Sunhawk 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: 5 Year Old Who Drew A Gun In Crayon Forced To Sign No-Suicide Contract With School

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2014 @ 10:16pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: A minor can't agree to a contract

    School is majority leftist no matter where you go.

    AHAHAHAHA, HAHA... oh, wait, you're serious.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n5E7feJHw0

  • On the post: Another Online Retailer Thinks It Can Charge Customers For Complaining; Now Facing Lawsuit In New York

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2014 @ 07:47am

    Re: Re:

    You can contact the three credit monitoring (Interfax etc) agencies to dispute a claim.

  • On the post: Counter-Strike Player's Twitch Stream Captures His Own SWATting… And Some Questionable Police Behavior

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2014 @ 07:40am

    Re:

    Plus, if you see a shooter, you now know (1) where they are and (2) likely what they're equipped with.

    And also not noisily clearly each room (the streamer said "hey, I think we've been SWATted") to let everyone in all the other rooms not yet searched that they're there.

    In truth, if they were actually encountering an active shooter this would be a very bad approach. But these days they rarely are.

  • On the post: Justice Dept. Official: We Could Get Lois Lerner's Emails From Backups, But It's Too Hard So Naaaaaah

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 27 Aug, 2014 @ 05:04pm

    Re: Re: Re: Oh, the stories I could tell you about backups

    ... point. There's almost certainly been skimping on safeties and backups to stretch inadequate budget(it's rare that an IT department gets an adequate budget, it seems to me - particularly for things that don't demonstrate a benefit unless something bad happens).

  • On the post: Justice Dept. Official: We Could Get Lois Lerner's Emails From Backups, But It's Too Hard So Naaaaaah

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 27 Aug, 2014 @ 05:01pm

    I'd been wondering if this wasn't the case at times.

    "It's too hard" isn't an excuse; this is (however silly the directions it goes sometimes) a Congressional investigation - *make* it easier.

    Or do it anyway, chalk it up as a learning experience, and use a better backup system.

  • On the post: Rightscorp's New PR Plan: The More Ridiculous It Gets (Such As By Claiming To Hijack Browsers), The More Press It Will Get

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 21 Aug, 2014 @ 09:02pm

    Re: Re: Steele & Prenda

    If I recognize Malibu right (it's that porn company in Florida or somewhere like that?), they at least actually produce something...

  • On the post: Patent Examiners Regularly Engaged In Fraud And Abuse Via Telework Program

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 11 Aug, 2014 @ 06:42pm

    As someone contemplating doing a stint as an examiner (because God knows they need more people in the tech fields), and who did some similar 'self-reporting timesheet' work in the past, this irritates me a little more than usual.

    It's *telework*. You're in your comfort zone, you've got food available, you can be listening to music without your cubicle neighbors telling you to turn it down, you can keep an eye on kids... you've got no excuse (well, you don't have one anyway) to commit fraud.

  • On the post: Ex-NSA Boss Defends Patenting His Totally Brand New, Not Developed On Gov't Time, Patent-Pending Cybersecurity Brilliance

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 07 Aug, 2014 @ 09:12am

    Re: Re: Re: How we know he's not a cyber guy

    Amusingly, even as a youngster looking at that I was thinking "... that's not any flavor of UNIX I'm aware of..."

  • On the post: DC Comics Refuses To Let Superman Logo Adorn The Headstone Of A Young Child Who Was Starved To Death [Updated]

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 09 Jul, 2014 @ 06:08am

    Superman *fought the KKK in real life*.

    Well, okay, it was more that the Superman vs. the KKK radio special caused their recruitment to wither up completely.

    But still; Superman has been a iconic protector of the vulnerable in our culture for quite some time. Having him referenced as a protector of abused children, more or less, is *not a bad thing*.

  • On the post: Public.Resource.Org Sued (Again) For Publication Of A Document Incorporated Into Federal Regulations [Update]

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 30 May, 2014 @ 04:31am

    Re: Re: Re:

    That's generally the theory behind "natural rights", yes

    Copyright, to circle back to (roughly) the topic, is not such a right; it's not a measure to protect some individual right but a measure to improve the future state of culture and the arts by offering an incentive to create.

  • On the post: Conspiracy Theorist And Alternative Medicine Salesman Threatens To Sue Writer For Publishing True Statements About Him

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 29 May, 2014 @ 09:53pm

    Myself, I'm rather skeptical of the guy's claim at being able to outlast Forbes (which a quick wiki suggests have a circulation a bit south of a million) in court.

  • On the post: Medialink Threatens Customer With Lawsuit For Writing A Negative Amazon Review

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 07 May, 2014 @ 12:08pm

    Re:

    Hell, for $400 I might very well go to the place in question and spend a half-hour or somewhat more one evening writing a review emphasizing the positive traits.

