Rich Fiscus 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (218)

• On the post: With 12% Of Comcast Customers Now Broadband Capped, Comcast Declares It's Simply Spreading 'Fairness'

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 31 Oct, 2015 @ 09:47am

  Re: Re:

  I thought that was the smell of spreading freedom....

  
  My grandfather, who raised pigs, had a different name for that smell which seems appropriate in this case. He called it the smell of money.
  
  Here's a pro tip for those of you not as familiar with agriculture. This machine is not a fairness spreader.

• On the post: With 12% Of Comcast Customers Now Broadband Capped, Comcast Declares It's Simply Spreading 'Fairness'

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 30 Oct, 2015 @ 10:11am

  I guess you learn something every day. Apparently fairness smells just like bullshit.

• On the post: Blaming Facebook For A User's Content Is The Least Crazy Thing About This Lawsuit

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 30 Sep, 2015 @ 02:48pm

  You laugh at this guy, but this is a brilliant career move. How many lawyers can tell stories about their first moron client before finishing law school?
  
  At this rate, he'll be ready to go full Rakofsky in another month or two. If he plays his cards right, he could have Marc Randazza's boot print permanently imprinted on his ass before he takes the bar exam.

• On the post: Comcast Really Wants Me To Stop Calling Their Top Lobbyist A 'Top Lobbyist'

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 22 Jul, 2015 @ 10:06am

  In all fairness, lobbyist doesn't convey the reality of what this guy does. I suggest replacing it with Chief Bullshit Agent and Graft Merchant for Assuring Noninterference.
  
  Actually, that's such a mouthful, you're probably better off abbreviating it to Chief BAG MAN.

• On the post: NYC Mayor Picks Fight With Uber That He Cannot Win

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 20 Jul, 2015 @ 04:06pm

  City Hall doesn’t buy the notion that Uber is growing fast enough for a cap to disrupt the service.... And the mayor’s circle also doesn’t believe that Uber is broadly popular, or represents anything most New Yorkers care about

  
  
  Let me see if I've got this straight. His argument appears to be, "Pass this because it won't actually affect anyone in any way." He'd probably be better off with, "Pass this to make sure my cut of the money that New York cabbies are practically stealing from you."
  
  A corrupt politician is one thing, but I draw the line at stupid.

• On the post: These Clueless Politicians Are The Ones Determining If The NSA Gets To Keep Spying On All Of Us

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 11 May, 2015 @ 05:24am

  Dear Senator McConnell,
  
  If you would stop wiping your ass with the Constitution for a few minutes and just read it, you would learn we've been "testing" this system for more than 200 years.

• On the post: Law Enforcement's Cluelessness On Display In Congressional Hearing On Undermining Encryption

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 30 Apr, 2015 @ 11:56am

  If law enforcement is so crippled by encryption, just think how severely we've been hamstringing them all these years by putting our mail in envelopes. It's time we put an end to to all this excessive privacy!
  
  For God's Sake, won't somebody please think of the children!!!!111

• On the post: A Residence With Locking Doors And A Working Toilet Is All That's Needed To Justify A No-Knock Warrant

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2015 @ 06:34am

  Re:

  So when the police break down the door to murder a unarmed and drug free woman that was startled trying too protect her infant son do the police pat them self on the back and call it a day?

  
  Don't be ridiculous. Depending on the number of police involved, it may take hours to make sure everybody's telling the same story.
  
  Then they pat themselves on the back and call it a day.

• On the post: Recording Industry's Latest Plan To Mess Up The Internet: Do Away With Safe Harbors

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2015 @ 09:34am

  Laws that were designed to exempt passive hosting companies from liability in the early days of the internet

  
  How exactly do you offer a service passively?

• On the post: A Residence With Locking Doors And A Working Toilet Is All That's Needed To Justify A No-Knock Warrant

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2015 @ 03:54am

  Ignorance of the law is no excuse.... unless you're a cop.

