Michael Earl 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (4562)

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

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2020 @ 04:21am

  So is this still a hate crime?

• On the post: Civil FOSTA Suits Start Showing Up In Court; Prove That FOSTA Supporters Were 100% Wrong About Who Would Be Targeted

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 09 Jan, 2020 @ 10:52am

  once craigslist had been put “on notice of the human sex trafficking” (“from numerous sources, including but not limited to; lawsuits, government action, public outcry, news media, victims, activities and employee observation”), its ongoing operation “amounted to a venture with sex traffickers to efficiently market victims such as [the] Plaintiff.

  I would think the various state departments of transportation would be in serious trouble as I am sure sex traffic is frequently carried around this country on the streets they maintain.

• On the post: New Study Suggests That YouTube's Recommendation Algorithm Isn't The Tool Of Radicalization Many People Believe (At Least Not Any More)

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 07 Jan, 2020 @ 12:36pm

  Re:

  Putting pineapple on pizza.

• On the post: Appeals Court Smacks Down Patent Troll Blackbird, Orders It To Pay $363k In Attorneys Fees To Company It Sued

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 07 Jan, 2020 @ 12:24pm

  Blackbird's case is dead alright
  Take this broken case and cry your eyes
  All your life
  We were all waiting for this moment to arise

• On the post: Ring Sued Because 'Taking Customers' Security Seriously' Means Selling Easily-Hijacked Cameras

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 07 Jan, 2020 @ 12:03pm

  Wow

  He purchased a Ring outdoor camera for his house in July 2019 for approximately $249.00.

  He forgot to include being robbed as one of his complaints.

• On the post: Federal Court Blocks Unconstitutional Arkansas Law That Prevents Plant-Based Food Companies From Using Meat Words

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 27 Dec, 2019 @ 05:25am

  Re: Re: Plant based foods are not more confusing than meat

  I actually just accidentally bought vegan re-fried beans. I noticed my mistake when I was opening the can and it clearly stated "vegan" on it.
  They tasted fine, by the way. It really got me thinking what the heck was in my normal re-fried beans that isn't vegan though.

• On the post: When We Fail To Understand Privacy As A Set Of Trade-Offs, Everyone's 'Solutions' Are Unhelpful

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 26 Dec, 2019 @ 05:46am

  Re: Re: Solutions

  That seems like an awfully big "nanny state" solution. Making something illegal because people cannot handle or understand it is pretty pessimistic. Forcing companies to make these practices clear and only having opt-in options for them seems like a better solution to me. I am sure there are a lot of people that would willingly give up some information on themselves for other benefits. People make those kinds of choices every day. We just have to make sure it really is an informed choice.

• On the post: Teespring Takes Down Our Copying Is Not Theft Gear, Refuses To Say Why

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 12 Dec, 2019 @ 11:51am

  Re: Re: Re:

  I don't know who has made that argument, but it was not made in this article or in the comments above. While piracy has economic impact, having an economic impact is not theft. I can be driving slow in front of you making you late for work - if you get fired, I did not steal your job (and you probably should have left the house earlier).

• On the post: Four Congressional Reps Ask Bill Barr To Restart His War On Porn

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 10 Dec, 2019 @ 12:20pm

  Nine in every ten boys under the age of 18 have seen porn

  We do have a crisis. Our public education system has completely failed to educate that 10th boy enough that he can find porn.

• On the post: Ex-Governor Tries To Silence A Critic With A Bar Complaint; Gains Critic 70,000+ New Twitter Followers

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2019 @ 11:41am

  "Two weeks ago, a young couple stripped naked and conducted various sex acts including intercourse on a YOLO board in clear sight of the beach in front of my home at 2 in the afternoon…"

  How long was he watching these people? I can see accidentally catching "a sex act", but to catch "various", you have to commit some serious time to watching.

• On the post: Richard Liebowtiz's Lawyer To Judge: Please Excuse His Lying To The Court Since He Doesn't Really Know How To Law

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 18 Nov, 2019 @ 07:38am

  Re:

  When your job is dependent on enough cases being filed for you to be needed, the quantity of cases an individual brings to the table becomes significant to you. As taxpayers and people that might, at some point, need to traverse the US legal system, we see thousands of useless cases as a problem. Judges and attorneys see this as job security and as an indicator of their importance.

