TimothyAWiseman 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Former UMG Exec: Major Label Music Should Cost More And DMCA Safe Harbors Should Be Destroyed

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 20 Sep, 2016 @ 11:25am

    Safe Harbors Are Vital

    I wrote a law review article dealing with the DMCA. While my core point was a technical one about when Willful Blindness should apply, I spent a fair bit of time talking about how important the safe harbors are to allowing the internet to develop. This is something which is well established by numerous commentators and scholars in both the legal and economic fields.

  • On the post: Engineers Say If Automated Cars Experience 'The Trolley Problem,' They've Already Screwed Up

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2016 @ 08:47am

    Re:

    I never thought of your #2, but you are entirely right.

    I will add another reason, one closely related to Chatam's but not quite the same. You will never face the choice with certainty. The real world is too unpredictable for that. Instead, you will face something more like the choice of increasing the chance of killing 1 person by decreasing the chance of killing 2 or vice versa. In that case, choose the one that has the best chance of having no fatalities at all. But, as Chatham points out, even getting to that probabilistic point.

  • On the post: With Both Presidential Candidates Claiming To Be Against The TPP, President Obama Kicks Off Campaign To Ratify It

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 23 Aug, 2016 @ 09:03am

    Gary Johnson Supports it

    Since you didn't mention Gary Johnson's position, he openly supports the TPP. This is one of the ares where I respectfully disagree with him. But, he has at least said that there are parts he does not like, he just thinks the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

  • On the post: Google Fiber Hasn't Hit A 'Snag,' It's Just Evolving

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2016 @ 08:49am

    Re: I WANT IT (or something like it)

    I would sign up the moment it became available.

  • On the post: Awesome Stuff: Don't Miss Our New Vote2016() T-Shirt

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 08 Aug, 2016 @ 08:09am

    Funny, but...

    Its a funny shirt, but fortunately (at least regarding the upcoming American election) we have more than two choices. Personally, I support Gary Johnson and think he is a genuinely good candidate instead of the lesser of the evils. Dr. Jill Stein is also running.

  • On the post: New Jersey Man Files Lawsuit Over Pokemon Go After A Few Players Politely Knocked On His Door

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 03 Aug, 2016 @ 08:22am

    Augmented Reality games can easily lead people to be where they should not go. I wrote about this for a law firms blog not long ago: http://morrislawcenter.com/2016/07/pokemon-go-and-park-areas-for-children-only/

    But, as Karl says here, this is not Niantic's fault. The players are responsible for knowing where they should and should not go.

    Personally, I would find people knocking on my door asking to go into my back yard after Pokemon annoying, but it is not a tort by the person or by the game maker.

  • On the post: Will We Ever Really Get Flying Cars?

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 17 Jun, 2016 @ 08:54am

    Re: Never.

    Thank you for the insight.

    I disagree with your assessment regarding self driving cars. Even if we insist on maintaining driver responsibility, we could have mostly self driving cars with requirements that a driver override be available and that drivers remain alert (technology could even help enforce that). I also suspect that as self-driving technology develops we will become more willing to at least lessen the need for driver responsibility.

    I think your assessment of flying cars on the other hand is spot on for the foreseeable future and appreciate having an experienced pilot lay out the reasons.

  • On the post: Nest May Be The First Major Casualty Of Hollow 'Internet Of Things' Hype

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 08 Jun, 2016 @ 08:49am

    IOT is overhyped

    While some internet of things items have proven themselves useful (my wife loves the Ring, an IOT doorbell, and even I see value in it), most of them are overhyped. I have yet to see a compelling (or even really any) use case for an internet connected fridge or tea kettle.

    I do see a use case for an inernet connected thermostat, but the price for a Nest was far too high to justify its fairly small value.

    There is a place for IOT, but I think (at least for the near future) it is much smaller than many companies want it to be.

  • On the post: So Much For The Fifth Amendment: Man Jailed For Seven Months For Not Turning Over Password

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2016 @ 11:44am

    The fifth amendment

    As I mentioned in a comment in the linked ArsTechnica piece, whether this violates the Fifth Amendment is not a simple or clear question. I have written a law review article directly on this topic for I/S which is available here

    The very short version is that while the Fifth Amendment is clearly implicated, the Fifth Amendment has several nuances and exceptions. One of those exceptions is the Foregone Conclusion Doctrine. While not quite a clear cut case, this case seems to fit within that. Law Enforcement has evidence that these are his drives, that he is capable of decrypting them, and they have some idea of what at least some of the contents they will find are. Courts have upheld the use of the foregone conclusion doctrine several times, and I argue in my law review article that it is proper to use that doctrine so long as they can actually meet its requirements.

  • On the post: The Shittiness Of IP Law Has Taught The Public That Everything Is Stealing And Everyone Is Owed Something

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 28 Jan, 2016 @ 01:08pm

    Re:

    I'm afraid it is not that simple. First, the artists probably do not have the authority to give those rights. Depending on their contracts and licenses, it is more likely that the labels have the legal authority grant the rights for others to make those works.

    Second, even if the artists could and did give him the right to create these derivative works, answering the DMCA notice is not the simplest thing in the world and could increase his chance of being sued (or at least increase his perceived chance of getting sued).

