Ben 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (336)

• On the post: Hospitals Now Seeing 20 Ransomware Attacks Per Day On IT Infrastructure

  

  Ben ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2016 @ 08:08am

  Re: Re: NEVER pay a ransom

  If you are running a hospital/enterprise computer system, you are doing backups. You are doing daily/weekly/monthly rotation backups. You should not be losing more than a single day's data should the worst happen. A large hospital/enterprise system would also have in place disaster management plans even in the case of when the worst does happen.
  
  I place the most blame on email systems which permit links to be "followed." Yes there are also attachments to blame, but links are, I believe, the primary route for infecting computers; there should be a policy switch for turning that OFF across all mail readers.

• On the post: Another Whistleblower Highlights The Futility Of The 'Proper Channels'

  

  Ben ( profile ), 04 Nov, 2016 @ 08:31am

  Re:

  Ours.

• On the post: Oh, Look, Two Breweries Work Out A Trademark Issue Without Lawyers, Threats, Or Asshole-ery

  

  Ben ( profile ), 03 Nov, 2016 @ 06:51pm

  Re: Re:

  ... and is that good news?

• On the post: Comcast Joins AT&T, Files Lawsuit Against Nashville To Slow Google Fiber

  

  Ben ( profile ), 27 Oct, 2016 @ 06:43am

  really!?!?!

  "...Comcast will suffer significant, irreparable injury to its [...] customer relationships.They seriously wrote that down? Comcast? I know lawyers are professional truth spinners, but that *had* to hurt.

• On the post: Media, Politics & The Death Of Intellectual Honesty

  

  Ben ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2016 @ 01:05pm

  2017

  2016 can't end fast enough. Hopefully 2017 is better

  SSDY (Same S...); except 2017 will be starting with the fallout from the "rigged" election, where 40%+ of the electorate will be accusing the rest of stealing the presidency.
  
  It could only be worse if it ended with Cats sleeping with Dogs; you know, those Old Testament types of disasters...

• On the post: Phoenix Police Issues Totally Bogus Cease & Desist To Trump Campaign Claiming Copyright Infringement

  

  Ben ( profile ), 03 Oct, 2016 @ 09:53am

  That's not their job...

  All existing copies of photos, videotape, and other images must be immediately removed from the public domain.

  Apparently that's the job of Congress and the Copyright Office; only they can retroactively re-instate copyright.

• On the post: Oracle's 'Gamechanger' Evidence Really Just Evidence Of Oracle Lawyers Failing To Read

  

  Ben ( profile ), 28 Sep, 2016 @ 12:09pm

  They'd be stupid to file a new case...

  And, on top of that, Oracle may file a new case against Google for non-tablet/phone uses anyway.

  ... at which point Google enters the OpenJDK line of evidence showing that the API is clearly available to use; Oracle would lose quickly (of course it would really depend on what exactly they sue over).
  
  Somewhere in all this I get the impression Oracle is upset about something that Google did or said and won't let them just close the book and move on.

• On the post: EFF White Paper Hopes To Educate Cops On The Difference Between An IP Address And A Person

  

  Ben ( profile ), 27 Sep, 2016 @ 06:53am

  Isn't it the judiciary that needs to be educated?

  Yes the cops are following bogus leads. But they request a warrant from a judge -- and the judge should call bullshit when it is all predicated on an IP address -- *IF* they knew better.
  
  EFF should be pushing for updating the law school curriculum, and for getting the facts about IP address <> person, and how they are not appropriate for warrants, to the existing lawyers and judges. The police would learn in time: the burnt hand learns best.

• On the post: Traffic Is Fake, Audience Numbers Are Garbage, And Nobody Knows How Many People See Anything

  

  Ben ( profile ), 26 Sep, 2016 @ 11:08am

  Re: Re:

  Being paid in "Nerd Harder" T-Shirts should not count.

• On the post: Lenovo Accused Of Locking Linux Out Of Certain Laptops At Microsoft's Request

  

  Ben ( profile ), 21 Sep, 2016 @ 12:30pm

  Re: Re:

  I think more to the point: that if they did lock out other OS options, did they identify that fact in their literature? Lots of people buy laptops to put Linux on them. If the documentation clearly stated something to the effect of "This laptop does not support Linux" then people would know not to buy it. The problem is them not being open with their customers, not a problem with Microsoft (about this /s).

• On the post: DHS's New Election Cybersecurity Committee Has No Cybersecurity Experts

  

  Ben ( profile ), 02 Sep, 2016 @ 01:28pm

  Re: SOS Kemp

  Elected as Secretary of State -- but appointed to the DHS's Election Infrastructure Cybersecurity committee/working group.

