DV Henkel-Wallace’s Techdirt Profile

On the post: CDC Dep. Director On Measles Going Kazoo: It’s Just ‘The Cost Of Doing Business’

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 28 Jan, 2026 @ 01:29pm

This is so liberating andrefreshing

What a life simplification. Since “ the cost of doing business” is “personal freedom” I’m not going to renew my drivers license nor teach my kids to drive. We can just drive when and because we want to. And we don’t have to go to the range for target shooting any more. Our back yard will serve just fine. After all we aren’t terrorist demonstrators or protesters, so guns are fine: it’s our personal freedom! I think I’ll go get a machine gun!

On the post: Charlie Kirk Doesn’t Deserve What’s Happening To Him

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 15 Sep, 2025 @ 01:29pm

Seems to be working properly

Turning him into MAGA’s Horst Wessel has driven Epstein from the headlines.

On the post: US Open Tells Broadcasters Not To Broadcast Trump Being Booed At The US Open

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 09 Sep, 2025 @ 01:37am

Booing trump is shameful

They should have been chanting, “Epstein, Epstein, Epstein”

On the post: Trump, ICE Briefly Decided Maybe It’s Not A Good Idea To Mass Arrest Employed Migrants… But Then Reversed Course

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 17 Jun, 2025 @ 11:04am

It’s sadly a sign of worse to come

We’ve all seen the evidence of Mr. T’s physical and mental decline, and many welcome it. But this reversal is a sign of the negative consequence. As T’s executive function decays, the other courtiers’ freedom of action will expand. It’s pretty clear that Miller simply overrode the decision to ease off on farmers and hotels. While Pee Wee German may be the worst, others will increasingly do the same.

On the post: Good And Bad News On Attempts To Implicate DNS Services For Copyright Infringement At The Domains They Resolve

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 07 Dec, 2023 @ 05:44pm

A good cue for the US State AGs to act

Now the a state AGs should sue the post office for maintaining the addresses of the Backpage defendants!

On the post: Appeals Court Hands Immunity To TSA Agents Who Forced Man To Delete His Recording Of Them

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 09 Jan, 2023 @ 01:59pm

Had a cop defend me on this once

Flying through SJC there is (or was -- haven't used that airport in a while) a cop on duty. I had reason to film a TSA agent, who objected to me pulling out my phone and videoing him (including a close up of his badge). He told me to stop, claiming it was forbidden, and I said no thanks. Fortunately, instead of trying to grab my phone, he called over a cop who was sitting and looking board behind a counter and told him about my terrible behavior. The cop told him it was fine for me to do so and that he should leave me alone about it. The best part is he told me to stop by his counter after I had my bag back and he would give me a complaint form. I definitly stopped by but decided not to press my luck and did not submit the form

On the post: Websites Now Have One Hour To Remove “Terrorist Content” Online Or Face Massive Fines. What Could Go Wrong?

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 10 Jun, 2022 @ 10:37am

So no Jan 6 committee presentation?

Yestreday's presentation included a 10 minute film of nothing but terrorist violence. The way this reads, that would be forbidden too.

On the post: Prudish Mastercard About To Make Life Difficult For Tons Of Websites

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 13 Oct, 2021 @ 02:44pm

Let's assign the blame where it really is due

I really doubt MasterCard wants to turn down revenue.

Typically these decisions are due to pressure from congresspeople or other regulators (State AGs are too small potatoes for bug international networks like MC, but, as we have seen, can hit smaller entities like backpage).

This is similar to the relations between government and the telecoms (or not -- look at Joseph Naccio).

I think Apple is indeed choosing to avoid certain (cough) content on its platforms. I really doubt MC cares.

On the post: Bankers As Content Moderators

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 27 Sep, 2021 @ 03:15pm

Here is the key factor:

regulation gives their decisions added weight. Financial intermediaries are in the business of making money, not curating for a particular audience, so they have less incentive to moderate than publishers.

As the example of operation choke point shows, it’s bad actors in government elected officials: senators, reps, state attorneys general) who wield the carrot and stick against the banks. Why would a bank turn down revenue?

