James Burkhardt 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: New Acting Attorney General Part Of A Patent Scam Company Recently Shut Down By The FTC And Fined Millions

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 08 Nov, 2018 @ 11:19am

    Re: Ooh, a "failed politician"! -- He could be part HONEST, then!

    Reality check, despite what you think, the investigation was not established with Trump as the goal. Moreover, 18 months is a short time for a special investigation.

    The investigation is looking into Russian interference in the 2016 election and crimes uncovered in that investigation. Muller has long been praised as a straight shooter, and served under both Republican and Democrat administrations with distinction. If Trump did nothing wrong, he won't be indicted. But that doesn't mean the investigation 'failed' - it uncovered a number of crimes, financial and election related, and has secured convictions on that information.

    I realize you don't think a lawyer who helped a fraud ring commit fraud has any ethical concerns to worry about. But I really do, and that discussion is important. If you want to discuss his ethical concerns, lets hear your arguments. If you want to claim his ethical concerns are moot because witch hunt, you do not make a good case that Whitaker is being criticized unfairly.

  • On the post: Marsha Blackburn Continues To Be Rewarded For Screwing Up The Internet

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 08 Nov, 2018 @ 09:04am

    Re: Re: The Internet isn't everything, nor the only thing

    Except, honestly, its outside any of our expertise, aside from pundits who are hard to trust. Most political messages you hear are not from 'experts' but deep pockets special interests. Taylor Swift going on a twitter crusade to encourage overall voting, and sharing her opinions on the ballot is what we should expect of everyone. Yes, she has a larger reach, but I found the language she used to be far less aggressive then most political commentary I've seen.

  • On the post: New York Lawmakers Want Social Media History To Be Included In Gun Background Checks

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 07 Nov, 2018 @ 12:40pm

    Re: Re: Wow, a twofer!

    I would note the actual construction of the sentence leaves much to be desired.

    >>A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

    See, while historical records do suggest this was intended to provide a collection of pre-armed people to be drafted (a curious reason and method to grant this right), the construction leads to argument that the introductory phrase should not be factored in when reading the text of the right being granted, that because of the construction the sentence grammatically should stand on it's own. Therefore it was the right of the people, not the militia, to bear arms. Combined with the history of the British denying the right of gun ownership, its not a hard sell that this language was intended to provide for individual ownership, because otherwise the militia should bear them, not the people. The deadly character count game hurting the authors intent even 200 years ago.

    As well, the arguments you make against SCOTUS also serve to note the idea that the SCOTUS has, for a long time, expanded understandings from their constitutional roots. Free speech has gone back and forth, but the general trend has been expansion for instance.

    Not saying you are wrong, but your rhetoric could be worked on. Insulting people for not reading the letters of a founding father or understanding grammatical shifts over 200 years doesn't generally make for a good read.

    PS, Plessy v Ferguson was not decided in spite of the 14th amendment. The point of the "Equal" part was to line up with the 14th amendment. SCOTUS overturned it when the court was convinced not that the 14th amendment exists, but that separate facilities even if equal were discriminatory, and that in practice they never were.

    Then we just used housing and lending laws to implement it anyway, because now its 'fair'.

  • On the post: FCC Pretends To Hold Carrier Feet To The Fire On Robocalls

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 07 Nov, 2018 @ 10:59am

    Re: Re: There is a special place in hell...

    Someone actually did this, listing a 900 number he owned as his number on all those lists that get sold to scammers. It was his primary number, as far as they were concerned. He would talk to them as long as they wanted. A few months later, all the spam and solicitations magically stopped coming in.

  • On the post: FCC Pretends To Hold Carrier Feet To The Fire On Robocalls

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 07 Nov, 2018 @ 10:19am

    Re: Re:

    The article that the SHAKEN/STIR link links to notes that this system is the industry proposed solution to verify that the origin phone number is accurately represented to the receiving carrier. It indeed seems to be a simple implementation of standard key validation used throughout the internet.

    That said, it also seems no work has actually been put into implementation of the idea, hence all the frustration and continued inability to fight robocalls.

  • On the post: After Being Sued To Block Sci-Hub; Swedish ISP Blocks Court's And Elsevier's Website In Protest

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 07 Nov, 2018 @ 08:03am

    Re:

    Federal judges are not elected. They are appointed by congress. State office judges are elected in many jurisdictions, including the Supreme Court of California which must be validated by the voters.

  • On the post: Court Dismisses Bogus Charges Brought Against Nevada Man Who Pissed Off Local Cops By Using The Crosswalk

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2018 @ 02:51pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Re-reading your comment, I realize you understood the structure better than I thought on first glance, my apologies.

