Peter’s Techdirt Profile

On the post: Now The Washington Post Misleadingly Complains About Google & Apple Protecting Your Privacy Too Much

Peter ( profile ), 19 May, 2020 @ 09:42am

how about they complain about their government instead?

The government that has managed to destroy the last bit of trust of its agencies even trying to limit themselves to fair use. To actually use data they have access to protect the interests of citizens, instead of their own.

The government and its agencies can use "national security" to bulldoze over every bit of protection the constitution has given us for more than 200 years. What "national security" will not do is restore trust

On the post: Uh Oh: FBI Serves Search Warrant On Senator Richard Burr, Seizes His Phone

Peter ( profile ), 15 May, 2020 @ 02:20am

If he hasn't destroyed any compromising data 2 months ...

... after being found out, he deserves whatever the Feds throw at him. And yes, a new phone would have been a good investment, too.

On the post: Largest Hospital System In The US Threatens To Fire Doctors & Nurses For Telling The Truth About COVID-19 Disaster

Peter ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2020 @ 12:38am

On the topic of rules ...

Is HCA Healthcare in compliance with all rules regarding workplace and patient safety? The "equipment shortage" mentioned in the article would not, by any chance, refer to lack of protective equipment that puts staff and patients at risk, against all rules?

And expose HCA Healthcare to all sorts of lawsuits once the crisis is over? Perhaps Ms. Porter and her colleagues, and the patients, can find a court open to the idea that some of that 33 bn market cap should go to those who have to suffer because HCA Healthcare failed to protect them adequately.

On the post: Anti-Piracy Copyright Lawyer Decides To Abuse Trademarks To Shut Down Pirates

Peter ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2020 @ 11:51pm

Abuse of trademark law, maybe

But could it work?

It looks like yet another approach to force operators of pirate sites to travel to the US and appear in a US court. Or give up on their rights and let the court decide based on the copyright lawyers arguments only.

On the post: EU Says That, No, Rental Car Companies Don't Need To Pay A License To Rent Cars With Radios That Might Play Music

Peter ( profile ), 03 Apr, 2020 @ 08:11am

License to listen to music

In Germany, every household has to pay for a license to listen to music. Every employer. Every rental car company. Every restaurant. Unless someone manages to be at home, at work, in the car and in the restaurant at the same time, they pay multiple times for the same thing.

On the post: Publishers And Authors Misguided Freakout Over Internet Archive's Decision To Enable More Digital Book Checkouts During A Pandemic

Peter ( profile ), 01 Apr, 2020 @ 08:46am

Authors Guild? Authors Guild?

It appears they did not pay attention when the U.S. Second Circuit explained to them how copyright works:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authors_Guild,_Inc._v._Google,_Inc.

On the post: RIAA Realizes It Sued Charter Over A Bunch Of Songs It Doesn't Hold The Copyrights For

Peter ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2020 @ 12:36am

Interesting reading - but does it help Charter?

RIAA did not sue Charter over copyright infringement. It sued them for not punishing customer who had received warnings.

That is why Cox lost their case: They had good arguments for acting the way they did - but they did not present them at the right time.

Had Charter (and Cox) challenged the notice letters when they were sent out, or refused to punish users until the rightsholders presented evidence of copyright infringement, they'd have a good case. But ignoring the letters without giving reasons at the time puts them in a bad position now.

For this case, at least: they might have a case themselves to go after RIAA. But that would be a different story.

On the post: FBI Says It Will Only Accept Snail Mail FOIA Requests Until Further Notice, Due To Coronavirus Concerns

Peter ( profile ), 23 Mar, 2020 @ 03:22am

Shouldn't the FBI have more people available for FOIA-requests?

With everybody being asked to stay inside, shouldn't FBI do the same? Both for the protection of FBI-agents and the general public?

On the post: First Circuit Appeals Court: 'Community Caretaking' Function Applies To Warrantless Seizures, Not Actually Caring For The Community

Peter ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2020 @ 12:09am

The case ...

... seems to be less straightforward in the second half of the article than in the first.

If the wife calls the cops for help, the police are not conducting a warrantless search, but respond to a call for help.

As for searching for and seizing the second weapon: What article would have been written had the husband returned from the hospital, taken the gun from a drawer, and killed himself? And possibly his wife?

The sad part of this story is that the case was taken all the way up to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, where it now sets a precedent for many more cases to come. Where the police crossing lines will be more obvious.

On the post: Police Department Shells Out $50,000 To Man After His Camera Catches Cops Fabricating Criminal Charges Against Him

Peter ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2020 @ 05:15am

Maybe we need a police offender registry

Like a sex offender registry, but for police officers with questionable ethics. For defendants and judges can check police officers accusing someone of a crime have a history of fabricating charges and evidence.

