tqk 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: It's 2016 And The EU Is Just Now Getting Ready To Decide If Hyperlinking Is Legal

    tqk ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2016 @ 03:11am

    Re: Re:

    laws change when you do it with electrons instead of sound waves.

    Geeks, the new pariahs. They used to call us witches, or alchemists, or Jews. Mumbling weird incantations (dpkg --configure -a), causing magic to happen with their words.

    Ignorance is bliss, until those knowledgeable people show up and then they persecute them for not being ignorant like them, by definition. Burn them for failing to be ordinary!

  • On the post: TV Station Educates Public On Dangers Of Teen Sexting By Exposing 14-Year-Old's Name… And Penis

    tqk ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2016 @ 02:39am

    Re:

    So why does a 14 year old need a cell phone?

    Are you insane?!? How the hell is he going to find out what time it is?

    Well, yeah, he could wear one of those old timey watch thingamajigs, but you probably ought to get your dosages checked. Casting aspersions upon cellphone usage in the 21st Century; are you crazy?

  • On the post: TV Station Educates Public On Dangers Of Teen Sexting By Exposing 14-Year-Old's Name… And Penis

    tqk ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2016 @ 02:26am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: What is the big effing deal??

    Because our society cannot distinguish nudity from pornography. Plain and simple, sad but true.

    I think it goes a bit deeper.

    Nope, I disagree, because religion. He got it right.

    Why's Michaelangelo's David forced to wear a bolted on after the fact fig leaf?

    Roman Catholicism's prudery is still working its way through the system. Priests are ashamed to be ministering to us rutting animals, denying our true nature as biological beings, and we pay the price of their shame.

    Lose the church, and this'll end.

  • On the post: TV Station Educates Public On Dangers Of Teen Sexting By Exposing 14-Year-Old's Name… And Penis

    tqk ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2016 @ 02:06am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: What is the big effing deal??

    You have to be really ignorant to think this will not haunt the kid at school.

    Really? The first time I got an erection, I had no idea wtf was happening (nobody'd bothered to tell me, damnit!), but I sure felt proud of it at the time anyway.

    "Are you the guy with the dick pic?"

    "Yup, you like it?"

    "Yup."

  • On the post: TV Station Educates Public On Dangers Of Teen Sexting By Exposing 14-Year-Old's Name… And Penis

    tqk ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2016 @ 01:57am

    Re: Re: Re: What is the big effing deal??

    Why does everyone, including the TV station, the viewers, the police, the law, and commenters here on Techdirt, make such a big effing deal about DICK PICTURES?

    1) Sex sells. "The oldest profession" and all that. Lots of males (especially teenage males learning to use recently acquired hormonal additions) think with their head, and it's not their skull. It's biology. Then there's the female side too. They can be just as guilty of this.

    2) Madison Avenue * Hollywood == $$$$$$$$.

    3) We may be capable of philosophy and great thoughts. That doesn't mean we'll all (or for some ever) be governed by such things.

  • On the post: TV Station Educates Public On Dangers Of Teen Sexting By Exposing 14-Year-Old's Name… And Penis

    tqk ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2016 @ 01:39am

    Re: What is the big effing deal??

    Every single person on the planet has genitals. We all know what they look like.

    Every single mammal on the planet has nipples, both male and female. Why'd we go through years of "Oh my Gawd!" over a "wardrobe malfunction?"

    Why can't females go topless? Because guys can have no self-control.

    Yet we lambaste Muslims for doing the same thing in other ways. People.

  • On the post: Software Company Asks Users For Input On DRM; Goes Ahead And Institutes It Anyway Over Their Objections

    tqk ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2016 @ 01:04am

    Caveat emptor.

    No, needing the files in a known format & location is not DRM, the encryption and phone home requirements are, and you didn't answer that question.

    Once their pathetic encryption gets broken, "pirates" can keep their stuff in any format they please and in any location they please (including TPB or Megaupload).

    You'd think these people would come up with something like generating 2048 bit long keys based on customer name + address + credit card no. (all at time of purchase) and possibly up to twenty MacIDs, all calculated within the app. Nope. Phone home successfully to the Mother Ship, or lock it up. Foot, meet bullet.

  • On the post: Software Company Asks Users For Input On DRM; Goes Ahead And Institutes It Anyway Over Their Objections

    tqk ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2016 @ 12:40am

    Re: Re: Re: From theoretical to ensured

    They keep getting made because of all the money the mafiaa dudes have poured into anti-piracy propaganda.

    Yet nobody believes any of that anti-piracy propaganda except clueless politicians and marketroids. Time after time after time it's received as a joke by the masses with the money to spend, yet those two classes of nitwits swear by it and fall for the lie almost every single time, never learning from their past failure to recognize reality.

    Boycott if you can, pirate if you can't live without it, but don't encourage this insanity by sending them money! That just encourages them to find something even worse to do to you next time.

