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4151

Living Room / Re: Are Creative Commons Licenses Even Enforceable?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on March 01, 2012, 03:04 PM »

Interesting stuff.

From what I have seen, it's almost the other way around - everyone who "Shares" something that Infringes Copyright seems to be "Automatically ReLicensing" the original copyright into CC-BY-NC-SA. You know: "Hi Youtube, I posted this episode, it belongs to Warner Studios, no disrespect intended."

-TaoPhoenix (March 01, 2012, 07:59 AM)

Technically, that's not true since the original copyright holder never gave them a license giving them permission to share it in the first place. Sharers that don't have a license to redistribute don't really have much of a leg to stand on in court if they get sued. And neither do those that reshare from them. A takedown notice sent to Youtube would get it removed and the uploader really wouldn't be able to dispute it by saying "but I have a license to redistribute it".

-app103 (March 01, 2012, 02:32 PM)

I think we are agreeing, which suggests you haven't seen my "quotes" convention. A posted episode is certainly Infringing, no quotes. However when the poster uploads it and adds the key phrase "This is not mine, it's from the movie studio", I then meant that they are (yes, illegally) effectively altering the license. (Because you have to ask, either how can they not know that they are infringing, or they know they are but think that the penalties somehow don't apply to them.

4152

Living Room / Re: Are Creative Commons Licenses Even Enforceable?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on March 01, 2012, 07:59 AM »

Interesting stuff.

From what I have seen, it's almost the other way around - everyone who "Shares" something that Infringes Copyright seems to be "Automatically ReLicensing" the original copyright into CC-BY-NC-SA. You know: "Hi Youtube, I posted this episode, it belongs to Warner Studios, no disrespect intended."

4153

Living Room / Re: Today is Your Last Chance to Remove your Search History from Google's New Policy

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on March 01, 2012, 07:46 AM »

That would imply care that I care about their knowing about me looking up desktop photos of midgets riding on a stegosaurus while eating green jello and wearing a party toga from the movie animal house.

Privacy, and security, are illusory in the modern age. To believe otherwise is simply gullible. I am not saying we should not monitor and continue to scrutinize companies like Google, but I am saying that we need to look at what we are scrutinizing and just how much our perceived notion of "privacy" is being impacted.

-Josh (February 22, 2012, 09:43 PM)

Fortunately, privacy and security are not totally illusory. It's precisely the problem that it takes so much "Internet Skill" to keep your privacy. I checked some time back, and I didn't find much of anything to delete. My mail is on Yahoo and my searches are run through StartPage, which is precisely a Privacy-Specific "filter" to tackle exactly this problem.

4154

Living Room / Re: Paypal: Censors in the name of Profit

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on March 01, 2012, 07:36 AM »

^ Exactly.  Especially in the case of these distributors for a lot of indie authors- all are affected because of any blip, so the distributor is going to err on the side of the *MONEY*, instead of the few, no matter how they feel about it.

They say the reason is the same as the reason they won't let you use paypal for anything close to porn, including erotic nudity, etc.: because the number of chargebacks is increased on such business.  In reality, especially because of the haphazard enforcement, it appears to be censorship masked by fiduciary responsibility.

-wraith808 (February 28, 2012, 01:59 PM)

Unfortunately this rendering is also true. : (

4155

Living Room / Re: Software Alliance's FRAND proposes to have Free software outlawed in the EU?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on March 01, 2012, 07:33 AM »

I want IainB to start a blog, that once a week dissects (as is his wont) some late breaking web issue. The mind boggles...

P.S. I hope they never abolish orgasm. It's still the cheapest form of entertainment going. 

-40hz (March 01, 2012, 07:24 AM)

They're trying. From the next story over:
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=30130.0
Summary: PayPal has forced its merchants that publish and distribute e-books to censor erotic literature.

4156

Living Room / Re: The problem with online ads

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 26, 2012, 09:48 AM »

New topic, based on a brainstorm I just had. The problem with ads is that they're "Guess-Push". "Well, since he doesn't like ThisRandomAd about Laundry Cleaners, let's show him one about a Barbie Doll!"

(Announcer Voice)
I'm going to (re?)invent a brand new type of Advertising, Live, Right here on DC! Let's get ourselves an Ad Agency name... got it. The Really Nice Advertising Company! Okay, there we go, there's our ad agency. Ready folks? Here we go!

