Roger Strong 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Russia Stumbles Forth In Quest To Ban VPNs, Private Messenger Apps

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2017 @ 01:07pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello Steganography

    Reducing the number of ground stations needed by having satellites in a constellation relay data, isn't exactly new technology.

    Jamming satellites directly, violates a few treaties.

    And we're not talking about Manhattan-level user densities. Just the small percentage of folks - reporters and others - in Russia who want non-government monitored communications.

  • On the post: Russia Stumbles Forth In Quest To Ban VPNs, Private Messenger Apps

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2017 @ 01:02pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hello Steganography

    So no HDTV or Forza 4. But for email, messaging and news sites - what we're talking about here - no problem.

  • On the post: Russia Stumbles Forth In Quest To Ban VPNs, Private Messenger Apps

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2017 @ 11:44am

    Re: Re: Re: Hello Steganography

    The ground station and internet connection need not be in Russia anymore than satellite phones used by ships need ground stations in the middle of the Atlantic.

    Google may have offices in Russia, but SpaceX (planning its own constellation) probably does not.

    Sure jamming is a possibility. But do it over a large area, and you'll end up jamming your own country's signals too.

  • On the post: Russia Stumbles Forth In Quest To Ban VPNs, Private Messenger Apps

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2017 @ 11:08am

    Re: Hello Steganography

    Well... until planned high-speed internet satellite constellations are launched.

  • On the post: Multiple German Courts Rule Photos Of Public Domain Works Are Not In The Public Domain

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2017 @ 09:49am

    Re: 1) Just because you're on or near my property and have a camera doesn't mean you've a right to image anything and everything I own. -- If so, industrial secrets are included, right?

    1) Just because you're on or near my property and have a camera doesn't mean you've a right to image anything and everything I own. -- If so, industrial secrets are included, right?
    In most places you DO have the right to take those images. It's commonly known as "Freedom of panorama." The images in the article however were taken in a museum, not visible from a public space. If you want to protect industrial secrets, keep them hidden from public view.
    ...using the images for gain (in some mysterious indirect way).
    The page you posted this on has a sidebar link to an article called "The Grand Unified Theory On The Economics Of Free." It's only scary and mysterious if you keep your head buried in the sand.

  • On the post: Multiple German Courts Rule Photos Of Public Domain Works Are Not In The Public Domain

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2017 @ 09:32am

    Re: What if famous people used this logic?

    What if famous people decided to use this logic to hide their faces from the public?
    Under this ruling that would only work in a private museum or residence. If various Trumps for example want to control images in public, I suggest dazzle camouflage. It worked for ships in WWI and WWII. It's used today to camouflage "next year's model" cars during testing. It could work for celebrities.

  • On the post: Comicmix Wins Against Dr. Seuss Estate On Trademark Infringement Claim, Copyright Claim In Serious Jeopardy

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2017 @ 01:26pm

    Mashup art is an emerging medium...

    ...And Dr. Seuss Enterprises doesn't want someone else's mashup to hurt their negotiations to merge their universe with either DC or Marvel's.

    With pot being legalized, the market for a Dr. Seuss / Deadpool mashup is only getting larger.

  • On the post: NCAA Forces UCF Football Player To Choose Between His Athletic Career And His YouTube Channel

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 15 Jun, 2017 @ 03:23pm

    Re: A choice due to well-known rules for privileged slacker is somehow hardship. -- At his age, I was forced to choose between work and eating.

    You bitterly envy those who have talent, whether as an athlete or a journalist. Got it.

  • On the post: The Chilling Effects Of A SLAPP Suit: My Story

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 15 Jun, 2017 @ 11:26am

    Re: On this WHINING, headline should be "Emotional Toll Of DEFAMATION". But not a hint that Ayyadurai has feelings too: to Ma snick, it's all about HIM.

    Defamation? Show us ANYTHING in the articles here that was untrue and not impeccably well documented. Or even unjustifiably insulting.

    But before you make any "unjustifiably insulting" claim, read up on Ayyadurai's own statements. The Ars Technica article linked above is a good place to start. Anyone who documents the history of email, Ayyadurai labels liars and racists. He calls Vint Cerf - a co-inventor of the TCP/IP protocol - a liar and says that he knows nothing. When Ray Tomlinson - who worked with networked email in the 1960s - died last year, Ayyadurai declared "Tomlinson dies a liar"

  • On the post: NCAA Forces UCF Football Player To Choose Between His Athletic Career And His YouTube Channel

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 15 Jun, 2017 @ 02:42pm

    If you're an actor, your career may be purely media-based. You can still do your own independent media projects - if only YouTube videos and clips on Twitter - and the studio has no say.