    That said, I think the appearance of corruption presented by Tim is valid whether or not its actually true

  • On the post: Court Dismisses Bogus Charges Brought Against Nevada Man Who Pissed Off Local Cops By Using The Crosswalk

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2018 @ 02:49pm

    Re: Re: Re: What point are you trying to make

    Not so much that they are church buddies, but that a local stake President (bishop) got a blatenly unconstitutional order from a judge who is a member of his Stake (diocese). The catholic terms are based on my understanding of the equivalencies, though there are 3 stake presidents, all members of the larger stake presidency, because the Mormon church is built on a more community run model.

  • On the post: Court Dismisses Bogus Charges Brought Against Nevada Man Who Pissed Off Local Cops By Using The Crosswalk

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2018 @ 02:42pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Well, as one of the local stake presidents, the city attorney was likely in the chain for any follower whose church was in the area. The stake will include a minimum of 5 churches all located in geographical proximity.

    The church dealing with an abuse of his authority doesn't resolve the results of the abuse, such as the intended wrongful conviction as a result of vindictive prosecution. Given that Vindictive prosecution is already an abuse of secular authority and his oaths of office (generally sworn to god or upon the sacred text), I do not find it a stretch to assume abuse of sacred authority as well.

  • On the post: Court Dismisses Bogus Charges Brought Against Nevada Man Who Pissed Off Local Cops By Using The Crosswalk

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2018 @ 08:52am

    Re: Re: Re:

    Actually, in general, a follower of a faith (the magistrate judge) listening to a leader of the faith (the city attorney) is not that odd. Having a city attorney who is also the stake president for the area, an elder leading multiple 'branches', ie individual churches, and is considered a 'high priest' in the faith by holding this office, can be considered a conflict of interest, given his significant religious position, when the judge is a member of his church. The attorney can be considered to have pull with his followers.

    Given the magistrate judge made such a ridiculous and unconstitutional call, it presents the appearance of bad faith and corruption. Therefore, it is appropriate to call it out.

  • On the post: Supreme Court Rejects Telecom Industry Calls To Hear Net Neutrality Case… For Now

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2018 @ 03:44pm

    Re:

    Well no, the Owners, the ones who plausibly speak definitively for the company also have first amendment rights. And all corporate speech is, is the owners speaking as a group, using their first amendment rights. Its why the owner of a newspaper is at issue when they discuss certain topics, the owner could try to exercise editorial control - it is their paper and their speech after all, not the journalists. The issue with citizens united is not 'corporate personhood' or 'corporate speech', it is the way the ruling bypasses the ability of the individual to understand conflicts of interest.

  • On the post: Supreme Court Rejects Telecom Industry Calls To Hear Net Neutrality Case… For Now

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2018 @ 01:22pm

    Re:

    In kavenaugh's case, It would be a different case, not on the legality of the Title II classification, but the legality of the reclassification of Title I. The issue in this case is that he directly ruled on the previous case, and no matter if he was in the majority or minority, he might have a desire to rule not based on the arguments presented, but entirely on his views from the original ruling. (majority - try to force his view, even as they challenge the legal basis for that ruling, minority - try to use this to overturn the legal basis for the ruling.) Basically, its a clear in-built bias, he has a stake in the game, not on the subject matter but on the outcome of the case itself.

    However, once you move away from the case he heard, his personal opinions are not considered a conflict of interest. While the unique nature of this case means he is effectively re-hearing that original case, and the ethics are iffy, we are looking at a Jurist who stated he intends to rule against every democrat who comes to the supreme court and be partisan in favor of republicans during his confirmation hearing, so iffy Jurist ethics are the norm right now, so he is unlikely to recuse himself.

    So if Roberts sells that stock, we could potentially have a full court.

  • On the post: Another Lawsuit And Another Loss For Plaintiffs Trying To Make Twitter Pay For Terrorism

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2018 @ 11:09am

    Re: rent seeking double standard?

    Interestingly, Techdirt did not support the takedown of GAB, and while some commentors did, not all. 1st amendment wonks like myself are upset that gab was taken down for hosting 1st amendment activity, and while we support the legal right for private corporations Visa/MC/GoDaddy/et al. to cease servicing Gab, we are dismayed that they chose to do so. Just as I support twitter's right to host 1 amendment speech, even if some of those users are reprehensible, I support Gab's right to host 1st amendment speech, even if most of its users are reprehensible.

    But that doesn't mean I am in favor of Godaddy being forced to serve Gab any more than I am in favor of Twitter being forced to serve Infowars. Its a consistent policy when you compare apples to apples.

  • On the post: Georgia's Brian Kemp And The No Good, Very Bad Claim That Democrats Were Hacking Voter Registration System

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2018 @ 10:15am

    Re: aluminum foil hat time.

