Chris 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (1771)

• On the post: Twitch And Reddit Ramp Up Their Enforcement Against 'Hateful' Content

  

  Chris ( profile ), 30 Jun, 2020 @ 06:36am

  Re: No longer worth the effort

  As I have it on good authority that breaking the rules is a justified reason to give someone the boot and not an indicator of bias

  Perhaps this was sarcasm, but this is not my experience with internet moderation at all. There are plenty of internet spaces that vigorously and immediately enforce the stated rules . . . against precisely everyone the mods disagree with. (Ironically enough, this is also a common justification for police action: "It's the law, so enforcing it can't be racist!")

• On the post: Strike Three: Lexmark Can't Use Patents, Trademarks Or Copyright To Block Third Party Ink Cartridges

  

  Chris ( profile ), 30 May, 2017 @ 01:18pm

  Re:

  "Ginsburg, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part. Gorsuch, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of the case."

• On the post: Apple Wants To Stop You Fixing Your iPhone And iPad: Source Says It Will Testify Against 'Right To Repair' Legislation

  

  Chris ( profile ), 21 Feb, 2017 @ 07:09am

  Re: Re: Re: Re:

  Me: "The government forcing companies to provide design diagrams and hardware is a bridge too far." David: "I can't believe you think the government forcing companies to provide design diagrams and hardware is a bridge too far. You must be brainwashed." You: "He never said the government should force people to do anything!" Try to keep up, here.

• On the post: Apple Wants To Stop You Fixing Your iPhone And iPad: Source Says It Will Testify Against 'Right To Repair' Legislation

  

  Chris ( profile ), 16 Feb, 2017 @ 10:07am

  Re: Re:

  You seem to be unable to distinguish between "I think XYZ is a good thing" and "The government should force companies/people to do XYZ".

• On the post: Apple Wants To Stop You Fixing Your iPhone And iPad: Source Says It Will Testify Against 'Right To Repair' Legislation

  

  Chris ( profile ), 15 Feb, 2017 @ 12:14pm

  Saying you have a right to repair something you own is a no-brainer.
  Saying a manufacturer must provide you with the instructions and parts to do so is a bridge too far, for me.

• On the post: Court Orders Small Ohio Speed Trap Town To Refund $3 Million In Unconstitutional Speeding Tickets

  

  Chris ( profile ), 14 Feb, 2017 @ 11:35am

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: RLC

  Right, but again, that's a burden of proof problem, and not a "right to face your accuser" problem.
  
  If a police officer watches footage of a robbery, and they surmise that the masked individual on camera is me, and they arrest me, it is absolutely valid for me to argue in court that the individual on camera is not actually me, and/or that the police have not met their burden of proof.
  
  It would be weird, however, for me to argue that the use of a camera somehow violates my right to face my accuser.

• On the post: Court Orders Small Ohio Speed Trap Town To Refund $3 Million In Unconstitutional Speeding Tickets

  

  Chris ( profile ), 14 Feb, 2017 @ 11:30am

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: RLC

  I feel like I'm not being properly understood, here.
  
  I'm not saying that you shouldn't be able to face your accuser; I'm saying that the accuser is the police officer, who is testifying using the camera footage as evidence.
  
  You absolutely should be able to argue that the camera is deficient or improperly maintained, or that the state has not met the burden of proving that the person on camera is you. Neither of those things has anything to do with your right to face your accuser, however.

• On the post: Court Orders Small Ohio Speed Trap Town To Refund $3 Million In Unconstitutional Speeding Tickets

  

  Chris ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2017 @ 11:41am

  Re: Re: Re: RLC

  I don't disagree with any of that, but I don't see how that differentiates between:
  * Footage of me running a red light.
  * Footage of me robbing the cash register after closing.
  The improper standard situation seems more like a burden of proof problem, not a problem of me not being able to face my accuser. I'd have the opportunity to face my accuser (the law enforcement officer who reviewed the tape), they just might be unable to prove that it was me in the car.

• On the post: Court Orders Small Ohio Speed Trap Town To Refund $3 Million In Unconstitutional Speeding Tickets

  

  Chris ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2017 @ 09:42am

  Re: RLC

  I must admit I've never really understood the "right to face your accuser" argument. Your accuser would be a police officer, using the camera footage as evidence.
  
  Much like if I broke into a store at night and stole a bunch of stuff, the fact that a police officer used security camera footage to identify and eventually arrest me does not implicate my fourth amendment rights.

• On the post: Rutgers Lecturer Forcibly Sent For Psych Evaluation By NYPD For Some Tweets About The Election

  

  Chris ( profile ), 16 Nov, 2016 @ 12:17pm

  His actual tweets, as preserved by Patrick

  will the 2nd amendment be as cool when i buy a gun and start shooting at random white people or no?

  And:

  if I see any Trump bumper stickers on the road today, my brakes will go out and i'll run you off the road

  So yeah, this guy's not being truthful.

