OldMugwump 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Uber Wins Dubious Honor Of Being First Big Tech Company To Bully A Small Nation Using Corporate Sovereignty

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2020 @ 05:18pm

    Re: Re: Re: the right to rewrite the law

    Yes, it is more or less a right to rewrite the law. Just as the Bill of Rights allows someone to "rewrite the law" when the law violates protected rights. That's the whole point of rights - they are limits on what majorities, and legislatures, and governments, may do - there is a protected area that even a majority may not infringe on. I like the idea of human rights. They are the difference between mob rule of liberal democracy. And rights don't disappear the moment two people join together in a common purpose (as in a corporation).

  • On the post: Airbus Asks Court To Dismiss Chuck Yeager's Lawsuit, Pointing Out It Doesn't Allege Anything Actionable

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2020 @ 05:11pm

    Yeager is 96 years old...give him a break

    At that age he probably has little idea what's going on around him. I don't think he's been seen in public in a long time.

    I'll guess that his greedy kids are colluding with the shyster, hoping for a quick "go away" payoff.

  • On the post: Bad Ideas: Raising The Arbitrary Age Of Internet Service 'Consent' To 16

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 16 Jan, 2020 @ 03:44pm

    Re: Re: Why would anyone put a real date there?

    Because it's easier to remember than a made-up one. Perhaps the best policy is to pick a single fake date (easy to remember) for the 99% of cases where it doesn't matter if it's real. Preferably sometime in the year 1900. That flags it as honestly, transparently, fake. (If you were actually born in 1900, I apologize.)

  • On the post: Uber Wins Dubious Honor Of Being First Big Tech Company To Bully A Small Nation Using Corporate Sovereignty

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 16 Jan, 2020 @ 08:24pm

    Kinda like a Bill of Rights

    "It essentially gives an individual the ability to threaten to sue a nation for millions -- even billions -- of dollars if the latter brings in new laws or regulations that might adversely affect fundamental rights."

    I mean - the very idea - one tiny peon standing up for their rights against the State! How DARE they!

    Horrifying, if you're a majoritarian who thinks 51%+1 of any population are entitled to enslave, torture, and murder the minority.

    Not so horrifying,if you think people (and firms) have rights which States and majorities need to respect.

  • On the post: Appeals Court Makes The Right Call Regarding Non-Commercial Creative Commons Licenses

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 09 Jan, 2020 @ 08:10pm

    Re: Re: Step 2. Give copies away.

    The court disagrees with you. The copying agency was hired to make copies on behalf of the licensee. The copying agency was selling copy services, not the content. It's no the same thing.

  • On the post: Getting Better, Finally: Intuit's Shady Actions For Free File Program Lead To Change In IRS Deal

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 06 Jan, 2020 @ 06:01pm

    Trump sucks! [eom]

  • On the post: EU Patent Office Rejects Two Patent Applications In Which An AI Was Designated As The Inventor

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2020 @ 12:45pm

    Re: Freakin writer's blindness...

    There's plenty of money to be made without a monopoly. 99+% of all commerce doesn't involve any monopolies.

  • On the post: Minnesota Appeals Court Nukes State's Broadly-Written Revenge Porn Law

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 02 Jan, 2020 @ 11:46am

    Re: Re: Put Him in Prison Anyway

    Yes. That's what We the People get as punishment for electing idiot legislators, most of whom are trained attorneys, so stupid that they enact laws that are clearly unconstitutional and will obviously be thrown out by the courts. Next time vote more carefully, people!

  • On the post: Minnesota Appeals Court Nukes State's Broadly-Written Revenge Porn Law

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 02 Jan, 2020 @ 11:43am

    Re: voting rights restoration for felons

    How do you feel about taking away people's right to travel? To live where they want? To leave a given building? We do all that to convicted criminals. It's called "prison".

  • On the post: Cloudflare Removes Warrant Canary: Thoughtful Post Says It Can No Longer Say It Hasn't Removed A Site Due To Political Pressure

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 28 Dec, 2019 @ 12:13pm

    Kudos to Cloudflare for thinking hard about this.

    I think the best solution here is transparency:

    "We have never:
    .
    .

    • Terminated a customer or taken down content due to political pressure
      .
      .
      [      ] Except for the following: [explicit list]"

    I don't see anything wrong with taking down sites (a) at the whim of the provider (they're a private firm, they don't owe service to anybody), or (b) due to political pressure, if that pressure is in accordance with law. Obeying the law is obeying political pressure, after all. You can't take the stand that you're going to disobey the law no matter what (not and expect to get away with it).

    But you can make it transparent what you've done (and ideally, why). That should give their customers the confidence they need to do business with them.

    If/when they get a NSL or equivalent that doesn't allow them to say they've done something, then is the time to take down the canary altogether.

    BTW - a major typo in Cloudflare's statement:

    "In August 2019, Cloudflare terminated service to 8chan based on their failure to moderate their hate-filled platform in a way that inspired murderous acts. "

    I think they mean they did it because 8chan DID moderate their platform that way (not because they failed to).

  • On the post: Elon Musk And SpaceX Just Backed Down From Earlier Promise To Release SpaceX Photos To The Public Domain

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 19 Dec, 2019 @ 07:13pm

    "why is SpaceX doing this?"

    ...ask them?

