Seegras 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (842)

• On the post: Oversight Report Shows NSA Failed To Secure Its Systems Following The Snowden Leaks

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 21 Jun, 2017 @ 01:37am

  It's what happens when you value Spying too muich

• On the post: Theresa May Tries To Push Forward With Plans To Kill Encryption, While Her Party Plots Via Encrypted Whatsapp

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2017 @ 07:11am

  Sock puppet

  Some people like that hand up their ass. Yes, that's the hand of their puppeteer.

• On the post: Another Day, Another Bogus YouTube Takedown Because Of A Major Label

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2017 @ 06:54am

  Re:

  It's not about making sense, it's about not understanding the present -- every time again. We've seen it with brown wax cylinders, discs, cassette tapes, CD-recorders and finally digital files.
  
  The music labels have been continuously bitching about any new technology, that it would threaten their livelihood, they don't even realize they could make money with it.
  
  And now, they haven't realised that music isn't scarce any more, and thus any attention a piece gets is an asset...

• On the post: Congress Getting Pissed Off Over Failure Of Intel Community To Reveal How Many Americans Are Being Spied On

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2017 @ 02:16am

  Secret Services are not working for the government

  Secret Services appear to be useful to governments, and they certainly try to be at least so useful that they don't get de-funded or abolished. But they're not working for the government, much less the parliaments.
  
  They're first and foremost working for themselves, and see governments as fickle employers that need to be kept in the dark as much as possible.
  
  And, they see most foreign Secret Services as competition AND as allies. In doubt, a Secret Service will lie to its own government to protect a foreign Secret Service. Because that foreign Secret Service can provide them with interesting data, and also, might itself spill the beans and implicate this Secret Service. So it's prudent to lie to ones own government.
  
  From the point of view of a democracy, Secret Services are dangerous and need to be abolished.

• On the post: Intercept Posts NSA Docs On Russian Election Hacking, DOJ Announces Arrest Of Leaker Hours Later

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 06 Jun, 2017 @ 04:20am

  Also, there might be a possibility this document was leaked on purpose:
  
  - To accuse the GRU through a "trustworthy" venue
  
  Or:
  
  - To undermine trust in the intercept

• On the post: DEA Deploying Powerful Spyware Without Required Privacy Impact Assessments

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 06 Jun, 2017 @ 12:50am

  Well, that agency is involved in some kind of shooting war in American cities (and international waters) because they somehow managed to get a mandate on trying to keep certain substances out of the hands of people.
  
  You should take away the mandate and dissolve them.

• On the post: Copyright Law In Europe Could Be About To Get Ridiculously Stupidly Bad In Ways That Will Undermine The Internet

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 05 Jun, 2017 @ 01:39pm

  Courts

  If this passes, it will be thrown out by the court(s) because of a) violation of human rights b) fostering anticompetitive behaviour.
  
  But it will still be a major nuisance for a lot of people for several years. Not to mention a huge waste of money.

• On the post: Theresa May Blames The Internet For London Bridge Attack; Repeats Demands To Censor It

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 05 Jun, 2017 @ 01:25pm

  Extremist messages

  I keep seeing these radical messages about censoring the internet and total surveillance from this extremist called "Theresa May". Why is anyone on the internet giving that extremist a platform for her totalitarian agenda?

• On the post: Congress 'Fixes' Child Porn 'Loophole' With 15-Year Prison Sentences For Teen Sexting

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2017 @ 05:21am

  Re: Re: Re: Good intentions?

  fatwah envy ROFL. This is great, I'll remember that for dealing with fundamentalist Christians.

• On the post: Inspector General Report Shows DEA Covering Up Its Role In A Shooting That Left Four Foreign Citizens Dead

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2017 @ 05:14am

  Re: A thing about war...

  Maybe it's time to rethink who we shoot at. I see. You mean we should shoot any DEA agent on sight, because they could be armed, dangerous and shoot us if we don't shoot them first? Yeah, makes sense. After all, we can at least plead self-defense after we've shot them, which we can't after they've shot us dead. Or maybe we should just shoot everybody affiliated with this war on drugs, because neither the drug-lords nor the DEA apparently care that we're NOT involved in it?

• On the post: Congress 'Fixes' Child Porn 'Loophole' With 15-Year Prison Sentences For Teen Sexting

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 01 Jun, 2017 @ 11:00am

  Re: Good intentions?

