James Burkhardt 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (2642)

• On the post: Announcing Techdirt’s March Madness: Get Your Bracket For The Most Misunderstood Legal Concept

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2022 @ 10:26am

  Hey everyone! Good news! Elite politicians who know better know they are lying, so we can just assume all the rubes do as well, rather than guess most of them have been lied to on all sides and they don't actually even know what section 230 is or does. Seems like a bad take IMO.

• On the post: Announcing Techdirt’s March Madness: Get Your Bracket For The Most Misunderstood Legal Concept

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2022 @ 10:22am

  Hey everyone! Good news! Elite politicians who know better know they are lying, so we can just assume all the rubes do as well, rather than guess most of them have been lied to on all sides and they don't actually even know what section 230 is or does.

• On the post: Six Republican AGs Try To Pretend OAN Was ‘Censored’ By DirecTV

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2022 @ 09:10am

  IN 2016 the GOP had a "party platform" that included the stance Karl cites. They abandoned that platform in 2020 in favor of "Whatever trump says on twitter at 4am". If you want to be pedantic about it, Karl is 100% accurate about the GOP platform. And since wordpress bugs memory hole any long-form comments I write, ill just say that the overall use of soft language like lamenting a past GOP that may never have existed in reality is an attempt to establish a rapport with those GOP voters who the party has failed to support with the rise of Trump and highlight failures which can lead to votes shifting. You might get more flies with vinegar, but humans respond to sympathy more than anger.

• On the post: Six Republican AGs Try To Pretend OAN Was ‘Censored’ By DirecTV

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2022 @ 09:00am

  Pot, kettle

  If "OAN cited the source of their bullshit claim" launders any responsibility for repeating the claim, and you acknowlege Karl cited a source, he is not responsible for the falisty of his sourced claim. Indeed, what you had to do to construct this theory is assume an order of events, that Karl wanted to make a claim and sought out a source to cite, while assuming the opposite for OAN, that they came across a claim and ran it on air. You've had to assert facts not evidenced by the public record to justify your claims of fact laundering. How is your deception morally superior?

• On the post: Six Republican AGs Try To Pretend OAN Was ‘Censored’ By DirecTV

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2022 @ 08:26am

  If we want to dig deeper, political parties in the US have no values. Literally. The political parties are made of of loose ideological confederations, which is why it is so easy for US policial parties to change positions and why its so hard to establish broad policy positions like 'what is the role of government'. That said, political parties including the GOP have a party platform they update every 2-4 years for the election cycle. It is the 'official' list of policies the party supported, even if individual members might disagree on specifics. In 2020 the GOP abandoned the idea of a party platform, designating the party's official policies as whatever trump tweeted at 4 am. By this metric alone, it is 100% true to say the the GOP used to have a platform whose stated bedrock was to get government out of routine business. We can both agree this policy, in practice, simply was the GOP attacking business it didn't like and directing the government away from business it did. But the statement was about the platform not the implementation. And even deeper, How does anyone determine when the government has "exceptional cause"? Why it turns out for legislators that amounts to a judgement call. That is to say, if you think a practice is bad or good is a major driver of the impetus to do something about the practice. And while you and I agree motivations are unlikely to be so benign when dealing with grandstanding politicians, getting people to read your opinion piece and actually think about your arguments, attacking those politicians does not, as confirmed by science, the approach to take. Instead, by expressing disappointment, the author creates a sympathetic bond with the conservative reader who believes in the party platform. The author can forgo a fight about how genuine the politician is, and simply say to the reader, a voter more likely than the politician, "This is clearly not in line with the values you expect of the party." Will this change the mind of a GQP believer? No. Of course not. But there are a lot more people who vote (R) because they believe in the long standing small government policies and disuading those voters from believing the modern GOP is the same GOP of Reagan can change minds. And then, continuing to talk compassion, liberals and progressives and leftists can use that opening to continue to move those individuals toward more socially responsible policy. But it doesn't work if you start off by shitting on the reader. Metrics don't lie. Softer language is received better by audiences not controlled by fear or anger. Viewership is better with softer language. And you do better convincing people with softer language. Idiot.

• On the post: Senators Leahy & Tillis To Team Up To Suggest Destroying The Internet For Hollywood’s Sake

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 21 Mar, 2022 @ 01:03pm

  For every SOPA, dozens of bad bills pass because the entire internet didn't shut down to protest it. the metas and googles and amazons don't care, they want this to pass to entrench themselves. We won't see a blackout over this. And its copyright, so there is a much more powerful player than the evangelical lobby at work.