    If you're an athlete, media is a secondary thing. And yet the league claims ownership and control of any independent media projects you do.

    That's getting into the realm of indentured servitude. Not slaves; think of colonists arriving in America who agreed to years of servitude in return for passage.

    All that's needed is a rule that athletes cannot marry without the permission of their master. Or that the term of indenture be lengthened for female athletes if they became pregnant.

    (I'm assuming that such rules aren't already in place.)

  • On the post: New York Legislators Trying To Make A Bad Publicity Law Even Worse

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 15 Jun, 2017 @ 07:25am

    It adds 40 years of postmortem protection

    Initially, just like America's original Copyright Act offered 14 years of protection. In other words it will be effectively permanent, extended every time a lucrative property nears the end of its protection.

  • On the post: Another Judge Says The Microsoft Decision Doesn't Matter; Orders Google To Hand Over Overseas Data

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2017 @ 04:31pm

    Re:

    And the implications of that?

    Google is a multinational company with offices and doing business in more than 40 countries around the world. It has product research and development operations in cities around the world. They are subject to the laws of those countries just as much as to American law.

    Sure, American law will likely set the standard for how Google responds to one country's request for data beyond it's borders. And then other countries will expect no less.

    An American company or person has upset authorities in Turkey? Their court will be able to demand international data - including on American servers - too.

  • On the post: May And Macron's Ridiculous Adventure In Censoring The Internet

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2017 @ 02:33pm

    Re: Could be worse...

    Story published nine minutes before your post: Fortune: Germany Plans to Fingerprint Children and Spy on Personal Messages

    Among the options Germany is considering is "source telecom surveillance", where authorities install software on phones to relay messages before they are encrypted.

  • On the post: Dangerous Copyright Ruling In Europe Opens The Door To Widespread Censorship

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2017 @ 02:12pm

    Re: You keep assuming that mere statute, passed by politicians paid-off by corporations, is fixed law for all time, over-rides common law and common sense.

    Create something of your own and you'll learn why copyright exists.
    And...? Content from this site - entire articles - show up on other sites just as soon as they're posted here. And yet we don't see the owners of Techdirt suing anyone over it. I've created and maintained a list of power equipment manufacturers - who makes what, and their service and technical reference links - for over 20 years on my company web site. A dozen other companies have since copied it to their own web sites. People copy it to their related eBay auction pages to increase their hits. And I've never considered suing any of them. In both cases, people tend to gravitate to the original. It's not hurting the original, or the ability to monetize the original. We know why copyright exists. It's not about being anti-copyright. It's about being anti-copyright abuse.

  • On the post: Dangerous Copyright Ruling In Europe Opens The Door To Widespread Censorship

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2017 @ 01:56pm

    Re: Re: You keep assuming that mere statute, passed by politicians paid-off by corporations, is fixed law for all time, over-rides common law and common sense.

    If straw man arguments do it for you, enjoy.

  • On the post: James Clapper Says Nerd Magic Can Solve Terrorist Content Filtering, Create Safe Encryption Backdoors

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2017 @ 11:55am

    Re:

    In his defense, it was expert nerding that showed the American public that he was lying to them and Congress.

    In his defense, in response he himself showed that whatever the nerds do, the powerful can escape the consequences.

  • On the post: Dangerous Copyright Ruling In Europe Opens The Door To Widespread Censorship

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2017 @ 12:22pm

    Dramatic... Pause

    That's... a very dangerous interpretation of the law.

    That's... bizarre.

    That's... nevertheless hardly unexpected.

  • On the post: May And Macron's Ridiculous Adventure In Censoring The Internet

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2017 @ 10:54am

    Between demands for censorship and domestic spying powers, Theresa May has obviously been sampling 1984. Her defense against a copyright lawsuit from George Orwell's estate is that she's creating a transformative work.

  • On the post: TV Cord Cutting Poised To Smash Records During Second Quarter

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 13 Jun, 2017 @ 09:52pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    On the other hand they get the CRTC to rubber-stamp consumer-hostile things like negative-option billing: Cable companies: "We'd like to automatically add a bunch of obscure new channels to EVERYONE'S cable plans without asking them, bill them extra for it, and give them an obscure method to opt out." CRTC: "Okie dokie." Plans that only get cancelled after the fact when there's a large consumer backlash.

  • On the post: Connecticut Lawmakers Drop Anti-SLAPP, Libel Tourism Bills On The Governor's Desk

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2017 @ 12:33am

    This bill is somewhat redundant, considering the US government already shields US residents from foreign libel lawsuits under the SPEECH Act.

    Which has unexpected consequences. Given the invasive security measures on the border and the cancellation of group trips rather than risk someone being left behind for being Muslim, America's only remaining form of tourism may be libel tourism.

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