kitsune361 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (86)

• On the post: Once Again, If Copyright Enforcement Doesn't Improve The Bottom Line, What's The Point?

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 07 Oct, 2013 @ 09:11am

  I'll play some devils advocate today: Correlation does not necessarily equal causation.
  
  I don't think I've seen very much data tying these two data points together. Album sales have been falling for years, regardless of draconian laws.

• On the post: Gym Thinks New Member Isn't A Real Person; Drains Nearly $1,000 From Her Checking Account To 'Verify'

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 03 Oct, 2013 @ 09:07am

  Re: This is why I use a CC for everything like this

  I agree with all of these points except #4.
  
  It's not free, they ding the merchant for somewhere around .20$ to .40$ + a percentage of the purchase service fee. They are typically not allowed to pass on to only credit card transactions. As a result they just work that tax from the credit card company into every price. So even the people who pay cash for everything have to pay a an invisible tax to the credit card companies.
  
  That said, screw giving anyone direct access to my bank account. I can call a credit card companies up and rake them over the coals when someone pulls this garbage, the bank typically makes you pay for other people's mistakes. (60$ fee to cancel a check vs. a the cost of long phone call to the credit card company?)

• On the post: Peruvian Congress Finalizes And Approves New Computer Crime Law In Secret Session, With No Public Discussion

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 03 Oct, 2013 @ 09:19am

  America, exporting democracy.

  I wonder where they got the idea for such behavior and such laws. Methinks they've been studying D.C a bit too much.

• On the post: FLYING PIG: The NSA Is Running Man In The Middle Attacks Imitating Google's Servers

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2013 @ 12:15pm

  Feeding the troll...

  This actually lend credence to Google's statement about that supposed "direct access" being a dropbox for requested information. Such a system would take time to request the information and it might not be the kind of hoovering of material the NSA would like.
  
  A MitM attack like this would hoover up EVERYTHING on a target immediately... and Google would have no clue.
  
  That would also make Google releasing information about NSL's and other requests pointless, they're intercepting before anything hits Google's servers and thus wouldn't need to request anything from them.

• On the post: Feds Beg NY Times, Pro Publica Not To Reveal That They've Inserted Backdoors Into Internet Encryption

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 06 Sep, 2013 @ 07:12am

  Re:

  The most common key exchange method for VPNs (and WPA Enterprise wireless), MSCHAPv2, is laughable weakness that was outed last year in a presentation at Defcon last year by Moxie Marlinspike. (see: https://www.cloudcracker.com/blog/2012/07/29/cracking-ms-chap-v2/ )
  
  It would not surprise me in the slightest if such an obvious flaw as this (srsly, read the blog post) would be intentional.

• On the post: Court Tells Journalist Barrett Brown He And His Lawyers Can't Talk To The Press Any More

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 06 Sep, 2013 @ 06:56am

  Re: Re: Re:

  Should probably have said "... worst president of my lifetime..." Most people have only an abstract idea of how bad presidents they never experienced are.
  
  That said, I thought Bush Jr. was bad and then Obama comes along and really raises the bar. People are getting pretty bipartisan in their disdain for the executive these days.

• On the post: Warner Music Reprising The Role Of The Evil Slayer Of The Public Domain, Fights Back Against Happy Birthday Lawsuit

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 04 Sep, 2013 @ 02:46pm

  So, if this is a fraud case...

  So, if this is a "fraud" case and corporations are "people"... why not have a criminal complaint brought against WMG simultaneously w/ the civil suit?
  
  If they don't settle out of court, I don't see how this doesn't take a decade or more to play out. It looks like Warner is brewing up a paper tempest in their teapot in this one.

• On the post: German Supreme Court Confirms RapidShare Must Police The Internet And Restrict Anonymous Use

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 21 Aug, 2013 @ 10:07am

  Re:

  So, it sounds like they'll have to ban all non-paying users connecting from Germany and a lot more people will use services like anomym.to to obfuscate what site they're coming in from.
  
  Rapidshare is used globally; how much of their income comes from Germany? Maybe they should just cut their losses, pull all their local offices and servers out of Germany. Then redirect all incoming German traffic to a page explaining the ruling and what the people of Germany should do about (vote Pirate, change the laws). Make a stink about it, and make sure to emphasize how "business unfriendly" this move is and how Germany is only hurting itself by driving commerce out of their country.

• On the post: NSA & FBI Spied On All Emails In Salt Lake City Before & After The Olympics

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 21 Aug, 2013 @ 09:20am

  Re: Re: Does it matter?

  I think the point he's making is: Unless you can point to an obvious abuse of the information collected the general public likely won't care. And with general apathy, nothing will change.

• On the post: Blatant Intimidation: Glenn Greenwald's Partner Detained At Heathrow Under Terrorism Law, All His Electronics Seized

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 19 Aug, 2013 @ 10:09am

  Nothing new to see here, move along.

  This has been happening for some time in and out of the US and some of it's allies. Here's some of the few examples I'm familiar with:
  
  Jacob Appelbaum was harassed every trip into and out of the US after he gave the keynote @ the hope conference in place of Julian Assange.
  
  David House, who organized "The Bradley Manning Support Network" likewise had all his electronics seized on a trip out of country. He had to sue to get his electronics back.
  
