Skeptical Cynic 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Federal Judge None Too Impressed With Government's Defense Of Its 'No Fly' List

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2013 @ 01:31pm

    Re:

    Yeah the way they get away with it is that last part "the free inhabitants". Someone that is defined as a "terrorist" are not considered "free inhabitants".

  • On the post: Famous 'Converted Jihadist' Issues DMCA Takedowns On Videos Later Shown To Be False

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2013 @ 12:40pm

    Re:

    That is true in the most traditional way. But this is a case of the meaning of a word has been modified by perception.

    And in the end your/their/our perception is your/their/our reality.

    Poll Muslims and ask them what they think it means. Then you can define their reality.

    I know maybe 7-8 true Muslims that all believe that Islam means peace and even they define Jihad as a war/fight/struggle against infidels.

    So what it means to the people that write dictionaries and what it means to those that practice are not always the same.

  • On the post: Famous 'Converted Jihadist' Issues DMCA Takedowns On Videos Later Shown To Be False

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2013 @ 12:33pm

    Re: Civil or criminal?

    And I am not talking about slap on the hand penalties.

    The reason I want penalties that are harsh is because in the end these are not just a problem for people that post the videos and then have to fight to get them back up but they are in the end an attack on our right of free speech. They an effort to shut someone up.

  • On the post: Famous 'Converted Jihadist' Issues DMCA Takedowns On Videos Later Shown To Be False

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2013 @ 03:29pm

    WOW!!!!!

    My sad face is out. You the TechDirt community thought a Streisand Effect comment was more interesting than mine. Good to know.

  • On the post: Federal Judge None Too Impressed With Government's Defense Of Its 'No Fly' List

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2013 @ 01:27pm

    Yeah my wife the teacher was and maybe still is on the list.

    My wife found out that she was on the list when she traveled to Alaska and then tried to go from Alaska to Canada then to the continental US on the way home because of a stopover on the flight she was taking back to Atlanta.

    They told her if she stopped in Canada she would be removed from the plane and detained. She wound up taking a boat from Alaska to Washington state to catch a flight.

    Why was she on the watch list? No clue but she was just out of college at a small south Georgia college and had done nothing political (or 7 years later done nothing political) to warrant that.

    The only thing we could surmise was she had gotten a check over 10k from the estate of her grandfather.

    Still no idea why and we are still afraid to take a vacation that involves travelling outside the continental US. I think that is a bit of liberty deprived.

    So I will be following the case.

  • On the post: NSA Deletes Fact Sheet On NSA Spying After Senate Points Out It's Actually NSA Lying

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2013 @ 01:00pm

    I love the internet!!!

    I laughed so hard at this! This is a case of some stupid bureaucrat saying "I want this and this posted and it needs to be worded this way."

    The conversation probably went something like this.

    Bureaucrat: "Put something or other up on the web thingy to say this and this and this"

    Smart Guy: "But, but that is not correct. That is not what is really going on"

    Bureaucrat: "So what they will never figure that out. So do it!!!! Or lose your job!!"

    Smart Guy: "Ok, but once we post this it can't be removed and if they do find out it is not true it won't look good"

    Bureaucrat: "If they do find out we will just change it or delete it with that special key on the keyboard. Now no more talk do it and I don't want to discuss it anymore!! I have lunch to get on tax payers money!"

    Smart Guy: "sighs"

  • On the post: Famous 'Converted Jihadist' Issues DMCA Takedowns On Videos Later Shown To Be False

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2013 @ 12:29pm

    Civil or criminal?

    So my question is simple which would stop invalid DMCA takedown notices from happening? Civil or Criminal or allow both?

    Because there needs to be penalties that are stiff enough that those that request the takedown and those that facilitate the request (read:lawyers) are smacked down hard enough to make sure they have a strong and valid case before sending one.

  • On the post: Latest Leak: UK Spies Tap Internet Cables, Collect Nearly Everything With Little Oversight, Then Shares It With NSA

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 21 Jun, 2013 @ 12:21pm

    Re: Re: These stories are great but really...

    But, but, but, think of all the children.

  • On the post: Latest Leak: UK Spies Tap Internet Cables, Collect Nearly Everything With Little Oversight, Then Shares It With NSA

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 21 Jun, 2013 @ 12:20pm

    Re:

    Isn't there a law in most countries about circumvention of the laws? Maybe we can prosecute under those.

  • On the post: Latest Leak: UK Spies Tap Internet Cables, Collect Nearly Everything With Little Oversight, Then Shares It With NSA

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 21 Jun, 2013 @ 12:11pm

    Re:

    They were not just tapping in to. They were given access. Like a vampire once they have been invited in they have the run of the house.

  • On the post: Trading Lives For Freedom Is The American Way

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 21 Jun, 2013 @ 12:50pm

    As all things have a price so does Liberty

    The problem is that people fail to see the cost of giving up that Liberty for an unaccountable, indeterminable, and vaguely defined Safety.

