Disqus - Latest Comments for Mark Levitt

Re: Denial: Not Just a River in Egypt

Mark Levitt — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 06:47:31 -0000

Because these DRM schemes and Sony's plea for users to write to Apple have nothing to do with protecting their content from distribution.

The point is to pressure Apple to let other companies license Apple's DRM so they can produce iTunes Music Store compatible players.

Piracy and DRM is a smokescreen for these companies to hide behind. Their true motivation is market protectionism.

Re: Epstein’s New Paper

Mark Levitt — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 12:27:31 -0000

I think the broader problem with this paper is its complete lack of any meaningful evidence to back up his fairly simplistic claims.

The whole paper, in lots of words, basically says: "IP rights are good because they allow people to make money. I'm going to prove that by empirical argument. Here's my opinion on why I'm right."

I expected to find some sort of analysis of sales or market size. Perhaps some study of the number of patents issued vs. the amount of venture capital available.

Where was this empirical examination he claimed was neccessary?

Re: boilerplate terms and conditions

Mark Levitt — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 14:01:26 -0000

There's a classic story about a problem in a factory/data center/nuclear plant, etc, where nobody can figure out what's wrong. So, the find some semi-retired guy who knows all about the system and get him to come in, promising they'll pay whatever he wants if he fixes the problem.

So, this guy comes in, spends a minute looking at the machine/server/whatever, turns one knob and walks out, saying the problem is fixed.

True to his word, the problem is solved, but the management flips over the Â£1000 bill. "How can you charge this much! You only spend a minute of time on the problem. We demand an itemised bill showing how you arrived at this figure."

The next day, the company gets their itemised bill. It reads:
"Time spent adjusting setting: Â£5
Knowing which knob to adjust: Â£995"

The point is that you pay a good lawyer not to craft words, but to know which words need to go where.

Re: Microsoft cracking down on piracy

Mark Levitt — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 17:52:52 -0000

Hmm,

Seems like a perfect time to launch a "switch to FLOSS" campaign.

Worried about jackbooted thugs knocking down your door and pawing through your business documents looking for "pirated" software? Switch to FLOSS and your worries are gone... :)

Something like that anyway.

Re: V for Vendetta

Mark Levitt — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 17:02:11 -0000

"Supposedly this is England after German victory in some World War "

Sounds a lot like America in 2006 to me...

Re: in the words of Victor Mildew ..

Mark Levitt — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 10:42:54 -0000

You need an excuse to drink? Interesting... :)