Michael Earl 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (4562)

• On the post: Just As The Copyright Office Tries To Ignore The Problem Of Bad Takedowns, NBC & Disney Take Down NASA's Public Domain Space Launch

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2020 @ 04:44am

  Re:

  Actually, they can't. These were pulled by ContentID, so there was no copyright abuse. YouTube's automated system did not work correctly and pulled the videos, NBC and Disney likely did nothing wrong here, but this is the result of bad law, notice-and-takedown liability issues, and the likes of NBC and Disney pushing for this kind of stuff for decades.

• On the post: Florida Government Decides To Fire Its Data Chief Rather Than Be Honest About Its COVID Numbers

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 27 May, 2020 @ 05:51am

  Re:

  Unfortunately, it seems to be rampant on both sides of the aisle.

• On the post: France Is About To Waste A Ton Of Money Trying To Build Its Own Airbnb

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 19 May, 2020 @ 11:25am

  Re:

  I'm pretty sure the US will if there is ever a successful French company.

• On the post: It's Impossible To Opt Out Of Android's Ad Tracking; Max Schrems Aims To Change That

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 19 May, 2020 @ 04:36am

  Re:

  Odds are pretty good that they can.

• On the post: Censorship Kills: US Government's Focus On COVID-19 'Messaging' Over Actual Protection Did Real Damage

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2020 @ 05:25am

  I'm going to start with saying that I do not agree with the President or the way his administration is handling things.

  Than I am going to go on to agreeing with some of it, but I'll at least try to explain.

  There is something to be said about trying to keep media outlets and government officials from creating panic where there shouldn't be. Someone in a position of knowledge should have the chance to explain what they mean by something being "devastating" and we should be concerned about headlines when a seeming large portion of our population stops reading when the font gets smaller.

  There is also something to be said about the economic impact of the virus causing more deaths than the virus itself at some point, and I think that is a complicated thing to balance. The President and this administration do not seem to handle "complicated" well, but that does not mean all of their decisions are poorly motivated.

• On the post: NSO Fires Back At Facebook, Says It's Not Responsible For Malware Deployments By Foreign Governments

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2020 @ 05:21am

  Re:

  Also, lock-picks have legitimate legal uses..and so does surveillance software.

• On the post: AT&T CEO Nabbed Record $32 Million Compensation In 2019, Despite Rampant Bumbling, Layoffs

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 23 Mar, 2020 @ 06:48am

  Re: Makes sense

  Sure they lost millions of subscribers, but the stock price went up because of his masterful work cutting useless expenses (like employees, benefits, etc.). Investment thinking once again looks to the end of the quarter and does not really care about longevity.

• On the post: Why Tech Might Actually Be The Solution To Capitalism's Addiction Problem

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 12 Mar, 2020 @ 12:29pm

  Re: Re: Pay option

  But this continues to ignore telecom services that we pay (a lot) for and they have zero respect for their customers. Giving someone money does not give them incentive to treat you better, giving customers options and providing transparency about how you are actually being treated is incentive because your customers or audience can dry up if you are not doing a good job.

• On the post: Bad Ideas: Newark Stupidly Threatens 'Criminal Prosecution' Against Anyone Who Reports 'False' Info About Covid-19

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 11 Mar, 2020 @ 01:24pm

  Re:

  Plus, you know, yelling 'fire' in a crowded theater is not actually illegal.

• On the post: Michigan State Police Spend The Weekend Getting Ratioed For Bragging About Stealing $40,000 From A Driver

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 11 Mar, 2020 @ 06:28am

  Re:

  The police officer posting it had no sense of it possibly being wrong or that people would consider it theft. This is one of (apparently) many police officers that are so out of touch with the people that they police that there was little thought given to the possibility that posting this would have people questioning why they did something. This police officer is literally the Sheriff of Nottingham and does not understand that what he is doing is theft. Unfortunately, the experience is probably teaching him not that taking money from a suspect that cannot be arrested is wrong, but it is probably teaching him not to tell anyone about it because the public is "hostile".

