Killer_Tofu's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
This week’s favorites post comes from Killer_Tofu whose name intrigues me, but I’m not sure I really want to know.
This week I have been given the honor of sharing my favorite posts with my fellow Techdirt readers. The TD gang thought it nice to allow me to do this… and they didn’t even charge me! Talk about a lost opportunity because I would have paid about a whole… I don’t know… five or so dollars to be able to get this posted. How could they possibly get any benefit from allowing me to do this? Its almost like I am stealing something because they didn’t make me pay them. (I am just joking, as all of us regular readers know, it is a great way to include the community and to CwF.)
Okay, before I start with my favorite posts, I want to mention that a lot of my views are shaped by what I feel is best for the human population as a whole. What would help the most people. Being a techie and reading TD, one of the things I see holding a lot of us back is patents. For now, patents seem to get in the way of a lot of innovation and to be a non-stop drain of money from the system. All the money that should be put into innovating is shifted around from company to company with some always being siphoned off by lawyers. That is why I found it great to hear that both The Guardian and The Washington Post had rather great articles about how broken the patent system is today. A little bit of icing on the cake from the Washington Post article was that it was written by Steven Pearlstein, who we were told is read by those in Congress. Hopefully they listen. If those two weren’t enough, to follow it up during the same week we had The Wall Street Journal also adding a great piece as to why patents are not all they are supposed to be.
Moving on from patents we had a fair few good lawsuit outcomes this week. We had a couple of good instances of bad lawsuits being dropped. There was one for The Expendables, where it was another case of “sue every IP address we can find on the internet.” They ended up dropping the lawsuit entirely. And Poor Righthaven. About the only lawsuit that could be considered anywhere near good for them was dismissed due to a lack of standing. I do have to give them kudos for their persistence. Even if they went about… well, everything, the wrong way (including the idea behind their lawsuits). There was the absolutely wonderful and great to read article about a federal court defying the other federal courts, saying that law enforcement needs a warrant and probable cause to get your location data. I hope that another court or two will lean this way and then get the idea up to the Supreme Court and they will rule in favor of our 4th amendment (saying a warrant is indeed necessary). As if that ruling wasn’t good enough (and really, we can never get enough good rulings) we have the MP3Tunes ruling that went the way of the greater good. Here EMI failed in their lawsuit and the DMCA safe harbors came through right where they should have. Reading through that article also presented us with the gem that the DMCA applies to pre-1972 recordings as well.
Another great topic I find uplifting is when large corporations get called on their lies. I will start off this section with yet another article on EMI. In this case, they were caught screwing an artist. I don’t see how this could be considered anything other than lying, with as many times as their story changed. As if their mistakes weren’t enough, they ended the conversation with Bill Nelson of Be-Bop Deluxe by telling him that he should feel lucky they will give him royalties from here on out. How insulting of them. Why would anyone believe the major labels or the RIAA have the artist’s interests are heart at this point? Next we have AT&T’s accidental disclosure that they lied about why they need T-Mobile. I was almost shocked to find that the FCC is actually going to question them about this. It almost feels kind of sad when one of the government areas does what you would think they should do for the people and you are pleasantly surprised.
For the last section I have some miscellaneous posts that I enjoyed. First off there was the individual giving away lemonade for free. The man in charge of the farmer’s market going on around him threatened him, assaulted him (tried to take the camera right out of our protagonists hands) and finally called the cops on him. It almost feels like civil disobedience for standing up for giving away lemonade, except for the fact that it is perfectly legal (just as legal as his recording of all of the events). I am curious if the cops can get in trouble for arresting you for something they know is legal though (reference the cop saying “we won’t arrest you today”). Next there was the news that the messengers were right about Fox delaying the release of its shows online. Sure as rain the copyright infringement rates went up for their shows the instant they delayed them. It is almost like the only ones who didn’t see that coming were Fox themselves and the MPAA (who had the nasty slam article trying to shoot the messengers pointing out what would happen).
Next up, we had Nina Paley pointing out where we can get more public domain material, in her article on… public domain material. And the last gem I leave you guys with is part of Samsung’s response to Apple saying they patented a rectangle (with rounded corners). Samsung included a link to this wonderful image from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey as part of their prior art claim.
Re:
I don't comment much these days but was logging in to state specifically this if somebody else didn't. That 30% cut gets the developers or publishers quite a bit of additional services rendered. Another thing worth mentioning is that if a steam key is sold on another platform, the dev gets whatever cut they get there, such as 100% from their own website. Valve however still honors their part of the deal, despite getting no cut from that sale. Meaning they still support the game download and any other services (discussion boards, possible workshop support, groups for the gamers, etc) without getting any money whatsoever. That 30% cut seems awfully reasonable in most circumstances once all of this other information is included.
Well .. shit.
Not an endoscope
Just a pet peeve but these things are pretty much always mislabeled. They are not endoscopes. Endoscopes would be the medically rated ones used by hospitals and stuck into bodies. These are actually borescopes. Do not use these to perform at home DIY colonoscopy. Just sayin'
My Time at TechDirt
One of the topics discussed during the podcast was lurkers and loyalty. I started reading TechDirt back in 2006. I went by a certain handle for the first 3ish years. My posts back then were much more angry and attacking at people with different views. I was in my young 20s then. At some point I grew up some, realized how vitriolic I was being, and created a new handle to leave the anger behind. It worked pretty well, and my posts since then have been of a much higher quality. I used to comment a ton as well. Over the last few years though I have barely commented. I have worked places where I am far more busy, and my home life, having kids, is also far more busy. I still find time to read most of the posts and still find myself agreeing with TD on just about everything, much the same as when I stumbled upon it. I am thankful for this site existing, helped contribute to the legal defense fund, and am one of those who come to the site directly. I currently fit that bill of lurker though. I don't comment much but am still around and likely always will be. I still link directly to your articles when I send them to friends from time to time when the topics or companies are things they have interest in.
