Andrew F 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Libel Tourism Down Under: US Company Tries Suing UK Blogger In Australia For Libel

    Andrew F ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2009 @ 10:55pm

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

    AC, I'm not sure if you're making a normative or legal argument here. Legally speaking, maybe there are grounds for libel suit in Australia. I don't know Australian law, but I wouldn't be surprised -- there was that case after all where Yahoo got sued in France over Nazi items being auctioned off in America. As I recall, the case hinged on whether Yahoo could successfully target content based on which country you were from.

    Normatively, even if there are legal grounds, it'd still be a bad idea to let this case go through.

    First, this probably isn't libel. Most of the blog posts in question appears to be either opinions or true. There are a few claims about malware that might get him into hot water though -- we'll see.

    Second, the global nature of the Internet means every that any libel cause will probably involve at least one Australian viewing your content. Granted, that means damages will likely be low, but the mere psychological effect of legal action + legal fees means that even a plaintiff getting only nominal damages can inflict serious harm upon a defendant.

    Third, I don't know if Australia has anti-SLAPP laws, but if they don't, I hope they're working on it.

  • On the post: Openness? Transparency? Not When Biden Gets To Hang With Entertainment Industry Lobbyists: Press Kicked Out

    Andrew F ( profile ), 15 Dec, 2009 @ 02:12pm

    Re: Laws

    Actually, how about NOT letting them write all the laws they want? The laws may or may not stop piracy, but the abuse of these laws might bankrupt a lot of innocent people.

  • On the post: North Face Didn't Get The Message; Sues South Butt

    Andrew F ( profile ), 15 Dec, 2009 @ 12:07pm

    I'd love to know how much extra business this lawsuit is generating for South Butt.

  • On the post: Musician Chases Down Google Street View Car To Promote His Music

    Andrew F ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2009 @ 10:58pm

    Re: Re:

    It's sarcasm scarr.

  • On the post: Could You Prove That The Government Was Watching You Illegally?

    Andrew F ( profile ), 24 Nov, 2009 @ 08:54pm

    Trust me

    How do you know that when you give your credit card to a waitress that she's not memorizing your credit card number to sell to the highest bidder?

    You can't tap her phone line, search her e-mail, or otherwise invade her privacy without reasonable cause. Yet you'll have a much harder time establishing reasonable cause without invading her privacy.

    The best you can do (apart from tipping well and paying cash) is to trust her for now and hope that if she does do something malicious, she'll slip up and leave enough of a trail for someone to catch her.

    Ditto for the government. Trust that they're not screwing you and hope that if they are, they'll leave enough clues for you to justifiably raise a stink.

  • On the post: Hulu Telling Sites To Stop Embedding So Much

    Andrew F ( profile ), 24 Nov, 2009 @ 02:37pm

    Actually this could save Hulu a penny

    If most / all of the ads are embedded in the videos, then Hulu gets to keep its ad revenue and saves a tiny amount on not having to serve the web page (although they still have to pay for serving the content).

  • On the post: Jury Says Fictional Character Can Be Libelous

    Andrew F ( profile ), 24 Nov, 2009 @ 02:25pm

    By filing this case, more people than before now suspect Vicki Stewart of being a "sexually promiscuous alcoholic". That's hardly a win.

  • On the post: Calling For An Independent Invention Defense In Patents

    Andrew F ( profile ), 24 Nov, 2009 @ 12:18pm

    Notice

    My understanding is that patent holders typically send out information about their patent to every possible entity that might infringe, just so they can show that the possible infringer had notice of the patent and "should have known" about the invention. That makes showing truly independent invention pretty hard.

    One thing I'd like to see explored is to get these possible infringers involved before the patent is granted. Given the presumption of guilt in patent cases, a more adversarial patent granting process might be worth looking at.

  • On the post: iPhone App Developer Backlash Growing

    Andrew F ( profile ), 20 Nov, 2009 @ 06:25pm

    Re: What backlash?

    @Bah, Graham actually mentions Android:

    Can anything break this cycle? No device I've seen so far could. Palm and RIM haven't a hope. The only credible contender is Android. But Android is an orphan; Google doesn't really care about it, not the way Apple cares about the iPhone. Apple cares about the iPhone the way Google cares about search.

    He then goes on to solicit startup founders with ideas on how to make a mainstream developer-friendly mobile device to apply for investment from Y-Combinator.