  • On the post: Michael Hayden Ran The NSA And CIA: Now Warns That Encryption Backdoors Will Harm American Security & Tech Leadership

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 12 Dec, 2019 @ 02:27pm

    Hayden has always been sincere

    I know I'll get jumped on for saying this, but I understand where Hayden is coming from (even if I don't agree).

    He really fears Bad Guys with NBC weapons and associated terrorism. He fears it so much he's willing to surveil innocent people and "trash the 4th Amendment" (in Mike's words).

    But he's realistic and knows the Bad Guys are not going to use weak encryption just because there's a law. They're Bad Guys, strong encryption exists - they will use it. And weakening the victim's encryption only makes them (us) even MORE vulnerable to the Bad Guys.

    I don't agree with his conclusion, but I acknowledge that requires accepting a greater risk of the Bad Guys killing a lot of people in horrible ways. I just think preserving 4th amendment rights is more important than reducing that risk.

    But this is something on which honest people can disagree.

    [OK, start attacking me now...]

  • On the post: The Subtweet Defense Wins: Elon Musk Cleared In Defamation Case

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 10 Dec, 2019 @ 07:09am

    Re: Re: Unsworth shot himself in the foot

    I think we all owe each other a little benefit of the doubt, and a little charity re imputing motives. (At least, the world would be a nicer place if we did that.) Yes, Musk loves publicity. But I'm fairly sure he also thought his submarine thing might really work, and he surely spent a lot of money and effort on it. There are worse motives than wanting to reap glory from saving the lives of kids. Telling the guy to go away and "leave it to the professionals" - fine. Telling him to shove it up his ass, in a very public way - unjustified insult. As I said, Musk's "pedo guy" response was way over the top - and as a celebrity he ought to know better and control himself - but still understandable as an emotional reaction to being insulted for trying to help (however impractically). I'm just imagining what was going on in the mind of the jurors. I think Unsworth and his lawyer made a big tactical error in asking for $190M. If he'd asked for $190k, he might have got it.

  • On the post: The Subtweet Defense Wins: Elon Musk Cleared In Defamation Case

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2019 @ 07:14pm

    Unsworth shot himself in the foot

    ...by asking for $190M for something that was in the grey area between a rude insult and defamation.

    If I were a juror, I'd have been inclined to award Unsworth a mostly-symbolic victory - a few thousand dollars - mainly to make him feel better after being picked on by a really famous guy who should know better. (The fact that Unsworth started the insult exchange for no good reason didn't work in his favor, but as a very public personality Musk should have been more careful.)

    But when I saw Unsworth was looking for $190M, I lost all sympathy for him. He clearly was looking to cash in, not to be compensated fairly.

    It wouldn't surprise me if some jurors thought the same way.

  • On the post: DHS Wanted To Add US Citizens To The Long List Of People Subjected To Mandatory Face Scans At Airports… But Has Backed Down For Now

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 06 Dec, 2019 @ 10:30am

    Re: Re: Big deal - not

    Yes, it is. But you have to pick your battles.

  • On the post: DHS Wanted To Add US Citizens To The Long List Of People Subjected To Mandatory Face Scans At Airports… But Has Backed Down For Now

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 06 Dec, 2019 @ 08:13am

    Big deal - not

    They already demand passports with photos to enter the country, photos which have been scanned and stored in a DHS database.

    And they check those passports when you enter the US.

    So if you travel they have your digitized photo and a complete record of your entries (and probably most of your exits).

    What would this change, really? Not much. It just double-checks the immigration officer's comparison of your photo to your face at the little interview booth.

    I'm not happy about the whole security theater situation, but we have to be realistic about what's worth a fight and what isn't.

  • On the post: Oregon Supreme Court Shuts Down Pretextual Traffic Stops; Says Cops Can't Ask Questions Unrelated To The Violation

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 02 Dec, 2019 @ 04:14pm

    No I don't, and no I don't

    ‘Do you have anything illegal in the car? Would you consent to a search for guns, drugs, knives, bombs, illegal documents, or anything else that you’re not allowed to possess?’

    What's wrong with just saying "no, I don't, and no I don't"?

  • On the post: Richard Liebowitz Is Wrong On So Many Levels, And Is In Trouble Yet Again

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 26 Nov, 2019 @ 08:34am

    Q:Who the hell still thinks it's worth hiring Richard Liebowitz?

    A: Plaintiffs with cases so meritless that "no reasonable lawyer with any familiarity with the law of copyright" would take them.

  • On the post: Photographer's Bullshit Arrest By A Dallas Transit Cop Nets Him A $345,000 Settlement

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 24 Nov, 2019 @ 01:12pm

    Re: Re: Re: i would contest it..

    For good or ill, we live in a democracy. When the government does stupid and evil things, it's ultimately the responsibility of the voters who elected the government. So expect, as a voter, to "pay your share" of the result. Personally, I'm a big fan of rights that can't be taken away by majority vote.

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    OldMugwump ( profile ), 24 Nov, 2019 @ 01:01pm

    It's symmetrical

    Re Barr and executive power, "bt' is quite right.

    But it's equally true on the other side of the aisle - when a Democrat president does a power grab it's fine with Democrats. When a R president does it, it's treason - to the Democrats.

    Our two major parties are much alike - partisanship and a skewed view of the world is quite symmetrical.

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