Mason Wheeler 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: As A Streaming Future Looms, ESPN Is Damned If It Does, Damned If It Doesn't

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2017 @ 09:22am

    It's a damned if you do and damned if you don't scenario for ESPN

    You say that like it's a bad thing...

  • On the post: Court Says CFAA Isn't Meant To Prevent Access To Public Data, Orders LinkedIn To Drop Anti-Scraper Efforts

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 16 Aug, 2017 @ 10:25am

    Re: Re: Why an Injunction?

    The court addressed this: if you can keep people who might be competitors from scraping your site, this is, by definition, anticompetitive behavior, which is not legal. It's not "a law demanding that Linkedin let someone scrape" so much as applying existing laws to this circumstance. And IMO the court's right about that. You can't make data publicly available and then try and put restrictions on its access or use.

  • On the post: The Snopes Fight Is Even Way More Complicated Than We Originally Explained

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 15 Aug, 2017 @ 01:16pm

    So, Proper Media engages in a scheme to avoid S Corp laws against being owned by a corporation, one so transparent that they flat-out admit in their legal filing that that's exactly what they were doing (ie. that those individuals were all really holding the shares on behalf of the company).

    Is anyone really surprised, after that, to hear that top executives were engaged in a scheme to evade inconvenient parts of other US laws?

    Are Shoentrup and Richmond Objectivists, by chance? Because that's where you usually see this sort of outright contempt for the law and for those around them, particularly employees. (See also: Uber's Travis Kalanick...)

  • On the post: Court Says CFAA Isn't Meant To Prevent Access To Public Data, Orders LinkedIn To Drop Anti-Scraper Efforts

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 15 Aug, 2017 @ 12:56pm

    And don't worry – they don't know you're following them.

    There's a word for that kind of "following:" we call it stalking, and in many other contexts, it's illegal.

  • On the post: How The DMCA's Digital Locks Provision Allowed A Company To Delete A URL From Adblock Lists

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 14 Aug, 2017 @ 12:33pm

    If this is a valid 1201 claim, then I could make the equally valid claim that functionalclam's entire existence is a 1201 violation and the site (and all the rest of the ones that Admiral uses for similar purposes) need to come down immediately.

    No no, seriously, hear me out.

    First, the definition used here:

    The other part of the DMCA, which we also still talk about pretty frequently is DMCA 1201, sometimes called the "anti-circumvention" section or the "digital locks" section. This is the (highly problematic!) part of the DMCA that says that circumventing "technological measures" that are designed to "control access" to a work protected by copyright. 1201 is dangerously broad in that it makes it a violation of the law to "manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof" if the purpose of that technology is to circumvent. In practice, this means that using or making a tool for perfectly legal circumvention -- such as for fair use or accessing public domain material -- can still be said to be in violation of this law.

    My web browser is a work protected by copyright. I use an adblocker to control access to it by preventing undesirable websites from accessing it. Therefore, it's a 1201 violation to attempt to circumvent my ad blocker, and quite possibly a CFAA violation as well... right?

    (Any lawyers in the house who wanna take a crack at this one?)

  • On the post: New FCC Broadband 'Advisory Panel' Stocked With Telecom Consultants, Allies & Cronies

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 14 Aug, 2017 @ 08:23am

    artificial artifice

    I'm going to have to report you to the Department of Redundancy Department for that one...

  • On the post: Complaint Filed Over Sketchy VPN Service

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2017 @ 08:30am

    CDT claims that these are deceptive trade practices.

    That's putting it mildly!

    Consumers have reported instances of credit card fraud after purchasing the “Elite” paid-version of Hotspot Shield VPN. One consumer reported “thousands of dollars” in credit card charges, as well as other suspicious online activity.

    That's not "deceptive trade practices"; that's a crime. That's something that people should literally be sent to prison for.

    Contrary to Hotspot Shield’s claims, the VPN has been found to be actively injecting JavaScript codes using iframes for advertising and tracking purposes. An iframe, or “inline frame,” is an HTML tag that can be used to embed content from another site or service onto a webpage; iframes are frequently used to insert advertising, but can also be used to inject other malicious or unwanted code onto a webpage.

    Further analysis of Hotspot Shield’s reverse-engineered source code revealed that the VPN uses more than five different third-party tracking libraries, contradicting statements that Hotspot Shield ensures anonymous and private web browsing.

    Not sure if that one's a crime, but if it's not it definitely should be. One could probably make a case that it's a CFAA violation (yay for finding a good use for it!) if nothing else. This is something else that people should be sent to prison for.

    Forget the FTC and "deceptive trade practices;" they should be filing complaints with the FBI over this stuff!

  • On the post: US Senators Unveil Their Attempt To Secure The Internet Of Very Broken Things

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 08 Aug, 2017 @ 10:03am

    Re:

    (Argh, that was me. Forgot to put my name in.)

