Deirdre 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: West Virginia Tries To Improve Broadband Competition, Incumbent ISPs Immediately Sue

    Deirdre ( profile ), 28 Jul, 2017 @ 08:43am

    GRRR.....Frontier

    I have an office in the second largest state in W.Va.-- at least it used to be, haven't checked in a while. I have to have some sort of Broadband-- two options Frontier and Comcast. Between the devil and the deep blue sea.

    When Frontier took over from Verizon here we went a month without service. They blamed Verizon. There's been various outages over the years since. Recently I dropped our land lines and added a wireless phone because they were incapable of fixing a really annoying sound on the land line that made the phones unusable. I hate to think what people in the rural areas have to put up with.

  • On the post: Zillow Still Doesn't Get It: Second Letter About McMansion Hell Is Still Just Wrong

    Deirdre ( profile ), 29 Jun, 2017 @ 02:18pm

    Maybe Zillow Is Just Mad at Copyright

    Found that in February of this year Zillow ended up with a million+ jury award against them because Zillow was not deleting photographs licensed for listing purposes, but using them on Zillow Digs (which I confess to never looking at) where one could find residential design, home improvement and remodeling ideas.

    http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2017/02/13/zillow-ordered-pay-83m-in-copyright-case

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

    Deirdre ( profile ), 09 Feb, 2016 @ 03:25pm

    "For what it's worth, reports seem to suggest that the CMP has decided to ignore the judge's orders and has released at least some of the new videos anyway. That will likely lead to more legal action against the group. But it shouldn't. Speech is to be protected as a moral stance, even bad speech."

    Yes it should lead to more legal action against the group. There are procedures for appeal, even emergency appeal, which CMP knows about because one they filed one with the supreme when a court ordered them to release the names of the people who they shared information with that was covered by a NDA. Appeal would be the correct process if they feel this is inappropriate prior restraint of their first amendment rights.

    If you are going to ignore a court order than you had better be prepared to deal with a fine or imprisonment for contempt of court.

    I think that the center of this case is the voluntarily signed NDA. Journalists are bound by an NDA once it is signed. It is why many journalists may decline to sign an NDA and then try to source the information they seek elsewhere. California appears to be a state that takes an NDA seriously.

  • On the post: Lawyers Threaten SomethingAwful For Using Photo In Movie Review

    Deirdre ( profile ), 10 Jun, 2015 @ 02:09pm

    Re:

    I do know several lawyers who have been slapped with Rule 11 sanctions, but it happened in state court, the amounts were more stinging than stupendous, and the lawyers tend not to want to talk about it-- the lawyers who have been sanctioned that is. All of the other lawyers talk about it a lot.

  • On the post: Sorry: AT&T & Verizon Can't Upgrade Or Repair Your Aging DSL Line Because Parts Are Too Hard To Find

    Deirdre ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2015 @ 12:57pm

    My DSL/Land Line was Sold to Frontier by Verizon

    First thing that happened after Frontier took over was our telephone service (but not our DSL) went out for nearly a month. Frontier's employees blamed it on Verizon leaving the equipment in disrepair. While we did finally get our telephone service back I never figured out if that was a legitimate excuse.

    I will say our DSL never worked better than during that month.

  • On the post: The Supreme Court Has Just Given The Police Another Way To Search Your House Without A Warrant

    Deirdre ( profile ), 27 Feb, 2014 @ 08:54pm

    Actually the Kaley forfeiture decision bothers me more than this one.

  • On the post: How Trademark Law Can Finally Kill Dan Snyder's Racist Dreamworld

    Deirdre ( profile ), 09 Nov, 2013 @ 05:53am

    Re:

    Totally without context I think young potatoes. Maybe they could become the Washington Small Potatoes.

  • On the post: Report From The Court Room On Latest Prenda Hearing In Minnesota: Another Hearing, Another Mess

    Deirdre ( profile ), 01 Oct, 2013 @ 10:12am

    Re: Re: Something caught my eye...

    Steele could testify to what he heard directly (Cooper's side of the conversation-- direct experience. Heresay would be if Steele testified to Cooper telling him what Lutz (?) said in Lutz's side of the conversation that Steele did not hear-- unless it falls under the exceptions and exemptions to the rule against heresay.

  • On the post: Angry Judge Tells Prenda To Stop Falsifying Alan Cooper's Signature; Calls It Fraud

    Deirdre ( profile ), 21 May, 2013 @ 05:06pm

    Re:

    A lawyer can sometimes get out of hot water by voluntarily surrendering his/her license to practice law. A bit later (usually after getting out of rehab) she/he can petition to be reinstated. Its usually granted if the lawyer sounds contrite enough.

  • On the post: Counter-Strike Map Of School Causes Outrage

    Deirdre ( profile ), 29 Mar, 2013 @ 04:12pm

    Re: Re: Nice

    Oh Yeah! You got my vote for Funny.

