http://www.techdirt.com/ Easily digestible tech news.... http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130519/18102623141/so-its-come-to-this-seven-high-school-students-arrested-throwing-water-balloons.shtml#c1850 Wed, 22 May 2013 20:38:39 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130519/18102623141/so-its-come-to-this-seven-high-school-students-arrested-throwing-water-balloons.shtml#c1850
"Hitler will have no war (does not want war), but we will force it on him, not this year, but soon." - Emil Ludwig Cohn in Les Annales, June, 1934]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/22543223166/modest-proposal-going-piracy-neutral.shtml#c25 Wed, 22 May 2013 20:38:22 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/22543223166/modest-proposal-going-piracy-neutral.shtml#c25 And, because people who angrily write comments on this site rarely read to the end of the post, I'll just point out that this is a joke, not anything even remotely serious. Laughter is good

Stupidity is stupidity, even if you think there is a laugh in it.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130519/18102623141/so-its-come-to-this-seven-high-school-students-arrested-throwing-water-balloons.shtml#c1833 Wed, 22 May 2013 20:36:41 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130519/18102623141/so-its-come-to-this-seven-high-school-students-arrested-throwing-water-balloons.shtml#c1833 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/02350923170/new-bill-would-stop-patent-trolls-hiding-behind-shell-companies.shtml#c132 Wed, 22 May 2013 20:22:48 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/02350923170/new-bill-would-stop-patent-trolls-hiding-behind-shell-companies.shtml#c132
But won't the "you have to make product" test make patents a lot less valuable? Independent inventors of mass produced products will *never* be able to get a patent, because, for example, it will be impossible to make a pop-tart baking system in their garage. This will inhibit the best kind of invention, the corporate-developed, mass-marketed thinger.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130519/18102623141/so-its-come-to-this-seven-high-school-students-arrested-throwing-water-balloons.shtml#c1823 Wed, 22 May 2013 20:14:19 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130519/18102623141/so-its-come-to-this-seven-high-school-students-arrested-throwing-water-balloons.shtml#c1823
And we aren't even trying to stop it. Then again, the Corporatists in power want those cops doing exactly that: stomping the populace with their jackboots, grinding us underfoot and keeping us afraid.

Just like their counterparts in 1934 in Germany...]]> http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20130521/20101423164/att-says-you-can-use-any-video-streaming-app-you-want-just-as-soon-as-it-can-get-meter-running.shtml#c234 Wed, 22 May 2013 20:11:25 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20130521/20101423164/att-says-you-can-use-any-video-streaming-app-you-want-just-as-soon-as-it-can-get-meter-running.shtml#c234
I'm not really happy w/ them, but they are the only nationwide carrier to service most of my famil's rural farm land.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/22543223166/modest-proposal-going-piracy-neutral.shtml#c19 Wed, 22 May 2013 20:05:42 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/22543223166/modest-proposal-going-piracy-neutral.shtml#c19 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/22543223166/modest-proposal-going-piracy-neutral.shtml#c9 Wed, 22 May 2013 20:02:19 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/22543223166/modest-proposal-going-piracy-neutral.shtml#c9 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130519/18102623141/so-its-come-to-this-seven-high-school-students-arrested-throwing-water-balloons.shtml#c1804 Wed, 22 May 2013 20:02:17 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130519/18102623141/so-its-come-to-this-seven-high-school-students-arrested-throwing-water-balloons.shtml#c1804 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/03160923172/chinese-hacks-google-database-surveillance-targets-highlight-how-dumb-technology-backdoors-are.shtml#c212 Wed, 22 May 2013 20:00:46 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/03160923172/chinese-hacks-google-database-surveillance-targets-highlight-how-dumb-technology-backdoors-are.shtml#c212 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/03160923172/chinese-hacks-google-database-surveillance-targets-highlight-how-dumb-technology-backdoors-are.shtml#c197 Wed, 22 May 2013 19:58:06 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/03160923172/chinese-hacks-google-database-surveillance-targets-highlight-how-dumb-technology-backdoors-are.shtml#c197
Eric Schmidt was once quoted in basically stating that anyone working for Google has the ability and access to see users' emails without the use of users' passwords, and the reason people working there don't do it is because he'd know about it immediately and their policy is "don't be evil"...I mean seriously how delusional is that?]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/17321623162/released-video-silva-beating-shows-his-last-moments-video-actual-beating-still-missing.shtml#c691 Wed, 22 May 2013 19:57:27 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/17321623162/released-video-silva-beating-shows-his-last-moments-video-actual-beating-still-missing.shtml#c691
Regarding violent video games causing savagery, just shut the hell up. You're clearly speaking of something which you have no experience with and as such are incapable to comment on it's (v. video games) effect on behavior.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/17321623162/released-video-silva-beating-shows-his-last-moments-video-actual-beating-still-missing.shtml#c679 Wed, 22 May 2013 19:55:22 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/17321623162/released-video-silva-beating-shows-his-last-moments-video-actual-beating-still-missing.shtml#c679
and this is why the cops should have had their own cameras recording the whole thing. Nine cops and no cop cameras. Incredible. Why didn't the cops bring their own cameras? Very suspect, very disturbing.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090516/0820434902/dailydirt-commencement-speeches.shtml#c60 Wed, 22 May 2013 19:49:39 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090516/0820434902/dailydirt-commencement-speeches.shtml#c60
Spoken like a true Ohioan :-) Bill also carried this philosophy throughout C&H :-)]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130519/18102623141/so-its-come-to-this-seven-high-school-students-arrested-throwing-water-balloons.shtml#c1796 Wed, 22 May 2013 19:45:15 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130519/18102623141/so-its-come-to-this-seven-high-school-students-arrested-throwing-water-balloons.shtml#c1796 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/02350923170/new-bill-would-stop-patent-trolls-hiding-behind-shell-companies.shtml#c126 Wed, 22 May 2013 19:37:17 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/02350923170/new-bill-would-stop-patent-trolls-hiding-behind-shell-companies.shtml#c126
Most lawmakers are lawyers, THAT is the problem.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/16402423161/first-hand-account-judicial-smackdown-prenda-minnesota.shtml#c1344 Wed, 22 May 2013 19:35:45 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/16402423161/first-hand-account-judicial-smackdown-prenda-minnesota.shtml#c1344 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/02350923170/new-bill-would-stop-patent-trolls-hiding-behind-shell-companies.shtml#c125 Wed, 22 May 2013 19:33:23 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/02350923170/new-bill-would-stop-patent-trolls-hiding-behind-shell-companies.shtml#c125
But, but, but zero tolerance!]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130502/18364622931/ma-teen-arrested-held-without-bail-posting-supposed-terrorist-threat-facebook.shtml#c1334 Wed, 22 May 2013 19:25:04 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130502/18364622931/ma-teen-arrested-held-without-bail-posting-supposed-terrorist-threat-facebook.shtml#c1334 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130515/11032823096/how-low-can-drones-go.shtml#c811 Wed, 22 May 2013 19:24:29 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130515/11032823096/how-low-can-drones-go.shtml#c811 So how close does a drone have to be to someone's home before it becomes intrusive? Clearly, at some height the air is part of the sky commons that belongs to everyone, as a famous 1946 US Supreme Court decision laid down:

The air is a public highway, as Congress has declared. Were that not true, every transcontinental flight would subject the operator to countless trespass suits. Common sense revolts at the idea.

If that's true, why do you need special permits to fly model aircraft over a certain size or launch large rockets?]]>