DH's Love Child's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
Wow. What a week. Unless you were living under a rock this week, you probably noticed a rather pervasive theme… At my last count, 46 articles were written this week about SOPA/PIPA including 20 on SOPA protest day. As I look back at the week, I was almost overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of articles and comments about this issue. For something that was supposed to just breeze through the legislative process, these bills very quickly polarized the population.
My favorites are a mix of the political (which, I have to confess, normally bore me to tears), and the funny.
Marcus Carab’s article about mocking the blackouts easily got my top spot for the week. His analysis was thoughtful and witty. I particularly loved this part:
“WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? WHY AM I THE LAST TO KNOW WIKIPEDIA IS BLOCKED! I BE ON THERE DAILY!!! [I like that she is less annoyed about losing Wikipedia than she is about the fact nobody told her. I’ve often thought SOPA/PIPA supporters are just mad because they were the last to find out about free movies.]”
Too true.
On the political side, this short but sweet article about both SOPA and PIPA being delayed (but not canceled) was a great result of netizens mobilizing, while this article asking what’s next is a good reminder that there’s still a lot of work to be done to make sure we keep our internet freedom.
This write-up about government and technology was a fascinating look into the procurement process (including some insightful comments) as well as a reality check on why government should tread VERY carefully on technology issues.
In the middle of this was the very disappointing ruling from our top jurists. This ruling disturbs me greatly and I wish the netizens could organize the same kind of blackout to raise awareness of how out of control copyright has become. The ruling also illuminates just how treaties and trade agreements (like ACTA and the TPP) can cause laws to have to change to meet our ‘international obligations’.
This trio of articles on DOJ, Megaupload and Anonymous were another look at how SOPA and PIPA really aren’t necessary as long as big content has the DOJ’s ear. Spend those dollars wisely, Hollywood!
Finally, if you want to know more about how the MPAA and Chris Dodd think, these articles are a great read. Remember kids, it’s all about the Benjamins.
And with that, I return you to your regularly scheduled trolling.
Seems fitting..
Concerns definitely need to be addressed when a military agency gets into the domestic law enforcement business
Seeing as law enforcement is in the military business, I imagine the military wants a little tit for tat.....
"For hundreds of police departments and sheriff’s offices the seizure proceeds accounted for 20 percent or more of their annual budgets in recent years"
Oh, they'll just make up for it in ticket revenues....
"I would imagine that targeting the FBI -- which actually does investigate cybercrime -- might not be that wise of a decision for the scammers."
I think you place far too much faith in the FBI.
Re: Re: Unlocking?
Actually Verizon is primarily CDMA infrastructure for 2.5G and 3G and LTE for 4G. ATT and T-Mo are GSM.
Re: Re:
Perhaps we need to write some reviews of MarkMonitor. It would be entertaining to see if their filters can catch it. :)
Congrats dad!
It's about freaking time. It was embarrassing being a bastard child all this time..
Re:
My thought is that it's moot anyway. Once the lawyers get done with this the medical center is going to end up paying dearly for allowing this to happen.
Re:
No they're not. They state their intentions are to protect the children, but in reality they will use this to discipline kids who are good sheep to the school.
Anything kids say that's critical of the school or teachers will be interpreted as a 'threat' worthy of expulsion.
Don't think for a minute that they give one rat's ass about the children, they care about CONTROL.
Re: Re:
Just be careful where you meet for the exchange. There are some seedy people out there.
And they know it
"Not liking something that a company does isn't a reason to sue."
And companies know it. That's why they tow VERY close to the legal line to screw customers left and right.
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Very true. Let us remember that ESPN is owned by ABC which is owned by that bastion of IP freedom.... Disney.
Re:
I disagree. DMCA explicitly states that fair use must be taken into account. The **AA's essentially don't believe in fair use, so they don't ever take it into account. More importantly, an automated system has no way of determining if something is fair use.
Also, a BIG problem with the notice/counter-notice system is that it HEAVILY favors the alleged rights holder. It has been used in the past to muzzle speech.
Another thing...
If this were to happen, how long would it take for ESPN to position it as a premium feature for a fee? Talk about everyone winning except the consumer...
Re: If not an "unwarranted burden" for MPAA, then
It's apples and penguins. A hosting company is not required BY LAW to actively monitor its site for infringement. And would you trust YOUR data to any company that actively monitors your uploads? I sure as hell wouldn't, and neither would any reasonable business person.
A copyright holder, BY LAW is required to take fair use into account as they are making a legal claim, under penalty of perjury, that: 1) they are the legal copyright holder and 2)the content is actually infringing.
Or to put it differently, the burden IS on the MPAA (or RIAA, or whomever) to show that the content IS infringing before taking it down. That's what the law says. It's not 'unwarranted' it's the LAW.
If we take that argument to a logical extreme, prosecutors wouldn't have jobs, because actually proving someone committed a crime would cause an 'unwarranted burden' to law enforcement.
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But those logs should not be accessible to EVERY employee of the company. Especially not anyone outside of the division of the company responsible for customer service and support of the terminals.
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We can only hope!
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If I remember correctly, the DSM uses ICD codes which are used across all medical fields, so this shouldn't affect insurance billing.
Re: yet another bad idea
"The reason for patents is without them cos will not invest in R&D..."
You do realize that the R&D for the VAST majority of drugs is actually funded and performed by universities, not the pharma companies?
You also realize that marketing is far and away the largest budget item for big pharma companies?
The knowledge of how to create a Strad is lost because he chose NOT to share it with anybody, not because there weren't patents at the time. The idea that patents would have spread that knowledge is ludicrous.
Re: name a ban that isn't
I never found Ban roll-on to be arbitrary or capricious.
Just a thought...
So, Schroeder publicly alleges that Crouch broke the law, hacked his account, etc... imagine the delicious irony if Crouch sued Schroeder for defamation and won.