This Week In Techdirt History: June 26th – July 2nd

from the back-in-the-day dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2017, Zillow got very angry about the McMansion Hell blog and sent a ridiculous legal threat, then followed up with a second equally wrong letter, then finally kinda-sorta backed down a little bit after the EFF got involved. The copyright office was recognizing that the DMCA is a problem for security research, and also somewhat inadvertently admitted that the law is more about giving Hollywood control than stopping infringement. We also saw one of the worst approaches to patent reform imaginable in Senator Coons’s STRONGER Patent Act.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2012, Miami Heat owner Ranaan Katz sued Google and a blogger claiming copyright infringement over an unflattering photo, then doubled down and threatened to sue the lawyer defending the blogger. The EU Commissioner revealed he planned to simply ignore any rejection of ACTA by the European Parliament, and Parliamentarian Marielle Gallo called ACTA dissent “a soft form of terrorism”, while Australia’s parliament committee issued its recommendation to reject the deal. Meanwhile, the USTR was giving the MPAA full access to the TPP text while still refusing to share it with Senate staffers and denying Rep. Issa’s request to observe negotiations, while still ridiculously claiming it was being transparent.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2007, Senator Feinstein was seeking some sort of return of the Fairness Doctrine, and was soon joined by Senator Durbin. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was still focused on throwing people in jail for attempted piracy, the MPAA was suing sites for linking to infringing content, a new case against the RIAA asked questions about the legality of its investigation techniques, and we saw what happens without safe harbor protections as an Australian ISP deleted all user multimedia files.

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Comments on “This Week In Techdirt History: June 26th – July 2nd”

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35 Comments
That One Guy (profile) says:

Re: Just as reliable as the setting of the sun

Forget nuclear clocks, a much more accurate way to set your clock is by waiting for the very groups who scream about how vital it is to follow the law and how even the slightest violation is a terrible crime worthy of hefty punishments to themselves violate or otherwise ignore the law.

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Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:7

And the results?

In Tero’s own testimonies, $48 made over 10 years. Of which $2 was from ad money on itch.io and the rest was made on Fiverr teaching “idiots” how to use software that wasn’t even related to Meshpage. Which is why he’s still here bitching and moaning that the government of Finland hasn’t sucked him off yet.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:8

I’ve got one.

It’s because the government of Finland is actually giving money to actual companies making ACTUAL PRODUCTS, like Colossal Games and Cities Skyline.

Tero here is making Finland, software development (both FOSS and proprietary devs), web development AND game development look bad.

He’s almost as bad as Derek Smart. Now all he needs to do is lose to a vending machine…

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terop (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:9

It’s because the government of Finland is actually giving money to actual companies making ACTUAL PRODUCTS, like Colossal Games and Cities Skyline.

If these companies have N employees, they need to build N times larger systems than what I can do. And then govt obviously gives them N times more money.

You always need to compare this to the size of the team involved. Noone expects your cat to be able to outcode cities skyline.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:10

And then govt obviously gives them N times more money

So even you know and recognize that the system is working as intended.

The government is under no obligation to compensate you for working alone because you hate the existence of other humans.

Actually, given that you hate other humans so much, you really shouldn’t expect compensation from the people you hate.

terop (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:11

So even you know and recognize that the system is working as intended.

You have to understand that N times $48 isn’t too much in the direction of “system is working as intended”. If they need to keep N people team up and running with N*$48, I don’t really know where you’re buying food from? American macdonalds isn’t selling food that cheap. Maybe russia’s “Vkusno i Tochka” might be so cheap that $48 lets them eat for 10 years…

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:12

You have to understand that N times $48 isn’t too much in the direction of “system is working as intended”.

Exponential multipliers are a thing. Or they could simply reward people based on their code actually having core functionality. You, on the other hand, have boasted on multiple occasions that your code is only there to look nice and not actually have core functionality, because you’re dumb enough to think that’s all everyone cares about.

Maybe russia’s “Vkusno i Tochka” might be so cheap that $48 lets them eat for 10 years

You should really just emigrate at this point if you think giving Putin a blowjob is that lucrative. He could always use another bottom bitch slut like you.

terop (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:13

You, on the other hand, have boasted on multiple occasions that your code is only there to look nice

The requirement for getting it to look nice is already enough challenge for one person. If single pixel from the output is wrong colour, the end users are screaming for replacing the whole screen. The accuracy level of getting every pixel correct color is (rgba)^{sxsy}, which is significantly more than there is atoms in the observable universe. And that’s just single frame, every second there’s 120 of these so the real number is 120num_of_seconds(rgba)^{sxsy}… That’s the challenge to get every pixel correct colour.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:14

The requirement for getting it to look nice is already enough challenge for one person

Tough shit. You chose to undertake a task that normally takes a full team to pull off efficiently, and pull off well. Your decision to do it singlehandedly does not entitle you to payment, especially when you do a shit job of it.

If single pixel from the output is wrong colour, the end users are screaming for replacing the whole screen

Yes, and they’re well within rights to do so. Pixel death is detrimental for the user experience.

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