G Thompson's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
from the without-a-u dept
Well here it is again, the favorite (without a U) Techdirt post of the week, brought to you by the one and only me, (and not U), G Thompson from that land down under, Australia, where the brave fear to tread, mainly because we make U appear in color, flavor, and favor on pain of eating Vegemite. ;)
All through this week there was a heap of articles about that new acronym of geek protesters everywhere in the USA, CISPA. I'm not going to write about it much, more than enough has been written about it here this week, so forgive me if I skip over it. In fact, to tell the truth, originally I thought it actually meant "Congress Insidiously Spying on the Privacy of Americans", before someone told me the correct meaning. Then again, maybe my first guess wasn't far from the truth either.
Sunday started off with a song and marketing show with Facebook's new favorite person, Dan Bull, that I "liked".
On Monday though, a squad of BlackLight agents were looking into the retransmission of the ultraviolet spectrum, whilst across town the accountants of Facebook wondered how much money they could give Microsoft because they really wanted those shiny, though now used, things so they too can play in The Band, though only if Reddit isn't invited. No one is quite sure about the loyalty of DropBox to the clique either now.
At the same time, [** these words removed by Australian Government **] held talks, though thankfully this ensured the venue's rental agreement they had was voidable and removed all context from anything understandable let alone patentable. Confused? Don't worry 50 Cent is as well and it's no less confusing than not wanting warrant's . Luckily this confusion did not affect any robots.
Tuesday had trolls everywhere hugging and blowing kisses to be accepted by Valve. Toronto residents became the privileged few allowed to pay for any graffiti complaints. Captain Obvious flies in to make a surprise appearance at the EU Court of Justice, though the US already knew his flight details from Monday.
The world was informed that when we are alone with our computers we are lonely and alone. Who knew? Probably these Hollywood statisticians who it seems love to debate maths. Maybe the knowledge was instead locked away in a genetic memory found in someone’s virtual fantasy of entitlement. They better make sure that's a new fantasy and not a re-used one though.
In other world news, the French unban and then tweet about 70 year old encryption technology and wonder if it will work better than Hadopi does, while Kenya's High Court sends a huge hakuna matata to generic drug manufacturers. Oh and shocking news was received that someone has breached copyright by criticising Rush Limbaugh.. uhuh.
Wednesday had head bangers being changed by the tubes, though Slayer and Gaming still rocks, unless you are actually slaying after playing games, or so noobs say. The Data protection wizard of Europe then annoyed the Land of the Free by decreeing that freedom is important , whilst Jimmy Wales states that Hollywood isn't free nor important. Rumblefish announced their new marketing strategy of claiming copyright that third parties tell them about and in homegrown news the Techdirt community tries to define what copyfraud is or isn’t, and something about fair use.
Thursday starts with 2,514 cries of "Doe" heard starting a new hunting/fishing season for another trollish entity in Florida. The UK takes a stand against twits on twitter, whilst someone in the SEC wakes up and smells the tea in China. Meanwhile paintings everywhere are being blacked out to protect them from the insidious moving picture cameras which might suck out their cultural souls. Over in Australia nerfers are raining down missiles on Hasbro for its latest campaign to collect addresses and send nothing but air and lawyers.
I think think the happenings this week were enough keep everyone occupied, especially if you also had to read the months worth of privacy policies it seems you need too nowadays, and that’s even before knowing what Google Drive is doing with all your content. I suspect someone will try to patent a software system to do all this for us someday. Now there's an idea.
Where did Friday go you might be wondering. Well my Friday is your Thursday, therefore my Saturday is your Friday and sadly that timey wimey International date thingy gets in the way. So instead you can either comment about Friday's posts below in the comments or just pretend like me that Fridays don't exist.
Hang on, that's Mondays.
(untitled comment)
Personally:
I think Dan Brown novels are very dangerous.
The quantity of hours that people spend reading this quasi historical drivel that is straight out of conspiracy playbooks. It becomes a reality of some sort, they start to believe the crap, and that's just a part of it. It really comes down to educating schools and parents. To say 'you know what, you shouldn't read that drivel without understanding the real historical facts, sorry, and until you understand the reality from the fictional weirdness that is in Dan browns head I'm just not going to let you do it'.
There... better now
Re: Re: Re:
Well you could always use a quantum computing system that basically allows the brute force to be cut in half (though that's now in doubt and could be way more than half hmmmm [ http://phys.org/news/2013-05-los-alamos-reveals-quantum-network.html ] ) though at half the time it's still about a million years to brute force all combinations... ;)
Re: Incriminate Yourself
In fact, I assume a decrypted drive sitting open permits capture of the passowrd.
It normally does allow a better chance to capture a password but even more so it allows you to capture the un-encrypted data available in that session and within memory.
This is why ALL LEO's who have been briefed properly about digital evidence are told DO NOT ALLOW DEVICES TO BE SWITCHED TO AN ALTERNATE STATE. ie: If On .. DO NOT TURN OFF and vise versa.
Also interestingly there are now double blind encryption systems that accept multiple passwords/keys and only one will actually decrypt REAL data the others either decrypt dummy data whilst destroying the real data. Now that's problematic
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Thanks... ;)
Though admittedly I deal a lot with Laws (criminal, civil, and administrative) from different jurisdictions with what I do on a day to day basis. Also the differences between UK, Canada, USA, New Zealand and my own Australian laws on basic & historical principals are very similar (we all come under common law systems).
Re: Re:
It's extortion because they have allegedly with intent allowed a file to be downloaded with the sole intention of threatening the downloader with harm.
This can all come under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (18 U.S.C. §§ 1961–1968) commonly called RICO for brevity
Re: Re:
From the glance so far I have had at your declaration - well put together and a great step into bringing more information into the light of day about what most of these racketeering practices (ie: prenda ) are actually all about and how they work from the start.
