Shane 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: NRA: Games To Blame For Violence! Also, Here's A Shooting Game For 4-Year-Olds!

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 03:20pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    I'm not real keen to discuss gun control issues on here after having railed against this place being used as a gun control forum. But yeah, I have thought of those things. I have mixed and complex thoughts on both subjects, though I remain pro death penalty and anti mass-incarceration, whatever that tells you about me.

  • On the post: Carmen Ortiz Releases Totally Bogus Statement Concerning The Aaron Swartz Prosecution

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 03:11pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    No, I consider it to be blocking ACCESS for the specific hardware, not authorization for the person using it.

    And this has been addressed ad nauseum. If JSTOR wanted to push the issue, they could have. They didn't. What's your big motive behind prosecuting someone for violating a ToS agreement?

  • On the post: Carmen Ortiz Releases Totally Bogus Statement Concerning The Aaron Swartz Prosecution

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 03:08pm

    grrr

    Your arguments about what he did being "wrong" in any sense whatsoever fail to address the fact that it is both the policy of using IP to hide information needed to keep the public informed, and the egregious abuse of the prosecutorial power in regularly one sided ways in favor of the powerful and the rich, that is what is truly wrong here.

  • On the post: Carmen Ortiz Releases Totally Bogus Statement Concerning The Aaron Swartz Prosecution

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 03:06pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    While I appreciate you taking offense, and realize that you may feel yourself to be someone who is trying to be rational, I beg to differ - and vehemently so - with your logic. You and others have chosen to ignore my previous post, so allow me to put it right where you can see it.

    ======
    http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/01/aaron_swartzs_crime_and_the_bu.html

    "medical device company decided to bypass FDA clinical trials and use bone cement in the spines of humans. Given that the cement wasn't properly tested, it should come as no big surprise that a number of people died as a result."

    "Despite the fact that HSBC admitted to laundering billions of dollars for Colombian and Mexican drug cartels (among others) and violating a host of important banking laws (from the Bank Secrecy Act to the Trading With the Enemy Act), Breuer and his Justice Department elected not to pursue criminal prosecutions of the bank, "

    "Lay those two cases down beside that of a 26-year old kid who did the online equivalent of checking out too many books out of the library. For doing that, Aaron Swartz was initially charged with four felonies. The prosecutors in the Synthes case agreed to charge the executives only with one misdemeanor each. In the instance of HSBC, they used their discretion to avoid pursuing criminal charges altogether."

    If you are defending the prosecution on the Swartz case.... at all..

    Please just go away now.
    ===========

    Your arguments about what he did being "wrong" in any sense whatsoever fail to address the fact that it is both the policy of IP to hide information needed to keep the public informed, and that the egregious abuse of the prosecutorial power is regularly one sided in favor of the powerful and the rich.

    If you want me to think more kindly of you, you will stop making excuses for high crimes and misdemeanors.

  • On the post: Carmen Ortiz Releases Totally Bogus Statement Concerning The Aaron Swartz Prosecution

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 03:03pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Twisted

    "Everyone who snuck in" is obvious hyperbole. The Obama administration has refused to cooperate with much of anything regarding investigating "Fast and Furious" despite its claims to want more transparency.

    Obama is no useful change.

    Yeah, I'll play with you.

  • On the post: NRA: Games To Blame For Violence! Also, Here's A Shooting Game For 4-Year-Olds!

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 02:56pm

    Re:

    Video games, movies, and other cultural works both feed and are fed from the societal culture in which they exist. There is nothing unintelligent about making the point that the guns do not kill, but that in a culture that is saturated with irresponsible and maniacal behavior, people may well be less likely to behave in a socially acceptable manner.

    The Aztecs used to like to play a game, and the winner used to get to be a human sacrifice.

    Culture sffects behavior.

  • On the post: NRA: Games To Blame For Violence! Also, Here's A Shooting Game For 4-Year-Olds!

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 02:50pm

    Re: Re: This blog amazes me

    It's opening paragraph was insipid. I will read it momentarily, but you do not try to pass yourself off as gun control neutral and then whine that the NRA objects to the government polling about guns in conjunction with something to do with health care.

  • On the post: Carmen Ortiz Releases Totally Bogus Statement Concerning The Aaron Swartz Prosecution

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 02:30pm

    Re: Re: Twisted

    Thus the word "change". I.e. there was no "change".

    The vitriol is quite factual.

  • On the post: Carmen Ortiz Releases Totally Bogus Statement Concerning The Aaron Swartz Prosecution

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 02:08pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    The difference, very obviously, is whether or not you were using the MAC to deny access at all (authorization), or if you were using it on the fly to attempt to mitigate a perceived misuse of your service(ToS agreement).

    Not that you care.

  • On the post: Carmen Ortiz Releases Totally Bogus Statement Concerning The Aaron Swartz Prosecution

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 01:19pm

    Security

    People who seek power see it is a form of security. They are not aware that their real security is in being seen as a part of the larger whole.

  • On the post: Carmen Ortiz Releases Totally Bogus Statement Concerning The Aaron Swartz Prosecution

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 12:57pm

    Re: Re: it's an abuse of the 5th amendment

    I think it is sad that the issue ends up being made racial more or less because no other remedy exists. Only very limited groups of people qualify for special protection as a minority, whereas what is really needed is reform that protects ALL poor people.

