This Week In Techdirt History: September 2nd – 8th

from the depths-of-time dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2013, the NSA revelations continued with the discovery that the US was launching hundreds of cyberattacks and that AT&T had employees embedded in the government to provide real-time phone call searches. The various excuses and half-measures were coming frequently, with a former agency boss saying surveillance is important but the NSA should just lie less, President Obama saying the NSA needs more checks and balances while simultaneously claiming the existing ones are working well, and the agency itself asserting that it only spies on bad people while leaving open a giant loophole that covers spying on everyone else.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2008, there were two huge launches from Google: they introduced the Chrome browser, and the Android Market for apps (which they touted heavily as being more open than Apple’s App Store. AT&T was bragging about the pursuit of patents while US Customs was raiding trade show booths over patent infringement. Facebook was, rather heavyhandedly, blocking all links to the very useful resource of BugMeNot. And we were starting to see how the proliferation of GPS-enabled devices was becoming a tool of the police.

Fifteen Years Ago

There was a big launch this week in 2003 as well, with the folks behind Kazaa (who had also recently made the ill-advised choice to send DMCA notices to Google) launched the soon-to-be-nearly-ubiquitous Skype. It was also the very early days of the RSS protocol, and our post questioning whether it was a bit overhyped somehow got us lumped in with the supposed “RSS backlash”. Meanwhile, the RIAA was preparing to upgrade its legal campaign from subpoenas to actual lawsuits, while also offering a hilarious amnesty program for anyone who would sign a file sharing confession and delete all their songs.

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Comments on “This Week In Techdirt History: September 2nd – 8th”

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17 Comments
Rich Hoots says:

I am Part of the Resistance Inside Techdirt. I am Spartacus too.

I am releasing this "committee confidential" report to inform The Resistance is working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations, to prevent Masnick from carrying out his insane and dangerous notions. Left to himself, he’ll hand over America to corporations, the bigger and more globalist, the better.

There are many of me — millions! We outnumber masnicks by at least two orders of magnitude. The rest just don’t comment HERE, because pointless. Indeed, counter-productive to make Masnick’s site popular. He’s never going to change the views which were just handed to him, like everything else in his overly privileged, unmerited-by-work life, already whole, in the Ivy League indoctrination that he didn’t pay for.

It’s absolutely ridiculous to comment here on this ridiculous little site with its second-hand ridiculous views feebly re-written from the ridiculously globalist New York Times, having to be made more ridiculous so that the ridiculous fanboys who can’t grasp any complexity will know at whom to bark their little heads off. It’s ridiculous. [Hope I don’t give away my identity by over-using one of Masnick’s favorite words!]


Stopping because not going to entertain you piratey fanboy trolls. Make up your own lies just the New York Times does. So, just: Vive La Resistance!

But read this if dare:

https://www.unz.com/article/the-new-york-times-as-iago/

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: I am Part of the Resistance Inside Techdirt. I am Spartacus too.

Well, hello, Spartacus. I don’t think Mike is as bad as you say. Perhaps he was dropped on his head as a young child, and that part of his brain associated with normal morality was extinguished, and instead, that part of his brain associated with disgusting childish filth took it’s place. That could account for the frequent use of the word “shit” in the articles and uncensored comments. Maybe he was abused in school because of his looks and soft pathetic pussy face, maybe he didn’t get the attention he wanted from ladies. Maybe that accounts for the uncensored and disgusting sexual commentary here. Maybe getting on stage with Trans Gender Traitors (TGT) affected him more than we know. Maybe there is some reason not fully under his control that compels him to produce the ridiculous articles and ridiculous commentary using a ridiculous (and secret) terms of service methodology to “silence” any non-ridiculous voices. Maybe he deserves the benefit of the doubt, since he creates so much doubt by never answering direct questions.

Maybe not. Maybe he’s just a ridiculous jerk promoting a ridiculous and disgusting site in return for small money because that’s all he knows how to do.

Nice article, thanks.

Killercool (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:2 I am Part of the Resistance Inside Techdirt. I am Spartacus too.

"Trans Gender Traitors"

"soft pathetic pussy face"

Dude, we ain’t the ones that jumped in the gutter first.
You just didn’t realize it, because your head is shoved up your own ass, and the smell was familiar.

Now, don’t faint from the naughty words.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:3 I am Part of the Resistance Inside Techdirt. I am Spartacus too.

Well, I understand if you think I was offensive, but how in the heck is suggesting that we “get a room” an effective comeback to someone offensive? Is the mere mention of something sexual somehow controversial? Personally, I think the writer was a woman, and getting a room with her might be really good. I’m just looking for the rationale, that’s all. How does a pivot to “get a room” say anything worthwhile, unless you believe sex itself is somehow taboo. That’s why I asked if the writer was 14 – because his question sounds childish.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:4 I am Part of the Resistance Inside Techdirt. I am Spartacus too.

It means you should take your sexual fetishes to somewhere private. Offensive or not, you two deserve undivided attention based on your devotion to each other.

If you find hiding your love and affection for each other to be so objectionable, try getting your nasty on in public. Maybe you find the idea of being arrested for flouting public decency laws to be arousing.

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