SteveMB 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (173)

• On the post: Italy Tells Rest Of EU To Drop Articles 11 And 13 From The Copyright Directive

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 07 Feb, 2019 @ 06:53am

  Re: Re: The Killing of Patreon and their Ilk

  my name isn't even attached to them

  My name isn't attached to them either. This proves that I could claim to have lost eleventy zillion and thirteen dollars to "piracy" on a basis every bit as solid as yours.

• On the post: US Newspapers Now Salivating Over Bringing A Google Snippet Tax Stateside

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 01 Feb, 2019 @ 11:53am

  Re: Re: Re: How do you "adapt" to someone taking your

  there is NO KNOWN GOOD WAY to get revenue off teh internets sucking up all advertising revenue

  Dude, you were supposed to put the United Way update in between those items.

• On the post: Federal Judge Says Boycotts Aren't Protected Speech

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 30 Jan, 2019 @ 10:28am

  First, a boycott is not purely speech because, after putting aside any accompanying explanatory speech, a refusal to deal, or particular commercial purchasing decisions, do not communicate ideas through words or other expressive media.

  So, refusal to buy something from Israel because it happens to be overpriced junk, with no ideological component to the decision, is not Constitutionally protected and may thus be prosecuted under these laws? Cool! I just need to set up some paper corporate residence in Israel and I'm good to go!

• On the post: UK Court: Guy Who Didn't Write Defamatory Tweet Needs To Pay $50,000 In Damages Because The Guy Who Did Doesn't Have Any Money

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2019 @ 05:43am

  However he held that the tweet's author, John Langley, was 'quite clearly acting as the agent of Mr Wood'.

  This is the key point. If the finding of agency status is correct -- and it appears to be at least plausible given the facts given in the article -- then the boss is indeed responsible for the doings of the underlings when said underlings are acting as agents of his organization.

• On the post: Judge Blocks White House From Pulling Jim Acosta's Press Pass, But The Battle Continues

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 19 Nov, 2018 @ 02:20pm

  Re: Re: Don’t just point, when you can point AND laugh

  I didn't know that Trump University had a law school....

• On the post: The Intellectual Dishonesty Of Those Supporting The Existing Text Of The EU Copyright Directive

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 12 Sep, 2018 @ 06:24am

  Re: Re:

  Please provide proof of who you are

  Huh? He has to provide more proof before you'll identify him as a troll?

• On the post: MPAA: To Save Free Speech, We Must Broadly Censor Free Speech

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 07 Aug, 2018 @ 11:41am

  Re: Re:

  "John Smith" must be a pseudonym for Shiva Ayyadurai, who counts each download of e-mail software that fails to acknowledge him as the original inventor as an "infringement".

• On the post: Bad Reporting, Grandstanding Congressmen, Tweeting President Combine For Clusterfuck About Twitter

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 01 Aug, 2018 @ 04:43pm

  So, Republicans are acknowledging that they are indistinguishable from trolls?

• On the post: FBI Boss Chris Wray: We Put A Man On The Moon So Why Not Encryption Backdoors?

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 25 Jul, 2018 @ 12:47pm

  Re: Re:

  Given how fast the "pile of phones" shrank from about 7000 to about 1000, there's no need to do anything; the problem is vanishing all by itself.

• On the post: FBI Boss Chris Wray: We Put A Man On The Moon So Why Not Encryption Backdoors?

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 25 Jul, 2018 @ 12:44pm

  Re:

  If any significant (i.e. involving a real threat to public safety rather than an arbitrary technical violation) criminal case had been blocked by encryption, the news would have been blasted all over the place like the latest antics of Paris Hilton or the Kardashians in their heyday.

• On the post: Police Union Upset Not All Books Paint Cops As Heroes, Calls For Removal Of Titles From School's Reading List

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 07 Jul, 2018 @ 08:43am

  Re: Re: Re: All kinds of crazy

  Reading isn't encouraged among the rank and file officers. They don't like to hire people with IQ's too high as they can easily see through the bullshit and double standards.

  Court OKs Barring High IQs for Cops A man whose bid to become a police officer was rejected after he scored too high on an intelligence test has lost an appeal in his federal lawsuit against the city....

• On the post: Broadcasters Hope To Counter Ad Skipping By Replacing Ads With Short 'Inspirational Videos'

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 21 Jun, 2018 @ 04:09pm

  inspirational videos that tell stories about people who have overcome adversity

  I'd rather have normal commercials that syrupy glurge. It's bad enough when commercials try to be "inspirational", like the "story of Green Mountain coffee" commercial that seemingly ran every five minutes for a while, telling about how fair-trade coffee leads to better lives in the Third World. If I'd seen that stupid thing one more time I was ready to start searching out coffee grown by child slaves under the whips of brutal overseers.

• On the post: President Trump Directs Pentagon To Create A 'Space Force' In What Is Surely Not Any Kind Of Distraction From Crying Children

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 20 Jun, 2018 @ 07:05am

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

  This. I'll take people who claim to be legitimately concerned about illegal immigration seriously when they start demanding that ICE throw illegal employers in cages.

• On the post: Boston Globe Posts Hilarious Fact-Challenged Interview About Regulating Google, Without Any Acknowledgement Of Errors

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 20 Jun, 2018 @ 06:59am

  The only explanation I can think of for Taplin (other than actual brain damage) is that he's hired to provide "Ooo! Look! SQUIRREL!!" distractions from actual tech monopolies (ISPs like Verizon, Comcast, etc).

• On the post: UK Security Minister Says Only A Drivers Licence For The Internet Can Bring Back Online Civility

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 13 Jun, 2018 @ 05:58am

  Re:

  Silicon Valley billionaires produced some of the great breakthroughs of the century. Ben Wallace has never produced anything but noise, greenhouse gas emissions, and 310K blackbody radiation.

• On the post: Legislators Reintroduce Pro-Encryption Bills After FBI Destroys Its Own 'Going Dark' Narrative

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 13 Jun, 2018 @ 05:43am

  Re:

  States are allowed to experiment on internal matters, not matters inherently tied to (for example) interstate commerce.

• On the post: UK Security Minister Says Only A Drivers Licence For The Internet Can Bring Back Online Civility

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 13 Jun, 2018 @ 05:47am

  Ben Wallace, tough on law-abiding citizens, mild and gentle on murderous traitors:

  Mr Wallace also slapped down Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary, for saying British Isis fighters should be "hunted down and killed" to ensure that they never return to the UK.

• On the post: The FBI's War On Encryption Is Personal, According To Comey's New Book

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 25 Apr, 2018 @ 12:17pm

  Comey claims the Snowden leaks prompted a worldwide shift to encrypted communications

  i.e. he doesn't see any problem with the government's misconduct, only with the fact that they got caught.

• On the post: There Is No Going Dark: Another Vendor Selling Tool That Cracks All iPhones

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 16 Apr, 2018 @ 06:37pm

  Targeted Investigation vs Mass Surveillance

  There are all sorts of ways to get into private files if you're willing to expend time and effort -- hacks like GreyKey, spyware to caputre inputs and outputs outside the encryption envelope, hidden shoulder-surf cameras, etc.
  
  There is thus no real "going dark" problem for the sort of *limited* access based on *individual suspicion* that the police are *supposed* to be doing. The problem is that the police want to be able to spy on everybody, and these techniques simply don't scale up sufficiently to enable that.

• On the post: The Future The FBI Wants: Secure Phones For Criminals, Broken Encryption For Everyone Else

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2018 @ 03:43pm

  Often, cameras and microphones are removed

  How exactly does a phone with no microphone work?

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