genghis_uk 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: BrewDog's 'Elvis Juice' Now An Approved Trademark In The UK, But Not the EU

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 29 Sep, 2020 @ 03:49am

    did you guys know that the UK stupidly got out of the EU? Crazy!

    Some could say that this is why the UK left the EU...
    I can see both sides so I try to stay out of Brexit conversations. Our politics are generally not as polarised as the US but on this subject, families and friends have been known to stop talking to each other. Now that's crazy!

  • On the post: Court Says Trump's Plan To Block TikTok Can't Go Into Effect Yet

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 28 Sep, 2020 @ 10:00am

    Your tax dollars at work USA...

    Now the Government is going to spend $1000s defending an unconstiutional EO with no real basis. Well, other than someone on TikTok said something nasty about the thin skinned man-child that you voted in last time.

    Part of me would like to see Trump royally beaten in November but, as an outside observer, the world will get a lot less funny if Biden wins (sorry!)

  • On the post: It's Time To Regulate The Internet… But Thoughtfully

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 04 Sep, 2020 @ 03:17am

    US Regulation - will the world care?

    Regulation of 'The Internet' by the US would only pander to the wet dreams of corporate lobbyists and the best democracy that money can buy but it would not be a regulation that the rest of the world will recognise.

    Remove 230 protections? Fine - a lot of US lawyers will become rich but the rest of the world will carry on moderating as they want because legal systems elsewhere are set up differently. Not necessarily better or worse but different. Google, Facebook etc. are US corps and may have to go along with it but if I created a website in the UK I could moderate it as I please, just as I can today.

    Go full on and ban gambling or nudity while promoting right wing extremism? (not a serious suggestion, just making a point!) and the rest of the world will carry on betting and creating porn while creating their own filters for content... How will the US prevent access to sites that do not meet the new US only regulations?

    Copyright seems to be the only area where a lot of the world has a consensus - and look where that has got us!!

  • On the post: Everyone Agrees That Contact Tracing Apps Are Key To Bringing COVID-19 Under Control; Iceland Has Tried Them, And Isn't So Sure

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 14 May, 2020 @ 04:12am

    Re:

    Looks like PaulT beat me to it while I was typing...

  • On the post: Everyone Agrees That Contact Tracing Apps Are Key To Bringing COVID-19 Under Control; Iceland Has Tried Them, And Isn't So Sure

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 14 May, 2020 @ 04:11am

    Although given Iceland's population and distribution, this is the equivalent of looking at a single medium sized town in the rest of the world.

    As most of Iceland is uninhabitable, almost everyone lives in Reykjavic and surrounding towns with very little travel outside of the region so it is probable that more normal contact tracing methods are effective. I am not sure if this would scale to most European countries or America where cities have orders of magnitude greater population and significant movement between population centres.

    Don't get me wrong, I will have a contact tracing app on my phone when they remove it from my cold, dead fingers but I am not sure that Iceland it really that representative.

    To give a sense of scale, the UK is trialling the NHS contact tracing app on the Isle of Wight (a tiny blob just off the south coast). With a population of 140k it is very similar to Reykjavic city and is considered a small scale experiment to test the operation of the app and the database (because, of course the UK wants a databse!!) on an island with little mobility. It would probably be easier to trace using phone calls etc. here too but not on a UK scale.

  • On the post: ISPs Ignore Toothless FCC Demand To Not Kick Users Offline During COVID-19

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2020 @ 10:24am

    Re: Contrarian perspective

    Meanwhile in the socialist / communist European countries such as the UK, France, Germany etc. the telecom sector is highly regulated and ex-state controlled services compete with necomers. In the UK we beat up our watchdog (OFCOM) for being a bit useless but at least they make an effort - they gave the telcos a couple of years to sort out roaming charges and, when they did nothing, price caps were put in place. Ok, so the telcos sold it as 'we are lowering your prices because we love you' but it was definitely imposed upon them - could you say the same would happen in the US?

  • On the post: Over-The-Air Updates Could Turn Millions Of Inexpensive Devices Into Much-Needed Ventilators To Treat Seriously-Ill COVID-19 Patients — If Manufacturer Helps

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2020 @ 10:36am

    "We are already exploring that option, but our primary focus is to maximize production of our current ventilation devices, masks, and accessories"

    What kind of excuse is that? Operations and Procurement may be busy with get ting parts and making new ventilators but that does not stop Engineering from releasing a patch or Test from verifying it works. The two areas of focus do not conflict - you can do both!

    As has been said, obviously more interested in profit than people

  • On the post: Court Tells Pro-Trump 12-Year-Old That Calling Him A Defender Of Racism And Sexual Assault Is Protected Speech

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 16 Apr, 2020 @ 11:19am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    But we are socialist, liberal commies so we don't count Paul.

  • On the post: Court Tells Pro-Trump 12-Year-Old That Calling Him A Defender Of Racism And Sexual Assault Is Protected Speech

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 16 Apr, 2020 @ 11:26am

    I don't know about anti-SLAPP.
    I think the precocious little brat could do with a couple of SLAPPs himself!

