hij 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (462)

• On the post: Senator Cotton Dumbly Claims Huawei Building 5G Networks Is Like Letting The USSR Build US Cold War Submarines

  

  hij ( profile ), 12 Jun, 2020 @ 04:40pm

  Oh no! Not the F-35

  Senator Cotton might have an easier time of making his point if he chose a weapon system that actually works. There is likely not much to fear about China knowing where spare parts for the F-35 are when they would be put in a plane that cannot even track another target. Then again, maybe he is worried that the Chinese would make it easier to keep that system repaired?

• On the post: Senators Rubio, Hawley, Loeffler And Cramer Ask The FCC To Reinterpret Section 230 In A Totally Ridiculous Manner

  

  hij ( profile ), 10 Jun, 2020 @ 10:34am

  Loeffler 's Predicament

  You will be shocked to hear that Senator Loeffler is facing a tough election campaign and likely feels a need to kiss up to a base that is divided over her appointment.

• On the post: New Study Finds No Evidence Of Anti-Conservative Bias In Facebook Moderation (If Anything, It's The Opposite)

  

  hij ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2020 @ 09:14am

  Well that settles that

  That will surely settle things and put an end to partisan bickering and complaining.
  #sarcasm

  (We have sunk low enough that obvious sarcasm needs to be delineated as such.)

• On the post: Ron Wyden: It's Time Congress Helped Americans Protect Their Privacy

  

  hij ( profile ), 28 May, 2020 @ 07:32am

  Question to Senator Wyden about privacy

  Senator Wyden,

  I have two questions. The first is about the bill you discuss. Who would be in charge of enforcing the bill that you are proposing? This seems to be at the intersection of the FCC, the FTC, and the Department of Justice. The enforcement of the provisions you may fall between the cracks and may not be subject to uniform enforcement.

  The second question is about broader awareness of the issues you raise. Unfortunately, the privacy concerns you raise do not seem to be something that the majority of Americans are concerned about. Without broader awareness and broader support efforts such as the one you discuss will not gain traction and will be mostly ignored. What can politicians and others do to raise the stature of this important issue?

  Finally, thank you for posting here and sharing your thoughts and this effort.

• On the post: One Of The Few Government Officials Who Actually Can 'Police Speech' Whines Ridiculously About Facebook's Oversight Board

  

  hij ( profile ), 15 May, 2020 @ 10:46am

  election year

  Election years in the US are the worst. Every time the cycle comes around I think it cannot get worse. Now, though, we have lived through three years of continual electioneering and a long crescendo of political theatre, and this year this kind of nonsense is going to spike through the roof.

• On the post: Secret Service Sends FOIA Requester A Redacted Version Of A Public DOJ Press Release

  

  hij ( profile ), 07 May, 2020 @ 03:45am

  disappearing Sessions

  I heard they have also been pulling down statues of Sessions as well. He may want to avoid any trips to Mexico....

• On the post: Supreme Court Says Georgia's 'Official Code' Is Public Domain — Including Annotations

  

  hij ( profile ), 27 Apr, 2020 @ 12:53pm

  *Every* person knows the law????

  “Every citizen is presumed to know the law,”

  Is this an explicit acknowledgment that police officers should know the law or that they are not citizens?

• On the post: Telecom's Latest Dumb Claim: The Internet Only Works During A Pandemic Because We Killed Net Neutrality

  

  hij ( profile ), 21 Apr, 2020 @ 04:52am

  No mention about access?

  Mr. Pai is conveniently ignoring the students who were sent home but are struggling to keep up with their classes because they lack access to broadband. Students who cannot get access at home have been forced to go to public places and expose themselves and their families. Students should not be forced to rely on Chik Fil A to complete their school work.

  https://www.ajc.com/blog/get-schooled/rural-students-without-doing-school-work-chick-fil-parking-lot/n4Fu1cVrDHghJnPUxxijjO/

• On the post: Another Federal Court Says Chalking Tires Is A Violation Of The Fourth Amendment

  

  hij ( profile ), 20 Apr, 2020 @ 03:05pm

  Tracking plates is still okay though

  Wonderful. Putting a bit of chalk on your car is an intrusive act. Tracking your every movement using special camera systems to watch your plates and putting your cell phone location on the interwebz, on the other hand, is fine and dandy. This is what happens when Luddites sit at a big desk, wear robes, and make important decisions.

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

  

  hij ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2020 @ 04:46am

  Re: Do you believe in miracles?

