mattshow 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: New Hampshire Legislator Introduces Bill Protecting Libraries' Right To Run Tor Relays

    mattshow ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2016 @ 03:47pm

    I've worked in a library. Library staff are far more concerned about what people are doing publicly on library computers than what they're doing secretly.

    (Porn guys. I'm talking about watching porn).

  • On the post: David Bowie's Legacy On Copyright And The Future Of Music

    mattshow ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2016 @ 11:17am

    Peripherally related, but mostly just an excuse for me to complain:

    It appears that the Life Aquatic Studio Sessions, a collection of David Bowie covers by a Brazillian musician, is no longer available on Google's music streaming service, at least not in Canada. This is almost certainly a licensing issue. It has been available previously - I'm not sure when it was removed (ie. whether it was removed recently to capitalize on renewed interest due to his death).

    So THAT'S a kick in the junk.

  • On the post: Missouri Court To Chuck Johnson: WTF Are You Doing In A Missouri Court?!? Go Away

    mattshow ( profile ), 27 Jan, 2016 @ 12:10pm

    ...which very likely means that not only will he also lose this case in California, but he's likely going to have to pay Gawker's lawyers for the privilege.


    Of course, in Canada (and other jurisdictions) this is pretty much standard in every lawsuit. It really adds a new dimension to the risk-benefit analysis of filing a lawsuit.

    Of course, in Chuck's case, one doubts whether such an analysis ever took place.

  • On the post: Legislator Thinks Warrantless Cell Phone Searches The Best Way To Combat Distracted Driving

    mattshow ( profile ), 22 Jan, 2016 @ 09:43am

    This bill requires officers to have "reasonable suspicion" that a person was using their phone while driving.

    If a cop sees someone using their phone while driving, they can already issue a ticket . In that situation, the only thing this would do would provide the police with additional evidence to use in case the ticket were challenged. Is this really a pressing problem? Are huge numbers of distracted driving tickets successfully being challenged on the basis of a lack of evidence?

    If not, the only thing this bill will cover is that narrow range of circumstances when the cop has "reasonable suspicion" a person was using their phone but isn't confident enough to write a ticket based on what they saw. That seems a pretty small gain from a pretty big privacy loss.

  • On the post: NY State Legislator Proposes Ban On Sale Of Encrypted Smartphones

    mattshow ( profile ), 12 Jan, 2016 @ 04:19pm

    In unrelated news, I would like to announce the chain of cell phone stores I will be opening in New Jersey.

  • On the post: Canada Prepares To Force Cable Companies To Provide Cheaper, A La Carte TV

    mattshow ( profile ), 07 Jan, 2016 @ 08:00am

    And by "predict," Pelletier (whose organization is stocked with North American cable companies) means that's exactly what cable companies will do. In other words, your TV bill will be lower, but your broadband bill will be higher. And nothing really gets fixed if regulators don't address the lack of competition in the broadband space that lets usage caps (a glorified price hike) thrive in the first place.


    Canadian regulators are making at least a passing effort to increase competition in the broadband space. The CRTC recently made an order that will require telcos and cablecos to license their infrastructure to smaller, independent operators. (They were already required to provide some access to coaxial and copper infrastructure, to a limited extent, but this recent order will also require them to provide access to more modern fiber infrastructure). Bell, of course, is fighting this, by asking the CRTC to reconsider parts of its decision while at the same time asking government officials to overturn it entirely.

    Another comment mentioned the choice Canadian consumers have with respect to who provides their Internet service. It's true that in some communities, Canadians might have one or two independent operators providing internet access in addition to the telco and cableco, but the telcos and cablecos still control about 95% of the broadband market. In the hearing leading up to the CRTC order, representatives from independent operators testified about how, even when they have the infrastructure to provide service, it's hard to make a serious dent in the market share of the telcos and cablecos. The combination of brand recognition, the ability to bundle services and consumer inertia is incredibly hard to overcome. Of course, those are "features" of the market that are a lot more difficult to regulate away, which means it's unlikely that the telcos and cablecos will feel any serious competitive pressure anytime soon, even with the CRTC's intervention.

  • On the post: Right To Be Forgotten Now Lives In Australia: Court Says Google Is The 'Publisher' Of Material It Links To

    mattshow ( profile ), 28 Oct, 2015 @ 01:19pm

    Re: Not that worried

    The judgment only SHOULD be reversed if it didn't apply Australian law correctly. This judgment is 184 pages long. They extensively review defamation judgments from all over the common law world, including 20 pages worth of review of judgments JUST in the Internet context. I think saying this is just some crazy backwoods judge is a little dismissive.

    I know everyone here loves to hate on judges and lawyers, but this might be an entirely correct application of Australian defamation law.

