bengreene 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Polish Gov't Finally Admits It Deployed NSO Malware, Pretends Targeting Of Opposition Leaders Isn't Abusive

    bengreene ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2022 @ 06:44am

    FTFY

    "...the secret services in many countries are using the Pegasus software to combat crime and corruption."

    Strange the spellchecker got it so wrong, please use:
    "... the secret services in many countries are using the Pegasus software to commit crime and facilitate corruption."

  • On the post: CNN Goes Full Moral Panic About Kids And Social Media

    bengreene ( profile ), 13 Dec, 2021 @ 02:49am

    Wait 20 years ... why?

    "In 20 years or so, we're going to look back on these moral panics and laugh ...".

    Why wait so long? We can all smell the bullshit coming off it right now. I'm just going to to ahead and point and laugh now instead, I might have forgotten just how stupid it was in 20 year's time.

  • On the post: YouTube Copyright Transparency Report Shows The Absurd Volume Of Copyright Claims It Gets

    bengreene ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2021 @ 04:41am

    It's not a small issue ...

    ... when someone wilfully erases 3 years of your work/content.

    https://youtu.be/8P4Zn9MKumI?t=44

  • On the post: DRM Breaking Games Again, This Time Due To New Intel Chip Architecture

    bengreene ( profile ), 12 Nov, 2021 @ 02:56am

    No, it doesn't make technical sense

    "That makes technical sense."

    No it does not. Multicore CPUs have been around for years at this point in time. A system that that has all the evidence to indicate to it that it has encountered a multicore CPU (reports the same IP address, MAC address, machine name, group name, Windows license key, same Steam / GOG/ UbiSoft / EA account, etc.), and incorrectly classifies it is 2 separate systems does not make technical sense.

    Instead, it shows me the system is badly flawed and was not written with a scrap of future proofing in mind. New CPUs are to be expected, if you're hardcoding your software for specific CPUs I think the 1990s is calling on line #1 and would like you to stop being a Luddite.

    Granted we are talking about DRM here and the end user experience is something no fucks were given towards at any stage in the development of the software.

  • On the post: Gasp! YouTube Shutters Account For Person Committing DMCA Takedown Fraud!

    bengreene ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2021 @ 02:41am

    Re:

    "we take abuse of that process very seriously." But not seriously enough to start legal proceedings against someone, costing them money and time and not just mildly inconveniencing them in response to them actually stealing people's income via DCMA fraud or extortion / blackmail using DCMA (as YouTube has implemented it) as a weapon. I guess YouTube has a very different understanding of the words "abuse", "very" and "seriously" to the rest of the planet.

  • On the post: Fifth Circuit Appeals Court Strips Immunity For Officers Who Arrested A Journalist For Asking Questions

    bengreene ( profile ), 08 Nov, 2021 @ 03:06am

    Re:

    With the way Texas has been going lately I doubt it'll be the last flawed law/statute we see from there, sadly.

  • On the post: Appeals Court Says Couple's Lawsuit Over Bogus Vehicle Forfeiture Can Continue

    bengreene ( profile ), 20 Oct, 2021 @ 03:21am

    Re: cash?

    The parents are suing for the return of their property, namely the car. The cash was their sons, if he is suing, or plans to sue, that would be a separate case?

  • On the post: LinkedIn Caves Again, Blocks US Journalists' Accounts In China

    bengreene ( profile ), 15 Oct, 2021 @ 03:14am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Just because you can doesn't always

    ... and now you're just wilfully misinterpreting the situation or trying to separate the demand a government made from the directly corresponding reactions of a company to the demand in order to create a hollow "moderation" leg to stand on and claim that the company is not censoring. The best case scenario if you want to go down that road is the the company is facilitating censorship, or engaging with censorship. Again, I ask please provide an example to support your position. I can't see one myself but am curious if such a situation could exist.

  • On the post: Court Says Google Translate Isn't Reliable Enough To Determine Consent For A Search

    bengreene ( profile ), 15 Oct, 2021 @ 03:00am

    Re: Re: Linguistics

    "No matter how good Google Translate is ..." It's not, or at least it wasn't. I tried to use it to translate official documents, pension agreements, and other official documents when I worked overseas. These were documents that did not contain slang or colloquialisms and it struggled badly with them. Granted Bing and other translation services faired no better. The common problem was they all translated a sentence one word at a time rather than taking the whole sentence in context. The end result is a literal translation of the text, not a translation of the meaning of the text. I shudder to think how such systems would mangle slang, colloquialisms or contractions (I'd, shouldn't, ain't, etc.).

  • On the post: LinkedIn Caves Again, Blocks US Journalists' Accounts In China

    bengreene ( profile ), 14 Oct, 2021 @ 03:48am

    Re: Re: Re: Just because you can doesn't always mean you should

    When they are moderating on behalf of a state or state agency, and it's not due to regulatory/legal requirements, please explain how that is not censorship? I'm genuinely curious if such a situation can exist but still can be objectively considered as moderation.

  • On the post: Company That Handles Billions Of Text Messages Quietly Admits It Was Hacked Years Ago

    bengreene ( profile ), 06 Oct, 2021 @ 02:02am

    Re:

    Yes they do. It's on their list of Top Priorities. Somewhere. Along with Making All The Money, Pay No Taxes, and Protect Our Executives From Any Consequences and many more Top Priorities. Just remember the list includes zero, negative numbers and imaginary numbers.

