harknell 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (34) comment rss

  • On the post: IRS Rejects Non-Profit Status For Open Source Organization, Because Private Companies Might Use The Software

    harknell ( profile ), 01 Jul, 2014 @ 01:10pm

    Too much trouble, Just make money...

    The silly thing about being a "non profit" is it costs a ton of money to get your paperwork set properly. In other words, you can more easily just make money than designate not to. I gave up on it as well for a project because it just wasn't worth the hassle.

  • On the post: Cool New Platform For Supporting Artists: Patreon, From Jack Conte

    harknell ( profile ), 23 May, 2013 @ 06:25am

    Already Long Established By Pete Abrams

    Pete Abrams, the creator of the webcomic "Sluggy Freelance" has had a system in place for a very long time called "The Defenders of the Nifty", which is essentially a subscription system to help him continue to make the comic. While he does have some special extras for these people, and gives them some info in advance, they primarily just want to support his work. If you have a strong enough fanbase this can work well--part of that "1000 True Fans" idea that came out a few years ago.

  • On the post: This Is Not The Cloud Computing We Should Have

    harknell ( profile ), 30 Mar, 2013 @ 05:11am

    Inversion of the Situation?

    Given what a few people here have said about the rapid increase in smaller storage options, it seems to me the best situation will become a case where we all walk around with our data, but connect to the "apps" online. So instead of keeping your data in the cloud, you keep the applications in the cloud and your data on your...phone (as they are now becoming our centralized multi-purpose devices). Sort of like how in Neuromancer everyone had their own core device that then plugged into the network. This sounds like the the best combo to me--no one has access to your info on a continuing basis, and you can evolve what utilizes the data online. Sort of like how a CMS can update the engine of the website while not touching the data itself--we just have the data entirely separate and personal.

    The problem right now is it's always in the best interest of the cloud service to try to keep both--they are businesses trying to make money.

  • On the post: Infographic: Celebrating Internet Freedom Day & The Anniversary Of The SOPA/PIPA Protests

    harknell ( profile ), 18 Jan, 2013 @ 08:26am

    Without it our event would be nothing

    We've reposted the infographic and linked back to here on our event site at interventioncon.com. Without Internet Freedom our event (and guests who attend it) would literally not exist.

  • On the post: Reddit, Trolling, Doxxing, Free Speech & Anonymity: Whoo Boy, Is This Stuff Complicated

    harknell ( profile ), 15 Oct, 2012 @ 12:55pm

    Most important quote

    I think the statement "Free speech does not mean you are free from the consequences of your speech." is the most important part. Many people take Free Speech to mean that there should be no consequences when you say something--and we all know that's not true. If what you have to say is important, and you can stand behind it no matter what consequences occur, then that's the cost of your speech, and you are willing to pay it.

    Creeps who do stupid things need to realize that they will be paying a cost for their stupidity--and the community does a great job of making that happen--way better than a legal method.

  • On the post: Intervention: The Conference Celebrating Internet Creativity

    harknell ( profile ), 09 Aug, 2012 @ 11:36am

    Re:

    Hi, If you go to the main page and select the "Archive" area you will see an "Event Video" section. While we can't get everything online, we do try to post as much of the panel content as we can--and it's there for free and forever. Once we get a bit more established and have a budget for more advanced things we'll be looking into live streaming and other great concepts (and better recording equipment).

  • On the post: Intervention: The Conference Celebrating Internet Creativity

    harknell ( profile ), 09 Aug, 2012 @ 06:31am

    Take The Good With The Bad

    Hi Everyone, this is Harknell, the author of this post and Co-Con Chair for the event.

    I wanted to thank Mike for giving us the ability to get the word out about our event.

    I think we can all tell which commenters on this thread need the real Intervention. For the rest of you who actually like to discuss things using logic, evidence, and analysis we'd love to see you at our event this year to continue the discussion on the difficult road ahead for all online creative people.

  • On the post: Apple Rejecting Apps That Use Dropbox Because *Gasp!* Users Might Sign Up For Dropbox Accounts

    harknell ( profile ), 02 May, 2012 @ 11:01am

    Inconsistent Approval Process

    I actually have some some apps in the IOS app store and we ran into a somewhat related issue when we submitted an update for one of our apps. In our case our app consolidates many feeds into one place, as well as webpages. The reviewer of our app update went into our app and then navigated to the webpage being displayed (which was called using IOS's Safari viewer from within our app)and noticed that the person *on their website* had a donation button.

    The reviewer disqualified our app update until this was "fixed". Obviously this wasn't part of our app, it was their website--but we asked them to remove the donation link for a week. After the approval they put the link back up.

