Jeff Smith 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (55)

• On the post: City Claims It Will Take 9,000 Hours And $79,000 To Fulfill Gawker's Request Emails Related To Abusive Police Officer

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 01 Jul, 2015 @ 07:25am

  Re: Public Records Request on old System

  Public records request for info on the old email system? Sure...that will be $79,000. Will you be paying cash?

• On the post: A Gronking To Remember Lawsuit Gets Strange While Amazon Argues Liability Would Chill Speech And Art

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2015 @ 08:00am

  Re:

  It's actually extremely easy to argue that Amazon isn't the publisher due to it being on their servers and them taking a cut. Unless you're also arguing that B&N, or WalMart, or any tiny little mom&pop bookstore (if those still exist) is also a publisher. After all, they get a cut of the sale price and the book is "hosted" on their shelves...

• On the post: A Gronking To Remember Lawsuit Gets Strange While Amazon Argues Liability Would Chill Speech And Art

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2015 @ 07:56am

  Re:

  I can't imagine a reverse image search would turn up the original, in this case, as the image you're searching for is the cover, not the clipped-out picture of the couple.

• On the post: Taylor Swift Is Not The Savior Artists Need

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2015 @ 11:14am

  Re: Re:

  Actually, Violynne's argument makes perfect sense for all the "little guys" she claims to speak for, just not so much for her particular situation. More power to her I suppose for getting herself into that sort of situation, but as you pointed out yourself: The vast majority of artists have nothing like that arrangement. As for the Lars Ulrich comparison...maybe a more accurate statement would have been "Taylor Swift is the female non-asshole version of Lars Ulrich." I'm sure she means well, she's just misguided. Unfortunately, a lot of people listen to her. Yes, I mean that both ways.

• On the post: FCC Moves To Fine AT&T $100 Million For Throttling 'Unlimited' Plan Users

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 17 Jun, 2015 @ 12:54pm

  Why is it that everything out of Ajit Pai's mouth reads like a try-out for his next job as Telco lawyer or lobbiest? Oh...because it is, obviously.

• On the post: The Cardinal Way: FBI Investigating STL Cardinals For Hacking Into Astros Database

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 17 Jun, 2015 @ 08:33am

  Tim must be a Cubs fan. This "hack" seems more of a gotcha aimed at the departed front office guy than an attempt to cheat. That doesn't make it any more right, or any more legal, but I don't know how else to explain the "anonymous" leaking of that info.

• On the post: Canadian Court: Yes, We Can Order Google To Block Websites Globally

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 12 Jun, 2015 @ 07:44am

  Re:

  Must be a slow day in Mother Russia, no, comrade? No Putin threads to comment on today?

• On the post: Virginia Teenager Charged With Providing 'Material Support' For ISIS Through Tweets, Blog Posts About Privacy And Bitcoin

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 12 Jun, 2015 @ 11:02am

  It's probably not about the Bitcoin

  You (the author) seem fixated on the fact that the defendant was posting about Bitcoin, as if that's what got him busted. Given that he apparently did have direct communication with ISIS people and helped arrange for someone to travel there and join them, I feel reasonably certain it wasn't the Bitcoin discussion that caused any of this.

• On the post: Lawyers Threaten SomethingAwful For Using Photo In Movie Review

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2015 @ 11:55am

  Higbee & Associates: The Jiffy-Lube of attorney firms. Wait, Jiffy-Lube is probably trademarked...

• On the post: Lawyers Threaten SomethingAwful For Using Photo In Movie Review

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2015 @ 11:55am

  Higbee & Associates: The Jiffy-Lube of attorney firms. Wait, Jiffy-Lube is probably trademarked...

• On the post: Putin's Internet Propaganda War Is Much Bigger And Weirder Than You Think, Now Extending Into The States

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 04 Jun, 2015 @ 01:20pm

  Re: Max Frankel Awards 2015

  Nice try, dipshit, but that was a quote from the original NYT reporter, not Karl.

• On the post: Putin's Internet Propaganda War Is Much Bigger And Weirder Than You Think, Now Extending Into The States

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 04 Jun, 2015 @ 01:11pm

  Re:

  He...he said "our."

