06 Apr, 2012 @ 12:25pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Yea, felt by raising prices on goods that are now more illicit. You're right that it works the same way as drugs, in that the endless war against them has made it that much more profitable, and thus appealing for the importers (in both goods).

    The way to combat the trafficking is to break the market. Make certain forms of drugs/prostitution legal and regulated, and demand for some of the worst parts of the black market disappears. Why would somebody risk jailtime to import a sex worker forcibly if he can find willing girls and make money above board?

  • On the post: UFC Makes The Awful Decision To Sue Some Of Its Biggest Fans

    Brendan ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2012 @ 08:47pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    1. But what about the trade off in merchandising money? Don't you think if everyone were able to watch the fights, there would be more fans? And if there are more fans, there are more people to buy merch and live tickets. Surely you must at least realize there is some balance there to be looked at.

    2. You seem to have trouble reading. Some fans (and yes, they are) may use free streams now, but pay later. Why do you completely discount this? Do you not want any business at all from people only willing to pay sometimes? That seems like a stupid business decision to me.

    3. If that's the price the market will bear and still sell out the show, so be it. What good do lower prices do if they get snatched up within 5 minutes of sale, largely by speculators and scalpers who will charge close to market value anyways... with most money NOT going to the artists. I'd rather be able to buy tickets at the real price from a real vendor without having to camp at my computer for the on sale time hitting refresh like a maniac.

    I say let all fans submit the price they are willing to pay, then in decreasing order people get to pick their seats.

  • On the post: Canada's New Copyright Bill: The Good, The Bad and The Undecided

    Brendan ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2012 @ 03:12pm

    Re: Cap

    Yes, but the problem lies in the definition of "commercial" infringement. That definition, as far as I am aware, is absent from the bill. Or if present, is vague enough to be meaningless.

  • On the post: Has The Megaupload Shutdown Been Good For The Entertainment Industry?

    Brendan ( profile ), 29 Feb, 2012 @ 06:59pm

    Re: Re:

    Lol year to date. See if you identify the day Mega was seized....
    http://sourceforge.net/projects/aresgalaxy/files/stats/timeline?dates=2012-01-01+to+2012-03-01

  • On the post: Author Reveals Future Book & Series To Terminally Ill Fan To Fulfill His Wish

    Brendan ( profile ), 28 Feb, 2012 @ 12:27am

    sales boost after this?

    This is the kind of goodwill that gets you a big fat internet sales boost. Id love to see some stats in a couple of weeks showing any spike around this event.

    To be clear, I'm not suggesting anything like exploitation, just that true good deeds are rewarded, and I'm curious if we can quantify that.

  • On the post: If You Want To Compete With Free, This Is What You Need To Know

    Brendan ( profile ), 26 Feb, 2012 @ 09:51pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    The name is not the point. Creating an account and posting while logged in creates a link to your profile, including a record of your other comments. This gives the user credibility because, fake or not, his current identity can be connected to a history of posts which provides context to the current comments.

  • On the post: Real Scarcity Is An Important Part Of A Business Model; Artificial Scarcity Is A Terrible Business Model

    Brendan ( profile ), 26 Feb, 2012 @ 12:48pm

    Re: Re: Re: Netflix

    You seem to be missing the point. They have two choices:
    1) Put their content on modern services at or near release for a reasonable price (my guidelines are 25c for TV episode, $3-5 for a movie, $2 for a music album). People will happily pay these price to get the content. They make money.

    2) They don't put the content on these services (or at such a stupid price, or with stupid delyas, or with stupid limitations that its ignored) and people get the content anyways to enjoy, but do so without paying the publishers a red cent.

    To me the smart choice is obvious.

  • On the post: How To Turn A Legitimate Buyer Into A Pirate In Five Easy Steps

    Brendan ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2012 @ 08:32pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    So then make content that costs less. Problem solved.

  • On the post: How To Turn A Legitimate Buyer Into A Pirate In Five Easy Steps

    Brendan ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2012 @ 04:41pm

    Re: But still...

