Roger Strong 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: DOJ Readying Warrants In Carter Page Investigation For Public Release

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 20 Mar, 2018 @ 11:12am

    Re: JUST A STEAMING PILE OF INNUENDO.

    Given the citations, what specially is innuendo or false?

  • On the post: Both Facebook And Cambridge Analytica Threatened To Sue Journalists Over Stories On CA's Use Of Facebook Data

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 20 Mar, 2018 @ 07:55am

    Re: Re: Re: FACEBOOK USER = BRAIN DEAD IDIOT

    That's not always an option. I have two devices - including a new camera - where there was no mention that a Facebook account was required to use them, get firmware updates, etc.. Not even in third-party reviews. You only find out after you've opened the package.

  • On the post: Crowdfunded OpenSCHUFA Project Wants To Reverse-Engineer Germany's Main Credit-Scoring Algorithm

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2018 @ 10:40pm

    Reputation Gatekeepers

    The Information Age started without the Industrial Age ending. While the Information Age hasn't ended, I've seen a few comments here and there to the effect that we've now entered the Reputation Age.

    The era of "fake news" made it necessary. Now the reputation of the news source is as important as the news. Credible citations are required.

    But it's not just debunking Trump's "alternative facts", climate change denial or Alex Jones' claims. Or the false claims about SESTA and Net Neutrality. Or the New York Times vs. Breitbart.

    This story is about being a gatekeeper not for information, but for reputation. Credit scores are about reputation, and SCHUFA is the gatekeeper. OpenSCHUFA wants to change that.

    Scientific journals are about reputation. There are many deservedly poor-reputation journals, but there are some that have cultivated a reputation so good that merely being published in them establishes a scientist's reputation. And so Elsevier becomes a gatekeeper not just for papers, but for scientists' reputations.

    Would-be reputation gatekeepers have had some big misses. Reputation Management Consultants keep encountering the Streisand Effect and now the occasional angry judge. Facebook and Twitter have accidently taught everyone that a large number of followers does not equal a good reputation.

    But they're experimenting and learning. Politicians depend on reputation, so it'll be easy to influence them to pass legislation helping to create gatekeepers. Its early days in the new age.

  • On the post: Pedestrian Deaths By Car In Phoenix Area Last Week: 11. But One Was By A Self-Driving Uber

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2018 @ 03:11pm

    Re: They'll be safe, just give us your infrastructure

    I'm waiting for a Roomba autonomous car. No RADAR or LIDAR. Just bump sensors all 'round.

    Given the local driving style, perhaps they already have.

  • On the post: Pedestrian Deaths By Car In Phoenix Area Last Week: 11. But One Was By A Self-Driving Uber

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2018 @ 03:00pm

    Re: Re: Human drivers outnumber autonomous by, say, 10,000 to 1...

    This person that got hit wasn't in a crosswalk. Not that it's an excuse to get hit, but how did the person get hit? War it running out into the street from behind something where even a human would have never been able to stop?
    And that's an important question, because in most cases crossing in the middle of the block is legal. (There was a news story a few weeks back about police wrongly charging people with jay-walking - where illegal only where there's traffic lights at each end of the block.) Walking from the bus stop my office, there's a stretch with no sidewalk. In the winter you must walk on the very busy road. It's not jay-walking, but I've nearly been hit a few times. So if the software is giving pedestrian detection a lower priority away from crosswalks, it needs to stop doing that where there's no sidewalks, and where mid-block crossing is allowed. That's more data that needs to be in the car's internal map.

  • On the post: Pedestrian Deaths By Car In Phoenix Area Last Week: 11. But One Was By A Self-Driving Uber

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2018 @ 02:14pm

    Re:

    I just hope that Uber and Google don't use their vast experience in southern California and Arizona to declare self-driving cars "ready".... for sale to folks in northern states with winter conditions.

  • On the post: Both Facebook And Cambridge Analytica Threatened To Sue Journalists Over Stories On CA's Use Of Facebook Data

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2018 @ 10:14am

    Re: FACEBOOK USER = BRAIN DEAD IDIOT

    Except that you won't be able to avoid having a Facebook account, thanks to websites using oAuth to rely on Facebook and Twitter to authenticate users. It's already common to see....