  The absurd and unnecessary fear of Sharia Law was obvious foreboding. Ah, I see. You're telling me these Christians do not want to fall behind the Muslims, so they're enacting Sharia-law themselves?

• On the post: Swiss Court Sanctions Commenter For 'Liking' Defamatory Posts

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 01 Jun, 2017 @ 04:29am

  There's a very good analysis on this here:
  
  https://steigerlegal.ch/2017/05/30/urteil-facebook-likes/
  
  It's in German, though.

• On the post: More Legislators Jump On The 'Blue Lives Matter' Bandwagon

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 26 May, 2017 @ 11:27pm

  Re:

  You're talking about Taxi Drivers, yes?

• On the post: Senate Given The Go-Ahead To Use Encrypted Messaging App Signal

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 21 May, 2017 @ 11:12am

  Re: Re: I just find it an incredible argument to go to your adversary (the government) to define the encryption scheme (AES) to protect yourself from that same government.

  That very same government defined AES to protect itself from adversaries. Because not only the spooks need encryption, but also every other government body, the military, hospitals, police, power grids, power stations, and so on.
  
  Do you really think they could secure all "their" infrastructure with something "more secure" without the whole world knowing?
  
  Here's how it's done:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerckhoffs%27s_principle

• On the post: Japanese Music Collection Society Demands Copyright Fees From Music Schools For Teaching Music

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 19 May, 2017 @ 10:50am

  Collecting for the welfare of your ancestors

  you are simply assuming none or little will get to artists. Did you ever visit a music school? Because if you did, you'd knew that most material used there comes from composers that were already dead in the 19th century. Whose music has been in the public domain for decades if not centuries. And yeah, even if the schools might sometimes use contemporary sheets music, that would be a small amount, making the whole money collecting STILL a rip-off.

• On the post: Japanese Music Collection Society Demands Copyright Fees From Music Schools For Teaching Music

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 19 May, 2017 @ 10:38am

  Already happened in Germany

  Shortly before Christmas 2009 the German GEMA sent out notes to kindergardens that they need to pay up for their sheet music.
  
  Most of that music is actually in the public domain, but there have been ongoing shenanigans with the sheet music. Basically the publishers committed fraud to keep them under copyright. You'd need to prove that in a court, of course, for each and every version and song. Not going to happen for 50 Christmas songs mostly from the 19th century.
  
  This is the reaction: Some people set a complete book anew, from the original sheets, to make sure it's free:
  https://musik.klarmachen-zum-aendern.de/singen-im-advent

• On the post: As The Battleground For Warfare Moves To Cyberspace, DOD Contemplates Altering Recruitment Requirements

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 18 May, 2017 @ 03:16pm

  Re: Re: Interesting omission

  Funny how stupid prohibitionism and rampant prison economy start interfering with military capability.

• On the post: The US Charging Assange For Publishing Documents Would Be An Unprecedented Attempt To Chill A Free Press

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 18 May, 2017 @ 01:36pm

  Protections granted to everyone

  Assange isn't a US citizen, so he's not automatically guaranteed First Amendment protections

  Wrong. It's granted to everyone. To "People". Go read it. Same as the rest of the first 10 amendments (Not the 11th though, because that one says "citizens")

  The fact that there are laws that limit the first amendment protections has nothing to do with the first amendment, but with said laws being unconstitutional in the first place.

• On the post: US Court Upholds Enforceability Of GNU GPL As Both A License And A Contract

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 18 May, 2017 @ 01:17am

  The Anonymous Trolls are on it

  The GPL is a hack to preserve rights IN SPITE of copyright. So yes, this "victory" is somewhat double-edged, especially the "contract"-part. The whole thing has to be looked at a bit more nuanced than "good" and "bad".
  
  Unless you've got a better idea to give everyone rights -- but not the right to take away these rights -- while under a copyright regime, just crawl back under your bridges with your black-and-white world view.

• On the post: The MP3 Is About As 'Dead' As Pepe The Frog

  

  Seegras ( profile ), 16 May, 2017 @ 03:30pm

  Re: Re: These patents have been granted illegally anyway

  In the US, the dreaded Moby Dick support device is still active: http://www.groklaw.net/comment.php?mode=display&sid=20110127193058685&title=How%20is%20information%20a%20device%3F&type=article&order=&hideanonymous=0&pid=0#c898448
  
  Read it, weep.
  
  It's not me endorsing US patents (me, being European anyway), it's US patent courts being total fruit-loops.

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