Tanner Andrews 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Washington State Has Sued A Patent Troll For Violating Consumer Protection Laws

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 28 May, 2021 @ 04:29am

    Re:

    maybe we should remind them that no matter how much is donated to them we can still vote them out.
    Actually, no. With modern redistricting technology, the pols select their voters, rather than the old-fashioned way where the voters selected their pols. For state-wide races, it generally comes down to the pols selecting their corporate sponsors, who provide the funding to keep the sponsored pols in position. No one is going to walk from Pensacola to Key West today; if you tried, you would surely be run over.

  • On the post: Florida Man Signs Blatantly Corrupt And Unconstitutional Social Media Bill, Cementing Florida As Tech Laughing Stock

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 28 May, 2021 @ 02:45am

    Re:

    a tacky Florida theme park that feeds little children to alligators
    You make it sound as though that is a bad thing.

  • On the post: Time Magazine Lauds Clearview AI Despite Its Sketchy Facial Recognition Tech

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 28 May, 2021 @ 02:31am

    Re: Time Magazine

    influential organization without mention of the fact that they have wasted over 100 Billion
    That is influential, even perhaps leadership. Other entities now also waste large sums of money. Even governments do that now. But someone has to show the way.

  • On the post: Florida Man Signs Blatantly Corrupt And Unconstitutional Social Media Bill, Cementing Florida As Tech Laughing Stock

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 26 May, 2021 @ 08:07am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: You Wish Government Could Do It Too

    It's just stupid people. And that includes anyone who supports this bill.
    Based on the ``Disney'' exception, it may very well be that the legislature are not all stupid. They may simply be coin-operated. There has been a large flashing virtual Livendco sign over the members' entrance to the new capitol at least since it opened.

  • On the post: Florida Man Signs Blatantly Corrupt And Unconstitutional Social Media Bill, Cementing Florida As Tech Laughing Stock

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 26 May, 2021 @ 07:00am

    Re:

    Yes or no: Should the government have the absolute right to make your instance host offensive-yet-legally protected speech that you don’t want hosted on/associated with your instance?
    Well, this is a complicated question. From a Fifth Amendment takings perspective, obviously, the answer is in the negative. It would be taking some of my property, virtual or real, and I would be entitled to compensation. Even then, Kelo notwithstanding, in many states, there would have to be a public purpose to the requirement that my property be taken to host offensive speech. On the other hand, from a First Amendment speech perspective, clearly, the answer is in the negative. Requiring me to publish offensive material is contrary to the standard understanding of freedom of the press. There is still the First Amendment associational perspective. There, the answer would be in the negative because I cannot be required to associate with obnoxious twits, and forcing me to permit them to mingle with my preferred group on my property would be contrary to freedom of association. So it is not a simple yes/no question. There are options as to how you look at it. It might be better viewed as a no/hell_no/no_way question. None of this is intended to suggest that Ron DeSantis is not a goof, of course.

  • On the post: Milwaukee Sewerage District Threatens Menards Over Fertilizer Sales

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 26 May, 2021 @ 02:39am

    Re:

    defending it means suing those who might be infringing on it
    For such an argument to work, there needs to be infringement. The names are dissimilar, and the styles in which they are shown are dissimilar, and the promotion is showing them side by side for comparision. Not even a ``moron in a hurry'' is going to be confused. Next time, try not to be silly.

  • On the post: Arizona County's Voting Machines Rendered Unusable By OAN-Financed Vote Auditors

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 26 May, 2021 @ 02:30am

    Why are the techies at Tech Dirt not aware of this fact [should use hand-counted paper ballots]

    We are aware of it. Every so often, someone remembers back to 2000, when Union County [Lake Butler] had hand-counted their ballots and gone to bed by midnight, only to wake up for the next couple of weeks to news that Volusia was still trying to get theirs counted, and out-of-state Republican interference had been brought in to make it, ahem, challenging to count the ballots in So Fla.

    The solution, of course, was for the state to mandate that everyone, including Union, go with machine counting in the future.

    The problem with hand-counting is that it requires

    • reasonably sized precincts
    • people who can count past 10 without taking shoes off

    and sometimes those are hard to come by. Here, we try to combine darker-complected voters into huge precincts in order that the long queues discourage potential voters, and that makes hand-counting difficult.

    Yes, technically, there is a race-neutral reason for the large precincts. Efficiency. It is important that we not appear to be doing these things with rce-based motivations.

