Derek Kerton 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Hello! You've Been Referred Here Because You're Wrong About Section 230 Of The Communications Decency Act

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2020 @ 04:14pm

    Re:

    Sir/Ma'am, I have read the comment you posted, and you are quite wrong. In lieu of a thorough rebuttal here in the comment section, I refer you instead to this comprehensive explanation of why you are wrong, backed with links to the actual case law and the text of Section 230 itself. Good reading! https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200531/23325444617/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-section-230-communications-decency-act.shtml

  • On the post: Hello! You've Been Referred Here Because You're Wrong About Section 230 Of The Communications Decency Act

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2020 @ 04:32pm

    Mike, will you be adding / appending to this

    It seems you are going to find some other dumb arguments (or others will), oft repeated, that will need to be here.

    Will you append them?

    I'm only asking to be polite, because legally, you must write them up, because somebody (me) has asked you to do so here in the comments. Once you take on the publisher role, you are required to write content that people demand of you. That's just the Internets rules.

    But seriously, append or not?

  • On the post: The Two Things To Understand About Trump's Executive Order On Social Media: (1) It's A Distraction (2) It's Legally Meaningless

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 28 May, 2020 @ 01:01pm

    Looking Forward to My Time on Fox News / Hannity Tonight

    Well, as long as Trump is pushing this kind of nonsense, and the MAGA set is full on board...

    ...I'm really looking forward to Fox News, Breitbart, Alex Jones, et al to finally have to be neutral in their coverage of everything. You see, I disagree with a lot of what Fox News says, so I think I would like to go on the air on their network and say MY truths.

    Naturally, if they block me from going on their TV network, or if they have Hannity correct me, or disagree with what I'm saying, then they are unfairly censoring my voice, and impeding my First Amendment Rights to Free Speech.

    Naturally, this is fucking insane. But that's the point. Fox News doesn't owe me a TV show. If I ever DID go on the air there, they don't owe me "no commentary" or rebuttal to what I said. They don't owe me shit. My free speech is 100% unrelated to how Fox News does or doesn't broadcasts me - and they don't. They don't owe me a bullhorn, and Twitter doesn't owe Trump @Jack shit.

    Hey, everyone. Remember how Fox News was full of shit in their criticisms of Obama when he was POTUS? Remember the fake scandals? Remember how Obama tried to shut them down? No? Me neither. This Trump mofo has worked relentlessly to shut down EVERY agency remotely tasked with checking his power or lies:

    • AGs
    • Special Prosecutors
    • Ethics watchdogs
    • Inspectors General
    • FBI
    • Congress
    • The Press
    • Snopes
    • Politifact
    • Adam Schiff, other committees
    • The Dems
    • The ex GOPs like Amash or Conway or Scarborough
    • The ex-employees
    • The ghost-writer (actual author) of Art of the Deal
    • Subpoenas
    • Testimony under Oath
    • Witnesses
    • Tax Returns

    Why would someone go after EVERY, and I mean EVERY entity whose job it is to check him, ensure ethics, and provide daylight?

    There's an Occam's Razor at play here. Either A: all of those agencies are in cahoots in the bag against Trump, or, B: Trump is a corrupt liar. MAGAs go with A.

  • On the post: Quibi Is What Happens When Hollywood Overvalues Content And Undervalues Community

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 01 May, 2020 @ 12:52pm

    Short Content - Do Users Want It?

    When I worked for Korea's SK Telecom 2001-2003, we were one of the first two countries with 3G networks, and we were experimenting and learning a lot about mobile streaming (phone-based) video.

    We had very limited capacity on the network, so the company started by funding and producing short, "bite sized" content. The hope was that in this usage context, people wouldn't want long-form content, but short clips to fill their bus ride, etc.

    So, we provided the content, and the early adopters LOVED mobile video. What's more, they were willing to pay for it, premium prices on their network use, and payment for the content. We were pretty sure we had a winner.

    But when the company surveyed the users about likes/dislikes, one bit of information was unequivocal: They didn't want custom, bite-sized content. They wanted their usual content. They wanted the same stuff they wanted at home or on a PC. This was surprising to us - and unfortunately, was also not something we had the mobile network capacity to provide. But that lesson has stuck with me:

    • People want some short content, for example: cat videos, tik tok, vine, etc. And they want some long content, for example: streaming TV, Netflix, Movies, sports. And, importantly, they want them whether they are at home, out of home, on a TV, on a PC, or on a phone. The context has proven to have little impact on the content desired.

