ShadowNinja 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (455)

• On the post: The Legal Netherworld Of Traffic Cam Tickets, Where Everything Is Both Civil And Criminal, While Also Being Mostly Neither

  

  ShadowNinja ( profile ), 18 Jan, 2017 @ 08:56am

  [M]ontgomery’s defiant mayor announced that the city would continue to operate the program. Curiously, he asserted that to stop issuing tickets would breach the city’s contract with American Traffic Solutions.

  Any Business Law 101 college course will clearly state that a contract is unenforceable if it involves something illegal.

  There's exceptions to this, such as if you unknowingly got tricked into violating the law (such as a moving company transporting a box full of illegal drugs, that had no idea what was in the box they were moving) then you can't get out of payment by revealing to the other party that it was an illegal contract.

  But this case clearly does not fall under any of the exceptions to the rules of illegal contracts not being enforceable. The city would be on solid ground to declare the contract with American Traffic Solutions is null and void thanks to the state making it illegal.

• On the post: Rudy Giuliani To Head Up Trump's Cybersecurity Team As The Internet Laughs At Giuliani's Security Bona Fides

  

  ShadowNinja ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2017 @ 09:48am

  Honestly, I think I'd trust Trump's 10 year old to handle pretty much anything tech related in the Trump administration over pretty much anyone Trump is likely to pick to fill those slots.

• On the post: Prosecutors Looking Into $2 Field Drug Tests After Investigation, Figure Defense Attorneys Should Do All The Work

  

  ShadowNinja ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2017 @ 05:52am

  Re: The burden should be on the courts!

  But judges don't even get much of a say on that when the defendant takes a plea deal, which is what happens in 99% of the court cases in the country.

• On the post: Donald Trump Demonstrating How Much Of Our Political System Is Based On Tradition & Custom, Not Rules

  

  ShadowNinja ( profile ), 06 Jan, 2017 @ 01:01pm

  Re: Well, it is a republic with elections.

  The system does not protect against the people choosing a megalomaniac sociopath.

  Last I checked the people didn't choose Trump. Nearly 3 million more people chose voted for the other candidate over Trump. The unrepresentative electoral college is what chose him.

• On the post: A Nasty New Twist In Ransomware: To Decrypt Your Files Without Paying, Spread The Infection To Others

  

  ShadowNinja ( profile ), 14 Dec, 2016 @ 08:11am

  Re:

  Except the payment is unlocking the first computer that was locked up.

• On the post: FCC Commissioner Pai Says Net Neutrality's 'Days Are Numbered' Under Trump

  

  ShadowNinja ( profile ), 13 Dec, 2016 @ 06:51am

  If Net Neutrality 'goes away' as an issue, it'll come back as something stronger

  AT&T and others should be careful what they wish for with their bold predictions that Net Neutrality will go away as an issue under Trump.
  
  If the problems that caused the need for Net Neutrality get even worse under Trump, then many Net Neutrality supporters will probably decide Net Neutrality isn't good enough to fix those problems, and will push for something even stronger.
  
  The most likely post-Net Neutrality candidate in my opinion is the idea of regulating ISP's (and probably cell phone companies to) like public utilities. Under public utility rules, the utilities are limited in what they can charge customers, and they actually make more money in expanding their coverage to new users, and not by getting their users to use more of their electricity/etc.
  
  That's why you see the electric company (like PECO in Pennsylvania) at times be so helpful at helping you to reduce your electricity use, because there's no money in it for them for you using more of it.

• On the post: More Prosecutors Refuse To Accept Guilty Pleas Based On Faulty $2 Field Drug Tests

  

  ShadowNinja ( profile ), 12 Dec, 2016 @ 10:28am

  Re:

  No no, the for-profit prison system will be making more money then ever!
  
  They'll just need to expand into more expensive drug test companies (where those after the biggest profits will fake 'profitable' results of course)!
  
  Problem solved, justice is still sold to the highest bidder like before, and everyone lives happily ever after.