• On the post: Our Response To Sony Sending Us A Threat Letter For Reporting On The Company's Leaked Emails

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 21 Apr, 2015 @ 01:56pm

  In other news, due to a bad translation of the first rule of holes, Sony has announced plans to open a shovel factory.

• On the post: Report: 'Nearly Every' FBI Forensics Expert Gave Flawed Testimony In 'Almost All Trials' Over A 20-Year Period

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 20 Apr, 2015 @ 08:25am

  To butcher a quote, from The Usual Suspects:
  

  To a cop, the explanation is never that complicated. It's always simple. If you got a dead body and you think his brother did it, you're gonna find out you're right.

• On the post: Congress Finally Releases Fast Track Trade Bill, And It's A Mess

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 16 Apr, 2015 @ 02:32pm

  It's a really weird fight in oh so many ways.

  
  
  Funny that this should come on the same day as the piece about ALEC. They also happen to be one of the key proponents of the TPP. I'd also be willing to bet they, or one of the other "think tanks" aligned with them, provided the initial framework for it.

• On the post: No, Getting Your Music Played On The Radio Is Nothing Like Slavery

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 14 Apr, 2015 @ 11:12am

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Pot, meet kettle

  I don't have a specific cite, just a lot of information about the history of the music business in America. During Prohibition, the Mafia basically took over huge swaths of the live music business because they were the ones running most of the speakeasies. They also spread into much smaller markets in order to maximize the booze trade. If you wanted to play in a mob owned club, you went through a mob connected manager. He owned you and they owned him.
  
  In fairness to the Mafia, their part was almost entirely on the live music side of things. Others developed the worst recording industry practices, and were already doing so before that. Having said that, the manager's role as uncritical mouthpiece for the label, whom he knows is screwing his purported client, is a direct extension of the Mafia's model.

• On the post: No, Getting Your Music Played On The Radio Is Nothing Like Slavery

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 14 Apr, 2015 @ 09:11am

  Re: Re: Pot, meet kettle

  It's exactly what you'd expect from an industry whose business model was developed (literally) by the Mafia. It's intentionally designed to obscure the real financials.

• On the post: No, Getting Your Music Played On The Radio Is Nothing Like Slavery

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 14 Apr, 2015 @ 08:36am

  Pot, meet kettle

  “What other industry says, ' We can’t afford to pay our workers; We want them to work for free,'”

  
  
  As a musician, the first one that comes to mind is the recording industry - at least the part the RIAA represents.

• On the post: Comcast Deeply Offended By Claims It Pays People To Support Its Merger

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 07 Apr, 2015 @ 06:19am

  It's the Casablanca defense.
  
  I'm shocked! Shocked to find out there's lobbying coming out of our sock puppet's mouth.

• On the post: USPTO Demands EFF Censor Its Comments On Patentable Subject Matter

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 07 Apr, 2015 @ 05:17am

  At this point, with the USPTO blatantly violating the First Amendment's guarantee of the right to petition the government for redress of grievances, the question of patent policy is the least of my concerns. Clearly they weren't interested in actually obeying the SCOTUS anyway, or they wouldn't have censored a filing which clearly shows how recent court decisions are being ignored.
  
  I'm much more concerned with figuring out how to send a message that censorship will not be tolerated. It occurs to me that the most effective response would be a flood of comments from other people, all revolving around the EFF's censored comparison. It wouldn't hurt to add the text of the First Amendment to the end, with the bit about petitioning the government bolded.

• On the post: Police Chief Unable To Simply Do Nothing Over Reported Teen Sexting, Brings Child Porn Charges Against Four Minors

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 02 Apr, 2015 @ 09:35am

  No, it's in place to prevent the nonconsensual sexual exploitation of children.

  
  Except by government officials. They're free to exploit the children any way they like.

• On the post: CNBC Worries About Poor, Helpless Multinational Corporations Who Are Being 'Cyberbullied'

  

  Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 31 Mar, 2015 @ 09:08am

  I believe the correct term for this is capitalism.

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