Re: Re:
One question though: What exactly does the USA actually manufacture anymore that is any good?
Re: Re:
Ha.. never knew David had made a post of it.. LOL.. Must refer people to that instead from now on too.
Re: Re:
I have to disagree...
Is the best legal response to anything like thisThe famous reply in Arkell v. Pressdram (1971) [unreported] which is quoted by all solicitors in the UK and other commonwealth countries - in the USA it can even be used as well though Ken White's from Popehat "snort my taint" phrase is sometimes better ;)
Therefore:
:)
(untitled comment)
Yet, some lawyers can't seem to remember that they are nothing but a particular skill set and their own reputation, i.e., that being ethical actually does pay.
This +10
My job is not to file lawsuits -- it is to resolve problems that the client needs resolved; to be the buffer between my client and the other guy. Lawsuits are what you do when nothing else works.
This +100
As for the two imbecilic commentators (at time of posting) above they themselves don't even pass my laugh test (though they pass the 'stupidity' test) especially when I see you have outed yourself TCJ ;) - Though it is up to the intelligent investigator to actually figure out who McGuff actually is...
Well done McGuff
Re: Sodastream Ripoff
Well I'm not sure about America but in Australia/New Zealand you do not buy a new cylinder and instead you replace the old empty one for a new refilled one.. Its an actual exchange and it only costs $30 for a 60L one.. (and that's direct from Sodastream themselves .. cheaper from retailers)
The syrup costs RRP of $6.95 and seeing as a 2L bottle of coke from the supermarket costs when not on special of average $4.00 (a 1.25Litre bottle costs approx $2.80) Sodastream is very cost effective here.. The UK is equivalent in costs of coke/pepsi and savings I am told too.
Though I agree with you about the pressure difference's and the 'fizz' it doesn't really give.
Re: Re: Re:
What? The same Times lawyer(s) who have basically said their can be no reference ANYWHERE whether private or otherwise of the product that the NYT designed nor of the NYT itself nor of FACTUAL DATA about the idiotic text that the NYT did in first place..
Right.... of course they would be okay with something *similar*..
As to the NYT's themselves they have no legal leg whatsoever to stand on in this matter there have been numerous precedents of demo's of other persons works to explain what the 'new' thing can do better and more efficiently..
Basically the NYT is suffering from Butthurtitis and the NYT lawyers need to get their heads out of theirs
Re: These sites are all bad and must be taken down.
Advocating for known criminals and criminality is dicey at best.
Remember to state that the next time you need an attorney for any alleged wrongs you might of committed.. I'm sure it will go down well with your counsel's attitude towards you
Re: Re: Re:
The problem here is that the abuse of the process is NOT the outlier and instead the strict adherence to the actual legislation is extremely unheard of and never much used
If the outliers were the abuses then you might have a point, instead you are stating that abuse of process is okay because the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.. WHO FUCKING DECIDES???!!!!
Re: Re: Re: Re:
as more outs and more appeal levels than almost any court system on the planet
Interestingly the court systems where There are better and more appeal levels and work more with procedural fairness (what the US Systems DOES NOT HAVE) are the New Zealand and Australian ones... Based off the English system... Canada isn't far behind those two either.. the UK sadly has become more US like in its judicial processes.
Kim would NEVER have a fair trial in the US court systems, and the notion of a fair trial nowadays with anything to do with high profile criminal or civil cases in the US is ONLY when it suits the USG's purposes. Your (the US's) societal system is crumbling already, you're just too blinkered and close to understand what you have lost over the last 30yrs
Re: Re:
Remember, extradition doesn't equate to guilt.
Correct, his guilt has already retrospectively been decided beforehand by your Grand Jury (called a Star Chamber everywhere else). The extradition is just to allow the GJ process to get to do what it does best, convict everyone and their ham sandwich based on third party unreliable unauthentic hearsay and rhetoric
Re: Re: Re: Re:
I'll let you into a few secrets.. I'm a licensed 747-300/400 Avionics Engineer (from way back in early 90's) and you are ABSOLUTELY UNEQUIVICALLY WRONG!
All electronics in aircraft are shielded, there have been none, zilch, nada, Zero cases of ANY consumer electronic devices causing ANY problems whatsoever with any aircraft sub systems or external systems like TACAN, etc anywhere on the planet in the history of air travel.
There is already a quasi Faraday cage around every single commercial aircraft anyway.. it's caused by the friction of going through the air at speed above 150mph giving off a static charge. There are even subsystems on the aircraft to compensate for this problematic static charge and faraday effect.
Whether the instruments are in the cockpit (in commercial airliners the cockpit holds the least amount of computers.. in fact most computers etc in 747's etc are normally in a hold above the front wheel truck) is irrelevant to any interference from devices that barely come close to matching background radiation (sunspots cause more problems than anything else ever).
Re: Re: Re:
Ah but both Marc and Myself see the Initials C.C and crazy and think of another form of 'Crystalline' weirdness where the "sunshine" is very much needed
Re:
awww what ya got against C.C and the "sunshine" Band ;)
Re: A tough sell
Well that's easy... Play BF3 as an Engineer (like I do 80% of the time) equip Stingers and then Point your nice kill rocket at the nearest Bell Helicopter (Scout Heli) unless the pilot has ECM or Flares equipped they are disabled in 1 hit and destroyed in 2 (or less sometimes if they crash).
Basically means Bell Heli's now in BF3 are flying coffins, ie: CRAP!!!!!! though the Attack heli's now aren't much better..
Disclaimer: I love blowing up heli's.. though I normally use RPG/SMAW's to do so. Muwahahahaha