• On the post: HBO Issues Takedown For Artwork Made By Autistic Teenager Because Bullies Gonna Bully Y'all

  

  ShadowNinja ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2016 @ 01:15pm

  Re: Next on the list of people to be sued...

  Don't worry, he'll be inviting HBO's lawyers to one of his kid's or grandkid's weddings, where he'll settle the lawsuit by agreeing to give them 'appropriate' compensation.

• On the post: HBO Issues Takedown For Artwork Made By Autistic Teenager Because Bullies Gonna Bully Y'all

  

  ShadowNinja ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2016 @ 01:12pm

  Shouldn't George R R Martin own the trademark?

  If anyone owns "Winter is Coming", shouldn't it be George R R Martin, who wrote Game of Thrones, and uses that slogan quite a bit in the books?

• On the post: South Korea To Tackle Video Game Cheating By Criminalizing Breaking A Game's ToS

  

  ShadowNinja ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2016 @ 10:49am

  This is such an idiotic idea. Companies can put whatever they want in their terms of service. They'll be lucky if its flagrantly abused enough that the law is repealed. ("User agrees to tip us a minimum of $5 every month." "User agrees to let our CEO borrow their car whenever he's in town.")

  Oh, so you're saying as the CEO of TotallyMadeUpSite.Com with millions of users I'll never have to buy or rent a car if I simply change my TOS thanks to CFAA?

  Genius! I'll have my engineers locate a nearby user of our site with a Lexus!

  And if they try to fight back I'll allege all their wealth are ill gotten gain due to violating my TOS, which will allow the police to use civil forfeiture on their property, and I'm sure they'll give me a nice chunk of the stuff they take!

• On the post: Law Passed To Protect Customers From Non-Disparagement Clauses And Other Ridiculous Restrictions

  

  ShadowNinja ( profile ), 07 Dec, 2016 @ 01:08pm

  So there's really no hidden backdoor or loophole to make things even worse in this bill?
  
  Congress unanimously did something right?

• On the post: Wall Street Is Dreaming Of Megamergers Under Trump — Including A Verizon-Comcast Super Union

  

  ShadowNinja ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2016 @ 07:32am

  Re: Re:

  Slave.

• On the post: Following Public Records Request, State Legislature Votes To Make Government Contracts Secret

  

  ShadowNinja ( profile ), 30 Nov, 2016 @ 05:40am

  Hey, Mississippi has got to keep their schools #50 in the nation somehow!
  
  What better way to do that than to keep people uninformed about how their failing schools are being run?

• On the post: AT&T Just Showed Us What The Death Of Net Neutrality Is Going To Look Like

  

  ShadowNinja ( profile ), 29 Nov, 2016 @ 11:31am

  Re: Rules change

  I wish it would backfire in their face and get them classified as utilities to stop this kind of rampant abuse, but I highly doubt it. Just look at how much partisan politics turns people against their own self interests (such as Republican politicians supporting monopoly laws for incumbent ISP's, which screws their own residents out of more affordable/faster internet connections). All the splintering of the media and how the ISP's are the same people who own much of the media is making it much harder to fight against them to.

• On the post: Somehow Everyone Comes Out Looking Terrible In The Effort For Election Recounts

  

  ShadowNinja ( profile ), 28 Nov, 2016 @ 10:00am

  Re: Re: Re: The Laughable Postion of Democrats on the Integrity of Voting

  And your point? North Carolina's voter ID law was struck down as racially motivated. A federal appeals court that concluded that the state’s voting strictures “target African-Americans with almost surgical precision.” Also your own article doesn't make it clear if those votes in dispute are already counted or not already in the vote totals. If they aren't being counted, then who's suing shows that the GOP doesn't expect those votes to help them. Also, given the complete lack of any evidence of voter fraud, the GOP's lawsuit is pretty much a baseless attempt to disenfranchise voters who they think won't vote the right way.