    Later on, as 3G and 4G hit North America, the "prevailing wisdom" here was very much a repeat of what we had thought in 2002 in S. Korea: people want shorter content on their phones. I heard the term "snackable video content" a lot. But this was wrong. This was always wrong.

    Anyhow, I don't know precisely how this affects Quibi, but I do know that limiting content to "bite sized" has mixed results.

  • On the post: Quibi Is What Happens When Hollywood Overvalues Content And Undervalues Community

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 01 May, 2020 @ 12:32pm

    Peanut Butter & Jam

    "the company that raises a ton of money and has some famous person in charge."

    These things tend to go together.

  • On the post: Bedbug Privilege: Bret Stephens Uses His NY Times Column To Suggest Jokingly Comparing Him To A Bedbug Is Prelude To Ethnic Genocide

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 03 Sep, 2019 @ 01:01pm

    Re: And yet you manage couple orders magnitude stupider by echoi

    About the sentence: "You're going round on what you state is a NON-story?" Could you please provide a quote for this claim you made: "what you state is a NON-story?" Where was that stated? Please show. (YOU MADE IT UP.) I searched the piece for "non", and found "nonsense" but not "non-story". What IS in the Techdirt article is the frequent use of the term: "It gets worse", which is indicative of a story with a trivial genesis, but of growing importance. As a matter of opinion, this IS an interesting story - VERY interesting. It also is low-stakes, as Karpf wrote. It can be both. This story has the interesting elements of:

    • thin skin
    • hypocrisy
    • lying
    • abuse of a position of power
    • sloppy work
    • NYT editors complicit in abuse of power
    • digging a deeper hole
    • Godwin's Law
    • Streisand Effect
    ...all of these subjects that are regularly part of Techdirt, and even to a term created by Masnick. This story is totally in Techdirt's wheelhouse. No question why it is here. The only question here is about you: If you are not interested and don't care, why did you read it, then subsequently comment on it?

  • On the post: Once Again, Russian Internet Propaganda Efforts Shown To Be Much Bigger Than Originally Believed

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 10 Jul, 2019 @ 01:57pm

    Noice

    " In effect, the internet, for all of its benefits, has also helped weaponize stupidity."

  • On the post: EU Parliament Puts Out Utter Nonsense Defending Copyright Directive

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 15 Jan, 2019 @ 11:04am

    Re: Re: Isn't it weird ...

    Paul, you're right that it's a bit of an exaggeration. There are plenty of platforms in the EU that are important to people in the EU.

    And Peter may have a USA bias, but his point is solid if you consider that leading US platforms are also leading in the EU, while the opposite is not true. The EU has very few "global scale" platform wins. Skype and Spotify come to mind. I'm sure I'm missing some others, but this is NOT a bidirectionally equivalent situation.

  • On the post: EU Parliament Puts Out Utter Nonsense Defending Copyright Directive

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 15 Jan, 2019 @ 10:55am

    Re: You don't comprehend government

    Wait. Are you saying Masnick doesn't understand government? I think that's what the title says, right? If that's wrong, just skip the rest.

    So, you're saying that he doesn't "get it" because it's an issue that deals with scale economies. I'd have to point out, then, that dealing with the scale economy issues of the Internet, from individual to Google, has been one of the focal points of Techdirt for about 20 years.

    Masnick is not only a trained economist, which obviously study scale economies in depth, but specifically a labor economist. The ILR school at Cornell specializes in business and labor (and organized labor), and their relative power in the market, and in negotiations versus a large corporation.

    Are you really proposing that, after his studies in this, then 20 years writing about mostly this, Mike doesn't understand how gov't wants to deal with hand-sized rocks, not individual grains of sand? You're wrong.

    PS, other than your title, that was a good post.

  • On the post: New Report Details Massive Mysterious Influence Campaign On Twitter

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2018 @ 01:31am

    Re: Social Media Isn't Social Media Anymore

    Interesting comment.
    It seems you are a little lost, but your points are also valid. We're all lost in this mess to various degrees.

  • On the post: Just As Expected: GDPR Has Made Google Even More Dominant In Europe

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 22 Oct, 2018 @ 09:38am

    Experts

    There are always two distinct kinds of experts:

    1) Experts that are paid shills.

    2) People who are well-versed in the subject matter, and have defensible, well-thought out opinions, preferably backed by empirical data (but sometimes not). They have limited bias, and near-zero conflicts-of-interest. They may or may not work full-time in the relevant field.

    Guess which group you hear from most in media, policy debates, 24-hr news, think tankery, etc.