    "To read this article, log in using Facebook or Twitter."

    "To download the firmware update for your camera, log in using Facebook or Twitter."

    I wouldn't be surprised if in five years you can't pay your water bill without a Facebook or Twitter account.

  • On the post: Both Facebook And Cambridge Analytica Threatened To Sue Journalists Over Stories On CA's Use Of Facebook Data

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2018 @ 10:02am

    Re:

    Except that it's not their only responsibility.

    Those with a responsibility to shareholders tend not to define monetizing you as abuse/misuse.

  • On the post: Hollywood's Behind-The-Scenes Support For SESTA Is All About Filtering The Internet

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2018 @ 11:32am

    Despite all the terrible ways SESTA will be used to filter and censor and over-enforce IP rights, my annoyance with it is still largely based on one thing:

    Come the next White House administration - and the occasional alt-right social media post gets blocked - certain forum users will be demanding to know why Techdirt never mentioned SESTA when Trump was in power.

  • On the post: If You Ratify The CETA Trade Deal, You'll Break The Law, Legal Expert Tells EU Member States

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2018 @ 03:20pm

    Re: Re: Re: private arbitration

    but it's primarily a dispute resolution mechanism between "private" parties and a specific foreign government, in the real world.
    That's what I'm saying. You had declared it to be about private arbitration of civil contracts.
    In fact, specific governments win most of ISDS cases brought against them...
    They also lose many. And they lose via "chilling effects", being afraid to enact needed legislation because they might be sued via ISDS.
    and their sovereignty is hardly being trashed in reality or principle
    It is when foreign investors can block new laws in a way that local investors and corporations can't. (As an aside, I'm waiting for Americans to freak out about Canada exporting toxic PCP waste to the US. Canada had banned the export, arguing that it was obliged to dispose of the waste within its own borders under another international treaty. But U.S.-based S.D. Myers successfully challenged the ban under NAFTA's ISDS tribunal.)
    As merely a U.S. citizen, you can sue foreign governments in U.S. courts under a variety of circumstances unrelated to this issue.
    That might work if another country kidnaps and tortures a US citizen. (But of course not in the other direction.) It's not likely to work if you sue them for harming your mining investment by raising environmental or safety regulations.
    If private parties wish to contract with a foreign government.... arbitration clauses are a reasonable mechanism....
    Again, there's no contract with a foreign government, so no arbitration clauses are possible. You invest in a mine in another country, the country later enacts reasonable safety standards - the kind you have in your own country - and your investment is harmed. A local company couldn't stop it. But YOU, as foreign investor, can. (The exception, as demonstrated by Canadian company Loan Pine Resources when Quebec banned natural gas fracking: Set up an American subsidiary, and use that to sue Canada. Much of the European opposition to CETA's ISDS provisions was over American corporations being able to sue EU countries via Canadian subsidiaries.)

  • On the post: If You Ratify The CETA Trade Deal, You'll Break The Law, Legal Expert Tells EU Member States

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2018 @ 11:28am

    Re: private arbitration

    And then there's the real world. Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) is all about government. If two corporations have a dispute, ISDS doesn't enter into it. But if a government passes new environmental regulations, passes workplace safety laws, stops someone from opening a strip mine alongside a residential area or changes their energy policy to prefer renewable energy, a foreign corporation can sue the government under ISDS. Those are real examples of how ISDS has been used. It's not about civil contracts. BTW, CETA came into provisional application back in September. Countries are bound by it for three years even if they haven't ratified it. (And for 20 years if they ratify it and then withdraw.) Thankfully they made an exception for ISDS and the Investor Court System. It's not included in provisional application, and countries are not bound by it until they ratify.

  • On the post: As Trump Nominates Torture Boss To Head CIA, Congresswoman Suggests It's Sympathizing With Terrorists To Question Her Appointment

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 16 Mar, 2018 @ 07:50am

    Re: Re: Re:

    What Snowden leaked was largely about American intelligence services spying on Americans. Including showing that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had just lied to Congress about it.