    The government does a great job of creating new and better reasons for what they do to protect us but never really define or state what we lose in return. And people accept that.

    You would never go to the store and them say give me $25 for this product you need to help you keep your family safe and then not know what the product is or does. So the converse should not be acceptable either. You should not have to give up an undetermined amount of liberty or freedom to get an undetermined amount of safety.

    Paying for safety with the currency of your freedom and liberty means at the very least you should be able to determine what you are getting for what you give it up.

    But as Timothy said there is no way to determine that and so in the end we can only protect our Liberty by not allowing vague reasons like safety to take some it from us.

  • On the post: Latest Leak: UK Spies Tap Internet Cables, Collect Nearly Everything With Little Oversight, Then Shares It With NSA

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 21 Jun, 2013 @ 12:07pm

    These stories are great but really...

    Who with an even minimum amount of knowledge of the world was unaware that all this was going on. Sure not the details and not confirmed knowledge but we all knew it was happening.

    And who is going to stop it? No one. It is like the internet if you delete the file from one place it will pop back up in a dozen more.

    So we kill these programs and they just create new ones under different names and do a better job of hiding them.

  • On the post: One Simple Copyright Reform Idea: Government Edicts Should Never Be Subject To Copyright

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 16 May, 2013 @ 02:56pm

    Crazy to think that someone has to make a law for this?

    It is beyond crazy to think that someone has to put this in to law for us to be able to access the information in which we are required to follow.

  • On the post: Reuters Sorry About Pre-Releasing Kinda Bitchy Soros Obit, Not Sorry Enough To Take It Down

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 19 Apr, 2013 @ 10:01am

    Journalism Standards? Meh!

    Journalism is about selling. Sure some try to find and create compelling factual pieces, but most don't have that luxury. They must produce or go away.

    Good break down of modern journalism.

    http://www.mediabistro.com/10000words/10-ugly-truths-about-modern-journalism_b361

  • On the post: Google Looks To Cut 'Funding' To 'Illegal' Sites It Doesn't Fund In The First Place

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2013 @ 04:24pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Google actions = FUD

    First I never said Google is to blame for anything. They have succeeded in becoming the default search engine.

    I am just plain confused by the comments. PaulT you are reading in to the comments meanings not present in the words written.

    I did not complain about Google or say they did anything wrong. Nor did I say it is or is not a bad thing that people are slow to change.

    I just stated relative truths.

    And I also think that people should be responsible for their own actions. Again never complained just stated they choose not to change.

  • On the post: Google Looks To Cut 'Funding' To 'Illegal' Sites It Doesn't Fund In The First Place

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2013 @ 08:42am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Google actions = FUD

    PaulT, So to answer you on some points.

    People are driven by what they know. They are always slow to change. If you don't know that I am sorry. Google did not become the dominate search engine overnight.

    I can tell you from years of experience that people are not even sure what the address bar is. More often than not they just type in the default search bar installed on their computer. They don't chose. They accede. My point is that people should decide, but they choose to just do what is easy.

  • On the post: Google Looks To Cut 'Funding' To 'Illegal' Sites It Doesn't Fund In The First Place

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2013 @ 08:05am

    Re: Re: Google actions = FUD

    PaulT, you are a smart and without a single doubt an informed commenter. But you are not looking at it from the perspective of the average user.

    The average user does not have a clue about the tools Google provides to properly filter results. As for your statement "There is a multiplicity and nobody has any of it forced on them if they choose not to have it. What specific situation do you find yourself in where "searches are forced on you", by the way?". It is simply put wrong.

    Not forced like a barrel of a gun to the mouth, but pushed by convention and habit.

    PaulT, the multiplicity is not defined by reality it is defined the flow of money. And who people know.

  • On the post: Google Looks To Cut 'Funding' To 'Illegal' Sites It Doesn't Fund In The First Place

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2013 @ 07:35am

    Google actions = FUD

    We all know that Google is the largest search engine (with a lot of problems in delivering good unbiased results) but the truth is that if Google farts the world seems to crinkle their nose. Why because they are too powerful in determining what sites get traffic.

    In the end multiplicity in search is a good thing. Who in this world wants a situation where are searches are forced on us?

    Google did not set out to become the target for all things good and bad. Google just wanted to make money. But the reality is that our SERPs are the result of years of trying to provide us with a result that is what we want. But for every search we did we ceded some control.

    And the results from our actions are that Google has become the big, bad Wolf.

  • On the post: Copyright Boss: 'It's Great Mechanics Now Need To Know About Copyright'

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 11 Feb, 2013 @ 12:28pm

    Re: Re: Do the car companies not know of the World Wide Web?

    Might be true except I get 55K for 3 years of use on the vehicle.

    I also gave a simplified example.

  • On the post: Three Strikes May Decrease File Sharing, But If Sales Keep Dropping, Who Cares?

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 11 Feb, 2013 @ 09:37am

    Re: Re: Here is the next big Mega idea

    Damn good idea 1 implementation shy of a great idea. But thanks for the info!

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