Nemo_bis 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Why Would Anyone Use Another Centralized Social Media Service After This?

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 21 Dec, 2022 @ 12:22pm

    Mozilla.Social

    Mozilla announced plans to offer a publicly accessible instance
    Did it? There's no mention of open registrations in the 2022-12-20 announcement.

  • On the post: Ten Years Later, The EU Orphan Works Directive Is Officially A Failure – Just As The Copyright Industry Intended

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 17 Dec, 2022 @ 03:31am

    Copyright lobby

    Have you followed the links? What would be sufficient evidence in your mind? Do you need a photo of some MEP or EU official receiving a big envelope full of cash from a person wearing a "copyright cartel representative" t-shirt? Anyway.

    The publishers believe that a system that provides for the authorisation to make orphan works available online cannot dispense with an a priori diligent search.
    From the European Commission's document attached to the legislative file. https://oeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?reference=2011/0136(COD)&l=en

  • On the post: Is It Possible To Get Fair Coverage Of The Link Tax Bill When The News Orgs Covering It Are The Main Beneficiaries?

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 05 Dec, 2022 @ 12:26pm

    EU link tax and newspapers

    When the debate on article 15 of the copyright directive raged in the EU, newspapers in Italy didn't cover any of the opposing voices. The only accepted line was that "big tech" was the only entity opposing the proposal, everyone else wasn't even mentioned. I have it on good authority that this was ordered from the very top. All publishers had agreed to make their newspapers stick to this line. Do you know what's the only newspaper which accepted to publish a short article about how there were also other views, like free knowledge projects? The catholic bishops newspaper, Avvenire. I guess the bishop of Rome was the one publisher who had not been informed of the line to hold.

  • On the post: As Musk Speedruns The Content Moderation Curve, Some Of His Biggest Fans Are Getting Mad At Him

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2022 @ 02:36pm

    Mastodon administration learning curve

    Some brave journalists are learning the hard way too!

    At first, I thought there was going to be a big journalist/ethical question about whether or not to ban entire servers. Until we got attacked by trolls and I learned just how many servers are 100% troll-army. So, blocked every one I could find. It’s like I got the Elon Musk crash course in moderation in a few quick hours.
    https://journa.host/@adamdavidson/109297137123981377 https://journa.host/@adamdavidson/109298694589387657 https://journa.host/@adamdavidson/109298704921633875 https://journa.host/@adamdavidson/109298716412611149

  • On the post: Google Tries To Fend Off Telecom Backed ‘Big Tech Tax’ In EU

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 28 Sep, 2022 @ 09:29am

    Bandwidth costs

    I have honestly no idea what "sender pays" is even supposed to mean. If you have ever tried to buy hosting services anywhere in the past couple decades, you probably got charged for your upload/egress traffic. It seems to me that senders already pay, most of the time. And sometimes they pay a lot: https://blog.cloudflare.com/bandwidth-costs-around-the-world/ I found this explanation useful: https://labs.apnic.net/?p=1651 In short, "sender pays" is not about making senders pay. It's about adopting one side's preferred interpretation of who should be considered sender or customer.

  • On the post: Can We Save A Truly Global Internet?

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 07 Sep, 2022 @ 10:49pm

    Foreign policy and internet fragmentation

    The United States desperately needs a new foreign policy that confronts head on the consequences of a fragmented and dangerous internet.
    Have these people been living under a rock since 2013? The USA already have a policy about international fragmentation of the internet, which is to own it. The NSA and friends have spent billions of dollars to set up surveillance of international internet cables and other internet backbones. Whether trying to assert control on international internet communications has increased or reduced fragmentation, you tell me. However, whenever any country decides it's enough and tries to reduce their exposure, for instance with data localization requirements or privacy laws, USA diplomacy intervenes very quickly to counter such moves, and to increase dependency on USA software and networks, so that data keeps flowing to the NSA.

  • On the post: The Public Paid For Moderna’s mRNA Vaccine Tech; The Fact That Moderna Is Suing Over The Patent Is A Travesty

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 01 Sep, 2022 @ 12:08am

    Compulsory licenses now

    Moderna is so brazen that at the same time it's claiming in another court case that Moderna's alleged infringement of patents is no big deal, as it got a compulsory license from the federal government. https://www.keionline.org/37751 The TRIPS waiver was a fiasco. The NIH should grant compulsory licenses on all patents relevant for COVID-19 which got NIH funding. Put all those silly lawsuits at rest and let the most efficient pharma companies do the work, rather than those with the most creative lawyers. https://www.keionline.org/35746

  • On the post: Dear California Law Makers: How The Hell Can I Comply With Your New Age-Appropriate Design Code?

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 24 Aug, 2022 @ 11:05pm

    Benefits

    And no one can explain how any of this will actually help children.
    Well, I'm sure some of those DPIA-writing lawyers have children...

  • On the post: HBO Max And Sesame Street Highlight The Stupidity Of Mindless Media Megamergers

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 24 Aug, 2022 @ 12:01pm

    Average costs

    The correct restaurant analogy would be an all-you-can eat buffet restaurant, which to increase profits cuts the availability of the most expensive ingredients, while keeping the price the same (or higher). The hope is that customers will eat less fish and more carrots, or whatever it is the restaurant can save money on. There's nothing new about this. Restaurants in Italy have been doing this for ages, by dosing the amount of "free" bread served to each customer based on how hungry they want them to be.

