Rich Fiscus 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Illinois The First State To Throw Out Laws Making Amazon Collect Sales Tax Based On Affiliates

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 21 Oct, 2013 @ 09:31pm

    Re:

    If you're going to be snarky and pedantic, at least be accurate. You do not have to be an employee to get a sales commission.

    Saying you're not an advertiser because you're in sales is like saying you're not in transportation because you're in shipping.

  • On the post: FISA Court Argues To Senate That It's Not A Rubber Stamp

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2013 @ 07:43am

    If we take the judges at their word, keeping in mind what we know they did sign off on, what must the nearly 25 percent of NSA requests they claim to have turned down look like. I'm guessing something like this:

    My astrologer told me to beware of the numbers 2 and 7 so I made a list of every area code that has both those numbers.

    He named his son Corey and his daughter Anne. If you say them together really fast it sounds kind of, a little, almost, just like Quran.

    Elvis came to me in a dream...

    ...and then I saw his face in the bong water.

    If you play the third track on the new Slipknot album backwards you can distinctly hear 'at GMail dot com.' I couldn't make out the first part so we'll need to intercept everything.


    Sorry, my mistake. They did actually approve the last one.

  • On the post: FLYING PIG: The NSA Is Running Man In The Middle Attacks Imitating Google's Servers

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2013 @ 02:30pm

    Re:

    My educated guess would be that Symantec was involved. They were one of CISPA's biggest cheerleaders and if I'm not mistaken they're also the biggest CA.

  • On the post: NIST's Ridiculous Non-Response Response To Revelation That NSA Controlled Crypto Standards Process

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2013 @ 02:15pm

    We should probably be thanking NIST for this actually. If it wasn't true they'd be denying it. Their decision not to deny it is all the confirmation I need - not that there was any doubt in the first place.

  • On the post: NIST's Ridiculous Non-Response Response To Revelation That NSA Controlled Crypto Standards Process

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2013 @ 01:41pm

    We've always been at war with Eastasia.

  • On the post: FLYING PIG: The NSA Is Running Man In The Middle Attacks Imitating Google's Servers

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2013 @ 01:24pm

    It looks like this particular program probably started 2 years ago with Verizon, AT&T and Centurylink. That image certainly looks like it's from the Verizon Business (aka UUNet/Worldcom) network to me.

    Sprint and Level3 may or may not have been included at that point. I suspect they probably were but without the public announcement. They might not have had the requisite government contracts for plausible deniability.

  • On the post: NSA, GCHQ Admit That The Public Is The Enemy

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 06 Sep, 2013 @ 10:48am

    Interesting that 2010 is mentioned as the year the NSA's big "break through" happened. IIRC that's the year before the first version of CISPA was introduced by Mike Rogers - aka the intelligence industry's chief sock puppet. If you want to know how deep the rabbit hole goes I recommend focusing on the companies that spent the most lobbying for CISPA. Until we have revelations that cover at least most of them you can bet we aren't even close to the bottom.

    Don't forget it was 2 days after Microsoft and Facebook publicly backed off their support that Rogers went batshit crazy and he hasn't been back since. At the time it seemed like business as usual fear mongering. In retrospect it looks more like he knew the NSA's cover was falling apart and expected to be the first one thrown under the bus.

    Here's the data from the Sunlight Foundation, minus the 2013 figures. I'm particularly interested to find out exactly where IBM fits in the picture. How desperate did they have to be to send 200 executives to Washington this year to personally lobby for CISPA?

  • On the post: Former US Official: Edward Snowden Was Too Brilliant To Work For The NSA

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2013 @ 12:57pm

    Re:

    The narrative the government/NSA seems to be going for is that Snowden was somehow some sort of super spy genius hacker that somehow defeated all of the NSA's complex defences like the computer nerd main character in a terrible hacker movie.


    Exactly right. This is just another attempt to change the subject and control the narrative. For the first few weeks they stuck with the usual tactic of denial and fear mongering. When that didn't work they tried to get in front of the story by giving their side before releasing documents of their own. Now they're just trying to soften up the public to accept the kangaroo court they've got planned for Snowden.

    Really this is all about panic. They know there's a lot worse coming and they have no idea what to do about it. Which reminds me, I need to stock up on popcorn. I don't want to miss any of the show.

  • On the post: Former US Official: Edward Snowden Was Too Brilliant To Work For The NSA

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2013 @ 12:28pm

    Translation from PR Doublespeak to human:

    "You don't hire people smart enough to recognize how dumb your policies are."