    Who is actually paying for the Lawyers?

  • On the post: Verizon Quietly Stops Doing Broadband Installs, Repairs During COVID-19

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2020 @ 07:41am

    Dear Brian,
    Please stop being an entitled idiot. Why is your installation more important than the health or our staff and everyone they come into contact with? We are operating at a time of a global pandemic and situations change on a day-to-day basis.

    You need it for school? Well, a lack of forward planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on ours. Did you miss the news for the last 2 months?

    Love and hugs,
    verizon xx

    p.s.Boomshanka (only Brits of a certain age will get this bit)

  • On the post: Tone Deaf: Using COVID-19 As A Prop To Celebrate The Death Of Net Neutrality

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 02 Apr, 2020 @ 06:44am

    Euro-Bashing

    This seems to have become a bit of a thing in the last couple of years despite a large proportion of Trump's support base only being vaguely aware of where Europe is.

    Although, they do know that we are all red socialist, commies and therefore, the US must be better!

  • On the post: Yet Another Court Says Suing Twitter For Terrorist Acts Is A Waste Of Everyone's Time

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 31 Mar, 2020 @ 11:03am

    "But the door is still slightly open when it should have been slammed shut by this judge"

    Wouldn't want to cut off a fellow legal professional's income stream? That would just be unreasonable.

  • On the post: President Trump Is So Upset About This Ad Showing His Failed Handling Of COVID-19 That He's Demanding It Be Taken Down

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2020 @ 05:23am

    Re:

    Absolutely, and thanks for the Private Eye reference.
    For those not aware of 'the Eye', this may help: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2013/08/arkell-v-pressdram.html

  • On the post: President Trump Is So Upset About This Ad Showing His Failed Handling Of COVID-19 That He's Demanding It Be Taken Down

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 26 Mar, 2020 @ 10:25am

    Pre Election

    If Trump wants to take down every ad that he does not like, what will happen when the election gets into full swing? His lawyers must be rubbing their hands in anticipation!

  • On the post: Surprise: Judge Throws Out Jury's Awful Copyright Infringement Decision Over Katy Perry Song

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 20 Mar, 2020 @ 06:42am

    Re:

    In most cases, certainly ones involving jail time, I would agree with you. However, this was a case based on technicalities and the jury made a pig ear of it because they were not technically knowledgable. Overruling a bad jury decision due to having a better understanding seems like a good thing here

  • On the post: Attempt To Put Every Musical Melody Into The Public Domain Demonstrates Craziness Of Modern Copyright

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 24 Feb, 2020 @ 09:48am

    Re: Re: Monkeys and typewriters

    That's where RFC2795 comes in...
    http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2795.html

  • On the post: Mark Zuckerberg Suggests Getting Rid Of Section 230; Maybe People Should Stop Pretending It's A Gift To Facebook

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2020 @ 10:39am

    Re: 'I can think of only honest reasons they'd say that...'

    "You don't get to sue Ford when someone uses one of their vehicles in a hit-and-run. You don't get so sue Walmart when someone buys a knife there and stabs someone with it. You don't get to sue a record label when someone buys a CD from them and uses the case to smuggle drugs. You don't get to sue a newspaper because someone bought one of their papers and scribbled defamatory content in it. And you don't get to sue an online platform because one of the visitors posted illegal content." No, but there are many who will try!
    Without them techdirt would be a very dull place.

  • On the post: UK Ignores US, Won't Fully Ban Huawei Gear From Its Networks

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 29 Jan, 2020 @ 07:05am

    Pots and Kettles

    America, who have been actually caught spying on its allies and whose NSA has actually been caught modifying Cisco (and Huawei?) kit to add backdoors, is complaining that China may spy on the West - Interesting double standards there.

    Add to that the fact that most important communication and all secret communication is encrypted (you know that tech that is dangerous and needs to be compromised for national security) and you get a storm in a teacup.

    The one thing the Chinese could potentially do is remotely turn kit off but I would hope that the system designers are more clever than to leave that option open.

    How many politicians (on either side of the Atlantic) understand the technology that they all appear to have an opinion about?

  • On the post: California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Says She Simply Doesn't Believe All Of Those Who Have Been Harmed By Her AB5 Bill

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2020 @ 10:42am

    Re: AB5 and IR35

    The difference in the UK is that the contractors already run their own Ltd companies, with all of the expense that requires (accountants, corporation tax, employer national insurance etc.). Now the nice people at HMRC (the UK IRS) want to tax the contractor's company as if it were an employee. As well as corporation tax on profits, the company would have to pay income tax on its invoices. Without any of the employee benefits! While I am off piste anyway - in the UK, unions are very political - they basically run the Labour party so for roughly half the time they have an extremely strong lobby. Meanwhile, back in the US....

  • On the post: George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue Is In The Public Domain And Gerswhin's Nephew Is Worried Someone Might Turn It Into Hip Hop

    genghis_uk ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2020 @ 09:09am

    Re: Re:

    I am more of a hobbyist in EDM. I play Bass and Keyboards semi-professionally and EDM production evolved out of having my own studio - plus a bit too much time on my hands :)

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