  • On the post: John Oliver Tries To Scare DC Into Doing Something About The Privacy Dumpster Fire That Is Adtech

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 24 Aug, 2022 @ 11:35am

    Follow-up

    So did anything come out of this?

  • On the post: Oracle Now Reviewing TikTok Algorithms And Content Moderation Practices

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 18 Aug, 2022 @ 11:36pm

    Data collection

    Presumably the chief objective of running TikTok on Oracle servers is to simplify the NSA's work in plugging it into PRISM, no? So the "audit" probably means "is there any data the NSA collection still misses?".

  • On the post: Just Because The Espionage Act Has Been Abused For Political Purposes, It Does Not Mean The Trump Case Is Politically Motivated

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 16 Aug, 2022 @ 02:20pm

    The Conversation reuse guidelines

    Yes, I did notice that The Conversation claims "By copying the HTML below, you will be adhering to all our guidelines". So it's not like they're likely to sue for copyright infringement (or win in court if they did). However, their advice is incorrect. By following that advice, reusers are relying on some implied license, not on the semi-free Creative Commons license they think they're using. So it's best to actually follow the public license.

  • On the post: Just Because The Espionage Act Has Been Abused For Political Purposes, It Does Not Mean The Trump Case Is Politically Motivated

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 16 Aug, 2022 @ 02:17pm

    Re: "a Creative Commons license"

    That's meaningless. https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#which-cc Under section 3(1)(C) of the license, one must "indicate the Licensed Material is licensed under this Public License, and include the text of, or the URI or hyperlink to, this Public License". I suggest to include a link to https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ , but saying "under CC BY-ND 4.0 license", or similar, is also possible.

  • On the post: EU Commissioner Pens Barely Coherent Defense Of Spying On Everyone, For The Children

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2022 @ 01:49pm

    Substance

    I can't find a single mention of the word "substantive" in the whole "response" to the argument that

    procedural safeguards can never fully replace substantive safeguards
    so I must conclude that the argument is accepted. Translated, it means it doesn't matter what the proposed law says, it matters more what it actually does. If you pass a law mandating that every child have a hand grenade under their bed, "but they must be used very carefully", it doesn't matter how many words on a piece of paper claim everything will be fine.

  • On the post: EU To Open New Silicon Valley Office To Figure Out Better And Better Ways To Destroy The Internet

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 06 Aug, 2022 @ 02:24pm

    Re: Just stop

    I wish they did! Facebook "threatened" to shut down facebook.com in the EU next week, I can't wait. https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/meta-repeats-threat-it-may-pull-facebook-instagram-from-europe-1.1798780

  • On the post: Please Don’t Normalize Copyright As A Tool For Censorship

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 05 Aug, 2022 @ 01:20pm

    Re: Upload filters consequences

    The trick does work. The main objective is often to stop Facebook live streaming; I understand that happens quite quickly. You might use the video later, but it won't get nearly as much engagement. The value of filming for these harassers lies in the social media engagement. (As a corollary, this particular usage of copyright for censorship is probably rather harmless for a wide class of purposes for video recording, such as "storing evidence". Assuming you have a hard disk at home where to store it before it gets taken down on Google Drive or whatever as well.) As for YouTube, not all rightsholders opt for monetisation. Some opt for complete removal. Whoever wants to play this trick only needs to go look for very popular songs on YouTube and find one which, unusually, has (nearly) no covers, no alternative videos and so on. That will be a good indicator that the rightsholder is particularly aggressive at removing that song. Allegedly, the trick doesn't work (yet) for some of the social media used by neo-nazis, in particular Gettr. Or so I was told by someone who claimed to have tried using the trick.

  • On the post: Please Don’t Normalize Copyright As A Tool For Censorship

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 05 Aug, 2022 @ 01:12pm

    Re: Rightsholders against censorship

    But that's exactly why people pick Disney music to play this trick. This is not a song whose author might have a soul; Disney probably owns all rights of any sorts. Disney loves censorship. Why would they come out against censorship? What if a legal case comes out of it? However small, there is a chance that it would result into some kind of limitations for upload filters, which is the opposite of what Disney wants.

  • On the post: Websites Now Have One Hour To Remove “Terrorist Content” Online Or Face Massive Fines. What Could Go Wrong?

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 10 Jun, 2022 @ 04:35pm

    List of competent authorities

    Here's the list https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/policies/internal-security/counter-terrorism-and-radicalisation/prevention-radicalisation/terrorist-content-online/list-national-competent-authority-authorities-and-contact-points_en So far it's mostly the police. In Hungary it's a politically appointed office.

  • On the post: Websites Now Have One Hour To Remove “Terrorist Content” Online Or Face Massive Fines. What Could Go Wrong?

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 10 Jun, 2022 @ 04:31pm

    27 or more

    It's not just 27. Any designated "competent authority" can give the order, so every member state can give this power to any number of entities. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32021R0784#d1e1275-79-1

  • On the post: Taiwan Creates A New Fair Use… But For Just A Narrow Sliver Of Works

    Nemo_bis ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2022 @ 12:07am

    Convincing

    Moreover, when Western nations make copyright worse, they then try to convince other countries to adopt the same bad ideas
    "Convince" as in "arm-twist" under the penalty of economic and military repercussions. https://edri.org/our-work/european-commission-derails-copyright-reform-in-south-africa/

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