• On the post: Dallas PD Guts Specifics From Citizen Recording Policy, Leaving Only Vague Reminder To Respect Pre-Existing Rights

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 29 May, 2015 @ 08:02am

  I really don't have a problem that they left out a few specific examples, in order to end up with a perfectly clear one-page order. It is ridiculous to think that, if someone is trying to get around the spirit of that order, you're going to list and specifically prohibit all possible ways to do so. As someone else already stated, the key is going to be enforcement of the order. Adding a few specific examples will simply make it easier to say "Look, this thing that I did is not on the list of forbidden ways to thwart the public, therefore it's OK."

• On the post: Court Shuts Down NYPD's Argument That When Searching For Black Male Suspects, Any Black Male Will Do

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 28 May, 2015 @ 06:56am

  Re:

  The same thing that happens when the person in case 3 is acquitted because the cops cut corners. This is why they are supposed to follow procedures and carry out actual legal investigations, in order to stop this type of behavior.

• On the post: An Innocent Pressure Cooker Pays The Price In The War On Terror

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 28 May, 2015 @ 06:22am

  I'm going to agree with the (apparent) minority here, and say that this wasn't really much of an over-reaction. You're definitely overstating how common it is to find a car parked and left with a propane tank and pressure cooker inside, especially in a place like the capital mall. Also, you make the "controlled disruption" of the "device" sound like the resulting explosion was in some way similar to what you would get if an actual pressure cooker bomb had been set off, and that's simply not true. I also agree with the poster who wondered how the owner could be charged with operating a vehicle when he was nowhere near the area. Perhaps he copped to it, but if not, no way that stands.

• On the post: Richard Prince Continues To Push The Boundaries Of Copyright Law In Selling Other People's Instagram Selfies

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 27 May, 2015 @ 11:17am

  But are the works really transformative?

  Richard Prince is a no-talent hack. I thought so in the previous case, and I think so more now. I see nothing new or original or transformative in what he's done. It feels more like he's poking the whole fair use discussion right in the eye. I'm not sure how I feel this should be treated, legally. The real problem, however, is that there are people who will pay for this crap. I guess if he can skirt the boundaries of the law and find people who want to give him large sums of money, more power to him...but I like the idea of the original authors finding a way to beat him at his own game, and I hope they're successful.

• On the post: Copyright Troll Gets Fed; Resumes Torrent Lawsuits After Multiple Dismissals Led To A 19-Month Pause In Filings

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2015 @ 06:42am

  I hate the argument that, because someone downloaded a pirated copy of a movie, they clearly would have put on pants, drove to the theater and plunked down $20 or whatever to watch it had the pirated version not been available. How does this hold water for anyone? Most certainly, the majority of those people would not have done so. The key is how to reach those people downloading it for free, but the studios are too married to the old school ways to see the answer, even though they practically stated it themselves.

• On the post: If You Really Think TPP Is About 'Trade' Then Your Analysis Is Already Wrong

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2015 @ 07:45am

  Re: Revisionist history much?

  Have you not been paying attention? We are in the surreal and heavily under-reported, in the mainstream, situation where the Democratic president and the Republican judiciary want the same thing. They're both apparently embarrassed about this. The article is not wrong, it just doesn't state that the portion of the party references is in Congress, not the executive branch.

• On the post: GM Says That While You May Own Your Car, It Owns The Software In It, Thanks To Copyright

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2015 @ 08:39am

  I know for sure that the next time I get hit by a vehicle manufactured by GM (or John Deere, although that seems unlikely) I'm adding them to the lawsuit. I mean, they're the owners, right? That software they own allowed the accident to happen...

• On the post: Once Again, John Oliver Covers A Techdirt Topic: This Time, It's Patent Trolls

  

  Jeff Smith ( profile ), 22 Apr, 2015 @ 07:39am

  Just admit it already

  As soon as I saw him announce the week's main topic, I thought This is just getting ridiculous. Time to fess up and admit that John Oliver is on the Techdirt staff.
  
  (You know, I've never seen Masnick and Oliver at the same time. Has anyone???)

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