Ben’s Techdirt Profile

On the post: Brewer Threatens Restaurant For Using The Word 'Hofbrau'

Ben ( profile ), 13 Apr, 2016 @ 07:23am

Re:

The disambiguation page for Hofbrau (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofbr%C3%A4u) shows multiple "Hofbrau"s in Germany, so it doesn't quite appear generic.

On the post: Game Studio's Plan To Deal With Critic Of Games: Sue Him To Hell

Ben ( profile ), 12 Apr, 2016 @ 05:51pm

Re:

Maybe Digital Suicide would be a more appropriate name for them.

On the post: Ignorant Bigot Arrested In UK For Tweeting About Being An Obnoxious Ignorant Bigot

Ben ( profile ), 25 Mar, 2016 @ 04:01pm

Better to be thought...

Better to be thought an idiot than opening one's mouth and prove it to the world.

Or, I guess, open one's media account...

On the post: PETA, Pretending It Can Represent A Photogenic, Selfie-Snapping Monkey In Indonesia, Has Appealed Its Copyright Loss

Ben ( profile ), 21 Mar, 2016 @ 10:23am

Deadline?

If the deadline passed "with nary a smiling monkey complaint," then how can they expect the filing to be processed? Yes exceptions can sometimes be made, but my experience with the courts is that they'd rather _not_ make decisions, and when there is a legitimate reason to reject something, they use it.

Otherwise "deadline" doesn't mean what they think it means. ... and that is inconceivable!

On the post: What Should We Do About Linking To Sites That Block People Using Ad Blockers?

Ben ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2016 @ 09:50am

Wired vs Slate

I must have missed the ArsTechnica toe-dip in the dark side; I have been a supporter of them for years and I'm glad I don't need to drop them.

I have/had both Wired and Slate in my RSS news feeds for a while. As noted above, Wired recently started blocking users using blockers (I use Ad Block plus); I now no longer have Wired in my news feed. I kind of miss it (and I actually subscribe to the physical magazine!) but it was too annoying to deal with.

Slate, on the other hand just displays a removable footer noting that it noticed my blocker and could I please subscribe...

If the ads were controlled by the sites themselves, I'd probably white list them, but in almost all these cases the ads are coming from a service (google, or some other purveyor of web ads); how far should my trust go? Ads these days can be used to pwn your machine -- in the current case I would need to trust Wired's trust in their ad source's vetting of their advertisers, and I can easily imagine their vetting process being fooled.

To the original question: link to them. Maybe set up a style to indicate link targets? Pay-walled vs Ad-blocking vs NSFW vs "normal"?

On the post: DOM Defense Department Seeks SUB Hackers, Tech Companies For Partnership Built On Distrust

Ben ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2016 @ 07:39am

Re: This is a non-starter

I don't know; I think of someone out there registering as Robert'); DROP TABLE Applicant;--. Could be lots of fun!

On the post: The Need For Deep Pockets And Lawyers Means The FOIA Process Benefits Corporations The Most

Ben ( profile ), 17 Feb, 2016 @ 05:14pm

Obviously affects National Security

When Holder’s resignation was announced, the Office of Information Policy made a FOIA request for the identity of the new Attorney General, so they could correct their FAQs. They are still awaiting a response.

Who the Attorney General is should be considered a national secret; disclosure would compromise too many active investigations and prosecutions. /s

On the post: Apple Responds To Order To Help Decrypt Phone, As More Details Come To Light

Ben ( profile ), 17 Feb, 2016 @ 09:29am

Two sides to this for Apple

they are asking for a backdoor -- just a narrow one that can only be used for this phone and would be ineffective against most modern iPhones

Which would imply that if Apple seriously considers this everyone will be dumping their old iPhones for the "modern iPhones" (i.e. more sales!) -- if they trust Apple at all after this (i.e. fewer sales!).

As for brute forcing:
I would think they could copy all the data off the existing phone, encrypted though it may be, just in case they "accidentally" cause a data wipe; whether they could copy that (encrypted) data back may be an issue, but it would seem to be a way to start.

On the post: Democratic National Committee Punishes Bernie Sanders For Their Own Technical Mistake; Sanders Threatens To Sues

Ben ( profile ), 18 Dec, 2015 @ 04:19pm

Re: CFAA

Sorry, but that law is only used against people who have no political connections/power. Similar to how they select who gets punished for lying to congress or disclosing secrets.

On the post: Daily Deal: Cisco Complete Network Certification Training

Ben ( profile ), 18 Dec, 2015 @ 11:08am

Unauthorized Code

Does the training include how to detect "Unauthorized Code"? And if so can we donate a copy to the Juniper people?