  • On the post: Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Says Anti-Terror Laws Should Be Used To Stop Investigative Journalism

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 26 Aug, 2013 @ 07:48pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    It's always amusing when people claim that a representative democracy is somehow not worthy or pure enough to be called a democracy. It's simultaneously obsequious and ignorant.

    It's also irrelevant to the discussion of whether the US, UK, or any other country constitutes a democratic society.

  • On the post: Government's Redaction Fail Causes Exceptionally Grave Damage To Nation's Security

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 26 Aug, 2013 @ 02:34pm

    The good news is only brain damaged terrorists didn't know this was going already and most of them probably won't notice this either. I think we dodged a bullet on that one.

  • On the post: Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Says Anti-Terror Laws Should Be Used To Stop Investigative Journalism

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 26 Aug, 2013 @ 12:36pm

    In a democratic society the state does not have rights. The state has privileges assigned at the discretion of the people which they are free to revoke at any time with or without the consent of the state.

  • On the post: Feds Threaten To Arrest Lavabit Founder For Shutting Down His Service

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 16 Aug, 2013 @ 07:44pm

    Re: Democracy, Anyone?

    You're doing it right now. And when you tell the next person you talk to about this you'll be doing it even more. You stand up and call out the liars and you tell them no.

    That's what the care and feeding of democracy looks like.

  • On the post: Feds Threaten To Arrest Lavabit Founder For Shutting Down His Service

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 16 Aug, 2013 @ 05:29pm

    Re:

    The problem with setting yourself up in an ivory tower is you can't see the mob of peasants coming until they're close enough to knock it over.

  • On the post: White House Tried To Interfere With Washington Post's Report, And To Change Quotes From NSA

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 16 Aug, 2013 @ 07:37pm

    The Washington Post is part of the Exalted Brotherhood of Holier Than Thou Journalists. They've anointed themselves The Fourth Estate - representatives of the people who keep the government in check by holding them accountable.

    How exactly does caving in to White House censorship demands hold the government accountable? If they're so committed to those high minded ideals what stopped them from publishing the quotes unedited?

    Mostly they would have been taken off the super privileged media guest list. Instead of getting their lies in person they'd get them second hand like the commoners. No more official unofficial leaks from the President.

    I can think of a lot of words to describe that - sycophant, toadie, boot licker, lackey, flunky, maybe even accomplice or co-conspirator. Journalist not so much.

  • On the post: Wyden And Udall: Latest Revelations Of Abuses 'Are Just The Tip Of A Larger Iceberg'

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 16 Aug, 2013 @ 05:59pm

    Sooner or later they're going to have to realize that every misrepresentation, every denial later proven false and every outright lie is only making things even worse.


    If history is any indication they're going to keep shoveling this stuff faster and deeper until it buries them. After that there will be some scapegoats thrown out for the angry mob to tear apart. Until then don't expect to hear anything that passes the giggle test.

  • On the post: Feds Threaten To Arrest Lavabit Founder For Shutting Down His Service

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 16 Aug, 2013 @ 04:53pm

    It's too bad the Washington Post doesn't have half Ladar Levison's sense of civic responsibility. Remember that the next time they try to sell you the line about being public servants holding the government accountable on your behalf. If that were true we would have been reading John Delong's remarks today right next to a giant picture of a middle finger. Instead we got an excuse for caving in to the White House.

    The media cares more about their special relationships with government officials than informing the public. Fourth Estate my ass!

  • On the post: Confessed Liar To Congress, James Clapper, Gets To Set Up The 'Independent' Review Over NSA Surveillance

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 12 Aug, 2013 @ 09:57pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    I hate white bread.

  • On the post: Australian Copyright Industry Says Proposal To Bring In Fair Use Is 'Solution For Problem That Doesn't Exist'

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 09 Aug, 2013 @ 05:08am

    "It's a solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist," Bush said.

    Translation: It's a problem I don't have.

  • On the post: Pace Of Cord Cutting Continues To Quicken

    Rich Fiscus ( profile ), 08 Aug, 2013 @ 08:00am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: to much to cover

    Yes clearly the people who have been predicting exactly what's happening now are the ones who have no idea what's going on.

    It can't possibly be the people who just acknowledged it 5 minutes ago after spending the same period of time making up fairy tales to explain how nothing had changed.

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