Maybe they thought dontmakemeinfringe.com didn't have the same 'zing'.
284 karma · joined April 9, 2010
1) your tone and choice of language implied entitlement;
2) if not a defence of piracy, did not add a great deal to the conversation.
So what if watching movies in Linux is a complete disaster for you? If you agree that you are not entitled to be able to do this and do not believe that it justifies piracy, it's not clear why this is any more relevant than the fact you can't play back movies on your toaster.
Distinct from copyright, a website owner may have an argument on the basis of contract that scraping data violates the terms of use you agree to when you visit a website. I'm not aware of cases in Australia that deal with the validity of such contracts but this may be something to discuss further with a lawyer.
Additionally, although unlikely, it may be the case that the licence Verizon has been granted by Lucasfilm relates only to Android phones. As the licence agreement is not public, it's difficult to know whether this is the case or not.
Oh wait: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/technology/28yahoo.html
At present, you can do most of the things you do because the people that control the intellectual property rights are allowing you to do that at a minimal or no cost. As the GIF example demonstrates, it's not always wise to rely the charity of for-profit companies when it comes to this type of thing.
What are the chances of this being a problem in the future? I don't know. I believe it's good long-term in the same way that I believe insurance is good long-term. Taking out insurance doesn't always pay off -- in fact most of the time you'd hope it doesn't -- but that doesn't mean it's not a good thing to do.
This is to Google's benefit and, as I said in my original comment, I believe this is at the heart of John's problem with Google. Google positions its actions within a moral framework that never mentions that the actions which it takes are of financial benefit to Google. I don't disagree that Google is doing that and that it's frustrating -- only that basically every company does it.
Take for example, Apple. Apple only lets users download apps through the App Store. This is good for users because it means that users can trust the software and developers can easily charge for software and make a living from it. But Apple also does it because it's good for Apple. They make money this way on software that's sold and they can also limit apps which would otherwise compete with their own software.
Does the fact they have an ulterior motives mean that it's not good for users? I'd say no. John says no, too. Well at least he does when it's Apple. When it's Google, he seems upset by the dishonesty. I don't mind if John wants to be upset with dishonesty but I think you should make it clear why you're not upset at Apple's similar dishonesty (the reason might be because Apple doesn't frame what they do in such moral terms as Google).
In more detail:
1. Because, like it or not, Flash is an established part of the web at present and it would be unacceptably frustrating for users if numerous websites stopped working. This would be the result because these sites often do not have a fallback option for users who are not using Flash. On the other hand, sites which only serve h.264 content with no fallback option are rare (non-existent?).
2. I, too, am interested in the answer to this question but not because I'm trying to prove that Google isn't ideologically pure.
3. I don't see how it wouldn't be better for open innovation if YouTube served video in an open format. Perhaps what John is really getting at is what does YouTube intend to do for platforms that will not support Flash or WebM?
4. Why isn't it valid to have Flash as a fallback option? This is only invalid if you work from the assumption that Flash is unacceptable (either because of performance or for ideological reasons). Utilising a ubiquitous closed technology while you help establish a new open technology is not an ideologically pure strategy but it may be one that will work.
5. People who are concerned about video codecs being controlled by for-profit corporations are happy about this but I don't think that's most people. I also don't think those same most people care.
I think John's frustration is really with Google wanting to make decisions on the basis of ideology (open is good/don't be evil) only when it is in Google's financial interest to do so (John has given examples in the past that open doesn't seem so good when it comes to Google's proprietary search algorithm). I think this is a fair frustration to have but it doesn't mean that everything that Google does is irrevocably tainted and can never be good. Establishing an open standard for video on the web is a good thing long-term. The way they are going about it isn't as pure as one might hope but sometimes this is how things work in the real world (see Obama and tax cuts/repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell).
The immediate idea I have is not to used fixed layouts and less 'blurb'. I'm looking at the Opinion site at the moment (the design of which has changed since last night) and I'd prefer if instead of giving me a blurb about Nicholas Kristof's piece it just said Nicholas Kristof on the Millennium Development Goals.
I might look at mocking up an alternative, though. I'd like to see if I can come up with something that would suit at least me.
The bald assertion that Tumblr is more successful than Posterous because it is faster is repeated about a half dozen times during the piece but no evidence is ever advanced to prove this point.
Without further data, at best, we're talking a correlation. I could similarly argue that dropping the 'e' in Tumblr is a 'big reason' Tumblr is more successful than Posterous (which, please note, contains an 'e'!).