Michael Barclay 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (53)

• On the post: California State Senator Pushes Bill To Remove Anonymity From Anyone Who Is Influential Online

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 28 Mar, 2024 @ 10:04am

  Let's not dox Jack Smith or Taylor Swift (Computer Security's version)

  It would be a shame to dox two of my favorite eX-Twitter accounts. Jack E. Smith (@7Veritas4) is a political parody account of the real Jack Smith prosecutor, who provides excellent news and commentary about a certain former President's legal problems. The anonymity of this account permits political messaging that wouldn't be as effective from an identified person. Swift on Security (@SwiftonSecurity) started by pretending to be Taylor Swift's day job--computer helpdesk and security--in case her musical gig somehow didn't work out. While eX-Twitter's subsequently-imposed impersonation rules ended the "day job" pretense, this account remains a valuable resource for computer security news (especially zero days) and occasional Taylor Swift humor.

• On the post: The Sanctions Hearing For ChatGPT Using Lawyers… Did Not Go Well

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2023 @ 07:57pm

  Sure wish this had been on video

  For good reasons, federal courts normally don't allow video cameras in their courtrooms, but I sure wish an exception had been made for this hearing.

• On the post: Internet Safe Harbors, Antisemitism, And Online Jewish Activity

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2023 @ 08:06pm

  This would make a good amicus brief

  Jon, This would make a good amicus brief supporting Google. Hoping to see it on the docket next week!

• On the post: Tom Lehrer Puts Whatever He Hadn’t Already Donated To The Public Domain Into The Public Domain

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 27 Dec, 2022 @ 09:13am

  Wish there was an MP3 for "My Home Town"

  There doesn't appear to be an MP3 for "My Home Town." Sad, since it's one of my favorites. (The archive.org link by Anonymous Coward contains a page where you stream the album that song is on, but it doesn't seem to let you download the MP3.)

• On the post: FCC Adds A ‘Nutrition’ Label To Broadband So You Can Clearly See When Monopolies Are Ripping You Off

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 22 Nov, 2022 @ 08:41am

  I would like the low salt version, please

• On the post: Hey Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run The Content Moderation Learning Curve

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 02 Nov, 2022 @ 09:51am

  Dante only had **nine** circles of hell

  Congratulations, you more than doubled Dante's nine circles of hell.

• On the post: Subreddit Discriminates Against Anyone Who Doesn’t Call Texas Governor Greg Abbott ‘A Little Piss Baby’ To Highlight Absurdity Of Content Moderation Law

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 26 Sep, 2022 @ 08:02pm

  Pretty sure truth is a defense

  Pretty sure truth is a defense to a defamation claim, just sayin'

• On the post: 5th Circuit Rewrites A Century Of 1st Amendment Law To Argue Internet Companies Have No Right To Moderate

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 17 Sep, 2022 @ 08:08am

  Freedom of religion vs. freedom of speech

  It's interesting that a corporation has the religious right to decide what kinds of health benefits to provide to its employees, but not the right to prohibit racist speech.

• On the post: New York Times Editors Still Don’t Understand How Twitter Or The Internet Work

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 13 Apr, 2022 @ 09:53am

  The Pitchbot is found here: https://twitter.com/DougJBalloon

• On the post: New York Times Editors Still Don’t Understand How Twitter Or The Internet Work

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 13 Apr, 2022 @ 09:52am

  NY Times Pitchbot must love this development

  If the NY Times editors really want to know how the public views their newspaper, instead of monitoring their reporters' Twitter accounts, they will check the New York Times Pitchbot at least twice a day.

• On the post: Texas Court Gets It Right: Dumps Texas's Social Media Moderation Law As Clearly Unconstitutional

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 02 Dec, 2021 @ 05:54pm

  Re: Re:

  Silly me not to think about that

• On the post: Texas Court Gets It Right: Dumps Texas's Social Media Moderation Law As Clearly Unconstitutional

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 02 Dec, 2021 @ 10:33am

  2018: The Federal Circuit should be abolished
  2021: The Fifth Circuit should be abolished

• On the post: Journalists In St. Louis Discover State Agency Is Revealing Teacher Social Security Numbers; Governors Vows To Prosecute Journalists As Hackers

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 15 Oct, 2021 @ 10:56am

  Good job there getting ratioed, Governor

  As of 11am PDT on Friday morning, this tweet had 5.7K replies and 971 likes.
  Good job there getting ratioed, Governor!