The stick is a regulatory trade off: go after the “vice” accounts (sex, alcohol. gambling, guns) and we won’t effect more onerous regulations on you.

The carrot is typically not actually cutting these guys off but instead charging them punitive fees, so they can simultaneously show the government how they following the rules and make extra revenue.

On the post: Google Asks Supreme Court To Overturn Crazy Ruling About Copyright In APIs

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 25 Jan, 2019 @ 03:58pm

For the technically illiterate

Google should use the example of a dictionary: it can indeed be copyrighted, including the definitions, but two different dictionaries can have the same words (e.g. both can include the words "obscure", "judicial", and "frog"). Each has to write its own definition but it is hardly infringement if a user could consult either dictionary and end up with pretty much the same impression of what a frog is.

On the post: Infamous Pinkerton Detectives Claim Red Dead Redemption's Use Of Historically Accurate Pinkertons Is Trademark Infringement

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 15 Jan, 2019 @ 10:04pm

What if it's reverse Stresand?

Perhaps Pinkerton's wants the publicity?

On the post: The President's Phone OPSEC Continues To Be, Well, Crap

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 25 Oct, 2018 @ 07:58pm

Could be worse:

> Trump's phone habits continues to be a giant middle finger toward transparency (like adhering to the Presidential Records Act)

Hey, at least the Russians and Chinese are stepping up to keep records for us.

On the post: EFF Pioneer Awards: Chelsea Manning, Annie Game… And Me

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2017 @ 06:05pm

Wow, Mike!

This is well deserved!

On the post: Consumers Who Had Their Identities Stolen By A Spam Bot Demand FCC Investigate Bogus Net Neutrality Comments

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 31 May, 2017 @ 01:05pm

Oh come on!

If impersonating others were a real problem the free market would take care of it.

In fact these people should be glad their names were used because it was in the cause of unleashing the competition that will sweep the problem away!

I am certain about all this because I read Ayn Rand's, Jozef Schumpeter's and future nobelist Paul Ryan's incisive writing on the evils of so-called Net Neutrality.

On the post: Turkish President Demands Google Delist A Bunch Of Websites Comparing Him To Hitler

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 24 May, 2017 @ 12:35pm

Please list the sites

I'm sure that google will not comply, since they are evil and do not believe in justice.

So if you would list the sites we can be careful not to go to them. If we didnt' know we might accidentally visit them.

In fact we can post the list on our own pages to make sure everybody knows where not to go.

Thanks for your help!

On the post: Just To Be Safe, We're Resetting All Techdirt Passwords In Response To Cloudbleed

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 25 Feb, 2017 @ 02:30pm

You forgot techdirt deals

I figured it was worth changing too.

On the post: Nielsen Forced To Pull Report Offline After It Shows ESPN Losing More Subscribers Than Ever

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 02 Nov, 2016 @ 01:39pm

Nielsendata are rediculous anyway

They only measure what their customers want, which means advertisers should be reluctant to use the data when figuring out how much to spend.

Case in point: my house was chosen as a "Nielsen household". But we don't have TV service (Netflix and youtube seem to be more than enough for us). Since we don't have cable or OTA service, they don't count us...but every couple of months come round to see if they can survey us.

Either our house is part of their representative sample or it isn't. You can't keep trying to count us but not be willing to take a zero in the dataset.

On the post: NBC Delayed Story About Trump's Access Hollywood Recording Over Fear That He Might Sue

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2016 @ 01:46pm

winderful irony

If NBC hand't been afraid, this might have come out sooner and given time for Trump to let it blow over as previous revelations have. Instead he has much less room to manoever.

On the post: Arguments Over Internet Governance Transition Get Even More Stupid

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 24 Sep, 2016 @ 05:31am

And the internet existed before ICANN..

And I think nobody would say that ICANN has ever worked "perfectly". What clueless idiots who would happily break something they don't understamd.

On the post: DHS's New Election Cybersecurity Committee Has No Cybersecurity Experts

DV Henkel-Wallace ( profile ), 02 Sep, 2016 @ 01:00pm

It's the DHS

incompetence is not newsworthy. Competence would be.

It's no surprise they are the lowest ranked cabinet position, behind even interior and veterans affairs.

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