DataShade 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: LAPD Joins Feds In Skirting Fourth Amendment With Cell Phone Tracking Devices

    DataShade ( profile ), 20 Sep, 2012 @ 10:58pm

    Re: FCC Should fine them

    If we lived in a nation where the laws applied to the people who make them and the people who enforce them and the people who donate the money to keep those other two groups in control, then, yes, anyone who uses those devices without prior written authorization of the FCC would be fined, at least.

    But in a nation where a bipartisan effort was made to exempt telcos from civil or criminal penalties for violating the law, that's very unlikely.

  • On the post: LAPD Joins Feds In Skirting Fourth Amendment With Cell Phone Tracking Devices

    DataShade ( profile ), 20 Sep, 2012 @ 10:55pm

    Re: Just wondering

    That sounds like it would require phone-to-phone connections bypassing the towers, which I don't think any commercial phones come designed to do; centralized providers who make money selling you text messages at the equivalent of $1,000 a megabyte don't want you bypassing their little walled gardens.

    What you're describing would be a form of mesh networking. Mesh networking is a big thing that a lot of the Free Software Foundation and TORProject types have been working on for a while.

  • On the post: LAPD Joins Feds In Skirting Fourth Amendment With Cell Phone Tracking Devices

    DataShade ( profile ), 20 Sep, 2012 @ 10:44pm

    Re:

    Here's another easy one: if you don't want your criminal case to get thrown out, don't forget to obtain a warrant before you track your suspect by intercepting his digital communications.

  • On the post: LAPD Joins Feds In Skirting Fourth Amendment With Cell Phone Tracking Devices

    DataShade ( profile ), 20 Sep, 2012 @ 10:38pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    What? That's crazy talk.

    First, by "a hacker group" you obviously mean "terrorists."

    Second, if someone starts exposing illegal covert surveillance, that's not a reason to stop illegal covert surveillance, that's a reason to increase surveillance to catch the terrorists who are trying to interfere with law enforcement.

  • On the post: MPAA & RIAA: If People Can Sell Foreign Purchased Content Without Paying Us Again, US Economy May Collapse

    DataShade ( profile ), 20 Sep, 2012 @ 09:01pm

    I hate working overnights, because I'm always so late to these conversations.

    If anyone's still paying attention: the copyright corps want to call this piracy because it really is piracy, in the sense that piracy is the way you undermine mercantilism by turning it against itself. I'd like to draw your attention to this blog/opinion article from around the time of the financial crash in 2008:

    We Are All Mercantilists Now

  • On the post: YouTube Restricts Access To Anti-Islam Movie Trailer In Egypt And Libya

    DataShade ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2012 @ 01:39am

    Re: Re:

    The news articles about people like Steven Klein and "Sam Bacile" AKA Nakoula Basseley Nakoula make a pretty strong implication that if the film wasn't designed as hate speech, it was designed to instigate attacks from muslim terrorists (albeit "secret cells" of muslim terrorists in California, not active militants in Libya).

    http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/09/anti-islam-flick/all/

  • On the post: YouTube Restricts Access To Anti-Islam Movie Trailer In Egypt And Libya

    DataShade ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2012 @ 01:21am

    Re:

    It's looking more and more like there were two groups: angry but nonviolent protesters from the local area, and armed militants from as far away as Pakistan who used - and possible took action to create - the mob as a diversion.


    I don't suppose there's a chance that information and speculation puts your rhetorical question into context as ignorant and shameful?

  • On the post: YouTube Restricts Access To Anti-Islam Movie Trailer In Egypt And Libya

    DataShade ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2012 @ 01:14am

    So, who remembers this story from last month?

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/16/indians-assam-muslim-threats-bangalore

    A massive migration of persecuted ethnic minorities was sparked by what was later determined to be hoax/prank-ish social media messages; preying upon fears of racial violence sparked by a protest the month before where police had killed a few and injured many.

    It made me wonder if the protest mob was a deliberate diversion ... which is now making the rounds as a possibility:

    http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/09/13/libya-attack-pre-planned-by-terror-group/




    So, in that light, I'm prepared to look at YouTube's actions as more like trying to take the megaphone out of the hands of the guy yelling fire. In most cases, the antidote to improper speech is better speech, but let's mop up the blood first and then let the crazy guy go back to shouting insults.

  • On the post: Credit Where It's Due: DOJ Changes Its Tune On FISA Transparency

    DataShade ( profile ), 13 Sep, 2012 @ 11:53pm

    Re:

    We'll know if you're right when we see is Ms. Pustay still has a job after the Senate hearings on their version, neh?