• On the post: Bad Ideas: Newark Stupidly Threatens 'Criminal Prosecution' Against Anyone Who Reports 'False' Info About Covid-19

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 11 Mar, 2020 @ 01:28pm

  So I assume that the Internet is currently coming up with the list of all instances in which the city of Newark has posted anything that was actually wrong so they can go arrest themselves.

• On the post: Surprise! MIT Study Claims Voatz E-Voting Technology Is A Security Dumpster Fire

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 14 Feb, 2020 @ 10:05am

  Re: hate the messenger

  the central premise of its product is security umm...no it isn't. The central premise of their product is ease of use. They are just trying to hide the fact that it achieves this at the expense of security.

• On the post: Copyright Troll Lawsuit Over Duct Taped Banana Picture

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2020 @ 05:51am

  Re: Re: Re:

  as it is not fixed in the sense needed for copyright Had they used Gorilla Tape, it would have been.

• On the post: Company Says It's Built A Marijuana Breathalyzer, Wants To Roll It Out By The Middle Of This Year

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2020 @ 06:56am

  Re: We can't have autonomous cars soon enough.

  That begs the question as to whether or not it would be legal to fill a self-driving car with 10% Ethanol fuel. The car would be way over the limit.

• On the post: AT&T TV Service Goes Dark On Roku As The Streaming Wars Get Stupid

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2020 @ 06:48am

  Re:

  Roku gets a cut of the subscriptions from content providers that have apps available on their devices. This is (most likely) a dispute about that amount.

• On the post: Company Says It's Built A Marijuana Breathalyzer, Wants To Roll It Out By The Middle Of This Year

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2020 @ 04:40am

  Re: Re:

  Blood alcohol levels tested by a traditional breathalyzer get the alcohol from the air contact with the blood in the lungs. You have not inhaled anything (hopefully) and it will appear on the test. Alcohol directly injected with a needle will still show up (plus, the whole you being dead while driving will be a problem). Assuming their test is similar for THC, the method of ingestion would not matter. If their test is somehow testing residual in the lungs from inhalation, they are going to quickly run into experts in court that will be explaining their snake-oil is not going to produce any sort of accurate result.

• On the post: NYC's Transportation Authority Says It's Doesn't Use Facial Recognition Tech; Activists Say 'Prove It' With Public Records Lawsuit

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2020 @ 10:08am

  I think it is true

  “There is no capability to recognize or identify individuals and absolutely no plan”

  Well, clearly since their other attempt yielded 0 success, I think the "no capability" part is probably accurate.

  And it really is difficult to fathom the MTA having any sort of an actual plan for anything.

• On the post: Data From Smartwatch Help Investigators Solve The Case Of The Stabbing That Never Happened

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2020 @ 06:53am

  What they were able to find was a security camera attached to a house across the street that captured the crime that never happened

  Probably a Ring camera purposely pointed at a place of worship using facial recognition to identify the people that go there.

• On the post: Malibu Media's Former Law Firm Says The Copyright Troll Has Been Screwing It Out Of Settlement Payments

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2020 @ 06:45am

  Lomnitzer Law has followed suit and sued Malibu for breach of contract

  I actually hope the court sides with Malibu. A law firm really should be more responsible for choosing it's clients wisely. How could anyone representing them not realize that Malibu would do this kind of thing the first opportunity they had?

• On the post: Chinese Court Says AI-Generated Content Is Subject To Copyright Protection

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2020 @ 04:47am

  How did they have standing to sue?

  An AI generated the work and owns the copyright for it.

  First, the creators need to then get the AI to somehow grant them a license to do anything with the work if they want to make a copy.

  More importantly, doesn't the AI actually have to sue for copyright infringement? Does an AI have standing to sue in China? Did it really want to? How did it know about the legal system at all?

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