Activity for October 21

Comment - The Crook in the Nook: Barnes & Noble ebooks are overpriced compared to Amazon
(Oct 21, 2009 - 10:30 PM)

I think that pricing may turn out to be a critical issue in more ways than the obvious one of people simply not buying! If the book that someone wants is too often not available at what they feel is a reasonable price I think they will start looking for it as a p2p download, which could lead to a fairly dire situation.

And then there are all the other potential frustration factors such as geographical restrictions and DRM which will probably have much the same effect...
Comment - Firefox 3.6 public beta slated for 10/14, promises faster startups, loads
(Oct 7, 2009 - 10:32 PM)

I agree! But truth to tell I have yet to find ANY bookmarking system which really does what is needed - whatever that is...
Comment - Can 'Government 1.0' manage an upgrade?
(Sep 12, 2009 - 12:04 AM)

I would imagine that your laughter must be almost continuous whenever you hear (I won't insult you by saying listen to) politicians or "experts" or "newscasters" speaking!

Unfortunately I believe your comment isn't too far from the truth. I guess people tend to react as they were trained to - at school and by the examples of their peers and families.
Comment - Stalemate for Web standards continues with no open video for HTML 5
(Jul 22, 2009 - 9:07 PM)

At least the Dirac codec would appear to resolve the bandwidth issue!
Comment - HADOPI 'three strikes' rule cools its heels after EU parliamentary elections
(Jun 19, 2009 - 12:31 AM)

Why not just:-
a) Extend all copyright to infinity
b) Sentence anyone who might have conceivably infringed to a life of penal servitude
c) Sentence anyone who might conceivably infringe to a very large fine
But wait - people would protest! So:-
d) Make any form of protest against these & related provisions a serious criminal offense

More seriously - this whole business will drag on until there is some sort of international cultural consenus on copyright & IP (whatever that is.) And the consumer side (as opposed to the corporate side) perhaps needs to find a more effective way of making their voice heard...

I suspect that most people realise at some level that the current situation is the result of a fair degree of apathy in the face of massive lobbying - which amounts to systematic global vote buying - by all sort sorts of interest groups. It also seems clear that the most effective sanction against this is economic.

It seems to me that "filesharing" really isn't a terribly effective weapon in this conflict! It's far too easy to characterise as criminal behaviour - theft. Even worse, these seems to be considerable evidence (despite the RIAA's convictions) that it doesn't really cause much real economic pressure if any!

Straightforward boycotts, simply refusing to buy, can be pretty effective if well organised & targeted! The traditional restrictions on effective organisation - largely the effects of distance on communication & organisation - seem to me to be pretty much removed today. Better still if conducted with care they could be completely legal and have a devasting effect.

Maybe these could be supplemented by a 21st century version of the quaker concept of "Shunning".

Imagine a situation where the IDs of people connected with, say, the RIAA had to be kept secret - because if not a lot of people would simply ignore them & refuse to have anything at all to do with them...