    How does one subscribe to HBO with their cable or satellite provider if one does not subscribe to cable or satellite TV service?

    The better question is why doesn't HBO offer either online-only hbo.com subscriptions, or a la carte show purchases.

  • On the post: How To Turn A Legitimate Buyer Into A Pirate In Five Easy Steps

    Brendan ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2012 @ 04:39pm

    Re: yOU ARE CLAI MING THE aRTIST GOT PAID.

    Did you forget to take your meds?

  • On the post: How The Megaupload Shutdown Has Put 'Cloud Computing' Business Plans At Risk

    Brendan ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2012 @ 12:25pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    But therein lies the problem. Even if one accepts your claims of bittorrent data being 86% infringing, bittorrent represents only a small portion of total internet traffic. The overwhelming majority of total traffic is perfectly legal. But to "monitor" for that torrent part, everything has to be monitored, since trivial methods are available to disguise that traffic.

    Imagine this was happening via the mail system, and you knew that a high proportion of Red enveleopes contained infringing or disallowed materials. You could maybe hope to open only Red envelopes. But the users know you know this, so they start putting their Red envelopes inside of White envelopes. And now you have a problem, because you can't peek at the Red ones without opening ALL envelopes (assuming most are White). So is it reasonable to open and inspect all mail? I sure hope youu don't think so.

  • On the post: Indian Official Promises India Won't Censor The Internet… Except, You Know, When It Has To Censor The Internet

    Brendan ( profile ), 15 Feb, 2012 @ 01:39pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Hello logic failure. He did not say he was _against_ all censorship/blocking, just that any type of content removal by the government _is_ censorship.

    That is, removing child porn from a website is censorship, but it is censorship I consider acceptable.

    Similarly, removing copyrighted content whcih is allegedly infringing is also infringement. However, I do not think such censorship is acceptable until after an adversarial trial where a judge can determine if the use was fair etc.

  • On the post: French Court Fails Digital Economics; Claims Free Google Maps Is Illegal

    Brendan ( profile ), 14 Feb, 2012 @ 09:42am

    Re: You got it wrong

    1. What does it mean to crush competition? Is not the existence of OpenStreetMaps proof that such competition exists? Must a company be penalized simply for being the most successful?

    2. You seem to assume that Google pushes its Map results to the top artificially. Have you considered that this may be the natural ranking for those results based on user feedback of relevancy? If users find google maps results most useful, why should google display anything different?

  • On the post: Open Offer To Chris Dodd & Cary Sherman: Meet The Internet Online And In The Open

    Brendan ( profile ), 09 Feb, 2012 @ 11:51am

    Re: Re: Private Negotiation with Google

    Sorry, but two party consent doesn't apply to in person meetings, just wiretapping.

  • On the post: Hollywood Wants To Kill Piracy? No Problem: Just Offer Something Better

    Brendan ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2012 @ 11:47am

    Re: Re: Re: Wah. What a little baby.

    I would pay 25c for a copy of last night TV episode in HD. I don't think I would pay a dollar per episode per show, but 25c could work. I probably watch 6-12 shows each week, depending on the season. So $3-5/month to pick my a la carte TV shows seems reasonable to pay.

  • On the post: Senator Ron Wyden's Favorite BestNetTech Posts Of The Week

    Brendan ( profile ), 28 Jan, 2012 @ 12:19pm

    Thank you, too.

    You also stood up against these efforts in congress before others even considered it worth their time. Thanks for that.

    As a Canadian, I can't really threaten any senators or reps with my vote, but I sincerely hope your consituents reward you when the time comes.

  • On the post: MPAA Exec Admits: 'We're Not Comfortable With The Internet'

    Brendan ( profile ), 28 Jan, 2012 @ 12:05am

    Re: Re:

    Interesting claim. Where, exactly (with a link if possible), can I buy the episodes of my weekly shows in HD without commercials within an hour or two of them being aired on TV?

Next >>