  Even before the NSA scandal Greenwald's partner on the Snowden reporting, Laura Poitras, has been harassed in this manner for YEARS.

• On the post: Microsoft Folds Again: Xbox One Will Now Work Without Kinect Enabled

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 14 Aug, 2013 @ 07:34am

  Re: Re: Re:

  Still can't sell/trade your used games. In that regard, last gen consoles had a leg up as physical media = game ownership.
  
  The games (and now software) are still all just licenses that are one ban hammer away from being rendered useless. The ToS is pretty strict on what you can do with gift copies and keys as well. Same w/ the ToS on the "market place" (aka the hat shop).
  
  However, most people overlook these things as Steam still delivers decent value for the price of software and they aren't usually very knee-jerk about the rules (unless you're doing something really egregious). And there's still offline mode for those games that don't require an internet connection.
  
  Just saying, nobody is perfect, but Steam is pretty good in comparison to XB-One's initial proposal.

• On the post: LAPD Detains A Photographer For 'Interfering' With A Police Investigation… From 90 Feet Away

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 12 Aug, 2013 @ 12:03pm

  Re: For What it's Worth:

  They were all very polite (as they all knew they were on film), but evading simple questions has got to raise their suspicions. If I were a freelance documentarian in a place like LA, I'd get cards made just for this situation:
  
  Bob Blahblah
  Freelance Photographer/Documentarian
  
  In my experience, if you have a business card, people respond more favorably and less suspiciously.

• On the post: The Lies Your Government Tells You About NSA Surveillance

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 04 Aug, 2013 @ 11:24am

  Re: Re: NSA

  Or rather there were not enough people in Congress with the balls to try impeaching the president.
  
  I almost think the impeachment of Bill Clinton was botched so badly so no one would have the balls to try it again for a long time.

• On the post: DOJ Tells Senator Wyden That Incoming FBI Director James Comey Has No Intention Of Answering His Questions

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 30 Jul, 2013 @ 04:09pm

  Re:

  "Now all we need to do is start throwing elections, and the downfall of of this countries democracy will be complete."
  
  We had the Supreme Court effectively decide one in 2000, and Republican state houses have been trying really hard to stack the deck for future elections for the last few years. There are few if any places where you see any sort of push back from the judiciary.
  
  If that's your criteria I'd say it's all over except the concession speech.

• On the post: Companies Request Special Permission From Feds To Register Intellectual Property In North Korea

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 26 Jul, 2013 @ 09:52am

  Wait... what?

  Maybe they're taking that Pirate Bay prank of moving to North Korea a bit too srsly.

• On the post: Dueling Amendments To Cut NSA Surveillance Funding; But One Is A Red Herring To Trick Congress

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 23 Jul, 2013 @ 09:49am

  Re: And the other is a slightly more subtle trick, besides ineffectual.

  He has a point. Nothing will happen unless you defund the whole organization.
  
  The NSA will still use whatever money they get to do whatever they want, they will either: A) stretch another part of the law to justify it; B) just tell everyone they can't talk about it because its S-E-C-R-E-T; or C) just do it anyway and lie about it. They've already proven their willingness to lie to Congress; while Congress and DoJ have already proven that they won't hold them accountable when caught lying.

• On the post: Texas Lawmaker Proposes Bill To Strip Funding From Schools That Abuse Zero Tolerance Weapons Policies

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 17 Jul, 2013 @ 07:21am

  Re: Re: Wait

  Your claim of "NRA extremists" is silly, especially since the overwhelming majority of school teachers now are females.
  You sir, have obviously not met any women from Texas, outside of Austin. However, I agree that the conspiracy claptrap about "NRA extremists" is BS. We may not have teacher's unions, but the "old boy network" and school district politics works just as well to shield incompetence.

• On the post: Jaron Lanier's Ignorance Of History, Basic Economics And Efficiency Is Getting Ridiculous

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 29 May, 2013 @ 11:30am

  Re: Kodak is manufacturing; Instagram is re-distributive.

  He has a point, just a terrible way of making it.
  
  Kodak did so much more than Instagram. Instagram is a software/hosting company for digital pictures. Kodak made cameras, film stock, chemicals for film development, slides, scanners, printers, slides, slide projectors. They still make digital video and audio recording devices, and LCD/DLP projectors.
  
  If you look at the breadth of their product catalog, their decline is more like that of HP who made calculators and electronics testing equipment before moving into computers and printers... only to wind up mismanaged, lose focus and lose market share so smaller more nimble competitors. I don't think HP makes oscilloscopes anymore, just like Kodak doesn't make film stock (or at least Poloroid film) anymore.

• On the post: AT&T Says You Can Use Any Video Streaming App You Want… Just As Soon As It Can Get The Meter Running

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 23 May, 2013 @ 08:49am

  Re: Unlimited Talk

  What's funnier is how we've been paying a premium for SMS messaging all these years. Newsflash, those SMS messages are typically piggybacked on existing "heartbeat" transmissions to the cell towers.

• On the post: Reporters Find Exposed Personal Data Via Google, Threatened With CFAA Charges

  

  kitsune361 ( profile ), 23 May, 2013 @ 07:41am

  Re: Re: Actually...

  Unfortunately... not as often as I probably should.

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