  • On the post: Facebook, Whose Support Made FOSTA Law, Now Sued For Facilitating Sex Trafficking Under FOSTA

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 10 Oct, 2018 @ 11:23am

    Re:

    Nah. It's more that companies like Facebook think that there WILL be lawsuits, but that they are in a better position to defend themselves than other competitors or some startup that threatens them.

    This is pure self-interest. Using the secondary consequences of laws and government to reduce your competition.

  • On the post: Facebook, Whose Support Made FOSTA Law, Now Sued For Facilitating Sex Trafficking Under FOSTA

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 10 Oct, 2018 @ 10:49am

    Re:

    Your desire for Poetic Justice is well-deserved.

    However, don't become what you beheld. Facebook might be getting what they deserve, but by cheering this on, you would be cutting of your own nose despite your face.

    If we cheer the bad lawsuits against Facebook, since they deserve it, next those lawsuits will go after Techdirt, or some other site you like, or you. Then THAT would be poetic justice.

  • On the post: Facebook, Whose Support Made FOSTA Law, Now Sued For Facilitating Sex Trafficking Under FOSTA

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 10 Oct, 2018 @ 10:45am

    Re: Re: Backpage?

    You forgot to end your sentence.

    "because Techdirt NEVER wants corporations to be held liable."...for crimes some other third party commits.

    Similarly, YOU never want 'roads' to be held liable...for bank robberies where the criminal used the road.

    The real problem here is that Facebook has deep pockets, where the actual criminal probably doesn't. In the US, accusations of guilt tend to follow the money, not the guilty.

  • On the post: NJ Courts Impose Ridiculous Password Policy 'To Comply With NIST' That Does Exactly What NIST Says Not To Do

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2018 @ 12:05pm

    Longer Passwords Are Better

    "Users must select passwords that are no more than eight (8) characters long..."

    If Jersey is not allowing passwords longer than 8 chars, I think we can all agree that this is stupid, not user friendly, and also less secure than longer passwords.

    And, of course it's, AGAIN, the opposite of NIST recommendations.

    From NIST 800-63B:
    "Verifiers SHOULD permit subscriber-chosen memorized secrets at least 64 characters in length."

  • On the post: Platforms, Speech And Truth: Policy, Policing And Impossible Choices

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 14 Aug, 2018 @ 03:09pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    .ru then?

  • On the post: In Defense Of Slow News

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 14 Aug, 2018 @ 01:04pm

    Long Reads vs Slow News

    Other publishers seem to work one of two ways:
    - race for scoops & offer hot takes
    - write long form stories, like mag articles, a la Atlantic

    It seems that, with the others, the only way to get deep thought, analysis, or research is that it must be associated with a looooong article. I do love those articles, but just cannot read many of them because of time constraints.

    Overall, I prefer the Techdirt approach, analysis and thought, but retaining some brevity.

  • On the post: Platforms, Speech And Truth: Policy, Policing And Impossible Choices

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 09 Aug, 2018 @ 05:31pm

    Re: Re:

    A better metaphor is that the www is the "public square", and facebook, etc are big merchants with storefronts on the public square.

    They are NOT the square itself, but ARE contiguous with that prime real estate.

    As shops on a square lose business, they go away and get replaced by new ones, but the square remains. Similarly, MySpace and Friendster had prime addresses, but those are now Twitter or Facebook.

    Still, today, anybody can take a soapbox and go speak/rant in the public square, like Times Square NYC. But one cannot go to Times Square with a soapbox, enter the ESPN Zone restaurant, and deliver a filibuster about how media is controlled by Jews and Disney is tool of globalists.

    Just as Alex Jones can set up his own site on the virtual town square at www.inforwars.com -- but maybe not welcome inside Facebook.

  • On the post: Bad Reporting, Grandstanding Congressmen, Tweeting President Combine For Clusterfuck About Twitter

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 03 Aug, 2018 @ 11:28am

    Re: Re: So, um, now republicans WANT the Fairness Doctrine

    OK, right. Never did apply to cable or WWW.

    It's about hypocrisy. They were staunchly opposed to the Doctrine, but now want a similar doctrine applied to private websites?

    They should choose a side and apply it consistently, no?

  • On the post: As 'DNC Hacked Itself' Conspiracy Theory Collapses, Key Backer Of Claim Exposed As UK Troll

    Derek Kerton ( profile ), 03 Aug, 2018 @ 11:20am

    Re: Re: I'm sort of irritated at all those anti-DNC trolls

    I've read recently that it's becoming increasingly likely that the Macedonian right wing website creators were actually working not just for the ad revenue, and the lulz, but were actually being paid and/or "seed funded' by Russia.

    I don't think the proof was there, yet, but some of the Macedonians site operators had said that.

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