    He leaked information to America's enemies if you consider American citizens to be America's enemies.

    Of the two, Snowden and Clapper, whose actions present the greatest threat to American freedom?

  • On the post: As Trump Nominates Torture Boss To Head CIA, Congresswoman Suggests It's Sympathizing With Terrorists To Question Her Appointment

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2018 @ 02:49pm

    Re: Re: Is the new job the same as the old job?

    Soft power: The ability to attract and co-opt, rather than by coercion (hard power, using force or money) as a means of persuasion. Soft power is the ability to shape the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. A defining feature of soft power is that it is noncoercive; the currency of soft power is culture, political values, and foreign policies.
    Trump has done everything possible to destroy US soft power except align himself with Nazis and order big military parades. /s

  • On the post: As Trump Nominates Torture Boss To Head CIA, Congresswoman Suggests It's Sympathizing With Terrorists To Question Her Appointment

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2018 @ 01:47pm

    Re: Re: Re: The Reagan Principle

    It was about how when even the leader who opposed reconciliation now backs it, that reconciliation has a chance of happening.

    It had nothing to do with opponents exploiting perceived weakness. That's the sort of nonsense Republicans used to back claims that Obama "would go on an international apology tour," and later "went on an international apology tour", without any such apology tour ever taking place.

  • On the post: As Trump Nominates Torture Boss To Head CIA, Congresswoman Suggests It's Sympathizing With Terrorists To Question Her Appointment

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2018 @ 10:27am

    Re: Why I don't fully support Trump: because he may be one of Them.

    Award winner: "Best Impression Of Sarah Palin Defending Donald Trump"

  • On the post: How Trump's Lawyer's Silly Lawsuit Against Buzzfeed May Free Stormy Daniels From Her Non Disclosure Agreement

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2018 @ 01:04pm

    “You write a story that has Mr. Trump’s name in it, with the word ‘rape,’ and I’m going to mess your life up… for as long as you’re on this frickin’ planet… you’re going to have judgments against you, so much money, you’ll never know how to get out from underneath it,” he added.

    Wikipedia: Donald Trump sexual misconduct allegations

    In Cohen's defense, there was no need for the lawsuit to materialize once the evangelicals backed Trump as the family values candidate.

  • On the post: Lucha Underground Wrestling Sends Legal Threat To Journalists For Publishing 'Spoilers'

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2018 @ 11:25am

    Interestingly, the letters assert that the reporting done by these journalists violates the NDA even if the journalist hasn't signed an NDA.

    There does seem to be a trend to extend the reach of customer agreements.

    Like the binding arbitration agreements that Wells Fargo customers agreed to when opening accounts. Extended to cover the 2 million deposit and credit-card accounts Wells Fargo created that customers never agreed to.

    Now it appears that driverless car legislation will allow binding arbitration. It's not clear whether that applies to non-passengers ("By being hit by this car, you agree to binding arbitration") but it appears to apply to passengers, even non-owners who never signed any agreement.

    Add that to shrink-wrap licenses on inkjet cartridges and software that the customer only sees after the transaction is completed. After opening the package, and it's too late to return the item. And DMCA laws preventing customers from fixing security holes that become apparent in devices only after they're brought home.

    It's getting rather one-sided.

  • On the post: Trump Administration Wants To Start Sending Secret Service Agents To Polling Stations

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2018 @ 09:23am

    Re:

    That would be a cheap shot if it weren't for Trump's wingnut claims that the previous President wasn't born in America.

    Why haven't we seen Trump's long-form birth certificate?

  • On the post: Trump Administration Wants To Start Sending Secret Service Agents To Polling Stations

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2018 @ 08:11am

    Re: Re: Re:

    Don't tell us; tell Trump. HE'S the one who has tirelessly cultivated his "hates everyone who isn't white with a red hat" persona.

  • On the post: Trump Administration Wants To Start Sending Secret Service Agents To Polling Stations

    Roger Strong ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2018 @ 06:54am

    Re:

    You haven't been paying attention.

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