James Burkhardt 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: DOJ, Trump Decide The Federal Government Needs To Give Chicago The Police Department It Doesn't Want

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2018 @ 11:07am

    Re: Chicago has long had corrupt police and administration.

    I mean, they had ruthless force for decades - but crime in chicago has generally been high.

    the 2016 spike is noted to have many causes - including a fracturing of the factions within gangs leading to a lots of territory disputes. Cops used to respond to gang fights. Now, between community distrust and a quicker tendency to resort to gun violence, cops respond to shots fired. But I mean they couldn't have learned that response from police who ever more readily jump to gun violence themselves.

  • On the post: DOJ, Trump Decide The Federal Government Needs To Give Chicago The Police Department It Doesn't Want

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2018 @ 10:46am

    Re: Re: If you Want to Stop a Stop and Frisk Program

    And amazingly, over the last 20 years, budgets have slowly eroded the resources available to enforcement, making high level tax evasion impossible to investigate.

  • On the post: DOJ, Trump Decide The Federal Government Needs To Give Chicago The Police Department It Doesn't Want

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2018 @ 09:52am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Agreed. But we had shootings under the old system, so the old system isn't panacea. And the police can't fix that - Law enforcement in the US is trained to escalate and intimidate. Their purpose is to enforce the law, but are relatively powerless before a crime. Nothing in the old way of doing things changes that.

    Experts studying policing methods in areas with less violent crime note differences in policing methods that are not obvious but have long reaching effects. When a community trusts law enforcement, they work with law enforcement. That results in easier, more rapid, more substantial investigations leading to better legal convictions when crime happens. That produces a deterrent effect on future crime, and makes repeat crimes less likely, further fostering trust in Law Enforcement.

    The consent decree is designed by experts to help foster the base trust necessary for this kind of community policing to bear fruit.

    By contrast, you suggest the police keep on keeping on and hope eventually the brutality eventually makes up for all the extra work they have to do, because aint no one snitchin if it means getting shot in the back.

  • On the post: DOJ, Trump Decide The Federal Government Needs To Give Chicago The Police Department It Doesn't Want

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2018 @ 09:43am

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

    Still a liar, "could be worse" is still not a quote, and your taking of that bait rather than address the substantive arguments continues to prove my point. I was not mistaken.

  • On the post: DOJ, Trump Decide The Federal Government Needs To Give Chicago The Police Department It Doesn't Want

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2018 @ 08:41am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    "Would only worsen" =/= "Could be worse". You used quotes, said "your own words". But you didn't quote, and didn't use his own words. You LIED.

    "Would only worsen" notes the situation is bad, and the proposed solution would make things worse. It condemns the proposed action while simultaneously not giving the current situation a pass.

    "Could be worse" excuses the horrible current situation as ok because it isn't some hypothetically worse situation, leading to your general claims that those condemning the DOJ action are calling for 'inaction', ignoring that we are calling for a change to police policy, while the DOJ action calls for status quo, AKA doing more of the same.

    Your intentional change in verbiage changes the tone and creates a straw man you then fight against, rather than engage in the actual substansive arguments.

    So try again. Where does the would "could" appear in Stephen's comment? You Lied, numbnuts.

  • On the post: DOJ, Trump Decide The Federal Government Needs To Give Chicago The Police Department It Doesn't Want

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2018 @ 08:10am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: States Rights?

    I mean, id think maintaining the status quo as requested by the DOJ (refusing the consent decree and returning to the practices in place when murder rates were high) would best be described as 'doing nothing', by definition.

    Whereas establishing a consent decree based in community policing standards to increase trust and community involvement in anti-crime efforts of the police seems like trying to do something different.

  • On the post: DOJ, Trump Decide The Federal Government Needs To Give Chicago The Police Department It Doesn't Want

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2018 @ 08:06am

    Re: Re: Re: Cure?

    Well, yes, rereading the article for context on your quote makes the article authors intent clear, it does not make your intent clear. It was unclear if you were joking, a troll, or both. I feel the clarifying response to be entirely justified.

  • On the post: DOJ, Trump Decide The Federal Government Needs To Give Chicago The Police Department It Doesn't Want

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2018 @ 08:02am

    Re: Re:

    The phrase "could be worse" does not appear in the comment you replied to. The word "could" does not appear. You Lie.

    Your choice to strawman a reasonable argument born of an understanding of the role trust plays in police work expresses a lack of understanding of the topic, and an unwillingness to engage the arguement.

    Good day sir.

  • On the post: 99.7% Of Original Comments Opposed FCC Repeal Of Net Neutrality

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2018 @ 07:47am

    Re: But what if...

    Well, looking at the methodology in the study, the dataset was derived from a machine learning algorithm, which identified various form letter 'campaigns' by near identical verbiage. This process identified ~150 different campaigns, and was left with ~800,000 comments that were 'semantic outliers', that is the comments were not similar to any identified campaign, nor did they appear as a new unidentified campaign.

    These are labeled as unique comments.

    I suppose in the end it depends on how much of your commentary was original and the tolerances of the algorithm.

  • On the post: Stairway To Heaven Is Not Blurred Lines

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 15 Oct, 2018 @ 03:16pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: It ain't simple

    I actually think the inverse ratio explanation as presented here is a solid way to examine copying in general, though I feel too little effort is put into explaining the concept where we have duplication we can explain, even in the face of heavy access.

    I think copyright, as it stands now, handles works that derive from iterative innovation, like music, poorly. That is where this has the biggest potential to fail. A jury with no music education will not understand the necessary nuance of music copyrights and the derivative bedrock on which they are based. I do not think once they see 'copying' they will be able to distinguish unlawful appropriation, especially if they have to listen to several similar works in a day and age where nuances of pitch and tone are being erased in pursuit of volume.