  • On the post: Yet Another Court Says You're Not 'Negligent' If Someone Uses Your Open WiFi To Infringe

    DataShade ( profile ), 13 Sep, 2012 @ 06:44am

    Re:

    What excuse? They don't need an excuse. They just need the Graduated Response/Six Strikes plans to finally go into effect. Then they don't need to spend money on lawyers or even get their employees PI licenses because they won't need to meet any evidentiary standard at all.

  • On the post: Appeals Court Says That You Can Trademark Red Soled Shoes

    DataShade ( profile ), 07 Sep, 2012 @ 12:44am

    he court goes through the caselaw history on colors as trademark, and the question of whether or not a color is "functional" or not


    The way it was explained to me many years ago is that not only is the Louboutin red not functional, it's dysfunctional; it actually makes scuffs and minor sole damage more obvious, can leave marks on certain surfaces, and (the finish to make the red more obvious, not the red itself) can make you more likely to slip.

    And this is on purpose. It's deliberately wasteful extravagance, conspicuous consumption.

    Dunno ... maybe that pushes it so far down into non-functionality that it becomes functional again.

  • On the post: Design Patents Meet The Fashion World: Lululemon Suing Calvin Klein

    DataShade ( profile ), 05 Sep, 2012 @ 11:51pm

    If a company whose founder boasted about switching to sweatshops to cut costs a mere 7 years ago can't be CK on price... I dunno what they're doing.

  • On the post: FBI Denies That Hacked Apple Info Came From FBI

    DataShade ( profile ), 04 Sep, 2012 @ 11:24pm

    Well, hypothetical ... what if the FBI really did "never had" the information, because it was always remotely accessed from an NCFTA server?



    FBI Agent leaves laptop open with a username and password in plain view or written on a post-it (because "o hai Im FBI! c my gun pew pew! I haz nashunul seekrits lulz" seems to fit the profile of a joker who shows up to a hacker conference to shill for the FBI in an EFF tshirt).

    AntiSec grabs the post-it, logs into NCFTA website, downloads file.


    FBI issues factually accurate but still deceptive denial.

  • On the post: Copyright Enforcement Bots Seek And Destroy Hugo Awards

    DataShade ( profile ), 04 Sep, 2012 @ 08:31am

    Re:

    Oh, I read that reference to "paid, ad-free, Pro Broadcasting" as a reflexive upsell ... but then I've been reading that Apple Store training book.

  • On the post: European Commission Looks To Backdoor In ACTA By Pushing For Same Results Through 'Voluntarism'

    DataShade ( profile ), 04 Sep, 2012 @ 04:30am

    "Voluntarism" vs "Crimestop"

    Thank god Newspeak and DoubleSpeak was codified so long ago that the knowledge thereof is nearly ubiquitous.

  • On the post: Hall & Oates Convince Super PAC Named After Them To Shut Down

    DataShade ( profile ), 31 Aug, 2012 @ 12:55am

    Somewhat Unserious Proposal that Everyone Respect Parody As Commentary

  • On the post: Is Trolling Just A Form Of Practical Jokes?

    DataShade ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2012 @ 02:51am

    Re: Re: Re:

    If a troll takes it too far or no one laughs, there's really no chance of a graceful dismount OR EVEN AN APOLOGY, as the apology of a troll - "it was just a joke" comes far too close to the reply of an unrepentant bully: "can't you take a joke?"

  • On the post: Is Trolling Just A Form Of Practical Jokes?

    DataShade ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2012 @ 02:49am

    Re: No, trolling is worse. IT's a way to live in denial

    Isn't dismissing someone as a troll a form of denial?

  • On the post: Is Trolling Just A Form Of Practical Jokes?

    DataShade ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2012 @ 02:47am

    http://incisive.nu/2012/how-to-kill-a-troll/#comment-608711799

    I've been saying that for a while, and where I expect people to get mad at me for saying it =P

  • On the post: Time Warner Cable Is Ready For A 'Conversation' About Rising Costs, But Not The One You Want To Have

    DataShade ( profile ), 30 Jul, 2012 @ 04:24am

    The desire to lockdown the conversation isn't really that hard to understand.

    Cable company vs. FOX is kind of like Alien vs. Predator - on one hand, you enjoy watching because they're both terrible, and the more damage they do to each other the better; but on the other hand, you take whatever shots you can at them because, at the end of the day, they're fighting over who gets to eat you.

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