With regards to Facebook though, bah humbug. I left it many years ago, and intend to stay away. Since I have been gone so long, I am not sure how much of an impact it plays on any of my friends or family. They know well enough by now not to bring up that company to me.
Huzzah!
Can't recall if I found through iGoogle or just made sure to add it to iGoogle because I found it a hair before that. Either way, been reading since around 2006. Good stuff. Thank you for all of the work you have done. I recall many different experiments you've gone through. Including the "this person's favorite posts of the week" that I got picked for once. That was fun having a shot at contributing something more than just a comment. This is one of those things where I feel like I know you and if I saw you would want to talk like you know me even though you don't at all. Funny how that works. Here is to hoping this continues on for many more years and that crazies suffering from illusions of grandeur don't manage to damage it.
His Boss' Comments
And surely, Trump's constant fear and hate peddling during the 2016 campaign had nothing to do with a spike in violent crimes ... right?
Still Around
I don't log in much anymore, or make anywhere near the comments I used to make years back, but I still review every single article that TD posts as well as completely read roughly half of them. Threw in some money to the fund. TD deserves it. Hopefully you beat that worthless human being in court. This site is just as important as it was when I started reading it to keeping us up to date on a host of topics. Best of luck friends.
What wasn't said publicly
"AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson today defended his company's proposed acquisition of Time Warner, saying that critics who claim the merger will raise prices are "uninformed."
R. Stephenson: "Everyone knows that we raise prices every year regardless. This certainly won't affect that."
Re: Abusing the definition
No, they service customers much the same way that a bull services a cow.
Re: Re: Arbitration Clauses?
Interesting. If that is the case, I am sure the lawyers and the incredibly few people who were able to opt out will be happy they hardly have to split this with anyone.
Arbitration Clauses?
I would not be surprised to see judges toss these based on the "binding arbitration" clauses that are in many customer's agreements these days. Courts really should have never recognized the arbitration clauses as they have been a massive way to undermine consumer's at every turn. When many consumers in many markets do not have choices (I am looking at you broadband market), the arbitration clauses should be illegal to begin with. I can only hope that they go through the courts and don't get tossed because of the contract's horrible terms that people were forced to agree to.
What's that phrase?
What is the phrase that the LEOs all around keep saying?
If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear
Well, their actions certainly show that they can't practice what they preach. That right there instantly lowers the respect they garner and the trust they desire.
Re: An intricate plot?
Be careful. If they see you posting about their plans online while in a meeting with them where you can see it, they might have you disappeared.
Prove em right!
We submitted numerous reports and sent multiple emails in regards to individuals making personal attacks,
Just because somebody calls the developers idiots in an online forum, doesn't mean you have to go and prove them right.
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Sort of funny that for my state (MI) all of the Dems voted No and all of the Repubs voted Aye.
Re:
Same here. It was already annoying that their RSS feed always had one sentence and then "read the story on wired". Once they went to blocking my traffic, I just removed from the feeds. Now I never go to their site for anything at all. Go figure.
Re: -- Cheap Attempt
Here you go, quoted from the article:
First, the tone of the brief reads like an indictment. We've all heard Director Comey and Attorney General Lynch thank Apple for its consistent help in working with law enforcement. Director Comey's own statement that "there are no demons here." Well, you certainly wouldn't conclude it from this brief. In 30 years of practice I don't think I've seen a legal brief that was more intended to smear the other side with false accusations and innuendo, and less intended to focus on the real merits of the case.
For the first time we see an allegation that Apple has deliberately made changes to block law enforcement requests for access. This should be deeply offensive to everyone that reads it. An unsupported, unsubstantiated effort to vilify Apple rather than confront the issues in the case.
Or the ridiculous section on China where an AUSA, an officer of the court, uses unidentified Internet sources to raise the spectre that Apple has a different and sinister relationship with China. Of course that is not true, and the speculation is based on no substance at all.
To do this in a brief before a magistrate judge just shows the desperation that the Department of Justice now feels. We would never respond in kind, but imagine Apple asking a court if the FBI could be trusted "because there is this real question about whether J. Edgar Hoover ordered the assassination of Kennedy — see ConspiracyTheory.com as our supporting evidence."
We add security features to protect our customers from hackers and criminals. And the FBI should be supporting us in this because it keeps everyone safe. To suggest otherwise is demeaning. It cheapens the debate and it tries to mask the real and serious issues. I can only conclude that the DoJ is so desperate at this point that it has thrown all decorum to the winds....
We know there are great people in the DoJ and the FBI. We work shoulder to shoulder with them all the time. That's why this cheap shot brief surprises us so much. We help when we're asked to. We're honest about what we can and cannot do. Let's at least treat one another with respect and get this case before the American people in a responsible way. We are going before court to exercise our legal rights. Everyone should beware because it seems like disagreeing with the Department of Justice means you must be evil and anti-American. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Re: Re:
And by the utmost level of service, you are using the word service the same way the farm industry refers to a bull servicing a cow.
My 2 cents
Link to other sources if possible, them if need be.
Used to have Wired in my RSS feeds. They were already annoying in that only a tiny piece was there and you had to click through if you wanted to read any more. Since they started blocking ad blockers, I came up with a more absolute solution. I no longer follow Wired in the RSS feeds. Not in the feeds, I never click through the site. Done.
Political Ads
and if we're really going to consider stripping speech rights from those that selectively edit content in order to make their point,
Orrick focuses on how misleading the videos are and then claims them to not qualify as journalism.
Maybe he is just trying to lay the groundwork to save us all from political ads for the next 9 months?