In the top corner of every page, put 1 small note. "Hi, Companies. I am bored. Show me an Ad!"

That brings you to the Ad Page.

"What kind of ad would you like to see?" (Select by emotional tone, visual style, ad-copy style, or by company advertised)

((User Selects Funny Tone, Funny ad-copy style.))

"Here you go User! This is the classic Fed Ex ad with John Moschitta."
http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=NeK5ZjtpO-M

"Was That Funny?"

(Yes / Sorry, No) ((User selects Sorry, No)

"Okay, here is another ad we find funny. It's a foreign company called Ortakatro. Hope you like it!"
http://www.youtube.c...&feature=related

"Was That Funny?"

(Yes / Sorry, No) ((User selects Yes))
"Great! Select an Option:"
(Go back to what I was doing / See More Ads)

4157

Living Room / Re: The problem with online ads

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 26, 2012, 09:04 AM »

I think the mix is in the middle somewhere. There are so many thousands of "Things" out there in Internet Land, that we need a lot of them to be free. I would like to suggest that the commitment goes the other way too - if you are charging money, then the quality needs to be higher than the "free" versions.

I'll throw the wrinkle in that the growing corruption on the Govt side is interfering too.

4158

Living Room / Re: Looking for opinions on changing ISP

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 26, 2012, 08:44 AM »

...Gun toting admins, killer penguins, & a chopper ... This is a joke right?!?

-Stoic Joker (February 25, 2012, 03:12 PM)

It probably is a joke, but over on another forum I begged for any of the web hosts to do a skin like that. It ought to be a great hit with younger customers. I was calling it the "New York Service Style". : )

Sadly, I couldn't get a single one of the hosts to go with that even as a spinoff brand.

4159

Living Room / Re: PrECISE - It's the New SOPA/PIPA/ACTA

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 23, 2012, 09:44 PM »

Okay, let's get back on target.
You can't do an iStrike and ... expect it to work. All you get is 13 months without any fun content. You are outweighed here by a MINIMUM of 70-30. And those are "Pirates", so you're at 90-10 levels.

We need a USA-Wide National effort that can see Candidates past the speeches that the Authorized Media pronounces, we were too early in 2008, but no bad to avoid Sarah Palin ... But Not really great with Obama and 6 copyright czars....

(Open ended on purpose)

4160

Living Room / Re: Another internet lowlife

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 23, 2012, 09:34 PM »

Since I wasn't clear send such things to me at [email protected]

Just put a really smart subject so I know to rescue it if Yahoo auto-spams it.

4161

Living Room / Re: Another internet lowlife

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 23, 2012, 09:27 PM »

So give them to me!

-TaoPhoenix (February 23, 2012, 03:26 PM)

Thanks, Tao, I will keep that in mind! I'm not into playing games like this myself, but I'd be happy to watch from the sidelines.

(No link at hand, but there was a story once about how someone actually got money from a Nigerian scammer. They essentially turned the tables: when the "Nigerians" started asking for money, their intended victim said yeah, sure, but I need (a token amount of US dollars) first to trust you're acting in good faith or some such. Maybe they did the PayPal thing - send me 2 USD from your account so that I know you exist. That was fun, but in the end doesn't change the fact that the Nigerian scam is still running high.)

-tranglos (February 23, 2012, 03:46 PM)

No link at hand either but watch out for bad headlines, last I heard here it was still the Aussie Car buyers who got stiffed, only the money didn't get flipped to the Nigerians. Still trouble.

4162

Living Room / Re: A call for cody images - post them here!

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 23, 2012, 09:25 PM »

I keep posting FreedomCody but every time I do it shuts down a thread : (

There's three copies of him here, so "do some work".  (Bleh)

4163

Living Room / Re: 36 State Attorneys General want to meet with Google over privacy concerns

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 23, 2012, 03:33 PM »

"That's a Lot of Top Level Lawyers. Don't Make Them Angry. You wouldn't like it when that many Top Level Lawyers get angry!"   

4164

Living Room / Re: Playing with the Internets

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 23, 2012, 03:26 PM »

So give them to me!

