cosmicwonderful 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Documents Show FBI Impersonated Newspaper's Website To Deliver Spyware To Suspect's Computer

    cosmicwonderful ( profile ), 28 Oct, 2014 @ 05:52pm

    Re: Re:

    Doesn't have to actually work.

    "sufficient reason to believe it could be successful"

  • On the post: Documents Show FBI Impersonated Newspaper's Website To Deliver Spyware To Suspect's Computer

    cosmicwonderful ( profile ), 28 Oct, 2014 @ 01:06pm

    "Taken at face value, Special Agent Frank Montoya Jr. is basically saying that the FBI will abuse its power (and the reputations of others) whenever it determines such methods to be necessary to achieve its goals."
    It's worse than that. The FBI is saying it will do anything it wants if it thinks it could be effective.

    Re-read the FBI's justification:
    We identified a specific subject of an investigation and used a technique that we deemed would be effective in preventing a possible act of violence in a school setting. Use of that type of technique happens in very rare circumstances and only when there is sufficient reason to believe it could be successful in resolving a threat.
    That's not specific to phishing or malware; it's not specific to anything. It's not limited by circumstances or employed with regard to constitutional or statutory guidelines. All it says is techniques will be used when the the FBI thinks there is sufficient reason to believe the techniques could be successful.

    Feel free to fill in any "techniques" you want in that paragraph. I'm not always worried about slippery slopes, but I am when the FBI's response to a legitimate concern is "we will position ourselves wherever we choose on the slope."

  • On the post: When Is A Lyric Site More Than A Lyric Site?

    cosmicwonderful ( profile ), 12 Nov, 2013 @ 04:46pm

    Here's my question: why the f*#$ doesn't every single band post the lyrics to every single one of their songs on their own band website?

    I've never understood this. Absolutely nobody likes going to lyrics websites. They're spammy and ugly and often inaccurate. I doubt the people who create them even like them. But people go to them because we want to know what the real lyrics are and we have no other choice.

    So WTF, musicians? If I can go to your (Flash-built, designed for 2002) website for tour dates, merch, discography, etc., why can't you help me sing along to your songs that I already like?

    You want to put lyrics sites out of business? Become the definitive place to go to find your lyrics. Boom. I'd never go to another lyrics site again.

    (I would still go to rapgenius though.)

  • On the post: Author Claims We've Learned Enough From The Snowden Docs And The Rest Should Be Destroyed

    cosmicwonderful ( profile ), 11 Sep, 2013 @ 12:46pm

    Re: He needs to learn the difference

    Terrorism is principally a threat to safety; counter-terrorism is the threat to democracy.

  • On the post: Author Claims We've Learned Enough From The Snowden Docs And The Rest Should Be Destroyed

    cosmicwonderful ( profile ), 11 Sep, 2013 @ 12:57pm

    Rid writes,

    There is no doubt that signal intelligence agencies are an essential tool necessary for . . . maintaining the domestic constitutional order.
    Rid tellingly doesn't define "domestic constitutional order." Yet the constitutionality of current NSA programs ostensibly intended to maintain domestic order is precisely what Snowden's leaks have revealed -- and continue to reveal -- to be in question.

  • On the post: Reddit, Trolling, Doxxing, Free Speech & Anonymity: Whoo Boy, Is This Stuff Complicated

    cosmicwonderful ( profile ), 15 Oct, 2012 @ 02:58pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Moral reasoning can be a tricky thing

    My understanding of your position is that you believe:
    * Doxxing is never ethical (it's unethical?), even when used by non-government entities to punish unethical (but legal) activity
    * Despite that, you would support doxxing to punish illegal activity that is being hidden from public view

    I don't really get saying that you would support doxxing in circumstances that you think it would be unethical, but let's set that aside for now. What I really want to know is: why do you think doxxing is always unethical?