• On the post: James Comey Claims He Wants An 'Adult Conversation' About Encryption; Apparently 'Adults' Ignore Experts

  

  Ben ( profile ), 31 Aug, 2016 @ 11:47am

  So, up until now it has been a childish conversation?

  If he's looking to have an "adult" conversation (and not the prurient kind! get your minds out of the gutter!) then the conversations he's been having have been non-adult, i.e. childish, conversations.
  
  In order to be an "adult" conversation, both sides need to behave like adults. I'm pretty certain the tech side of the conversation been maintained by adults -- critical thinking, cost/benefit analysis, etc. So that leads me to wonder why Comey should now be considered an "adult" for purposes of the intended conversation.

• On the post: Head Of Anti-Counterfeiting Lobbying Group Says He's Going To Make Counterfeit Techdirt T-Shirts

  

  Ben ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2016 @ 11:23am

  Units?

  £5 != $5
  
  (according to google it is $6.56 right now...)
  Rate lookup

• On the post: If You're Learning About It From Slate, Running Your Own Email Server Is A Horrendously Bad Idea

  

  Ben ( profile ), 26 Aug, 2016 @ 10:43pm

  I don't think so...

  But, of course, none of that stops the government from getting your server if they want it... it's just that in this one case you'll know about it.
  

  Nope. I think the NSA probably has the tools available to get at any private email server a non-ubergeek would set up. They just need to use the magic phrase "terrorism investigation" and the FISA court will secretly grant them the right to hack the server. You will never know (until they knock on your door...)

• On the post: NPR The Latest Website To Prevent You From Commenting Because It Simply Adores 'Relationships' And 'Conversation'

  

  Ben ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2016 @ 08:22pm

  Re:

  It is a clique; I suspect most of those commentators are contributors, which are the people they should be bending over backwards to keep engaged/happy. And if they aren't contributors, then engagement with them in the comments could very well get them to become contributors.
  
  This is cwf-rtb (or in this case 'c') at its base, and they are throwing that away. NPR see an ophthalmologist -- it appears you are short sighted.

• On the post: Another Unfortunate Example Of Facebook Silencing Important Videos

  

  Ben ( profile ), 12 Aug, 2016 @ 08:45am

  after the new post also got reported

  This sounds like someone (or some ones) clicked "report" on the video. Similar to the TechDirt 'Flag' button which will hide a post. Once it hits a certain number it gets hidden/removed. All 'grandpa' would need to do is to have some of his 'grandchildren' flag the video -- Facebook probably never had a real person look at it. Post another video that gets flagged and you get banned -- I suspect if it happened again it might end up being permanent.
  
  All of this sounds like a stupid automated system that can be abused to get someone banned without Facebook ever really getting a human involved.

• On the post: Canadian Comedian Plans To Appeal $42k For A Joke That Insulted Someone

  

  Ben ( profile ), 03 Aug, 2016 @ 10:52am

  Advertising by another name

  A singer sues about a joke that he considers "offensive". A joke only a few people (hundreds? maybe fewer) have heard. Streisand effect will now make this joke even more wide spread. You can't really buy this much advertising.
  
  ... I'm just not sure if it is advertising for the comedian or for the singer.

• On the post: Manhattan DA Continues To Claim 'We Don't Want Crypto Backdoors…' By Which He Means He Wants Crypto Backdoors

  

  Ben ( profile ), 01 Aug, 2016 @ 11:09am

  Re:

  Just Nerd Harder, damn it!

• On the post: Intellectual Property Fun: Is Comedy Central Claiming It Owns The Character Stephen Colbert?

  

  Ben ( profile ), 28 Jul, 2016 @ 12:53pm

  Re: Re: If it would for the tedium and agony of going to court...

  More like Stephen vs Stephen
  
  (I always did like the Steven vs Stephen skits)

• On the post: John Oliver's Story On Campaign Music And Copyright Is… Wrong

  

  Ben ( profile ), 25 Jul, 2016 @ 01:35pm

  Re: Re: Re: I thought so...

  And the first example was "We are the champions" by Queen (and the late Freddie Mercury who oddly remains dead rather than coming back to life to attack Trump...)
  
  The real amusing part of the whole video is the choices of music & performers by the RNC. Queen? Rolling Stones? Can't they at least support American musicians? "Can't get no satisfaction"?? Really?? Was that a prediction?

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