• On the post: Senators Leahy & Tillis To Team Up To Suggest Destroying The Internet For Hollywood’s Sake

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 21 Mar, 2022 @ 12:59pm

  Photo and video filters are bad. Changes so small that a human could never notice them often make the photo/video completely different to algorithms designed to identify similar photos/videos. This was highlighted after Apple announced the CSAM Scanner - researchers on the cutting edge of identifying the content of visual mediums had to highlight they have been trying to get this to work for years, had tried these ideas years ago, had failed, and nothing has changed on the tech front. The moment Apple had to show its work, suddenly it was going back to the drawing board to rework things. Audio frankly isn't much better, which is how bird song and white noise get claims.

• On the post: Conspiracy Channel OAN Pouts More, Sues DirecTV For Kicking It To The Curb

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 18 Mar, 2022 @ 09:22am

  2 months to file a lawsuit

  It absolutely can take 2 months to pour over the contracts, research applicable law, find applicable precedent, and draft a competent legal brief. Making the decision to actually file requires weighing the costs versus the benefits. As well, it is reasonable to warn a party their actions would result in a suit privately, and then provide time for the other party to respond. Such a response would generally involve lawyers, and the research necessary to make a competent coherent response. There is a reason Dominion didn't file suit for months after the claims Dominion stole the election began.

• On the post: Bad Faith Litigator’s Defamation/Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Shot Down By Appeals Court

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2022 @ 08:31am

  I am somewhat surprised there were no discussion of the terms and conditions of the message board. Most message boards I was a part of, including plenty of generic hyperboards-derived message boards, included the standard boiler plate "you provide a perpetual, non-exclusive licence to any copyrights" yada yada yada that I would have expected to be an easy deathblow to the copyright claims. That said, "I defamed myself and that guy super defamed me by not deleting my random comment from years ago" was a....bold strategy.

• On the post: Now That White Musicians Are Getting Sued For Copyright, Lawyers Say Copyright Needs To Change

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 16 Mar, 2022 @ 09:54am

  The author cited a number of white artists affected by the modern trend. None of them were Men at work. The author then compared to a similar trend in the past that primarily affected non-white artists that did not see the same backlash among copyright scholars and lobbyists, to establish the basis for the claims of racism made by the article. That non-white artists are also affected by this trend isn't surprising, and does not invalidate the claims that race has affected the response to sampling lawsuits.

• On the post: Sen. Ron Wyden Catches ICE Illegally Collecting Americans’ Financial Data

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2022 @ 12:40pm

  let me use google? An interesting

  THere was intended to be a photo linked, I probably screwed up the markup. Here is the first result I find for ICE

• On the post: Sen. Ron Wyden Catches ICE Illegally Collecting Americans’ Financial Data

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2022 @ 12:34pm

  Sen. Ron Wyden Catches Internal Combustion Engine Illegally Collecting Americans’ Financial Data

  Seems like that doesn't make sense. Perhaps from context I could identify the issue?

  HSI [Homeland Security Investigations — a division of ICE]

  Huh. it sounds like ICE isn't a machine or an object, but an organization that has divisions. let me use google? An interesting but dont trust me? Try it yourself Your continued insistence on reading ICE as anything remotely contextually appropriate is the problem, not the use of the official acronym for a major US government agency. Like, at least use an organization rather than an object? Or is it that there aren't enough organizations abbreviated ICE for you to make a reasonable joke?

• On the post: Appeals Court Smacks Down Unconstitutional Injunction Obtained By A Lawyer To Silence Someone Who Left A Negative Review

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2022 @ 10:26am

  Every case I've looked at, judges are either appointed or elected. Firing in either case would require a separate proceeding, an appeals court can't fire a judge, only fire a judge from a case. They certainly can't summarily fire a judge for a single bad result (which is all that would be in front of them). Im not sure by what mechanism you'd assume this judge would be fired, as under the current court system judges are not held responsible, can't be held responsible, for downright outrageous flaunting of direct instruction from higher courts directed at the specific judge.

• On the post: It’s 2022 And Bullshit Cable TV Fees Are Somehow Still A Thing

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 09 Mar, 2022 @ 09:06am

  Much like a gas pump tells you this much tax is added to the cost

  Of course, the price on the sign includes those taxes, and comcast does not. There is an ocean of difference between "this price includes $X fee for licensing of local broadcast content" and "On top of your advertised monthly rate we are charging you a $x fee for licensing of local broadcast content. This fee can increase without notice without limits on the amount or frequency of increase."