    In our case it was obvious that the reviewer had no idea how IOS works, or how it's programmed. But it's sadly typical of some of the arbitrary ways you can interpret their rules on this area.

    Look, we all know Apple wants to get paid, but they do have a major issue if their own people don't understand how this "should" work.

  • On the post: Court Says Sony Is Free To Change Its Terms Of Service Because Accessing PSN Is A Choice

    harknell ( profile ), 05 Apr, 2012 @ 07:11am

    Immediate versus long term "harm"

    One issue with this situation is the "scope" of the contract. Let's just imagine a different situation:

    You buy a PS3, Sony promptly goes out of business.

    If this scenario were true you would also "lose the value" of the device, since there would no longer be a service to connect to. In fact this happens in other contexts all the time with devices and services--people sign up right before it goes out of business and only get a short time of usage. If there was fraud involved (as in the business knew it would fail and intentionally hid this fact while signing people up) then I'd guess you could have some standing to sue...in most other cases you simply have a legacy device or software and that's the breaks.

    In this particular case, while I absolutely hate Sony, the real crux is how long do you realistically involve yourself with them when you buy the console? I would sadly say it really means that immediate moment (as in the console should fulfill any of it's stated functions, and play any games that you could buy) at that moment. Past that point, it becomes very difficult to say that you are harmed since you do in fact have the option to not move forward and use the device with the things that worked at the time you bought the device. The only issue then is in regard to functions that have a main component that utilizes the network (as in purely multi-player games).

    That has other issues though--like in another context of MMO's. What if you bought WOW and then they did an update that you hated? Are you "harmed" in this case? Or do you simply stop playing the game? It's similar in scope.

    Ultimately as many others have said--if you hate their practices STOP SUPPORTING THEM. If enough people said "screw this" and dropped their system they'd get the clue.

    You do in fact have the option to not play their games, no matter how shiny and cute they are.

  • On the post: Apple Prefers To Keep GPL'd Software Out Of App Store So It Can Keep DRM On All Apps

    harknell ( profile ), 01 Nov, 2010 @ 07:05am

    Did they not read the Apple Developer docs?

    Look, I think DRM is a bad idea, but this is simply a case of a developer signing up for a distribution method (the app store) and either not reading the docs--or disagreeing with them but going ahead anyway. It's not like Apple just recently changed the way things are distributed.

    So the only thing that can be thought in this case is they did this with the desire to use it as a protest against Apple's policy. They weren't wronged since they knew the rules going in--they just ignored that.

    It's a silly issue with no one being wronged, just a disagreement which can easily be fixed by the developer pulling their app from the store (which is their right and can be done literally with one click on the developer website with no interaction on Apple's part needed for approval).

  • On the post: An Open iPhone App Market That Doesn't Require Jailbreaking… And Which Apple Can't Stop

    harknell ( profile ), 30 Jul, 2010 @ 06:56am

    The web is the web

    Honestly, this is kind of silly. The web is the web. Since this is really simply a site you can visit you don't even need a "market place" at all. The only function this market place is doing is providing a centralized location for you to find these "apps"...and uh, there's this thing called "google" that can do that function already.

    Why not have a "market place" that points out you can read different websites on your iPhone...like Techdirt. Now that would be just as useful.

  • On the post: The Creator's Dilemma On Others Making Money Off Your Content

    harknell ( profile ), 11 Dec, 2009 @ 10:54am

    Trademark is the Issue really

    As someone has pointed out, A plain old RSS reader program can pull in any website's content. The issue really is whether the company selling this app is presenting itself as a representative of the comic in question. Basically, is it fraudulently appearing to be trading as the comic entity or a legitimate extension of that entity? Using the comic's name in your app or marketing in a way that tricks buyers into believing they are buying a product from that comic is what is the most problematic and legal oriented issue.

  • On the post: Why Kicking Fans Off The Internet Won't Make Them Buy

    harknell ( profile ), 04 Nov, 2009 @ 12:33pm

    Re:

    But that metaphor still doesn't address what Mike is saying. Yes, you might slow down (i.e. not download songs, movies, games etc.) but that does not mean you will then go out and buy those things. In many ways being off the internet will impede your ability to discover new music and movies and would eventually lower the number of people buying. So yes, less file sharing, but no, not necessarily more money--so it doesn't really help the companies who are screaming for this legislation.