On the post: After Illegally Censoring Websites For Five Years On Bogus Copyright Charges, US Gov't Quietly 'Returns' Two Domains

Ben ( profile ), 03 Dec, 2015 @ 03:53pm

Re: Sue ICE for their entire budget

IANAL, but I believe you can't sue a government (or agency) for damages without their consent (except related to specific circumstances which I suspect would not apply in these cases).

I'd go after them using RICO; their collusion with the RIAA is obviously a form of Racketeering.

On the post: Stupid Patent Of The Month: Infamous Prison Telco Patents Asking Third-Parties For Money

Ben ( profile ), 25 Nov, 2015 @ 10:14pm

Is there no QA in the patent office?

I would think best practices would require review of at least a sampling of a patent examiner's approved (and rejected) patents and hopefully catch items like this one.

But when a patent gets rejected by the courts, does the patent office follow the trail and tell the examiners involved that it was rejected?

This is basic QA stuff; the patent office should be able to do at *least* this, if not more.

On the post: Manhattan DA's Office Serves Up Craptastic White Paper Asking For A Ban On Encryption

Ben ( profile ), 18 Nov, 2015 @ 02:24pm

Impregnable?

It would require, simply, that designers and makers of operating systems not design or build them to be impregnable to lawful governmental searches.

This cannot, by definition, exclude encryption since no encryption is impregnable.

im·preg·na·ble
imˈpreɡnəb(ə)l/
adjective
·(of a fortified position) unable to be captured or broken into.
"an impregnable wall of solid sandstone"
·unable to be defeated or destroyed; unassailable.
"the case against Hastings would have been almost impregnable"

No encryption is impossible to break, just difficult (for large values of "difficult").

On the post: Did Marco Rubio's Campaign Violate The CFAA? Will He Commit To Reforming It?

Ben ( profile ), 16 Nov, 2015 @ 10:26am

Bistromathics strikes!

Of course the FBI would be able to come up with losses totaling greater than $5,000. The offense was happening in a restaurant after all (albeit not at the end of the Universe (I hope!)).

Bistro Mathematics comes into play, and almost any number, no matter how improbable, can be found.

For example: just imagine the number of customers who will stay away from that pizza place because of its connection to the Rubio campaign? That should total a couple of million people (at $1 per person even!) right there, with the poll numbers as obvious evidence.

On the post: DailyDirt: Scotty, We Need More Power…

Ben ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2015 @ 04:02pm

Re: Owning An Idea

"Footfall", published in 1985 by Niven and Pournelle described this, letting the aliens launch from the ground using ground-based lasers.

The more I hear about Patents and how they are abused, the more I wish the system was abolished or at least made rational (and I am not sure that is even possible).

On the post: Will Molecular Biology's Most Important Discovery In Years Be Ruined By Patents?

Ben ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2015 @ 03:51pm

Re: Re: "GNU Emacs for DNA"?

I believe it should be more like "TECO for DNA" (the original EMACS was written as TECO macros; EMACS => Editor MACroS).

It is very early in the Molecular Biology tools; we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves with the analogies. We've got to give those life sciences types something to aspire to.

On the post: Law Enforcement: Traveling From Anywhere To Anywhere Is Suspicious Behavior

Ben ( profile ), 30 Oct, 2015 @ 11:47am

Re:

Can you actually do "too much" Latter Day Saints?

On the post: Sensible Canadian Trademark Ruling Takes Overall Impression Of Branding Into Account

Ben ( profile ), 27 Oct, 2015 @ 10:37am

Hoist one for the judge!

Common sense in a judicial branch!

I'll hoist a BAR HARBOR REAL ALE from the Atlantic Brewing Co. just to avoid confusion with all those west coast/Pacific ones.

On the post: ISP Announces It's Blocking All Facebook And Google Ads Until Companies Pay A Troll Toll

Ben ( profile ), 01 Oct, 2015 @ 12:32pm

Re: Re:

Isn't this a clear example of why Net Neutrality should be enforced? The ISPs should be pipes -- they should not be looking at what is being carried through those pipes.

That they can do this is obvious. My impression was that with the Net Neutrality regulations they should not be allowed to do this, at least not without penalties.

On the post: Cop Invents Device That Sniffs MAC Addresses To Locate Stolen Devices

Ben ( profile ), 16 Sep, 2015 @ 04:57pm

I just read

L8NT would plug the USB device into their in-car laptops

and a shiver went down my spine with memories of Stuxnet's distribution mechanism.

I just see this as another variation of LPR's; they'll track all the MAC addresses along with their locations and keep them around for searching at their leisure (for some unspecified period of time) with no oversight.

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