  • On the post: Right To Be Forgotten Now Lives In Australia: Court Says Google Is The 'Publisher' Of Material It Links To

    mattshow ( profile ), 28 Oct, 2015 @ 01:09pm

    Re: Re: Legally speaking, this is not actually nuts.

    When you do a Google search, you don't just get a link to the page. You get a snippet from the page, which is stored on Google's servers. So yes, Google is repeating the allegedly defamatory language.

  • On the post: The Cable Industry Thinks Cord Cutting's A Fad That Will End Once Millennials Procreate

    mattshow ( profile ), 19 Oct, 2015 @ 12:42pm

    I'm 34 which I think just BARELY qualifies me as a millennial, under the broadest definition of the term. I don't have kids but I'd say 90% of my social circle does and none of them have cable.

    As a cord-cutter-with-kids friend put it "My son really doesn't care that this episode of Arthur came out 5 years before he was born".

  • On the post: Pokemon Wants To Totally Bankrupt One Of Its Biggest Fans, Thanks To Copyright

    mattshow ( profile ), 05 Oct, 2015 @ 10:56am

    Re: Re: Re: Not really overkill

    Well, this lawyer probably bills out at least $500/hour. $5,000 is like a day's worth of work.

    I'm not defending the Pokémon Company's actions here. If I was them, I'd be eating this cost just to avoid the bad publicity they're going to get now (or, you know, just not filing the lawsuit in the first place).

    I'm just saying, it doesn't have to be very time consuming to add up to $5,000.

  • On the post: After Pulling An All-Nighter, Negotiators Finish TPP; But Don't Expect To See The Text For A While

    mattshow ( profile ), 05 Oct, 2015 @ 11:09am

    Meanwhile, here in Canada, we have an election in two weeks. The Conservative Party (the party that is currently in power and which negotiated the TPP on Canada's behalf) is by no means guaranteed to be returning to power. The other two major parties haven't seen the final text, so who knows what position they'll take when they do.

    There's a decent chance that our government will change in two weeks and the new government won't support the agreement and will refuse to sign on.

    So that's fun.

  • On the post: Another Teen Frightens School Personnel With Technical Stuff; Panic, Stupidity Fail To Ensue

    mattshow ( profile ), 25 Sep, 2015 @ 10:32am

    They are concerned about the contents of this notebook for all the wrong reasons. Bloon Tower Defense 5 (and 4 before it) absolutely devastated my productivity for over a month. Frankly I'm amazed I was never fired. This kid's entire academic career is in jeopardy.

    Sure, getting that Super Monkey feels food. But at what cost?

  • On the post: Washington State Court Confused By Section 230, Says Backpage May Be Liable For User Posts

    mattshow ( profile ), 03 Sep, 2015 @ 04:53pm

    Re:

    Noting. It's worth NOTING.

    One little extra "h" can really change a sentence.

  • On the post: Washington State Court Confused By Section 230, Says Backpage May Be Liable For User Posts

    mattshow ( profile ), 03 Sep, 2015 @ 04:44pm

    It's worth nothing that this isn't a result on the merits. It's a result on an application to have claims dismissed before trial, something judges are reluctant to do. An I actually agree with the majority on this one (I know, what a dick).

    The dissent states that courts have consistently rejected the contention that defendants "develop" content by maintaining neutral policies prohibiting or limiting certain content.

    But that's not what the plaintiff is alleging. And unlike the craigslist case referenced, they're not alleging that Backpage ignores people who violate their policy. They're alleging that Backpage's policies aren't neutral but were written specifically with the intent of encouraging sex trafficking. And the court is obligated to accept this as true in an application like this, where a defendant is trying to get claims thrown out before a trial and before any evidence has been submitted.

    I don't think Backpage's policies ARE written with that intent, and I have every confidence Backpage will win on the merits, but I don't think the court was wrong to find as they did in this application.

    With that said, I also don't understand what point Wiggins was trying to make with his bit about the use of the word "immunity".

  • On the post: Canadian Scientist Muzzled For Writing And Performing Song About Canadian Government Muzzling Scientists

    mattshow ( profile ), 01 Sep, 2015 @ 10:01am


    Techdirt has been following for a while the Canadian government's unabashed attempts to muzzle scientists and librarians who work for the state, as it tries to deny them the right to express their views if those happen to disagree with the His Excellency, Prime Minister for Life, Superior Person, Great Leader of our Party and Nation, Guiding Star of the 21st Centry, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas Stephen Harper's political agenda.


    Fixed it for you.