  • On the post: Firebowls, Copyright And Crowdfunding (Oh My)

    harknell ( profile ), 31 Oct, 2009 @ 02:21am

    Non-scarce goods issue

    There are definitely some distinct issues raised by this situation. It is an example of non-scarce goods, not infinite goods. So distribution is now a major issue, not an irrelevant one. Copyright in this case can be a consideration as to whether this market will be expanded or not. The reason is due to money. If person A originates a design and company B comes in and has way more money and resources and can make knock offs cheaper and publicize wider, they basically win in this case. If artist A sees this and realizes that their right to dictate the "right to copy" is gone they would probably consider stopping. Imagine that company B literally sits there waiting for artist A to develop a new design so they can immediately make a copy and sell it themselves--it's almost like unpaid work from artist A as a designer for company B. This is a strong influence to stop working.

    While on a conceptual basis some things might be true, in the real world this is problematic.

  • On the post: Weird Priorities: Europeans Want To Digitize Books As Quickly As Possible… Just As Long As It's Not Google Doing It

    harknell ( profile ), 20 Oct, 2009 @ 07:36am

    Job Security

    In many cases these issues are really about job security, or the desire to keep things the same forever. Academics and librarians (many of the people pushing to keep Google from doing the digitizing) want to remain as the gatekeepers to books and published journals. They are the "experts" and their jobs (they believe) depend on them being the resource to pointing people to where to go to find data. If Google usurps this by making everything searchable these people incorrectly believe that everyone will abandon them and simply use the internet. Much like how you discuss how businesses want to simply keep their old business models forever without innovation, it's the same thing here. They got a degree 25 years ago and want to rely on that idea for their entire career and not re-access or learn and adapt new things.

  • On the post: DRM Doesn't Enable Business Models; Blind Fear Disables Business Models

    harknell ( profile ), 26 Sep, 2009 @ 07:49am

    The Easy Route fear

    I think some of the fear of the companies involved stems from their belief that--yes, it is possible for someone to download any song they want free illegally right now, but it's not "easy". You need to know how to use the software or know where to look, plus you have to wade through tons of crap to get a good version of a song. As some have already pointed out, the companies don't actually want to move to a model where you can get any song you want, they still want the "you pay per download/listen/think about the song" model. By allowing any service to have an easy system of listening to any song you want goes in the wrong direction for them. So I suspect the DRM is actually designed to make those services unappealing so that the bulk of people still buy physical media. It's a mindset that obviously loses money, but it's based on a single minded desire to only do business in one way.

  • On the post: Music Publishers Push LyricWiki Into Wikia's Arms

    harknell ( profile ), 25 Sep, 2009 @ 05:07am

    Uh, "singing along" is already sorta being looked at

    Uh guys, did you hear about the desire to have mobile ring tones listed as a "public performance" by the RIAA? Singing along IS considered by them as a license situation in that context.

  • On the post: Creating vs. Running A Business

    harknell ( profile ), 26 Aug, 2009 @ 05:56am

    Comics have less of a "spectrum" though

    As another webcomic creator I can tell you that the comics field has far less of a "spectrum" than music. Right now if you want to distribute your comic in retail stores you pretty much have one distributor you can contract with: Diamond. Almost all of the others have gone out of business or been absorbed. The regular comic book market imploded in the late 90's so it's pretty difficult now to get physical books out there. Of course most of the webcomic "market" is exactly what it sounds like--the web--but to get "connected" with people they really do want something physical of yours, which are usually books.

    Scott, as well as a few others, are in unique positions due to their high web traffic numbers, so they can get "irregular" deals with major labels, but most people are doing the DIY direct sales technique at cons or through their own online store to get their non-scarce goods out there. Scott is mostly concerned with the fact that many online comic creators are unaware of the nature of these contracted business deals that "rob" you (i.e. gain control of your copyrighted material) of your content--many people do not realize that comics and music are somewhat similar in concept. And in many cases these deals are being framed as "contests" or other "we'll host your comic" drapings.

  • On the post: Rock Band Opening Up (Slightly) For Indie Musicians

    harknell ( profile ), 20 Jul, 2009 @ 06:21am

    This concept was a no brainer from the start. Let's see, open up the dev tools to others, have them do all of the work, then get a "free" cut of the money for being the host. I'm shocked this didn't happen sooner. I can only imagine that maybe the creation tools weren't very user friendly at first and are now finally not so bad.

  • On the post: Microsoft, Yahoo And Real Sued For Failing To Get All Necessary Licenses For Music Stores

    harknell ( profile ), 30 Jun, 2009 @ 11:14am

    Any relation to Videos/Movies?

    Are there any equivalents to the video/movie business in this? Is a composition at all related to a script for a video? Just curious to know if we'll see any movie licensing explosions on this same angle.

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