On the post: FBI And DOJ Personnel Confirm Agents Frequently Fudge Facts When Seeking FISA Warrants

Peter ( profile ), 29 Feb, 2020 @ 08:40am

It doesn't look so bad

If you look for the FBI's perspective. A few low-level got creative so they could investigate a guy who they knew was guilty anyway.

It is absolute hell if you look from the perspective of the guy who got his life destroyed by the FBI throwing around unfounded allegations.

And it is a direct attack on the very foundations of democracy if we remember how the FBI meddled in the last presidential elections.

Checks and balances were introduced for a reason. The blatant abuse of its privileges by the FBI is more than enough evidence to bring them back. If they can not use the power of a "national security card" trumping the constitution, the national security option needs to taken away from the FBI.

On the post: No, Disney Probably Didn't Infringe A Unicorn Van Artist's Copyright, But It Would Have Sued If The Roles Were Reversed

Peter ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2020 @ 08:48pm

Thank, you, Disney, ...

... for making absolutely clear that, contrary to what your PR department says, you do not see copyright law as a means to ensure fair compensation of creatives or, as the founding fathers put it, "to promote the arts and sciences".

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

Peter ( profile ), 12 Jan, 2020 @ 01:47am

Who cares? Who owns it though?

As with all copyright, all that matters is that rightsholders can collect money. IF they can figure out who to split it with, they might pass a little bit of the money on to the creators. Who important that part is to rightsholders and politicians is nicely illustrated by the excessive extensions of copyright: Who gets the money once the creator is dead? Having nobody to pay the money to is no reason for corporations not collect money in the first. Consequently, it won't be long the MAFIA will go around "standardising" copyright and expand the chinese interpretation to the rest of the world.

On the post: Academic Publishers Get Their Wish: DOJ Investigating Sci-Hub Founder For Alleged Ties To Russian Intelligence

Peter ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2020 @ 01:28pm

Why would anybody hack or phish login data to university libraries?

Unlike (US-) copyright, Universities exist to advance arts & sciences: They tend to give out library cards to pretty much anybody who asks. Unlike politicians and publishers, universities appear to work with the assumption that it is actually a good thing if people read science papers.

On the post: Police Departments Are Using Swatting Registries To Help Protect Swatting Targets From Police Officers

Peter ( profile ), 31 Dec, 2019 @ 02:31am

Coming soon: Even more victim blaming

"it was really their own fault they got shot by police officers: they had every chance to register their home on the swatting registry, and did not even take that simple step to help us protect them."

On the post: Disney's Decision Not To Renew SecuROM License Bricks 'Tron: Evolution'

Peter ( profile ), 07 Dec, 2019 @ 04:01am

Class action?

On the post: The FBI Says Your TV Is Probably Spying On You

Peter ( profile ), 07 Dec, 2019 @ 02:42am

So what?

The problem is not a spying SmartTV. Even if it was, pulling the plug and using a streaming device will solve the problem.

The problem is a spying FBI: not only have then been drumming for both authorization and technical ability to spy on everybody, anytime. The FBI has also been caught repeatedly using the information for framing and entrapping innocents.

While TV-Manufacturers may collect information to improve their products or to sell advertisements, the FBI uses information to destroy people's careers, even lives.

Which, btw, raises the question where the FBI's sudden concern for our privacy comes from ...

On the post: Appeals Court Denies Qualified Immunity To Cop Who Argued Citizens Have No Right To Defend Themselves Against Armed Intruders

Peter ( profile ), 16 Nov, 2019 @ 03:51am

Is there any particular reason officer Belue is not in prison?

There need to be minimum requirements for violent police officers to enjoy any priviledges. If they don't act like police officers, they should be treated like the criminals they are.

There is no excuse whatsoever for executing a warrant while not wearing uniforms, not announcing they are police and breaking into someones home with a battering ram. For possession of marijuana?

On the post: CBP Now Has Access To NSA, CIA Collections

Peter ( profile ), 09 Nov, 2019 @ 11:28am

An obvious step after the firewall had been demolished ...

... between intelligence and law enforcement.

On the post: Google And Facebook Didn't Kill Newspapers: The Internet Did

Peter ( profile ), 26 Oct, 2019 @ 11:04am

Newspaper publishers are like junkies

Their addiction to the old monopoly profits makes it pretty much impossible to come up with alternatives to the good old printed paper.

When the printing presses gave them (local) monopolies, people would - happily or grudgingly - pay top money for agency news sprinkled with some local stories and the odd investigative article.

No longer. There is still money to be made with news - but nowhere near the obscene profits publishers enjoyed at the end of the last century. Until publishers accept that, more newspaper are going to die. Not because of Google and Facebook, and not because of the internet.

Because publishers are like junkies, who will die rather than kick their addictions.

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