Bergman 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Roadside Breath Tests Are Just As Unreliable As Field Drug Tests

    Bergman ( profile ), 21 Nov, 2019 @ 07:54am

    Re: Re:

    Whereas in Canada, they can test you up to two hours after you last operated a vehicle, and if you have alcohol in your system -- for example, going home after work, eating dinner 30 minutes after getting home and having a few beers 30 minutes after dinner -- you get a DUI.

  • On the post: Court Says It's Not Tortious Interference To Report Your Account Or Ask Twitter To Ban You

    Bergman ( profile ), 21 Nov, 2019 @ 07:32am

    Re: Re:

    Generally it isn’t. But that also means that if a Black Lives Matter member can be badgered out of their home just as legally.

  • On the post: Roadside Breath Tests Are Just As Unreliable As Field Drug Tests

    Bergman ( profile ), 21 Nov, 2019 @ 07:58am

    Something even more ridiculous than alcohol breathalyzers

    There's a new type of breathalyzer out there, that detects cannabis metabolites. Those metabolites can trigger a positive result on the thing, up to 28 days after the intoxication effect wears off.

    They can't detect actual cannabis intoxication, mind you, just whether someone ingested some in the past month. But a positive result on them is treated by police as proof of DUI.

  • On the post: Photographer's Bullshit Arrest By A Dallas Transit Cop Nets Him A $345,000 Settlement

    Bergman ( profile ), 20 Nov, 2019 @ 03:07pm

    Re: Re: Punishment for the officer?

    If she made those statements in court, that's 23 FELONY counts she committed. But she's a cop so it wouldn't further the cause of justice to punish her like one of the peasants would be for the same offense.

  • On the post: Photographer's Bullshit Arrest By A Dallas Transit Cop Nets Him A $345,000 Settlement

    Bergman ( profile ), 20 Nov, 2019 @ 03:06pm

    Re: Punishment for the officer?

    Yup. You or I commit 23 counts of filing a false police report, commit a federal felony (false arrest while in possession of a firearm) and aggravated assault while in possession of a firearm (you can't handcuff someone while making a false arrest without committing assault) and we'd be in prison for decades after being denied bail due to the heinous nature of our crimes. Ever wondered what the constitutional protections for due process, freedom from cruel & unusual punishment and being innocent until proven guilty look like? Look no further than how a cop accused of wrongdoing is treated by other cops and the courts. It's only corruption because they reserve that treatment for their own, despite it being mandatory for EVERYONE.

  • On the post: Photographer's Bullshit Arrest By A Dallas Transit Cop Nets Him A $345,000 Settlement

    Bergman ( profile ), 20 Nov, 2019 @ 03:02pm

    One bad apple spoils the bunch

    Police departments and unions LOVE to claim that officers like this are just a few bad apples. But what they seem to have forgotten, is that the saying about bad apples refers to what happens if you don't throw out the few bad apples.

    You end up with an entire load of nothing BUT bad apples.

  • On the post: Attorney General Calls FOIA Requests 'Harassment' During Long Rant About How Much It Sucks To Be Running The Nation

    Bergman ( profile ), 20 Nov, 2019 @ 02:55pm

    Oh, the poor widdle baby...

    Seriously, if obeying and enforcing the law is just too much work for you, WHY are you working in a law enforcement field?!?

  • On the post: Federal Judge Asks DEA To Explain Why All 179 Of Its Stash House Sting Targets Are Minorities

    Bergman ( profile ), 19 Nov, 2019 @ 12:52pm

    Re: Re:

    No, they don't exist. Which makes actus rea impossible.

  • On the post: Apathy Isn't A Business Model: Major US Telcos Teeter Toward Bankruptcy

    Bergman ( profile ), 18 Nov, 2019 @ 08:57am

    Re: Re: Out of service... again...

    Complain to the court and make it a class action. I'm sure the bad company has enough people affected by the outage yet being billed anyway to qualify.

  • On the post: Universal Music Claims Copyright Over Newly Public Domain 'Yes! We Have No Bananas'

    Bergman ( profile ), 17 Nov, 2019 @ 12:46pm

    Re:

    Makes me wonder if any member of the general public -- the owners of the rights to the public domain -- now has standing to sue Universal Music for a copyright violation?

  • On the post: Universal Music Claims Copyright Over Newly Public Domain 'Yes! We Have No Bananas'

    Bergman ( profile ), 17 Nov, 2019 @ 12:45pm

    Re: Re:

    How can something only "may" contain violations, when filing a copyright notice can only lawfully be done (without committing perjury) if you actually have knowledge that it does contain a violation?

  • On the post: Big News: Supreme Court To Hear Google v. Oracle Case About API And Copyright

    Bergman ( profile ), 16 Nov, 2019 @ 02:17pm

    Re:

    Or use a car analogy. Most people understand cars. An API is like the bolts that connect a steering wheel to the steering column. Oracle is claiming that because they used a different size and shape of bolts than anyone else, it would violate their copyrights for anyone to use anything but their steering wheels or steering wheels they have approved in their cars, even if non-approved steering wheels will fit.

