melonlord 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: 25 Years Ago Today… Techdirt Got Started!

    melonlord ( profile ), 23 Aug, 2022 @ 12:11pm

    happy anniversary! been reading for a few years and learned a lot in that time. thanks for doing what you do and keep fighting the good fight against censorship.

  • On the post: Stop Trying To Make State Action Doctrine Happen

    melonlord ( profile ), 23 Aug, 2022 @ 07:28am

    Oh my god it's like if you fed the entire BadLegalTakes account into an AI.

  • On the post: Miami PD Shoots The Messenger, Says It Will Punish Cop For Complaining About Other Cops’ Unsafe Driving

    melonlord ( profile ), 23 Aug, 2022 @ 07:14am

    As a former Miami resident I can confirm that Miami cops drive like absolute shit and constantly break traffic laws because the law doesn't apply to them.

  • On the post: Stop Trying To Make State Action Doctrine Happen

    melonlord ( profile ), 22 Aug, 2022 @ 12:14pm

    Good point on real/feigned. We shouldn't assume good faith misunderstanding for people who are arguing in bad faith.

  • On the post: Stop Trying To Make State Action Doctrine Happen

    melonlord ( profile ), 22 Aug, 2022 @ 10:02am

    The state action doctrine runs parallel to the common carrier doctrine in that no one pushing it actually understands it (including Justice Thomas) and everyone wants to use it to crush opposing viewpoints in the name of free speech.

  • On the post: Wannabe Censor Ron DeSantis Is Now 0 For 2 With His Censorship Bills: Court Throws Out His ‘Stop WOKE Act’ As Unconstitutional

    melonlord ( profile ), 22 Aug, 2022 @ 09:54am

    The entire theory behind our system of government is that the people elect representatives and those representatives can act as a check on the other branches. There is no mechanism for requiring a referendum every time the government does something because that would defeat the purpose of representative democracy. There is no legal process under the federal or Florida constitutions to implement the kind of oversight you're describing, for the reasons bhull242 explained. It would wildly exceed the power of the judiciary and would lead to immense political consequences.

  • On the post: Study Shows Anti-Piracy Ads Often Made People Pirate More

    melonlord ( profile ), 19 Aug, 2022 @ 08:27am

    Re: the tangible vs. intangible argument, plenty of property is intangible. Securities, stocks, bonds, equity, insurance, etc. The fact that intellectual property can't be touched doesn't set it apart from regular property law that much, though perhaps it's more abstract than other forms of intangible property. And in a sense, all property is a social construct, so intellectual property isn't unique there either. Again, not expressing an opinion on the pros or cons of copyright. I have no problem with your opinion there. Re: your last paragraph, I still don't know what you mean. It doesn't sound like you disagree with anything I've said. Could you please elaborate?

  • On the post: UK Columnist: Because Salman Rushdie Got Stabbed, We Should Regulate Online Speech, Get Rid Of Anonymity, And Hold Social Media Responsible

    melonlord ( profile ), 19 Aug, 2022 @ 08:09am

    Exactly. I have two questions for this guy: first, what about the "unruly and unknown mobs" that we like, e.g. popular uprisings against tyrannical gov'ts? And second, why does he think that people wouldn't still form unruly mobs without anonymity? Does he think the internet invented mobs in the 1990s?

  • On the post: Wannabe Censor Ron DeSantis Is Now 0 For 2 With His Censorship Bills: Court Throws Out His ‘Stop WOKE Act’ As Unconstitutional

    melonlord ( profile ), 19 Aug, 2022 @ 08:00am

    Court denied injunction because plaintiffs lacked standing against DeSantis (but did have standing against the other defendants). Even if it had enjoined him, that wouldn't stop him from, like, signing more laws, only from enforcing the law at issue in the case.

  • On the post: Wannabe Censor Ron DeSantis Is Now 0 For 2 With His Censorship Bills: Court Throws Out His ‘Stop WOKE Act’ As Unconstitutional

    melonlord ( profile ), 19 Aug, 2022 @ 07:17am

    From page 30: "If that were true, the Due Process Clause would tolerate laws containing the most incomprehensible stream-of-consciousness word salads so long as they used actual words. See generally James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939)." This judge lol

  • On the post: Study Shows Anti-Piracy Ads Often Made People Pirate More

    melonlord ( profile ), 15 Aug, 2022 @ 11:33am

    Well, yeah. That's what all property rights are: a set of controls. Copyright is one such control. Incentive theory simply states that this leads to innovation because it gives copyright holders economic control of their works. Whether this theory is right is a different question. You don't have to agree with the idea to understand why some people believe in it, and why the Progress Clause made its way into our constitution in the first place. Please don't take this as a defense of the current copyright regime or of copyright in general. A copyright-less world, or maybe a world with only moral rights and no copyrights, or maybe a different system entirely, might work better. And today's abusive, unworkable, and increasingly consolidated copyright system clearly does not function, and certainly not to the advantage of the artists themselves.

  • On the post: Study Shows Anti-Piracy Ads Often Made People Pirate More

    melonlord ( profile ), 12 Aug, 2022 @ 08:41am

    All DARE taught me was that people would frequently approach me on the street and offer me free drugs. I was disappointed to find out that this was not the case.

  • On the post: Study Shows Anti-Piracy Ads Often Made People Pirate More

    melonlord ( profile ), 12 Aug, 2022 @ 08:38am

    It's not marketing spin. They were talking about the original impetus behind the Progress Clause in the US Constitution, which gives the government the power to create intellectual property laws, not the modern state of publishing. And they're right -- the original justification for copyright in the US was that it would incentivize creativity (and science) by giving people a legal monopoly on their own ideas for a limited time (I believe the first copyright statute was for 14 years). But copyright has grown into a monstrosity in the last half century, leading to the problems you're referencing.

  • On the post: Appeals Court: ‘Frisking’ A Vehicle Is Completely Normal And Not Any Sort Of Rights Violation

    melonlord ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2022 @ 07:33am

    The cop's basis for reasonable suspicion in the first place is... troubling, to say the least. His "articulable facts" were facts of status -- that because Dabney had prior offenses and a "caution indicator" in the police department's computer system (not a warrant), Pugh thought he might have committed another crime. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I find the idea that cops can establish reasonable suspicion largely through their own internal labels and past crimes incredibly disturbing. That's some Judge Dredd shit. The only other fact that the cop had was that Dabney was slow to stop and put on his hazard lights, which is, like, very normal to do during a police stop? How does that mean the suspect might have a weapon? Does the presence of guns make people drive more slowly? This reeks of an appeals court getting pissed over procedural stuff (Dabney waiting months to move to suppress) and punishing the offending party regardless of the facts.