  • On the post: DOJ Sent A Grand Jury Subpoena To Twitter Demanding The Unmasking Of A Twitter User Being Sued By Devin Nunes

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 18 May, 2021 @ 12:12am

    Re: Re: Umm.

    Hog farms in eastern NC generate enough waste to create a problem. They get seriously worried when hurricanes threaten because the ``lagoons'' may overflow or have their contents pushed out into waterways. A little bit of manure is fertilizer. A great lot of it is a smelly problem. And in waterways, it is the precursor to algae blooms and fish kills.

  • On the post: UK Now Calling Its 'Online Harms Bill' The 'Online Safety Bill' But A Simple Name Change Won't Fix Its Myriad Problems

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 18 May, 2021 @ 04:46am

    UK Not Exactly a Bastion of Freedom

    Does anyone remember the Prevention of Terrorism Act? Under that, at least once the government arrested its own (BBC) reporters for reporting on the other side during the Troubles.

    In the States, England is remembered at least somewhat vaguely as having been an oppressive remote ruling power. There was a disposal of tea leaves and, later on, some armed conflict. There was also another armed conflict during the early 1800s, from which we still sing celebrating the British fleetness of foot.

  • On the post: Chicago PD Oversight Says Officers Racked Up 100 Misconduct Allegations During A Single Wrong Address Raid

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 17 May, 2021 @ 11:57pm

    Not Much Change Happening

    I remember back in 1968, the Chicago PD went crazy trying to stomp out demonstrations during a political convention. They called it ``law and order''. The political conventioneers encouraged it.

    In the proud Chicago tradition, the rioting cops were not prosecuted. The protesters were. The trial courts pretty well beclowned themselves. Mayor Daley denied that there was any problem with the cops.

    Fifty-some years later, the Chicago PD is still running amok. The state's attys are still not prosecuting the officers. And Mayor Lightfoot is still proudly denying that there is a problem.

    Need you ask where the police union was during all these decades?

  • On the post: FISA Court Says FBI May Be Abusing Surveillance Powers; Will Continue To Allow It To Abuse Surveillance Powers

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 16 May, 2021 @ 02:07am

    [FISA court is] deciding that national security work is too important to subject to serious judicial scrutiny

    I think the original author may be overlooking something. The FISA court is not a real court. It is established by Congress outside of the authorized (Article 3) judicial system, and has none of the earmarks of the judicial system. Consider:

    • adversary procedings
    • representation of parties by counsel
    • public trials & other procedings
    • penalties for perjury
    • published precedents
    • actual appellate review

    Under no circumstances can FISA be expected to provide ``serious judicial scrutiny''. It is, rather, the sort of scrutiny that a mother gives her joey while it is still in the pouch.

  • On the post: The Flopping Of Trump's Blog Proves That It's Not Free Speech He's Upset About; But Free Reach

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 15 May, 2021 @ 06:44pm

    Re: Trump? Good riddance! But "reach" may be 1st Amendment "pr

    to the extent new media giants become effective monopolies, they may deserve regulation
    I cannot bring myself to believe that any of the new media giants are effective monopolies. Twitter has Parler competing with it, I believe there are other social media entities, and they also face some sort of competition for their users' time and attention. And regulation seems counterintuitive under the First Amendment. Twitter's message of disfavoring traitors who wage war, bringing revolt to the seat of government, would be diluted if they were required to also host the speech of the traitor. The Supreme Court has upheld such a right to control the associative messages. See Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian & Bi-sexual Organization of Boston, 515 U.S. 557 (1995).

  • On the post: The Flopping Of Trump's Blog Proves That It's Not Free Speech He's Upset About; But Free Reach

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 15 May, 2021 @ 05:07pm

    Re: Re:

    if people actually wanted to listen to him his site would be where people would be congregating
    This assumes that his site provides a place for congregation, as opposed to a sort of microblog for one cheetoh. And a pretty poor sort of blog it is, with very little ability to interact. Essentially you can sign up for e-mail or you can send money. A normal place for congregation is one where people can interact. I fault the people who implemented the wimpy website, but frankly would not expect Mr. Trump to be able to do even what is there. Fortunately, people need not listen to him. He has nothing new or interesting to say. The inability to congregate at his web site is therefore little loss.