  • On the post: A Decade's Worth Of Meth Convictions Overturned Due To Drug Lab Employee's Misconduct

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 15 Oct, 2018 @ 02:54pm

    Re: What I still don't get...

    Its one of the common arguments against prohibition. And I will address that in a moment. First I note a distinction: consuming opiates with a prescription: legal. Consuming opiates without a prescription: illegal. That leads to the positive forms of prohibition: recognizing medicinal value in debilitative compounds and providing them at need.

    That said, the allowance of compounds like alcohol, that show lower rates of addiction and have a higher threshold for overdose, is known to be positive to worker morale and helps to placate the masses.

    That said, if they had a choice, alcohol prohibition would likely still be a thing. One of the few means of legal slavery is imprisonment. It is no coincidence that the first compounds made illegal in the wake of the lifting of prohibition were used primarily by Blacks and Latinos.

    Opiates have reasons for being on the lists. It is highly addictive even in the short term, and highly debilatative as the addiction develops. Our current Opiate crisis is driven in part by failures of Doctors to heed those reasons and the deliberate disregard by pharmaceutical companies.

    But not all Prohibition is about safety. Jeff Sessions comments about the dangers of Marijuana are proof of that. Despite significant individual claims of medical benefit, the DOJ still prevents any significant study. Scientists who backed the initial MJ ban did so with the caveat that the ban was intended to be short term while studies were done. They were not.

    If the goal were actually to reduce the use of recreational compounds, free treatment and counseling have shown marked reductions in drug related casualties. They want slaves to shove into for profit prisons.

  • On the post: Stairway To Heaven Is Not Blurred Lines

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 15 Oct, 2018 @ 01:51pm

    Re: Re: It ain't simple

    For clarity, I meant to say the framework of copyright law. it doesn't understand how much of music history is the borrowing of technique and sounds and remixing them into new and different things. Soul for instance is a combination of techniques and sounds found in Gospel, Jazz, and Blues genres. Everything is a derivative work, and copyright law doesn't handle that well.

  • On the post: Stairway To Heaven Is Not Blurred Lines

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 15 Oct, 2018 @ 01:37pm

    Re: It ain't simple

    As a musician, The issue is the copyright framework ignores the history of music as a whole, and how the feel of a piece is often repeated throughout a whole genre. The Pop/Rock chord progression (as featured in the "4 Chords Song") is generally copyright infringement, as all songs using it are derivatives of the first use, designed to create the same feel. But the totality of the work becomes very different.

    (Note: music today all sounds the same for other reasons - primarily based in the loudness wars, formulaic composition, and the perfect, computer corrected sound.)

  • On the post: Wall Street Quietly Warns That 5G Wireless Is Being Aggressively Over-hyped

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 15 Oct, 2018 @ 10:27am

    Re: Re:

    Because telco aren't sleek tech brands like Apple and so still think that the consumer wants easy to understand numbering schemes.

  • On the post: Epson 'Security Update' Bricks Third-Party Ink Refills, Opens Up Possibility Of A Competitive Trades Investigation

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 15 Oct, 2018 @ 09:43am

    They might want to remember the class action Sony faced when it patched out the OtherOS feature of the PS3 - by depriving expected functionality of the Playstation after purchase it opened itself up to actual tort claims as well.

  • On the post: Oh Look, The FCC Is Lying Again In Its Latest Court Filings On Net Neutrality

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2018 @ 02:46pm

    Re: Re:

    I fully agree, thank you for your additions :)

  • On the post: Oh Look, The FCC Is Lying Again In Its Latest Court Filings On Net Neutrality

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2018 @ 01:19pm

    So, the basis under which the FCC claims it has regulatory authority but can't regulate broadband as a Telecommunications service is....that broadband includes a DNS service and integrates routing your connection.

    However, under that rule a telephone, the namesake of a telecommunications service, is not a telecommunications service, because it provides access to 411 services, and when you dial it has to determine routing of your phone call to the correct device.

  • On the post: 34 State AGs Demand The FCC Do More To End Annoying Robocalls

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2018 @ 01:12pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Id say he's arguing the opposite. That the protections of the constitution apply to everyone, and the government remains restrained by constitutional limitations, even when acting abroad (So no drone strikes based on metadata).

    But I suppose requiring US Agents to act within the boundaries of US law and the constitution when abroad implies that we actually leave the country and therefore are imperialist.

  • On the post: Boeing Accused Of Covert, Coordinated Op-Ed Smear Campaign Against Space X

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2018 @ 01:06pm

    Re: The most annoying thing

    [Citation needed]

    The best figure I can find give trump's approval rating a slight edge over trust in 'mass media'. But that is certainly not trust in trump vs trust in the mass media. And certainly not double.

    Moreover, some those who approve of trump have admitted they don't trust him to tell the truth, and don't care that he lies, so 'Approval' might actually imply that fewer people trust Trump.

  • On the post: Creative Commons Continues To Try To Help Courts Understand What Its NonCommercial License Means

    James Burkhardt ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2018 @ 12:01pm

    Re: 'YOUR confusion should not be MY problem.'

    In fact, when Under contract law you are most certainly correct. The Education company (Party A) is offering up a contract, the CC licence under which the materials are sold. The educator (Party B) agrees to the licence when they purchase the material. Because Party A defined the contract language (They had the power to alter,change or otherwise define the contract terms prior to offer), when considering ambiguous language, the court must read the contract in favor of Party B, to balance the inequity of power in the contract formation step.

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