  • On the post: Quebec Decides It Needs ANOTHER Hate Speech Law, Only One That's Worse Than The Law It Already Has

    mattshow ( profile ), 24 Aug, 2015 @ 09:57am

    The end result, of course, is the chilling of speech. Currently, there's a measure of due process to the proceedings. If this bill passes, that's gone. And with no clear standard expressed in the bill itself, all sorts of previously protected speech will be potentially subject to criminal penalties.


    A nitpick, but an important one. In Canada, only the Federal government can pass criminal law. Quebec might be about to pass a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad law, but the one thing it can't do is result in criminal penalties.

    Which doesn't mean the remedies the tribunal can order will be painless. In addition to whatever powers the Human Rights Tribunal already has, this legislation grants it the power to order fines of up to $10,000. And of course, and just getting dragged before such a tribunal will be a huge pain in the ass and will carry a stigma.

    But technically, they won't be characterized as criminal penalties. That sounds like a petty distinction, but it can be a pretty big distinction when you're trying to cross an international border or applying for certain jobs.

  • On the post: TSA At The Movies: Theater Chain Looks To Bring Security Theater To The Movie Theater

    mattshow ( profile ), 21 Aug, 2015 @ 08:31am

    Re:

    I came to say the same thing. When I read that paragraph, it wasn't at all clear to me which of the three items listed was the "actual" weapon, even though the tone of the sentence suggests it should be obvious.

    Even if, as John states, Tim intended to say "weapons that pose a serious threat", I don't see how that's at all relevant. Their policy doesn't mention weapons at all. Their policy just states that they're trying to ensure the "comfort and safety" of their guests and employees. So the question of whether something is or is not a weapon that poses a serious threat is irrelevant. Pepper spray and hatchets and airsoft guns can all cause some serious discomfort.

    (As an aside, Wikipedia states that pepper spray has led to deaths in some cases, but without a citation. So it's possible that at least two of those items pose a serious threat).

  • On the post: Canadian Court Orders Blogger Who Reposted Another Writer's Defamatory Statements To Pay $10,000 To Defamed Party

    mattshow ( profile ), 04 Aug, 2015 @ 05:22pm

    Re: Re:

    If you read the article you would realize that Richard Warman is the guy who filed the suit. There is no Patrick Warman in this story. Which is the point that the first AC was trying to get across.

  • On the post: Canadian Court Orders Blogger Who Reposted Another Writer's Defamatory Statements To Pay $10,000 To Defamed Party

    mattshow ( profile ), 04 Aug, 2015 @ 01:12pm

    Here's a not-so-gentle reminder that Canada's defamation laws are significantly different than those in the United States.

    According to the EFF, this is exactly the way US defamation laws operate outside the context of the Internet. From https://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/liability/defamation


    What if I republish another person's statement? (i.e. someone comments on your posts)

    Generally, anyone who repeats someone else's statements is just as responsible for their defamatory content as the original speaker—if they knew, or had reason to know, of the defamation. Recognizing the difficulty this would pose in the online world, Congress enacted Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides a strong protection against liability for Internet "intermediaries" who provide or republish speech by others. See the Section 230 FAQ for more.

    The vast weight of authority has held that Section 230 precludes liability for an intermediary's distribution of defamation. While one California court had held that the federal law does not apply to an online distributor's liability in a defamation case, the case, Barrett v. Rosenthal, was overturned by the California Supreme Court (EFF filed an amicus brief in this case)


    So, it sounds as if, at least on the Internet, US defamation law would reach a significantly different result (although in traditional print publishing, probably not). But wait, there's more! If you go to the EFF's Section 230 FAQ (linked from that first article), they state:


    Your readers' comments, entries written by guest bloggers, tips sent by email, and information provided to you through an RSS feed would all likely be considered information provided by another content provider. This would mean that you would not be held liable for defamatory statements contained in it. However, if you selected the third-party information yourself, no court has ruled whether this information would be considered "provided" to you. One court has limited Section 230 immunity to situations in which the originator "furnished it to the provider or user under circumstances in which a reasonable person...would conclude that the information was provided for publication on the Internet...."


    Now, I know that skimming a few EFF FAQs is not a substitute for actual legal research. But it sounds to me like it's not so certain at all that a US court would have found differently.

  • On the post: Toronto Cab Drivers Sue Uber For Interference With Their Super Profitable Business Model

    mattshow ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2015 @ 03:22pm

    Why is "provincial" in quotations? It's a real thing and distinguishing between municipal regulations and provincial laws is legitimate (of course, that doesn't mean this particular lawsuit is legitimate). This Toronto Star article has more information on exactly what law the lawsuit relies on.

    http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/07/23/taxi-limo-drivers-launch-400m-class-action-lawsuit-against-uberx-uberxl.html

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