• On the post: FOIA Requester Gets 292 Fully-Redacted Pages In Response To Request About Federal Funding Of Virus Research In Wuhan

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 07 Mar, 2022 @ 08:36am

  I've seen too many of these fights around conspiracies. This is serious fuel for that conspiracy. It is, in the end the best confirmation there is no conspiracy, as a mildly redacted fake document would much better serve. This release seems so calculated to fuel conspiracy. But as an armchair veteran of these kinds of FOIA wars, I've come to realize it's part of the reason the US populace is so conspiracy prone. The government has done the conspiracy enough, that its desire to over classify just fuels speculation about what they are doing 'this time'.

• On the post: It’s 2022 And Bullshit Cable TV Fees Are Somehow Still A Thing

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 04 Mar, 2022 @ 10:13am

  I would argue the fact that capitalism expressly rewards dishonesty at every level is a flaw in capitalism. Capitalism only escapes Crony capitalism and dishonest capitalists with extensive use of the heavy hand of regulation, which capitalism naturally opposes as a restraint on the power of capitalist trade.

• On the post: It’s 2022 And Bullshit Cable TV Fees Are Somehow Still A Thing

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 04 Mar, 2022 @ 07:47am

  Few very MVPDs turn a profit on pay TV services – many of them made a net loss on each subscriber as of 2018. The point of the broadcast TV surcharges is to point out to subscribers, “This is not revenue. This is how much the broadcast stations force us – by law – to pay them so we can retransmit something you could get for free if you were smart enough to use an antenna.

  So, traditionally, the advertised price of a good or service includes the costs of goods or services sold. When I buy a power rangers toy, I don't get told that I also have to pay an unknown fee to recover the cost of acquiring the toy. Leaving aside questions if the fee does indeed represent a 1:1 reflection of local broadcast retransmission costs without profit, a fact not in evidence, What is described as BS is that the "fee" is simply a cost of providing the service and should simply be a part of the price. However, like carpet mills trying to hide the fact that they are raising prices for the 3rd time in the last year, rather than raise prices, they added a below the line fee, a fee which then steadily grows while the advertised cost of service remains stagnant, which makes it seem like they haven't raised prices in advertising, even as the cost goes up every year. The existence of retransmission fees isn't bullshit, what is bullshit is hiding that cost to the consumer and advertising prices over 20% lower rather than include those costs as part of the base price, for the same reasons you find the network enhancement fees bullshit.

• On the post: Bar Security Camera Exposes Off-Duty Officers’ Lies About Their Unprovoked Assault Of Another Bar Patron

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 04 Mar, 2022 @ 06:29am

  I am looking forward to (read: expecting with a combination of dread and exhasperation and curiosity) the attempt to claim that getting drunk and damaging property is part of police work and they deserve qualified immunity.

• On the post: Cities Are Turning To Automation To Enforce Vehicle Noise Ordinances

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 03 Mar, 2022 @ 08:43am

  Every encounter with law enforcement holds the threat of violence and legalized murder. This is because individuals who fear for their lives after being told they need to wait for fresh mcnuggets are in a position where the subjective fear for their life justifies any and all violence. unneccisary police interaction is simply a risk of violence being inflicted upon your person. The list of actions you have to take to not be shot is comprehensively contradictory.

• On the post: Cities Are Turning To Automation To Enforce Vehicle Noise Ordinances

  

  James Burkhardt ( profile ), 03 Mar, 2022 @ 08:30am

  Police enforce the law through the use of force. Currently, under the law, every interaction with the police comes with the threat that anyone present can be killed because an officer is vaguely threatened. If you have a gun on you at all? Thats a corpse. If you don't comply fast enough? Thats a corpse. If you comply too fast? Thats a corpse. Little child scared of the shouting and makes a sudden move? Thats a corpse. Pull out your wallet to show ID? Thats a corpse. Police misidentify someone? Thats a corpse. Warrent issued for the wrong person? Too bad, thats a corpse. Guilty of a nuisence crime with a nuisence fine? Well, thats justification for making you a corpse. Since years of techdirt coverage hasnt informed you of this, lets try Beau. Perhaps he has a perspective you can wrap your head around.

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