    You aren't tinfoil enough. The voter rolls were purged in the last few weeks of any voter whose information wasn't an exact match to other databases.

    But this system, as noted, could easily be hacked to create an imperfect match before the purge. There are already accusations that the imperfect matches were heavily skewed toward Democrats. And since there is no logging, we dont know if those records were changed, how they were changed, who changed them. That poison pill might already have been swallowed.

  • On the post: Charter Spectrum's CEO Continues To Whine About Streaming Password Sharing

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2018 @ 10:11am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Someone already said that.

    In the end, that judgement can't be made until they are on a severe downswing and continue the mantra. Until then, it is successful.

  • On the post: Charter Spectrum's CEO Continues To Whine About Streaming Password Sharing

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2018 @ 10:10am

    Re: Re: Re: Someone already said that.

    While it is possible that they are claiming password sharing is part of their success without anything backing that up, I fell it is unlikely.

    That said, you seem to have some failures in understanding. Limited numbers of streams per account mean a limited number of streams available to share. As long as they gain fans, they have the potential for growth. And that discounts the number of people who don't mind and want to pay to upkeep a service providing low cost, convenient access to content.

    I can tell you, anecdotally, it worked in my case. My friends and I shared a collection of streaming services. When I started to make it on my own, I got my own subscriptions to many of those services. Not all, some of them were not to my taste, but sharing those subscriptions gave me a taste for the content and service, and encouraged me to pay for my own subscriptions to support that service.

    I think you also miss that they aren't just passively waiting for the new subscribers. They are actively innovating to maintain their subscribers and draw in new ones. Cable companies are trying to excuse 'business as usual' as their model fails. Netflix and HBO are adapting. HBO's streaming services are case in point. I never would have subscribed to HBO via Comcast. I've rejected that offer repeatedly. But I subscribed to standalone HBO in a heartbeat. Netflix is pivoting to original content as outside content becomes a bigger and bigger quagmire with higher and higher costs. Heck, streaming was a pivot in and of itself.

    Yes, if they just sat on their laurels and waited for 'inevitable' growth, they'd be no better than Traditional cable. If they do so as their business fails, see above.

    But you assume a part of the marketing plan is the whole marketing plan, and the whole business model, and I don't think that is accurate. More is happening.

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2018 @ 09:31am

    Re: 'How did you dig DEEPER?! You're already at rock bottom!'

    Remember last week when i told you to look up at the clouds and called it rock bottom? Why don't you look up now and see where we were last week.

    -Paraphrased from John Oliver

  • On the post: Charter Spectrum's CEO Continues To Whine About Streaming Password Sharing

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2018 @ 09:18am

    Re: Someone already said that.

    You miss some of the detail, which is the current revenue direction. Netflix and HBO are seeing subscriber growth, and so these claims are to support observed trends, and in support of a currently successful business model. Traditional Broadcasters on the other hand, are seeing subscriber losses, and trying to explain where they hope to see subscribers in the future to justify the policies that are costing them subscribers.

  • On the post: Georgia's Brian Kemp And The No Good, Very Bad Claim That Democrats Were Hacking Voter Registration System

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2018 @ 09:53am

    This reminds me of all the congressional virtue warriors found to be committing the very crime they were campaigning against, be it the imagined crime of consensual gay sex, or the very real crime of sex with a minor.

    We can add claims of hacking the election by the guy in charge of a voting database that seems designed to be hacked, has already been purged of opposing voices based on data inconsistencies that can easily be faked, and a lack of logging to inform the electorate of who done it.

  • On the post: Senator Wyden Releases Draft Of Privacy Rules That Silicon Valley Probably Won't Like Very Much

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 02 Nov, 2018 @ 02:55pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Its Wyden again!

    You responded to a comment noting that the DOJ is not in the job of law enforcement, by saying its in the job of law enforcement...

    While this might get complicated, you are somewhat right. by a broad dictionary definition. But in america 'law enforcement' refers to the investigatory and intervention forces like local police, Sheriff, Highway patrol, State Troopers, FBI ect. Not the DAs or AGs that prosecute criminal activity. The DOJ functions primarily as the prosecution arm, with other agencies operating in the investigatory role even at the federal level (like the FBI before they decided to be a useless Anti-terror outfit).

    We actually are seeing the results of years of cutbacks and budget hawks working against the creation of task forces to investigate crimes in the number of long-running financial crimes uncovered by the Muller investigation. To say the investigatory arms of the DOJ can just whip up task forces of individuals highly educated in AI and programming to investigate and enforce privacy law violations is ridiculous.

    Then again, you are the psychic who intuits the corrupt motives of the one anti-surveillance Senator on the Intelligence committee based on a line that is clear signalling to his political opponents that he is willing to address their boogeyman in exchange for their support.

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