  • On the post: 'Defendant' In Prenda Law Case Reveals He Agreed To Take A Dive

    Deirdre ( profile ), 26 Jan, 2013 @ 09:42am

    Prenda Was OK Until Dots Started to Be Connected

    All of the events in this case were spread across different courts in different parts of the country. It wasn't until defendants started to get a look at the big picture-- thank you to those who made the facts available-- that any single judge would have known what was going on. Even so it is necessary to come up with a legal theory that would allow the evidence of misbehavior to be introduced. (I'm not saying it doesn't exist, I just haven't given it much thought. A party can't just introduce evidence willy-nilly, it has to be allowed by the Rules of Evidence in the Court where the case is being heard.)

  • On the post: Court Temporarily Blocks School District From Suspending Student For Refusing To Wear Student ID/Tracking Device

    Deirdre ( profile ), 27 Nov, 2012 @ 06:28pm

    Re: Safety is in the eyes of the beholder

    I always thought it rather creepy that a certain small town in Ohio I passed through put up road signs bragging about their participation in a child fingerprinting program. It was done to-- I don't know why it was done. Maybe to tell Mr. Stranger Danger to go down the road and leave these children to the family, friends and neighbors who are most likely to abuse children.

  • On the post: House Republicans: Copyright Law Destroys Markets; It's Time For Real Reform

    Deirdre ( profile ), 17 Nov, 2012 @ 06:17am

    I'm not a one issue voter and the GOP in this paper are not addressing anything that swayed my vote this fall.

  • On the post: Organizations Try To Shame People Into Voting By Revealing How Often They & Their Neighbors Voted

    Deirdre ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2012 @ 06:52am

    Darn, I voted early and have been tossing campaign flyers without looking at them. Saturday I had so many in my post office box that I couldn't get my mail out of the box without ripping some. Now I'll never know if my neighbors know I have a perfect score for showing up at the polls.

    Oops, maybe they do know. I voted early because all of the election day poll workers are my neighbors.

  • On the post: Gangnam Style Shows What Can Happen When You Don't Lean On Copyright

    Deirdre ( profile ), 03 Oct, 2012 @ 05:48am

    Well, I'm glad to know what all this is about. The artist was even on NPR one morning several weeks ago.

  • On the post: Philippines Outlaws Cybersex

    Deirdre ( profile ), 19 Sep, 2012 @ 08:37am

    The legal definition of consideration when discussing a contract or agreement does not necessarily mean hard cash or actual goods. Consideration is an item of value but it can be as vague and hard to quantify as "natural love and affection" owed from one person to another rather than explicit payment or even barter. Also it can be that one party agrees to undertake some act for the other person as consideration.

    This sounds like sloppy legal drafting.

  • On the post: Author Cries Trademark Infringment On Book Reviews Of A Different Book

    Deirdre ( profile ), 13 Sep, 2012 @ 11:35am

    He is claiming willful and malicious trademark infringement on the bloggers which is different from innocent infringement. This suggests that the bloggers should have known about his trademark. I know I always check the US trademark on books I read in case I might want to know if it is owned by some crazy person before I post a review in which I-- oh, might mention the name of the book.

    I wonder if he C&D Amazon and B&N?

  • On the post: Legit Ebook Lending Site Taken Down By An Angry Twitmob Of Writers [UPDATED]

    Deirdre ( profile ), 09 Aug, 2012 @ 11:36am

    Re:

    The christian genre probably explains why I didn't recognize many of the names. This isn't Shawn Lamb's first rodeo though. Most of her craziness has been kept to Amazon forums. She had a fit over a two star review of one of her books and also wrote something about how some christian reviewers were "downright nasty" in their reviews. I think by this she meant that some christian reviewer did not love her book. She has a history of trying to rewrite internet history. Total waste as anyone who has been around a while could tell her.

  • On the post: Amazon Hides Classic Free Public Domain Ebooks

    Deirdre ( profile ), 25 Jul, 2012 @ 04:30pm

    I'm not seeing the problem. I just checked some authors-- Austen, Anne Bronte, and some more obscure works: The Pleasures of a Single Life, Or, The Miseries of Matrimony Occasionally writ upon the many divorces lately granted by Parliament. With The choice, or, ... to the beaus against the next vacation. [Kindle Edition] by John Pomfret and everything seems to be where it should be.

    I just downloaded that last one, looks like an interesting historic document/pamphlet (34 pages).

  • On the post: Attendee At Batman Shooting Plans To Sue Warner Bros For Making Batman Too Violent

    Deirdre ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2012 @ 12:41pm

    Re: Poor Guy

    The lawyer is thinking that if you sue enough people someone (and possibly more than one someone) might settle out. Yes, it is scummy and lawyers doing this make me despair for the legal profession.

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