• On the post: Florida Man Signs Blatantly Corrupt And Unconstitutional Social Media Bill, Cementing Florida As Tech Laughing Stock

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 24 May, 2021 @ 02:32pm

  Can't wait to visit "Googleland"!

  I'm already planning a Florida vacation to visit "Googleland"! Should be great, with a search window just past the entrance gates to take me wherever I want to go.

• On the post: Taylor Swift, Evermore Theme Park Dispute Escalates As Swift's Team Countersues

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2021 @ 08:14am

  Taylor Swift already wrote a song lyric to explain this

  Taylor Swift once wrote: "There is nothing I do better than revenge."
  Evermore Park should have figured this out before filing its trademark suit.

• On the post: Utah Theme Park Sues Taylor Swift Over Album Title After Exploiting It

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 04 Feb, 2021 @ 08:47pm

  This is why we can't have nice things

• On the post: Taylor Swift Changes Artwork For New Album, Merch After Online Retailer Complains Of Similarities

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 05 Aug, 2020 @ 09:12am

  "folkore" is a very common term in the USPTO databases

  If you go to the USPTO trademark search database (TESS) and search for "folklore," you get 73 hits.
  http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=4802%3Ak3nd54.1.1&p_search=searchss&p_L=50&BackReference=&p_plural=yes&p_s_PARA1=&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA1%24LD&expr=PARA1+AND+PARA2&p_s_PARA2=folklore&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA2%24COMB&p_op_ALL=AND&a_default=search&a_search=Submit+Query&a_search=Submit+Query
  So "folklore" is a very common term, and a descriptive one at that.
  I wouldn't criticize Taylor Swift for naming an album "folklore" when the album is an indie folk album whose subject matter is, well . . . folklore.

• On the post: 9th Circuit Revives Ridiculous 'Shake It Off' Copyright Lawsuit, Because The 9th Circuit Loves To Mess Up Copyright Law

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 01 Nov, 2019 @ 12:57pm

  Split in the Circuits?

  In the Seventh Circuit, fair use can be decided as a matter of law at the pleading stage. Brownmark Films, LLC v. Comedy Partners, 682 F.3d 687 (7th Cir. 2012). So why can't copyrightability of short phrases be decided as a matter of law?
  Seems like there's a circuit split here.

• On the post: Facebook's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Privacy Week

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 19 Apr, 2019 @ 05:46pm

  Sign spotted somewhere or the other

  You don't even need a whiteboard for this sign, permanent ink is fine:
  "It has been zero days since Facebook's most recent privacy violation"

• On the post: Big Fair Use Win For Mashups: 'Oh, The Places You'll Boldly Go!' Deemed To Be Fair Use

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2019 @ 08:14pm

  Oracle v. Google causing mischief again

  This case is another example of how dangerous and harmful the Oracle v. Google opinions are. The district court in this case is in the Ninth Circuit, and there are plenty of Ninth Circuit fair use decisions to guide its district courts. Since those cases apparently weren't working for the plaintiff, it instead cited the Federal Circuit's Oracle opinions and argued that they should control the case.
  What's worse here is that the district court didn't reject the plaintiff's argument out of hand. The district court should have said, "Oracle isn't binding, rather Ninth Circuit law is binding." Instead, the district court treated Oracle as controlling law, but was able to distinguish it on the facts.
  If the Supreme Court doesn't review the Oracle decisions, we can expect them to be cited in many future cases, instead of Ninth Circuit law, and in cases where Oracle can't be meaningfully distinguished on its facts.
  (Disclosure: I'm counsel of record on an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to review Oracle v. Google.)

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