    Indeed, justice being best when it is blind to social status, it really should be applied to all people. The solution is ridiculously simple. Both the prosecution and defense should be public services.

    Watch how fast the wealthy move to make sure the defense half of the equation gets its pay once they can't opt out of the public option.

    The ultimate solution, though, is to do away with "welfare for the rich", and IP is a huge part of that. Communal systems do not work well. There is no motivation to try. You have one option, and they know it. Likewise, private systems with protections such as IP allow people to be lax, since the IP law means you have nowhere else to go.

    It all boils down to tearing down the concept that there need to be artificially created benefits for excellence in order to promote excellence.

    Excellence is its own reward.

  • On the post: White House, Tiring of Death Stars And Deportation Requests, Ups 'We The People' Signature Threshold From 25,000 To 100,000

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 12:25pm

    Re: Re: The Next Step

    It seems to me you ignored one of the most prominent points in my post. The new party needs to be populist, centrist - something, anything other than composed of the most ludicrous parts of the existing parties (greens, libertarians).

    In the past, what has happened is that the major parties have usurped the pet policies of these sorts of parties once they get to a point where they are viable.

    What is needed is a party very specifically engineered to give voice to the majority.

    There are those who argue that such a party cannot have a base and therefore is not viable, but I think it is becoming very clear that, if such a party does NOT materialize, we will indeed end up in the bloody revolution you seem to be calling for. Whereas I believe it is possible for such a party to thrive, and the benefit of it for those who fund its activities would be to be seen as someone who cares about the broader community and about general human welfare.

    That cannot help but be a profitable perception to have attached to your business.

  • On the post: White House, Tiring of Death Stars And Deportation Requests, Ups 'We The People' Signature Threshold From 25,000 To 100,000

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 12:18pm

    I agree

    The power of the site for dissent is to then take the response and out it.

    If they were to then eventually shut it down, that would be all the better. Then you could discuss the duplicity of the administration and the Democratic party for putting the thing out there as a publicity stunt, then turning its back on its core constituency when they succeed in getting petitions on the site.

  • On the post: Carmen Ortiz Releases Totally Bogus Statement Concerning The Aaron Swartz Prosecution

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 11:37am

    Get real

    Prosecutors regularly use their discretion to let powerful people off the hook.

    http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/01/aaron_swartzs_crime_and_the_bu.html

    Big Banks? Big Medicine? No worries....

    Angering Big IP. Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass "Go". Do not collect....

  • On the post: White House, Tiring of Death Stars And Deportation Requests, Ups 'We The People' Signature Threshold From 25,000 To 100,000

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 11:32am

    Texas, our Texas

    http://www.nationofchange.org/unconstitutional-texas-bill-would-make-enforcing-federal-gun-laws-felony-1358349243

    If we can't secede, we'll just pester you 'till you tell us to get out.

  • On the post: Carmen Ortiz Releases Totally Bogus Statement Concerning The Aaron Swartz Prosecution

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 11:24am

    Re: it's an abuse of the 5th amendment

    The problem is our PRISONS are already fuller than any other nation we can reliably measure on earth. The problem is we prosecute and jail too many people. The problem is we criminalize too much.

    The problem is NOT that people should have to be proven guilty before being packed off to jail. Ok? It takes too much work to do their jobs? Is that the excuse?

  • On the post: Carmen Ortiz Releases Totally Bogus Statement Concerning The Aaron Swartz Prosecution

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 11:08am

    Re: Re: Re:

    The point is that nothing should be prosecuted until there is enough evidence to convict. Yes, yes, I am aware that there is no way of knowing how much evidence is needed to convict. But by allowing plea bargaining, the chance of conviction is now nothing more than a bargaining chip to use so that the prosecutor doesn't even have to bother.

    I was interested to see that some countries do not even HAVE plea bargaining. I think perhaps that is the correct route.

    Did you know the US jails a larger percentage of its population than any other nation in the world that can be verified? Including China, Iran, Russia?

    http://www.politifact.com/georgia/statements/2013/jan/14/hank-johnson/does-us-have-highest-percentage-people-prison/

    It's a pretty sick list to be on top of.

  • On the post: Carmen Ortiz Releases Totally Bogus Statement Concerning The Aaron Swartz Prosecution

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 10:57am

    Re: Re: Fuck DOJ

    Done. =) Keep em coming.

  • On the post: Carmen Ortiz Releases Totally Bogus Statement Concerning The Aaron Swartz Prosecution

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 10:11am

    Reasons

    Americans are in love with the Reagan era, when we saw ourselves as this global force for good fighting Communism. To a certain extent, I even believe that that is what we were, although obviously there have always been problems even with that era.

    In the wake of the end of the Cold War though, we have been a nation without a rudder, and all the power we ginned up in order to face down the Soviet Union is slowly being turned inward against our own people, and diverted on the international front towards promoting our banking industry's interests at the expense of people who have no chance of defending themselves from our massive military.

    No one wants to admit that the problem IS the USA. The shame is too much to swallow. A lot of it is pride. So they make excuses, like the lawyer you spoke to.

    That's obviously just my opinion, but it's the sense I have after watching it happen over the last 30 years.

  • On the post: Carmen Ortiz Releases Totally Bogus Statement Concerning The Aaron Swartz Prosecution

    Shane ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 10:07am

    Me Too

    This is not the America I once knew.

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