• On the post: Conviction Overturned In Case Of Rutgers Student Whose Roommate Committed Suicide After Being Secretly Filmed

  

  Chris ( profile ), 12 Sep, 2016 @ 09:03am

  Re:

  ...unless, of course, it's Aaron Swartz, in which case it's all the prosecutors' fault for driving him to suicide by doing their job.

  Legally responsible and morally/ethically responsible are different things. Ravi (probably) shares some moral responsibility for Clementi's death, but that doesn't imply that trying to hold him legally responsible is proper, or in any way a good idea.

• On the post: Sprint Customer Listening Tour Goes Sour, Company Has To Pull Ad Calling T-Mobile A 'Ghetto'

  

  Chris ( profile ), 13 Apr, 2016 @ 01:19pm

  Re:

  When I moved out into the boonies a year ago, my T-Mobile connection was really spotty at my house and quite a few of the roads on the way to my house. Now it's completely solid everywhere. I think they've been rapidly building out their network.

• On the post: Comcast Fails To Connect SmartCar's Silicon Valley Office For 10 Months, Wants $60,000 Anyway

  

  Chris ( profile ), 28 Mar, 2016 @ 12:09pm

  Re: Re:

  It works for the government, too.

• On the post: Namespaces, Intellectual Property, Dependencies And A Big Giant Mess

  

  Chris ( profile ), 28 Mar, 2016 @ 08:02am

  Re: Re: Re: Re:

  "Their trademark is for software, not open source software!" is not a very compelling argument. If Kik was selling bath salts or something, I'd wonder where the confusion was likely to come in, but if you asked me what doing an "apt-get install kik" was likely to do, I would say "Probably install the Kik messenger?", and I've never even used Kik.

• On the post: Namespaces, Intellectual Property, Dependencies And A Big Giant Mess

  

  Chris ( profile ), 26 Mar, 2016 @ 11:28am

  Re: Re:

  He started a project, he controlled the name.

  Obviously false, since NPM had the authority to change it.
  
  Kik's emails were perfectly reasonable and affable here. In response, Koculo went to 11 immediately and started raging in "FUCK THE MAN!" mode, and then when he realized he didn't actually have the power he thought he did, he petulantly took his ball and went home. No big loss.
  
  If I created a module called "walmart", I might expect some corporate resistance, and rightfully so. If I rebuff Walmart's polite emails asking to compensate me for changing my module's name, and instead act like an raging asshole lunatic, and Walmart turns to the private party whose services I am currently dependent on to solve the matter, than I have badly misplayed my hand, and I deserve what I get.

• On the post: CenturyLink Follows Comcast's Lead, To Start Charging Broadband Overage Fees

  

  Chris ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2016 @ 09:38am

  Re: But there is no higher speed plan...

  Seriously. If they could give me more then 6 Mbps, I'd gladly pay a premium for a business account.

• On the post: Congressional Reps Submit Bill Banning Encryption Bans

  

  Chris ( profile ), 10 Feb, 2016 @ 02:10pm

  Re: Re: Re:

  I would say that regulating them merely because the phones themselves might be manufactured in one state and shipped to another would be a stretch of the interstate commerce powers. I mean, that applies to just about every product.

  Given that the feds interpret "interstate commerce" to mean "anything that could conceivably have any economic effect ever", it's not a stretch at all, sadly.
  
  Other things that qualify as "interstate commerce", according the the federal government:
  1. Raising grain on your own land to feed your own cattle (Wickard v. Filburn)
  2. Growing pot in your own house to smoke yourself (Gonzales v. Raich)
  3. Possessing a gun in a school zone (United States v. Lopez)

• On the post: Judge Blocks Release Of Anti-Abortion Videos As The Arbiter Of Journalism

  

  Chris ( profile ), 10 Feb, 2016 @ 07:06am

  Re: Very Real Threat

  Therefore, there is an issue of public safety involved - which, if you are aware of speech law, is not protected speech.

  Completely, 100% wrong. Please turn in your law degree.
  
  If I go on TV and call Muhammad a "murderous pedophile who created a death cult", it's highly likely some of his adherents will decide to go on a killing spree to prove how wrong I am, but even so, a judge can't order me not to say it.
  
  Being worried that someone might say something that makes other people angry is not a cause to suppress that person's free speech rights as protected by the first amendment. Unless the group in question is making threats and/or telling listeners to attack pro-choice establishments, their speech is protected.

• On the post: City Of Chicago 'Embraces' Transparency By Releasing Shooting Video To Draw Attention Away From Attorney Misconduct

  

  Chris ( profile ), 25 Jan, 2016 @ 06:32pm

  Re: Euphemism Alert

  Police officers are "gunned down".
  Average citizens are "struck by a bullet discharged from a firearm while it happened to be in the possession of a member of the police department".

• On the post: Disgraced Georgia Dentist Files Bogus Defamation Lawsuit To Go After Person Who Posted News Report To YouTube

  

  Chris ( profile ), 21 Jan, 2016 @ 07:51am

  Re:

  The video isn't defamation but the username "gordonaustinisacoward", technically, is defamation.

  No, it's not. At all. Please turn in your law degree.

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