    Assuming it was a reasonable experience, at least.

  • On the post: How Corporate Sovereignty Threatens Democracy

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2014 @ 10:25am

    Re: Re: This is bad.

    ... err... I don't think you've thought that last statement through. Who determines the compensation, and who determines what triggers a 'legitimate' demand?

    A corporation decides both (more or less), and it's ruled on by a theoretically completely neutral arbitrator. Unfortunately, the arbitrator is almost always not completely neutral, giving the corporation a bit of an edge.

    And so you've got what's described in the article - the threat to try this process. Heck, just like SLAPP, "you can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride" - the process itself is going to be inconvenient.

  • On the post: How Corporate Sovereignty Threatens Democracy

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2014 @ 10:20am

    Re: Re:

    Yes and no.

    The underlying concept is called democracy - that is, that political power rests in the people and is fairly evenly split among them (as opposed to divine right/mandate, say).

    But what we don't have is a direct democracy. We've got a representational one, where we the citizens select a smaller set of proxies to wield our (conceptual) power on our behalf.

    In addition, strictures upon how governmental powers are wielded are fully in-line with democracy - "you may not eat your fellow citizens for dinner" (either at all or "unless you can satisfy extra requirements - ie, a constitutional amendment) is quite legit under any kind of democracy short of direct unstructured democracy.

  • On the post: How Corporate Sovereignty Threatens Democracy

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2014 @ 10:34am

    One possible consequence that isn't talked about is, I think, the danger of countries avoiding the risk by *never entering into contracts with large corporations* if they can possibly help it.

    After all, without any kind of agreement with Gabriel, there's no hook for the company to try this kind of extortion.

    Corporations lose from such a trend too, I would think.

    But ultimately, I'm adamant against this kind of formalized process that often boils down to extortion. The penalty for a country dicking a company over... is lessened future investment by other companies; it's a self-correcting mechanism.

    And the judge of whether a country screwed over a corporation would be all the *other* corporations, often competitors to the first. And, in theory, self-interest wins out for a relatively impartial decision, since these potential future investors would be putting money where their mouths are.

    But an arbitration panel, even if it were completely competent and impartial, doesn't have the capitalistic advantage of self-interest working to reinforce the structure.

    Plus I dislike any kind of relinquishment of governmental power to private hands. The *restriction* of how a government can use governmental power is fine to me - but effectively transferring some of that power to an entity not obligated - even in theory - to represent the interests of me and my fellow citizens is a horrible *horrible* idea.

    (The power a government wields will always exist in a society more advanced than a small tribe. I prefer it remain in handcuffed hands that I have a say in the identity of than in unrestrained hands I have no say in the identity of)

  • On the post: Snowden Asks Putin Live On TV If Russia Carries Out Mass Surveillance; But Why?

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2014 @ 10:12am

    To be honest, on a certain level I don't give a damn if all of Rogers' claims are true about Snowden. I doubt they are, but it matters little to me.

    What matters are the documents being released. I care far more about what the government that has quite a bit of power (theoretical and actual) over me then a single individual that I've never even met.

    So Rogers, posters gleefully pouncing on this and others of the sort... are you declaring the documents to be mass forgery? Because any other claim to try and sweep the issue away I don't give a damn about in comparison. Snowden could be a kiddie fiddler and it wouldn't change the cat being out of the bag.

  • On the post: Appeals Court Not At All Impressed By Prenda's Appeal

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 10 Apr, 2014 @ 10:50am

    Re: Re:

    See how fun it is? ^^

  • On the post: The TSA Vs. The Fourth Amendment: You're Free To Board A Plane, But You're Not Free To Leave The Screening Area

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 10 Apr, 2014 @ 09:39am

    Re: Re: You got it slightly wrong.

    How cowardly we have become since Patrick Henry's "give me liberty or give me death" and Benjamin Franklin's "those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

  • On the post: The TSA Vs. The Fourth Amendment: You're Free To Board A Plane, But You're Not Free To Leave The Screening Area

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 10 Apr, 2014 @ 09:38am

    Re: Re: Re: You got it slightly wrong.

    One measure was sufficient.

    Locking the cockpit door. The point of a hijack is to wrest control of the plane, not to kill the people on the airplane (that's just a bonus - they're going for psychological impact or far more significant kill-count).

    If they wish to kill the number of people on a plane, it's easier (and more effective) to bomb, say... a busy mall. A school. A hotel.

  • On the post: New Case By Notorious B.I.G. Estate May Finally Test Question Of Sampling Fair Use

    Sunhawk ( profile ), 07 Apr, 2014 @ 06:05pm

    Re: Re: Response to: Just Another Anonymous Troll on Apr 3rd, 2014 @ 12:52pm

    And then there was the copyright lawsuit over silence.

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