• On the post: Troll Lawyer Shows Up In Court To Explain His 'Dead Grandfather' Excuse, Gets His 'Fitness To Practice' Questioned By The Judge

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 15 Nov, 2019 @ 06:12am

  Re:

  We don't know what was going on in his head. It is conceivable that he learned of his grandfather's death on the 12th and missed the hearing because he was simply distracted by grief. He may have learned of the death on the 9th and been so distracted with grief that he missed a hearing three days later. When initially asked, he may simply have not been in the right mindset because of his grief and gave a poor accounting of what and when things happened. After that, he may have been embarrassed or afraid of the ramifications of giving the wrong date and kept hoping the court would just let it go. Or, he may have not cared at all for his grandfather, missed the hearing because of something else, and simply used the dead grandfather as an excuse.

• On the post: Lawsuit: An Officer's BS Claims About 'Odor Of Marijuana' Led To 14 SWAT Team Members Pointing Guns At Our Kids

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 14 Nov, 2019 @ 05:40am

  Re:

  If he was smelling the marijuana he had just smoked, this would make a lot of sense.

  While high, it is entirely possible to try to knock on a door and completely miss.

  I wonder if any of the SWAT officers will be asked if they smelled marijuana during the raid.

• On the post: CEO Of Security Company Behind Unorthodox Penetration Tests Wants To Know Why His Employees Are Still Being Criminally Charged

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 07 Nov, 2019 @ 05:36am

  purposefully trip the alarm to test law enforcement's response time

  Let's just point out that the guy making all of the noise here was also the one with the response time that was so horrible that other officers arrived, found the suspects, identified they were not actually burglars, and were talking with them about how the broke in and they tools they use.

  Can we start by firing him for being incompetent at his actual job?

• On the post: Appeals Court Says It's OK For Cops To Destroy Someone Else's House To Apprehend A Criminal Suspect

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2019 @ 06:36am

  Re: The phrase you're looking for is 'double standards'

  You cannot really compare delivering a pizza with the apprehension of an armed criminal. In this particular case, the police were forced to make a decision between destroying a house and possibly having someone hurt or killed by a knowingly armed suspect. Did they apply a bit more destruction than was necessary? Possibly (and by the pictures, probably). This really is a difficult issue. If we force police departments to have insurance for this kind of damage or pay for it out of their budgets, we would then be complaining that they allow people to be killed to reduce damage. I can see that going very wrong. I would think the owners homeowners insurance should not be able to deny a claim and the homeowner should be able to take the now apprehended suspect to civil court for any direct costs, but I could also imagine cases in which the suspect is not caught and the homeowner has no recourse. While this one incident is really bad, I wonder how often this kind of thing happens.

• On the post: GAO Report: TSA Has No Idea How Effective Its Suspicionless Surveillance Program Is

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2019 @ 11:33am

  TSA officials explained that they had not yet fully assessed the rules’ effectiveness because it was difficult to get additional funding after admitting the program was useless.

  There, fixed that for you.

• On the post: FCC Freaks Out About Huawei, But Ignores The Internet Of Broken Things

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 04 Nov, 2019 @ 07:53am

  Re:

  I believe you misspelled "idiotic and misguided".

• On the post: Australia's Idiotic War On Porn Returns, This Time Using Facial Recognition

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 31 Oct, 2019 @ 11:17am

  "It does not say how the user would submit a facial image at the beginning of each online session"

  It's easy. When someone navigates to a porn site, they will be prompted to "Upload a facial".
  If they appear of-age, they can continue.
  If they do not appear of-age, they will be immediately arrested for distribution of child pornography.

• On the post: Anti-Safe Space Crusader Bret Stephens Apparently Needs A Safe Space: Backs Out Of Bedbug Debate

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 14 Oct, 2019 @ 10:55am

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Consarnit.

  I'm not a firearms expert, but I am pretty sure that if you built a cannon out of glass, loaded it with black powder and a cannon ball, and then fired it, you would find that the cannon ball travels very little distance and the person firing the cannon would be shredded by the shards of glass from the weak and brittle pipe bomb they just detonated in front of themselves. Which pretty accurately depicts what we were originally talking about.

• On the post: AT&T Proclaims It Cannot Be Sued For Selling Your Location Data To Random Nitwits

  

  Michael Earl ( profile ), 26 Sep, 2019 @ 09:36am

  Re: This location data has a second nuance

  If they are using the phone without agreeing to the contract, they are probably in violation of the CFAA because they have not been granted authorized access to the AT&T network.

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