Ben 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Wikipedia Tells UK Government It Won’t Comply With Proposed Age Verification Mandates

    Ben ( profile ), 09 May, 2023 @ 12:19pm

    almost right

    I have only one problem with this... define 'educational online service' in a way that actually works, and actually manages to differentiate between those smutty sites you don't want little Johnny seeing, and the ones that'll teach him how to understand what a period is. (not that I expect there to be a great deal of useful material on PornHub on the latter subject, but you never know)

  • On the post: Tech Press Slowly Figuring Out That Banning TikTok Doesn’t Fix The Actual Problem

    Ben ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2023 @ 07:30am

    This was aimed at Matt Bennett, though I seem to have been put off by the TechDirt UI around signing-in whilst replying.

  • On the post: Tech Press Slowly Figuring Out That Banning TikTok Doesn’t Fix The Actual Problem

    Ben ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2023 @ 07:29am

    What?

    And what is it, precisely, you think TikTok is doing that is so bad? (that data brokers and advertisers aren't already doing 10 times more often) Cite sources of fact, if you wouldn't mind.

  • On the post: YouTube Updates Its Profanity Policy After Backlash

    Ben ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2023 @ 02:21pm

    cultural imperialism?

    Do YouTube feel the need to define what words in French are offensive? Or Tagalog? Or Swedish? Why the need to do it in English? How are they coping with the fact that different standards apply in different cultures just between USian, Canadian, British and Australian Englishes. (not an exclusive list - there are many other Englishes). How about making it consistent across cultures where English is the most common second language? Even harder. What a pointless, shitty exercise, as once again, a US-based corporation (much like the US government) thinks it can rule the internet ... well, in YouTube's case, at least their only doing it on their own systems, and not attempting to the whole internet to live by US standards and cultural mores.

  • On the post: Gizmodo Found 28,000 Apps Sending TikTok User Data

    Ben ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2023 @ 08:52am

    Extra-terratorial BS detector activated

    I wonder if what the AC was referring to was the supposition that the US government actually has authority of the internet as a whole. True, the US funded and built a lot of (but definitely not all) the underlying technologies, but that doesn't mean they can tell a Chinese, German, South African or Australian company how to operate, only how they can operate within the US. Which is, of course, the ultimate freedom of the internet - it is not beholden to the US government, and will route around any service interruption caused by it.

  • On the post: AI Lawyer Has A Sad: Bans People From Testing Its Lawyering After Being Mocked

    Ben ( profile ), 28 Jan, 2023 @ 06:44am

    Theranos all over again?

    This whole thing smells like a low-grade version of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes all over again.

  • On the post: Techdirt 2022: The Stats

    Ben ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2023 @ 12:12pm

    IP address stats

    Most of the third party IP address lookup services provide additional info on IP addresses that usually includes a VPN flag, so any half-decent stats package should be able to disregard such addresses.

  • On the post: LastPass Tries To Bury The Full Scope Of Its Disastrous Privacy Breach Behind The Christmas Holiday

    Ben ( profile ), 29 Dec, 2022 @ 05:39am

    Crackhead?

    Crackheads are pretty rare here. As are break-ins. Who said I keep my notebook in a safe? Tell me a site that actually advocates for 50 character passwords? That's totally impractical. And any security expert will tell you that security is always a trade off between practicality and complexity. (If you don't want a computer system to be accessed by the 'bad guys', turn it off, incase it in 30 tonnes of concrete, and sink it in the Marianas Trench) 2fa is far better for security if you want high security.

  • On the post: Ring Doorbell Cams Hijacked By Assholes To Provide Live Streams Of SWATtings

    Ben ( profile ), 29 Dec, 2022 @ 05:14am

    disagree

    The police did actually do their job - they were sent a report of a serious incident occuring, and they showed up to deal with it. In no cases (at least as reported above) did anyone get killed, which is surprising, given how SWATting stories usually seem to go down. Not only this, but they tracked down, arrested and brought to trial the two people actually responsible. I know we normally only see stories of bad police action here when they've abused someone's rights, but in this case I don't think they can be blamed.