  • On the post: Disgraced Yale Law Professor Now Defending Anti-Vaxxers In Court With His Nonsense Section 230 Ideas

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 14 May, 2021 @ 11:49pm

    Re: 'It's our first amendment right to tell people to drink blea

    ultimate concession when it comes to arguments, when you know you can't actually defend your speech on the merits fall back to pointing out that it's not illegal to say
    Actually, that is a plausible argument. In NY Times v. Lester B. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 the Court observed several falsehoods in the offending ad. Id. at 259. Minor, perhaps, but still false. And they neither required nor discussed defense of the speech on its merits. What they said was that the First Amendment needed ``breathing space''. Id. at 271. Some falsehood is inevitable. So, in an appropriate case, an atty for the bleach-drinking advocates might well argue that, even if bleach-drinking were ultimately deemed harmful, they have a right to express their support of the practice. Is this the appropriate case? No, of course not. This case is not a defense of hypoclorite consumption. This is an attack on someone's freedom to denounce the practice. And for that, we really do not care whether it is legal to advocate for unsound practices. We care whether Facebook can be required to provide a forum for such advocacy, and also be required to keep silent as to its own views regarding the subject.

  • On the post: Groups Worry New Text Message Spam Filters Aren't Being Built Transparently, Could Harm Legit Outreach Efforts

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 14 May, 2021 @ 01:07am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    I say “yes I did” [to amazon / iphone scam calls] and they hang up!
    Personally, I like to get to the human, and invite them to come by the office tomorrow afternoon. Whereupon I will pull their heads off and relieve myself down their throats, and place their heads on spikes out front as examples to the other smelly little scammers in their fetid boiler rooms. The credit card scammers get particular pleasure from this option if I first lead them down the path with a plausible sounding but entirely fake number. Read slowly and in a low voice, with some stumbling and back-tracking to drag it out. I had one actually ask me are you totally wasting my time?'' I had another get stuck in a loop repeating an unclean suggestion until I had to tell himThank you for playing'' and hang up. My offer may also include details of a discount price of $150 if fully paid in advance.

  • On the post: Disgraced Yale Law Professor Now Defending Anti-Vaxxers In Court With His Nonsense Section 230 Ideas

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 14 May, 2021 @ 07:54am

    A Funny Kind of Defense

    so wrong that I had difficulty writing it up. And that was before Rubenfeld joined the defense team

    Well, actually, I think that Rubenfeld is on the plaintiff's side in the case. Perhaps CHD should also be defending against a claim for criminial stupidity, but for the moment they are plaintiffs and not defendants.

  • On the post: Thanks To Section 230, I Can Correct Wired's Portrayal Of My Section 230 Advocacy

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 14 May, 2021 @ 12:54am

    Re:

    If that doesn’t make Brainy shut up about corporate-owned speech platforms on the Internet, nothing will.
    Agreed, though my guess is that the conditional will be met.

  • On the post: Dartmouth's Insane Paranoia Over 'Cheating' Leads To Ridiculous Surveillance Scandal

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 14 May, 2021 @ 02:11am

    Out Here in the Real World

    teach people how they can look up the necessary details when they need them

    Proably a good plan. I say that as a person whose graduate school had a subject-specific library of some three storeys, largely loaded with shelves full of books. In order to increase capacity, some of the shelves actually were on tracks so they could be moved to allow passage between particular shelves while the other shelves sat cheek-to-jowl.

    Now being out of school, I work in an office. A substantial portion of that space is devoted to shelves holding a few thousands of volumes. The intent is that if I do not know something, I might go through some few of the volumes and find out.

  • On the post: Florida City Officials Spend $50,000 To Find Out Who Gave Journalists A Public Record

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 13 May, 2021 @ 03:50am

    Could Have Been Worse

    The newspaper could have simply made a public records request (S:119.07). City would no doubt refuse to produce. The Sun-Sentinel would then have gotten its legal fees as well as extra publicity for their report of intended improper spending.

  • On the post: Texas Attorney General Unblocks Twitter Users Who Sued Him; Still Blocking Others

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 12 May, 2021 @ 01:02am

    Re:

    the courts, who are 1/3 of the government and thus subject to 1A's restrictions, can force public officials to listen to persons with whom they don't want to associate
    We are all probably dumber for having read this sad plaint. The courts are not forcing officials to listen. Indeed, even in classic public hearings, the officials need not listen. The folks running Community Maritime Park (Pensacola) famously turned their backs on the public. My property tax notices provide ample evidence that officials are disinclined to listen. What the courts are saying is that, if officials provide a public forum, they cannot exercise viewpoint discrimination in the operation of that forum. It is factually indistinguishable from a tax hearing where the entity would only permitt comment from those in favor of higher levies.

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