One way to vet these kinds of things is by playing a MetaGame with them. If the offer comes back from *Another Domain* and they don't care (or don't notice!) then that is your answer. But hey, They're sponsoring, right? I'll take it if it's real money, and if it's not I get to craft a blog article about it. I have experimented with the "Zork Blog" concept, by which I mean that you can take similar stock pages and craft different link structures for different audiences. For the Teal Deer (TL DR aka "I can't be bothered to read real words"), then you tuck stuff behind "More Info" links, but for the quality readers, it's visible, etc.

I'm also a good content adapter - I can salvage an essay out of almost anything short of raw enztye-clone ads. So do like the Zen Masters sometimes did, when a poor/petty burglar tried to swipe a bit of silverware (aka nothing serious), the Zen Master would make a big show of inviting them in, having dinner, giving them the rest of the knife and spoon to go with the fork, and a scroll including instructions on where to sell the scroll to make enough to buy a loaf of bread. The whole production would be so over the top preposterious that the would-be thief would collapse in confusion, give back the stolen fork, and sometimes become a student.

So send them my way!  I have a shielded email system built especially for this kind of thing.

Edit: I just re-read the initial post: "...connect bloggers with advertising partners. I currently have clients that are interested in sponsoring a few posts." So from my interest in Free Speech vs Influences, I'd be interested to see whether they will accept a "hard line" from the blogger for veto rights, etc.

4165

Living Room / Re: Losing my e-Book religion

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 22, 2012, 09:29 PM »

make a non-ideological Linux Distro

-TaoPhoenix (February 22, 2012, 10:12 AM)

Government mandated censorship. Rampant government corruption. Blatant censorship. Tolerance of nationalist hackers and cracker teams. Cyberwarfare bellwethers. Outright disregard for international law whenever it suits them. Poor civil and worker's rights records. Manipulation of their currency exchange rate to boost their balance of trade at the expense (and impoverishment) of their own citizens. Persecution of ethnic and religious minorities. A very loose hand when it comes to passing out capital punishment...

And all this in the name of creating a "Worker's Paradise?"

Non-ideological? Them?

This is China you're talking about right?

-40hz (February 22, 2012, 12:59 PM)

Countries can be multifaceted. I'm talking about "500,000 Sq ft of manufacturing for hire, no hidden games" China. I have my MyMusic Mp3 Players, my Craig Mp3 Players (20 of them on a fluke deal, long story), and my six Radio Shack (Chinese) Alarm Clocks that are the best clocks I ever saw so I bought EIGHT of them so that when 4 gave out I have 4 left. I lost 2, still two left.

That China.

So If they get their ideological act together, drill out the component pieces while ducking the political crap, yes. I'd do it, under advice of 7 other Grade A Nerds that no other crap was going on.

It's either Them, Russia, or India. Not sure of the exact political climates. But once some company ANYWHERE gets a grip and decides to wag the dog, watch out.

4166

Living Room / Re: Today is Your Last Chance to Remove your Search History from Google's New Policy

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 22, 2012, 09:22 PM »

And....?

-Josh (February 22, 2012, 07:52 PM)

Well that means you may never be able to undo your secret habit of viewing Denver the Last Dinosaur Videos from your history. So they'll keep selling your data until a Chinese company offers you Evolution Kits.

4167

Living Room / Re: Who's up for a DonationCoder talk show?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 22, 2012, 02:45 PM »

*bump*

Dead project?  

-Stephen66515 (February 15, 2012, 07:50 PM)

No!  I still want to try it.  I'm not comfortable with my setup right now.  I've already purchased like $200 of stuff.  It's the website work that is the most difficult for me.  I don't know how to embed my icecast stream into a simple html page.

I already have some notes about you for talking points.  Hope you don't mind me nosing around!

-superboyac (February 15, 2012, 10:52 PM)

Does it have to be Embedded? Why not convert the pod show into an Mp3? That's one form factor people will need anyway right? Then you just post it.

Meanwhile I'm about half way to being a good blogger, I struggle with being badly distractible. I have an amazing amount of "feeder" notes on my computer if someone wanted to be the "Polish & Publish" half. However I suspect that 50% of them would bore the audience with the esoteric nature. : (

4168

Living Room / Re: Losing my e-Book religion

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 22, 2012, 10:12 AM »

Sadly, I have to say that all of these issues are why I never bothered with ebooks. Unfortunately it's going to get worse before it gets better, and the time frames are long, but big picture it all feels "temporary", like the music scene before Steve Jobs told the companies to attend San Terradino Fransican University (STFU) and sell plain MP3's.