  • On the post: Can You Defame Someone By Directly Creatively 'Quoting' Them? New York Court Says You Can.

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2015 @ 10:41am

    Re: Re: Re:

    To be nitpicky, I think you mean "public disclosure of private facts". But, while related and the same facts may give rise to at least reasonable allegations of both, that is slightly different.

    Public disclosure is also a violation of privacy, but it has a few key differences. For one thing, a "false light" claim has to actually put someone in a false light. It must imply something about the person which is not true. One of the famous cases involved publishing someone's picture next to an article about someone else that stated the other person was pregnant and other facts. The article was not about the woman pictured and did not mention her by name, but by attaching her picture next to it someone could easily have believed it was her and drawn false conclusions. Public disclosure does not have any requirement that even the implications be false.

  • On the post: Can You Defame Someone By Directly Creatively 'Quoting' Them? New York Court Says You Can.

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 03 Dec, 2015 @ 03:50pm

    Re:

    It is important to remember that the details of false light vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction quite a bit.

    However, I suspect that defamation is better here than false light. For one thing, in most places, false light is viewed more as an invasion of privacy than anything else. You often cannot put a public figure(think celebrity, but slightly broader) in a false light in the legal sense.

    For another thing, it seems that in order to create the false context for his words they did publish false information. That false information may not have been defamatory in and of itself, but it was vital to the harmful change in context. For all practical purposes, their information was false and there are alleged actual damages rather humiliation or unwanted exposure alone, meaning defamation fits quite well.

  • On the post: Yet Again, Blizzard Looks To Twist Copyright Law To Use It To Go After Bot Makers It Considers Cheaters

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 13 Nov, 2015 @ 10:17am

    Re:

    Most open source libraries are not licensed under the GPL, but under the LGPL. The LGPL is designed to be more friendly towards building on top of the library than the original GPL. Of course, whether or not it is sufficiently friendly for your purposes is something you need to determine for yourself, perhaps after consulting competent counsel.

  • On the post: With Another Major Expansion, Google Fiber's Looking Less Like An Adorable Experiment And More Like A Disruptive Broadband Revolution

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 30 Oct, 2015 @ 03:06pm

    They need to start working in Las Vegas.

  • On the post: Harmonix Caught Astroturfing Amazon Reviews For Rock Band 4, Offers Non-Apology Apology

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 26 Oct, 2015 @ 01:24pm

    Re: A bit of tilting at windmills here...

    Yes, I think the statement that companies should never review their own products is a bit overblown. I have no problem at all with employee's reviewing their company's products so long as the relationship is clearly disclosed.

    Here though, it was not disclosed (whether the employees had good reason to not disclose or not is another topic). That is a problem.

  • On the post: Larry Lessig Dumps His Promise To Resign The Presidency In An Attempt To Get People To Take His Campaign Seriously

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 21 Oct, 2015 @ 10:19am

    Re:

    I actually think Lessig would make a masterful president. He is brilliant, understands both law and technology, and is energetic and forceful. I have read several of his books and cited him repeatedly in my own academic publishing, I think he is the best candidate currently running.

  • On the post: Digital Orphans: The Massive Cultural Black Hole On Our Horizon

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 14 Oct, 2015 @ 11:55am

    Re:

    That is the way things were originally. If certain formalities were not observed, then there was presumptively no copyright protection.

    Personally, I think having the initial protection be automatic is actually a good thing. With that said, there is a middle ground of making that initial protection very short and requiring formalities for any longer term.

    Lessig discusses both the history and the idea of returning to an opt-in / formalities-required system in his book Free Culture.

  • On the post: Digital Orphans: The Massive Cultural Black Hole On Our Horizon

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 13 Oct, 2015 @ 03:21pm

    Digital Orphans Are a Massive Problem

    As you point out, digital orphans will become a massive problem. I suspect that they will not be a huge problem for purely academic researchers in a university settings. Academic research is often one of the quintessential examples of what is meant to be protected by fair use and their universities may be able to both advise them on the nuances and offer some protection in the event of a problem.

    However, as this article points out, this will be a major problem for projects that may blur the lines between pure academic research and commercial ventures though. Many documentary videos have already had to change their plans due to copyright questions, for example.

  • On the post: NYC Judge: Taxis Must Compete With Uber, No Matter The Medallion Industry

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2015 @ 09:12am

    Re: Re: Re:

    As weird as it may sound, that does happen, especially around airports.

    If I may indulge in an anecdote, I was once travelling with a medium sized group on company business. We found it was cheaper to hire a limo that could hold us all than take two taxis. We found this because there were limos there waiting to be hailed and one of the limo drivers approached us to offer his services.

  • On the post: Internet Of Not-So-Smart Things: Samsung's Latest Smart Fridge Can Expose Your Gmail Password

    TimothyAWiseman ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2015 @ 10:49am

    I don't want most of my equipment on the Internet

    There are certainly some things that benefit from being connected to the internet, but I do not need my refrigerator or most other appliances connected. It adds unnecessary complexity, and things should be kept as simple as possible.

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