This Week In Techdirt History: November 5th – 11th
from the first-as-tragedy,-then... dept
Five Years Ago
This week in 2018, there was another failed attempt to hold Twitter responsible for terrorism, while we were taking a closer look at the massive influence campaigns and coordinated election interference happening on the platform. AT&T began kicking pirates off the internet, the Supreme Court rejected the telecom industry’s calls to hear a net neutrality case, and the FCC was pretending to do something about robocalls. Meanwhile, Manhattan DA Cy Vance was calling for federally-mandated encryption back doors.
Ten Years Ago
This week in 2013, it turned out Team Prenda’s Paul Hansmeier had moved on to suing companies over supposed ADA violations, and it sure was keeping him busy, while Prenda itself was seeing the big losses (and the big bills) continue to pile up. Meanwhile, NSA defenders were rejecting a clemency appeal that Ed Snowden never actually made and favorably comparing metadata collection to stop-and-frisk, as both Al Gore and Tim Berners-Lee came out with stern condemnations of NSA surveillance and we looked at the major media bias towards NSA defenders and the many examples of chilling effects created by the surveillance.
Fifteen Years Ago
This week in 2008, we learned more about the funny incident in which the video for Weird Al’s Don’t Download This Song had the names of filesharing tools bleeped out. A UK ISP was trying to wage war on open WiFi by threatening to disconnect anyone with an open network, authors in Italy were calling for a you-must-be-a-pirate tax on all DSL connections, and the Copyright Alliance was begging the Supreme Court to make remote DVRs illegal (while we wondered why the MPAA had secured the power to review and test DVD players). And another video game executive was attacking the existence of used game sales, while Motorola started trying to block used phone sales.
Comments on “This Week In Techdirt History: November 5th – 11th”
It really has been ten years, huh? Thanks for the reminder of Paul Hansmeier and John Smith/horse with no name completely embarrassing themselves.
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Wow, another 15 year stretch of history when this blog wasn’t pushing radical gender ideology or pro-transgender propaganda down the throats of its readers. (Nor excusing U.S. gov’t censorship that targeted ideological opponents of the site’s owner – but I digress…)
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A bigots inane ramblings is an automatic flag.
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Hey Matt. Wave goodbye to that penis of yours, you won’t be needing it where you’re going.
It’s time you took a trip down the FTM, MTF rabbit hole.
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You can hide the truth all you want. The revolution is coming for you, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.
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Wrong, that was 15 years where bigots like you and Hyman were not present pushing anti-trans bigotry down everybodies throats.
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They were instead ramming their anti-human ideology down the throats of churches and other countries.
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It’s always enlightening to look back at how the landscape of technology and digital rights has evolved. The 2018 recap about Twitter grappling with terrorism-related content and AT&T’s move against piracy highlights the ongoing tug-of-war between security and privacy. The 2013 notes on the NSA surveillance controversy and the legal battles of Team Prenda remind us of the complex interplay between law, technology, and individual rights. And going back to 2008, it’s fascinating to see the copyright debates, like the one around Weird Al’s song and the controversies over used game and phone sales. This retrospective is not just a trip down memory lane, but a vital reflection on how these issues continue to shape our digital world.
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Oh yeah I remember when Putin spent like $3000 on Twitter ads and it was the end of democracy. Meanwhile, the FBI and every three letter agency were directly suppressing free speech and…crickets.
This blog is a sham and I also remember why I left. Later, bootlickers.
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[insert Tombstone Curly Bill “Well…bye” gif here]
Oh wait, you’re still here.
“I’m really leaving this time! You’ll all be sorry.”
“No really, guys, I’m totally leaving.”
“Yep, this is me on my way out!”
“Well, maybe after this next article…”