I would only accept some four ebook formats: Text, RichText/Word/ODF, PDF, and your choice of some other lenient format.

I'm going to go on a limb with a throwaway prophecy and say China is the sleeping giant here. Watch what happens when they decide to learn competent English, make a non-ideological Linux Distro, make their own office package, their own ebook equipment, etc, then the western companies will be in trouble with proprietary formats.

4169

Official Announcements / Re: I want to try an experiment on the site for March 2012

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 22, 2012, 08:02 AM »

And now for the encore!
An archive-type copy of political activist Bella DeSoto's wonderful page!
http://www.bellads.info/
http://www.bellads.info/page2.html
http://www.bellads.info/page3.html
http://www.bellads.info/page4.html
http://www.bellads.info/page5.html

So can we do one Mouser? Pleeeese?  

4170

Official Announcements / Re: I want to try an experiment on the site for March 2012

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 21, 2012, 12:00 PM »

Something I have always thought would be really funny is to turn the whole ad paradigm on its head and make the ADS BECOME the "Content!"

Make an ad page! Vote up or down your favorite ad! Nominate ads! Get innovative companies to authorize writing our own! Make a "bandwidth killer super ad page!" that crams as many things on one page as possible! You know, like this:
http://anselme.homes...ad.com/AFPHAITI.html

(Haiti News Network, via Vincent Flander's pages on Web Pages That Suck)

4171

Living Room / Re: Google: Do no evil (once you're caught)

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 21, 2012, 07:34 AM »

As I have before, I will post this same line periodically until mouser bans me:

Still it's us, yes us, who are voting for these people and refusing 'alternatives' and 'third parties' with a convenient excuse that either 'they will become the same' or the perhaps worse 'other options will never be viable'.

-rgdot (February 20, 2012, 03:57 PM)

I have a theory that the flaw in the system is still that people DO get to vote, *for now*, and except for a few shenanigans, those votes are actually counted sorta-correctly, aka not just thrown in the trash. (Side question: Would we still have all this junk if Gore had won the messed up 2000 Hanging Chad campaign? Is that where the Alternate Universe started?)

It's a huge variant of the Prisoner's Dilemma game. We can't (yet!) coordinate ourselves to properly deliver a third party into office and Congress. But we will, *once*. Then we'd get exactly one chance to fix as much as we can before the rabid hounds, beyond livid with apoplectic fury, just cheat and flip a switch and declare martial law and get it over with.

It would be beautiful. "Motion to cancel ACTA. House?" "Passed." "Senate?" "Passed". "Mr. President?" "Signed." "NEXT!"
"Motion to limit the status of Corps as People." "Passed" "Passed" "Signed". "NEXT!"
"Motion to grant generous Fair Use Rights." "Passed." "Passed" "Signed." "NEXT!"

Just drill through 1000 Ultra-Tracked bills to fix 15 years of crap. Then put a rider-lock that says "Reversing these measures will require a constitutional amendment. Adjourned."

4172

Official Announcements / Re: I want to try an experiment on the site for March 2012

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 21, 2012, 07:16 AM »

what happens if you find that ads generate 2x the amount that Donations do?

I doubt that.

Nothing happens.

 

-mahesh2k (February 21, 2012, 02:27 AM)

Absolute Ads Corrupt Absolutely and all that.

But this is a meta theme for the entire tech world. How do valuable sites keep going?

4173

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Release: Chess PGN File Processor

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 20, 2012, 08:18 PM »

Funny comment on the much appreciated video:

The Narrator went for a "Scoresheet" approach, which certainly this program can do. I went for more of a "How few pages can I fit this file into so I can take it to the bar" style. If I recall it went from 2.5 games per page to like 8 games per page, turning a crushing 200 page file into something like 40 after I played with the fonts and nuked draws. : )

4174

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: "CopySmart"

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 20, 2012, 08:14 PM »

Well, This topic has languished for two weeks, so I thought I'd put a feeler out ...

4175

General Software Discussion / Re: SRWare Iron updated

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on February 20, 2012, 08:12 PM »

A few folks have called Iron on the verge of a Scam, with only a few sorta-minor features. The other contender I keep seeing in this category is Comodo Dragon.

I'm no Expert, but there are only some five legit remakes of Chromium for security.