  • On the post: Canadian Telcos Lose Their Goddamn Minds Over TVAddons

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 08 Aug, 2017 @ 09:50am

    But... in the meantime, how the hell is that allowed?

    They're just following the precedent we set in the US with the DMCA, of allowing private law enforcement actions when it comes to accusations of copyright infringement. This follows directly from that.

    Now you understand why I've been saying for years that the DMCA needs to be repealed...

  • On the post: Twitter Suspends Popehat For Writing About Violent Threats He Received From Another Twitter User

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 04 Aug, 2017 @ 08:35am

    Re:

    Twitter: by Twits, for Twits. Why is anyone surprised?

  • On the post: How Hulk Hogan & Peter Thiel Almost Made Sure That The Story Of R. Kelly's 'Cult' Stayed Unpublished

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 04 Aug, 2017 @ 09:47am

    Rapper behaves despicably, treats women as sex objects. News at 11.

  • On the post: Fact Checking Snopes On Its Own Claims Of Being 'Held Hostage' By 'A Vendor': Well, It's Complicated

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 01 Aug, 2017 @ 12:23pm

    Re: Obligatory IANAL

    Exactly. The sale was a blatantly transparent attempt to get around the law preventing corporations from owning an S corp, to the point where Proper Media (the corporation, not its human members who own the shares) is the plaintiff in one of the lawsuits, alleging all sorts of improper actions that harm Proper Media (the corporation, not its human members who own the shares) with regard to the management of Snopes.

    ISTM Proper Media is engaging in out-and-out fraud here. Regardless of what David Mikkelson may or may not have done, that alone should get their claims thrown out.

  • On the post: Court Strips Immunity From Sheriff's Office That Raided Hobby Gardener's Home Over Tea Leaves

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 28 Jul, 2017 @ 02:14pm

    Sheriff's Office That Raided Hobby Gardener's Home Over Tea Leaves

    Anyone else see this and imagine Professor Trelawney consulting for the Sherrif's department, helping them find people to raid?

  • On the post: Olive Garden Apologizes To Allofgarden.com, Blames IP Enforcement Bot For Legal Threat

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 27 Jul, 2017 @ 12:24pm

    Re:

    I think that's shorthand for "respect our brand rights," ie. not committing actual trademark infringement. Which is a lot more reasonable than the literal reading.

  • On the post: United Says TSA Wants All Comic Con Comic Books Searched; TSA Says 'Not Us'

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2017 @ 12:39pm

    Re: Because Reasons

    I cannot wait to hear what United says what danger they were trying to protect us from.
    Isn't it obvious? If you were flying a plane, would you want supervillains in the cargo hold?

  • On the post: Moonton Responds To Copyright Infringement Suit From Riot Games By Threatening The Press With Lawsuits

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 19 Jul, 2017 @ 01:51pm

    Official Statement: Recently some media have published negative and unreal reports against Mobile Legends. Here is the statement of Moonton. ... Mobile Legends and all the users will not be affected by these unreal reports and we will keep providing the best gameplay experience to players all over the world.

    So now they're trying to get sued by Epic too?

  • On the post: EFF Officially Appeals Tim Berners-Lee Decision On DRM In HTML

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 12 Jul, 2017 @ 01:51pm

    this seems like a very weird hill to die on.

    If only that expression could be a bit more literal. Not all the way literal, of course, but anyone who's supposed to be protecting open standard who then rolls over and endorses and legitimizes DRM, his career needs to die. His career needs to be summarily executed at that point. DRM is a thing that should never have existed and needs to stop existing; perpetuating it only brings harm to everyone involved.

  • On the post: ICE Says The Hell With The President, DHS; Orders Officers To Remove ALL Undocumented Immigrants

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 10 Jul, 2017 @ 02:05pm

    Re:

    It's a Tim Cushing article. What do you expect?

  • On the post: Appeals Court Tells Lower Court (For The Second Time) To Stop Coddling An Abusive Ex-Deputy

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 10 Jul, 2017 @ 08:34am

    Smith and other officers arrested an intoxicated man accused of battering a woman during a domestic dispute.

    I'mma stop you right there. If the guy did that, there's nothing Smith could have done to him that constitutes "inappropriate force," including shooting the scumbag on the spot. Any man who beats his wife (or similar "domestic dispute" partner) or his children is no man at all.

  • On the post: AT&T Claims Forced Arbitration Isn't Forced… Because You Can Choose Not To Have Broadband

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 07 Jul, 2017 @ 08:45am

    "It's not being forced on you because you can always choose not to use it." Why does that argument sound so familiar?

    Oh yeah! People around here pull it out all the time to defend the indefensible. DRM comes to mind, as do Facebook's myriad abuses...

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