  • On the post: Appeals Court Denies Qualified Immunity To Cop Who Argued Citizens Have No Right To Defend Themselves Against Armed Intruders

    Bergman ( profile ), 16 Nov, 2019 @ 02:01pm

    A mugger can't claim self defense

    If a criminal goes out and mugs someone, and the victim manages to fight back, the mugger is not allowed to claim self defense if he injures his victim in the struggle. He's certainly not allowed to kill his victim and claim self defense.

    But here we have cops who are dressed like regular citizens, who illegally entered and didn't bother to identify themselves and then tried to kill their victim.

    A court evaluates a self defense plea on the basis of what the defender knew or reasonably thought they knew at that moment. Mr Betton had no way of knowing the home invasion was perpetrated by police, and if he had shot and killed them all it would have been a lawful act of self defense. But those police knew they were illegally entering, they knew they had disguised their status as police, and they opened fire anyway.

    What those cops did wasn't self defense, any more than a mugger shooting his victim would be defending himself.

  • On the post: Elsevier Gets Sci-Hub And LibGen Blocked In Austria, Thereby Promoting The Use Of VPNs And Tor In The Country

    Bergman ( profile ), 15 Nov, 2019 @ 11:00am

    It's really not David versus Goliath

    Most people get the meaning of the old story completely wrong.

    Yes, Goliath was HUGE for his time (though he'd be short by modern standards). Yes, he was heavily armed and armored, and very skilled with his weapons. But he was heavy infantry, and he issued his famous challenge to other heavy infantrymen.

    As soon as David took up the challenge, Goliath was a dead man walking, and he had to know that. But Goliath was more afraid of being seen to back down than death, so he walked to his death knowing he was about to die.

    The reason for this is that muscle-powered weaponry has something of a rock-paper-scissors relationship. Infantry beats cavalry, cavalry beats ranged, ranged beats infantry. David was a slinger, which is a highly mobile, unarmored ranged combatant.

    Goliath would be unable to catch David in a chase, could only even attempt to attack if David let him. And David's weapon was lethal to Goliath at more than ten times the length of Goliath's spear.

    That outcome was never in doubt.

  • On the post: Federal Court Says ICE, CBP's Suspicionless Searches Of Electronic Devices Is Unconstitutional

    Bergman ( profile ), 14 Nov, 2019 @ 11:50am

    General Warrants

    The Constitution prohibits general warrants, as they were one of the worst legal abuses of power in the pre-Revolution USA. I can't imagine that a warrantless search that exceeds the breadth and scope of a general warrant could possibly be more legal than the already-prohibited general warrant.

  • On the post: Federal Court Says Man Arrested For 'Criminally Defaming' Cops Can Continue Suing To Block The Law From Being Enforced

    Bergman ( profile ), 08 Nov, 2019 @ 11:17am

    Re: Depends on the point of view you're using

    Given the way this law is being used, a prosecutor could be prosecuted by a cop for putting that cop on a Brady List. Bets on how fast the prosecutor's office gets rid of the law if that ever happens?

  • On the post: CEO Of Security Company Behind Unorthodox Penetration Tests Wants To Know Why His Employees Are Still Being Criminally Charged

    Bergman ( profile ), 07 Nov, 2019 @ 09:58am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: The court case

    If you were correct, then a town or city would be able to ignore county laws. For that matter, a neighborhood within a city would be able to hold a vote and ignore city laws. A household could unanimously vote that city laws don't apply to their house. While it might be a fun idea to contemplate that you could get your wife, children and dog to all agree that none of your household owes any taxes to the city, county, state or nation, it's not likely to end well if you actually tried it.

  • On the post: Report Suggests Rampant Negligence In Uber Self Driving Car Fatality

    Bergman ( profile ), 07 Nov, 2019 @ 09:27am

    Re:

    Computers are extremely good at following orders. Humans are extremely bad at giving orders to computers.

  • On the post: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Apologizes And Unblocks Critic Who Sued Her

    Bergman ( profile ), 07 Nov, 2019 @ 09:32am

    Commercial speech

    Imagine what would happen if someone were to stand up in the middle of a town meeting -- or the gallery overlooking the Senate -- and start shouting an advertisement for genital enlargement.

    They would be escorted out and not allowed back in so long as they insisted on shouting their ads. AOC absolutely could do the same with her social media accounts.

  • On the post: Boston PD Is Helping ICE Track Down The City's Least Dangerous Immigrants

    Bergman ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2019 @ 04:22am

    Re: Re: Remember the whole Kim Dotcom thing?

    It's not immigration people in charge of copyright enforcement though. It's customs people in charge of keeping illegal goods out of the country -- which is exactly what they're supposed to do, among several other things.

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