Posts by Mark Harris
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Having met cameron recently I find it hard to believe he'd say that.
That would be the same Campbell Smith that told us Bic Runga had to get a second job flipping burgers? When she didn't, she said.
-
TelstraClear rejects copyright code
This would seem to mean 92A as we know it is over and the ball is in Finlayson's court.
I'm holding off on the champagne till the stake has been shoved through it's heart but, on the whole it is excellent news.
-
manufacturing flounders, how do you do that?
Put a cod through a mangle.
-
Well, winter's coming on and I need to keep warm...
I'm not troubled by the comments themselves, but it is a bit rich taking me to task for something you do yourself, robbery.
-
I get the impression he speaks for a big group of people.
I've never claimed that. My views are shared by a lot of people online and off, ass I've been informed by their writings and discussions, but I'm not their representative.
He'd make a good politician with those public speaking skills.
That's the most insulting thing you've ever said to me ;-)
-
His point is especially in the context of this copyright discussion, wherein the wholesale movement to electronic form of authors will basically disconnect people who weren't connected from something they valued greatly.
I think you should have put <jack_valenti> tags around that ;-)
Books aren't going to disappear, in the physical form. Not for a very long time. Live performance didn't disappear when movies and TV came along, radio is still there, etc.
And there will always be those who are excluded by circumstance or choice from any change in society. The Internet is the biggest change since the printing press. It's about doing things differently, not just faster or more abundantly. Scarcity truly disappears in the digital world (unless it is maintained artificially), and our economic value system is built around scarcity. This will have flow on effects to the non-connected world as well, I am sure. I can't begin to imagine how that will work, but it will.
There are countries that are currently not able to participate. There always have been countries that don't really participate in the world's economy (with or without globalisation). There probably will always be, if we continue along the same ideological and fiscal line. But the technology continues to get better and cheaper and those countries will eventually have the opportunity to participate digitally.
There, likewise, will always be individuals who can't or choose not to participate for a variety of reasons. I can accept that, and move on without them, because I believe that the rising tide will lift all the boats (bugger, I'm using right wing metaphors!), that the benefits will flow out to the non-connected portions. Again, I don't know how yet, but I'm sure they will. It's how change works.
-
The public service has failings, for sure, but are they more or more significant than the private sector - more than Bear Sterns, Bridgecorp or Fisher Pykel? Jus say'n.
Spot on, Paul! Spot bloody on! But they don't have trifling issues like the OIA and the rabid media I mentioned earlier to deal with, so you don't hear about the $millions lost in the private sector through cockup, poor judgement and the rest. They're allowed to bury their mistakes.
-
The fuckers that the people voted for.
Ha! HA! Do you really think Judith Collins is going to get down and dirty and actually FIX anything at Corrections??? Bollocks to that. She'll issue edicts and refuse to be confident and all the rest, but it's Barry Matthews that has to keep on fixing the problems, if she'd only get off his back long enough. It him and his staff I feel sorry for (well, most of them. There's a few....)
Elected representatives NEVER fix anything.
-
The net gives more power to the individual than ever before.
I took it to be a pretty good example of what I meant. Who's "the individual"?
Are you serious? There's nothing deep or metaphysical here. Who isn't "the individual"?
The key strength of the net is the removal of the middle man or "disintermediation". You don't have to go through a proxy to get heard. A writer doesn't have to have a publisher, a photographer can market their images directly to the world, and not just to stock companies like Getty, a musician can release their music as they feel fit, without having to satisfy a label.
And please don't start saying it doesn't apply to people who aren't connected because I know it doesn't. The Internet mainly empowers those who are connected to it, because a connection is required to make use of it. But connectivity is growing daily. The OLPC is a perfect example of people connecting and collaborating in areas that don't even have telephones. It small, but it's a start.
Simple truth - people have been empowered by their connection to the net.
"Optimal copyright term" for whom?
Not one of mine, you'll have to quiz Jon on that one.
-
Well, you have been talking about the good of society a fair bit, and I always understood it to mean the good of the networked society, made up of the mysterious and not otherwise defined "individuals" you were talking about no longer than one page ago.
If I'm talking about the networked society, I'll say so. If I'm talking about "society" then I mean everyone, on the net and off.
The people it does happen to include have an obligation I think to examine their privileged speaking position, and not assume that they represent a totality, *the* people.
And yet I don't think I've ever claimed to represent anybody at all, apart from myself.
I'm starting to think your arguement with me is actually with your own assumptions.