  I just went back and double checked the revenue, and they are doing better than I first checked. Over the last couple years they have had strong growth, but prior to that their revenue growth was anemic. During that time their cable subscription numbers were basically static, but they have pushed harder into phone service and decreasing customer service. Somewhere in there is where the miracle occurs.

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

  

  hij ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2020 @ 04:40am

  Do you believe in miracles?

  Pai, like many of his ideological bent, operates under the illusion that if you eliminate oversight of telecom, miracles happen.

  This is a bit unfair. Eliminating oversight has resulted in relatively poor revenue performance yet strong stock price performance and ever increasing pay and benefits for management. That is clearly a miracle.

• On the post: Jon Cusack The Latest Celebrity To Spread Nonsense About 5G

  

  hij ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2020 @ 05:41am

  What else should we conclude?

  Some of the telecom corporations have been touting 5G as a game changer that will herald a new world of light and joy complete with choirs of singing angles. Given that the current incarnation offers little to no difference it should not be a surprise that some folks will create new questions as to why it is being pushed so hard. Unfortunately, the context allows people to raise ridiculous questions, and the most ludicrous rumors can be the hardest to tamp down.

• On the post: Bizarre: Democrats In Congress Agree To Give Trump More Of The Spying Powers He Complains Were Abused Against Him

  

  hij ( profile ), 12 Mar, 2020 @ 01:09pm

  Questionable for whom?

  Remember, it is only Constitutionally questionable if you have standing. Since it is a secret, though, nobody who has standing know they have standing.

• On the post: NYU Law School's Video Teaching Copyright Completely Flummoxed YouTube's Copyright Filters

  

  hij ( profile ), 06 Mar, 2020 @ 08:59am

  No other options

  Due to the overbearing costs of the burden of policing content it is highly unlikely that another company can step in and create a website that will do a better job of resolving a situation where one party is gaming the system. Everybody wins. Well, except for anybody making content on their own.

• On the post: Bill Barr Excises 'Attorney' From His Title As He Leads Our Nation's Police Soldiers Into The War At Home

  

  hij ( profile ), 03 Mar, 2020 @ 03:12am

  Next step in fighting the war

  The current trend in fighting wars is to hand as much off as possible to mercenaries and private interests. This kind of rhetoric makes me wonder when this logic is applied to the domestic front and more police enforcement becomes a matter of contracting to the lowest bidder a la Blackwater.

• On the post: Clarence Thomas Regrets Brand X Decision That Paved Way For The Net Neutrality Wars

  

  hij ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2020 @ 09:29am

  Re:

  The opinion is carefully written to not address that question.

  By requiring courts to overrule their own precedent simply because an agency
  later adopts a different interpretation of a statute, Brand X likely conflicts with
  Article II of the Constitution. The Constitution imposes a duty on judges to
  exercise the judicial power.

  All he ever says is that the courts should not simply acquiesce to executive power. Given Justice Thomas' history it is difficult to imagine him saying that a federal agency should be exerting more influence.

• On the post: Law Enforcement Official Claims Citizens Use Better Encryption Than Cops Do

  

  hij ( profile ), 26 Feb, 2020 @ 05:30am

  Selective use of comparative firepower

  I have only very rarely heard of law enforcement using this argument to discuss firearm restrictions. In fact, living in a rural area it is exactly the opposite. It is very telling that law enforcement seems to be more focused on how people use their constitutional rights to express themselves than on how far they push the 2nd amendment.

• On the post: South Carolina's Top Court Decides Black Men Should Feel Free To Terminate 'Consensual' Stops By Law Enforcement Officers

  

  hij ( profile ), 24 Feb, 2020 @ 06:11pm

  Re: Re: Re: Sentencing

  Thank you for the follow up. It makes sense to increase the penalty, but 30 years is still way too harsh. Punishing a person who needs help will not solve the problems he is facing.

• On the post: South Carolina's Top Court Decides Black Men Should Feel Free To Terminate 'Consensual' Stops By Law Enforcement Officers

  

  hij ( profile ), 24 Feb, 2020 @ 03:03pm

  Sentencing

  This guy had 1/2 an ounce of cocaine and gets to spend 30 years in jail. Even if the officers had a reasonable suspicion that is entirely disproportionate to the crime. It is still shocking that this could be considered reasonable by anybody.

• On the post: The Next Risk In Buying An IOT Product Is Having It Bricked By A Patent Dispute

  

  hij ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2020 @ 06:14pm

  They can patent the display of your own performance?

  The idea that they can patent the display of personal performance measures is ridiculous, let alone patenting the idea of on-line work outs. The on-line displays are no different than displaying stock performance on an investing site, and on-line classes have been a thing since bandwidth became fast enough to stream audio.

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