  • On the post: LastPass Tries To Bury The Full Scope Of Its Disastrous Privacy Breach Behind The Christmas Holiday

    Ben ( profile ), 28 Dec, 2022 @ 09:09am

    notebook

    I use an offline, non-electronic notebook for passwords. Not only can I keep it under lock & key, I can guarantee you won't decrypt my handwriting!

  • On the post: Tom Lehrer Puts Whatever He Hadn’t Already Donated To The Public Domain Into The Public Domain

    Ben ( profile ), 28 Dec, 2022 @ 05:15am

    Convert it

    There sites out there that allow you to convert a stream into an MP3. I'm not going to Google them for you - that's your homework.

  • On the post: Ad-Based Netflix Arrives With A Thud

    Ben ( profile ), 28 Dec, 2022 @ 05:08am

    Wake up fence-sitter

    How long before the right-wing-nuts around here realise that using the w-word in any kind of pejorative sense is going to get their comment flagged by many here as a simple reflex action?

  • On the post: Iceland Foods Loses Again On Appeal Of ‘Iceland’ EU Trademark

    Ben ( profile ), 23 Dec, 2022 @ 02:10am

    Wot?

    You're talking bollocks. Champagne is a region in France. Champagne as applied to sparkling wine is a regional appellation, same as Cheddar cheese, Cornish pasties and many others. Consistently applied by the EU.

  • On the post: Lobbying, Corruption Stall Landmark NY Right To Repair Bill

    Ben ( profile ), 22 Dec, 2022 @ 07:57am

    Hey!!

    Watch out for my tractor ... it'll cost me an arm and a leg and a kidney to get John Deere to fix it!

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Ben ( profile ), 19 Dec, 2022 @ 03:56am

    Opposite of advertising

    If you spam an unrelated thread on an unrelated website, how does that act as advertising for the company? All it does is tell people how crappy that company is, and acts as the opposite of advertising - it'll drive business away. Nice job, Rekhtabooks.

  • On the post: Getty Images Watermark Shows Up In Latest Square ‘Final Fantasy’ Game

    Ben ( profile ), 15 Dec, 2022 @ 08:14am

    Getty's copyright

    Getty hold a copyright over their photograph of the original. They don't hold copyright over the work of art. Square Enix have used Getty's photo, hence the copyright infringement. If they'd taken their own photo, or bought a license to use a photo by somebody else, they'd be fine.

  • On the post: Ubisoft Runs Away From Epic Store And Back To Steam

    Ben ( profile ), 02 Dec, 2022 @ 07:33am

    maturity of customers

    At this point there are so many gamers of a more mature and more patient nature that exclusives have less and less meaning. If I've got to wait a couple of months to get the next in a series I like, I can usually wait. It's not a big deal. As for exclusives on new IP? I can definitely wait, I'm completely immune from the playground pressures of yore, and don't engage with the kinds of media that constantly push the latest games. If the game is great, I'll eventually hear about it and might buy it, by which point the exclusives will have gone, and the next Steam sale will be just around the corner :) And minus the exclusives, Epic never offered anything to the game-playing customers that they couldn't get on the existing platforms.

  • On the post: If Twitter Goes Down In Flames, What Happens To Its Huge And Historically Important Collection Of Tweets?

    Ben ( profile ), 30 Nov, 2022 @ 06:45am

    compuserv

    Are you one of those people who thought they were installing the entire internet when they loaded a compuserv CD back in the day?

  • On the post: Mercedes Puts Faster Acceleration Behind A Subscription Paywall

    Ben ( profile ), 28 Nov, 2022 @ 11:40am

    lessons

    Lessons in how to diminish the value of your brand - teach your customers that you only ever value their wallets, not their safety, their comfort or anything else that might matter to a human being. Oh, and how to do tremendous damage to the EV market for your vehicles too.

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Ben ( profile ), 28 Nov, 2022 @ 02:16am

    again again again

    All this has happened before; all this will happen again.

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