    Is it about the act and intention of doxxing? How would you feel if ViolentAcrez's boss inadvertently learned his real identity (not through an intentional doxxing like Chen's) and fired him as a result? That would be an IRL-consequence without widely destroying VA's anonymity.

    Is it about all non-expressive "punishment" (i.e., non-governmental / community-based / IRL consequences) for anonymous online speech? What if all the other sub-reddit mods banded together to punish VA instead of defend him?

    Or what if VA applied for and got a job where he could exist entirely pseudonymously (as "ViolentAcrez"), but whomever hired him didn't connect his pseudonym to his reddit actions until later -- at which point he fired him (never knowing his IRL identity)? That would be real economic punishment for his speech without doxxing.

  • On the post: Reddit, Trolling, Doxxing, Free Speech & Anonymity: Whoo Boy, Is This Stuff Complicated

    cosmicwonderful ( profile ), 15 Oct, 2012 @ 02:16pm

    Re: Re: Re: Moral reasoning can be a tricky thing

    "Free speech" is traditionally used to mean freedom from government censorship, as in your ViolentAcrez-as-political dissenter hypothetical. The ability to express ideas without lawmaker approval has historically been far more important than being able to so without community approval.

    You're hinting at, but not expressly suggesting, an expanded definition of free speech: the right to express ideas and/or content anonymously, without any real-world consequences (even non-governmental consequences). I suspect the reason other commenters have failed to see this issue "clearly" (i.e., the way you do) is that you have implicitly taken this more extreme position without supporting its extremity. Why should anonymity in expression -- without consequence -- be a right?

  • On the post: Michael Robertson Continues To Tempt Copyright Fate With UberTalk: Recordable Radio Directory Online

    cosmicwonderful ( profile ), 27 Sep, 2012 @ 11:49am

    Re: Re: I'm sure you're right but...

    "They fought the player piano, they fought the MP3 player, they fought DVRs etc."

    But did they fight TV Guide? Or the schedule of programs in the newspaper? I'm no defender of the maximalists, but assuming they would consider Ubertalk and Dar.fm to be equally infringing seems to be an unfair straw man until they do it. However much you might disagree with them generally, it's pretty clear they consider copying and unauthorized performance to be greater sins than creation of a directory of already-scheduled, authorized performances.

  • On the post: NZ Judge In Dotcom Extradition Case Speaks Out Against TPP & US Copyright Extremism

    cosmicwonderful ( profile ), 18 Jul, 2012 @ 11:47am

    Does anyone know what he actually said?

    I've looked at original story and I can't for the life of me figure out who added the "[the]" in brackets. Did Judge Harvey say, "We have met the enemy and he is the U.S"? Or did he say, "We have met the enemy and he is U.S."?

    He was making a pun; it makes a difference.

  • On the post: Monkeys Don't Do Fair Use; News Agency Tells Techdirt To Remove Photos

    cosmicwonderful ( profile ), 12 Jul, 2011 @ 04:07pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    But if the photo posted on the Daily Mail *WAS* the derivative work - i.e., a photo that had been significantly post-processed in creative ways since the original (copyright-less) photo had been taken - that would create a copyright in the derivative work that Caters / the Daily Mail could assert. At a minimum, we can see that the Daily Mail changed the orientation of one of the pics, rotating it to compensate for the odd angle of the first self-portrait; it's possible that (many) other tweaks have been made as well. One can have a copyright in a derivative work despite lacking the copyright to the original. The Daily Mail would be at the mercy of the original copyright holder - if there is one - as far its right to post its derivative work. But since the original copyright holder (the monkey? the chattel owner? nobody?) won't be asserting its right to exclude the Daily Mail from posting, they don't have to worry about that.

    Again, this is all IFF the original film / RAW files have been significantly and creatively edited before being posted online.

  • On the post: NYTimes: When We Do It, It's Journalism, When HuffPo Does It, It's 'Piracy'

    cosmicwonderful ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2011 @ 10:43pm

    Re:

    And they pay for them, too.