  • On the post: The Rule Of Fences, And Why Congress Needs To Temper Its Appetite To Undermine Internet Service Provider Liability Protection

    bengreene ( profile ), 30 Sep, 2021 @ 06:40am

    Re: Re: An incorrect assumption.

    ... or willfully ignoring that some people are complete assholess, that there are ample examples of people blackmailing sites, channel owners, content creators, small musicians, etc. via abuse of DCMA / copyright / ContentID systems. Such people are in all probability jizzing in their pants at the though of the fuckery they can get up to if section 230 is weakened or fundamentally rescinded.

  • On the post: Clearview Suffers Brief Bout Of Better Judgment, Drops Subpoena Demanding Activists' Communications With Journalists

    bengreene ( profile ), 30 Sep, 2021 @ 02:09am

    Re: Re:

    Seriously? That's how civil suits work in the US? I honestly have no idea if it works the same in my neck of the woods for civil cases but I'd have expected there to be some judicial cog in the process to say "knock it off, you're being an asshat".

  • On the post: Researchers Who Built Similar System Explain Why Apple's CSAM Scanning System Is Dangerous

    bengreene ( profile ), 24 Aug, 2021 @ 07:48am

    Re:

    ... and if official/government access was all we had to worry about that would be tolerable ... possibly. That's not all we have to worry about though. A system like this is 100% going to be targeted by adversarial intelligence services, criminal, hackers, etc. One way or another people that have no legitimate or court authorised right to the system will make use of it. Whether it's old fashioned bribery/blackmail, hacking, exploiting software flaws, etc. they will get access to it.

  • On the post: Texas School District's Facial Recognition System Capable Of Capturing A Single Student's Image More Than 1,000 Times A Week

    bengreene ( profile ), 26 Jul, 2021 @ 03:07am

    Re:

    It's an abuser's wet dream if they are a staff member. Learn where the dead zones are, set up an alert to monitor that pretty cheerleader. Use the data gathered over the space of a few weeks to determine when and which deadzones she frequents, who is usually with her and when she is alone. It's an automated stalking tool if it doesn't have the proper oversight and control baked into it.

  • On the post: Appeals Court Tosses Cop's Attempt To Hold Twitter Responsible For Him Being Shot By A Gunman

    bengreene ( profile ), 25 Jun, 2021 @ 03:50am

    Who is paying for these "cases"

    At this point it's fair to ask who is funding these cases? As a business model it's well past the point of being reasonable to think it's a lucrative revenue stream, unless the board / senior partners are ideologically on board with cases that are fundamentally flawed to this level. I know groupthink is a thing but this seems beyond that at this point in time.

    Even if they somehow get a win from a complete fuckwit of a judge this type of case will be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court 'cos Twitter, etc. has the funds to keep the appeals process going, where it will be overturned (and rightly so) ... if it wasn't already overturned along the way.

    Given the large number of politically and financially motivated attacks on Big Tech in recent years I'm curious if an external party is funding these attempts to hold a platform responsible for the acts of an independent person committing crimes. It smells a bit too much of bullshit shenanigans we've seen around to think these guys are doing this by themselves?

  • On the post: EFF Tells Court Defendants Must Be Allowed To Examine The DNA Software Used To Convict Them

    bengreene ( profile ), 27 May, 2021 @ 01:45am

    Show me you're reliable

    Fine, if you want to stop me looking at the source code, processes used, etc. then so be it. If you used machine learning and the whole process is effectively a black box process, even to the developers of the software, then so be it.

    Show me the independently verified test results behind your claims of 100%/99% accuracy. Show me the sample size for your testing, and it had better be at least 100K of samples of verifiable origin. Show me the data on the false positives and all other independently verified incorrect results generated. Show me how you fixed the process that lead to those incorrect results. Show me the data on the tools, equipment, etc. used to independently corroborate all the results.

    If you can't show me these, or if what you show me is nothing but hot air, then the "evidence" has to be dismissed. It is not evidence, it is no better than sticking the names of anyone associated with the case on a dartboard, putting on a blindfold and throwing a dart at the board.

  • On the post: Former Trump Spokesman Ordered To Pay $42,000 To Gizmodo After Losing His Bogus Defamation Lawsuit

    bengreene ( profile ), 26 May, 2021 @ 04:34am

    Re:

    Agreed. This is assault at a minimum. Arguably aggravated assault or whatever the US equivalent is. Round it off with illegally administering medication without a license.

  • On the post: Frontier Communications Sued Yet Again For Lying About Its Pathetic Broadband Speeds

    bengreene ( profile ), 24 May, 2021 @ 03:54am

    Re: No consequences

    I think this is part of why GDPR fines in Europe are so "excessive". It makes exposing your customer's personal data (and safety to a certain degree) something more than just a press release about "learning your lesson and promising to do better".

  • On the post: Twitch Yanks Advertising Revenue From Popular 'Hot Tub Streamer' With No Warning Or Dialogue

    bengreene ( profile ), 20 May, 2021 @ 02:54am

    Re: 'They're still here?!'

    I think they're taking a leaf from YouTube's book and trying to sanitise their content to make it more appealing to advertisers, or at the very least less controversial and thus less oversight/expenditure required to handle the advertising side of things. Doing this to just one of the streamers in this space smells of them testing the waters to see what pushback they get from the community before either doing the usual "we hear you and we have learned from that" bullshit or going full steam ahead with their new policy.

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