  • On the post: Proposed Hungarian Law Would Allow Government To Suspend Key Human Rights Whenever There Is A 'Terror Threat Situation'

    tqk ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2016 @ 12:14am

    Re: Huh?

    Did these people never watch the Star Wars prequels?

    Because George pretty much showed us how this ends...

    Maybe that's the script he's working from. Gene Roddenberry did it (twice) before George dragged it up yet again, and Orwell before him, and Carrol before him, ...

    Maybe we should stop pulling this story up again and again as politicians appear to be far too susceptible to suggestion.

  • On the post: Proposed Hungarian Law Would Allow Government To Suspend Key Human Rights Whenever There Is A 'Terror Threat Situation'

    tqk ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2016 @ 11:59pm

    Re:

    In a nutshell they are trying to be more American.

    The US didn't invent this. They're just the modern instantiation of a tired, old idea. It's just as easy to learn bad ideas as good ideas.

  • On the post: Proposed Hungarian Law Would Allow Government To Suspend Key Human Rights Whenever There Is A 'Terror Threat Situation'

    tqk ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2016 @ 11:50pm

    Re: *drafts a letter*

    Seconded.

    First, information. You aren't playing a game where your information is perfect and up-to-date, you know. Your investigators and intelligence agencies will make honest mistakes, false inferences, record erroneous data.
    When you make a decision to freeze someone's assets, restrain their movements, gag their communications, you're going to do that based on information that's, quite honestly, not reliable.
    Innocents far outnumber terrorists. Even if your intelligence network is 99.99% accurate, 9 times out of 10 your actions would still be impacting innocents instead of terrorists. Probabilities are not your friend, here.

    The whole world was plunged into war when three nations decided to pull this crap back in the 1930s & '40s.

    Think about Russia's Cheka/KGB/Gulag Archipelago, Fascist Spain and Italy, the East German Stasi, Pinochet's Chile, Argentina's "Desaperacidos", Pol Pot's Cambodia, ...

    Step back from the brink. No one gains from a blood bath.

  • On the post: Proposed Hungarian Law Would Allow Government To Suspend Key Human Rights Whenever There Is A 'Terror Threat Situation'

    tqk ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2016 @ 11:17pm

    Re: Two revoke all laws and the restraint they present, merely utter two magic words:

    'Because terrorism'.

    On the bright side, it makes it really easy to figure out which horse's ass next needs to be assassinated the most. Whacka-a-mole writ large.

    This thing reminds me of Canada's War Measures Act, which was invoked to handle the FLQ Crisis back when I was a kid; just one of the things I never forgave the father of the current Prime Minister of Canada for doing.

    When, during the course of human events, did "wide-ranging and almost unchallengeable powers" ever make a lick of sense?

    Oh, Hungary.

  • On the post: Another Cop Treats Sexting Teens Like Child Pornographers

    tqk ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2016 @ 04:40am

    Bully decries bullying! Film at eleven.

    Police Detective Mike Mohney told WBST.com that sexting is a serious crime because it leads to “bullying,” ...

    Wake the !@#$ up, moran!

  • On the post: Enigma Software Decides The Best Way To Deal With A Negative Review Is To Sue The Reviewer

    tqk ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2016 @ 04:26am

    When all you've got's a hammer ...

    AKA "lawyer", everything looks like a nail, AKA lawsuit.

  • On the post: David Bowie's Legacy On Copyright And The Future Of Music

    tqk ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2016 @ 04:16am

    ... future presidential candidate Kanye West ...

    You have got to be kidding me.

    On the other hand, "Under Pressure ..." Yes, copyright sure should feel under pressure. It's perverted its usefulness. When enough people learn of what's being done with it, it'll go away.

  • On the post: Congress Might Actually Be Moving Forward On Fixing Outdated Email Privacy Law!

    tqk ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2016 @ 05:08pm

    Re: It's all about "effects"

    To presume abandonment of server email after 180 days is like presuming abandonment of the contents of your safety deposit box (or your savings account) after 180 days.

    Consider IMAP or GMail (cloud computing). The whole point is to leave it on a server, because you want it left there. This law abuses modern practices egregiously by being stupid about it. It's been wrong for decades, and tenaciously avoiding learning the truth of what's actually happening in reality.

  • On the post: Congress Might Actually Be Moving Forward On Fixing Outdated Email Privacy Law!

    tqk ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2016 @ 04:49pm

    Re:

    I can tell Mike is serious when he uses an exclamation mark.

    Mike is very often a writer in a hurry. He's a busy guy watching lots of stuff that I can't be arsed to keep up with. I appreciate his energy and enthusiasm, especially when he gets enthused about stuff that I couldn't be bothered to track and which bore me to death.

    Specialists vs. generalists. We all contribute in our own ways.

  • On the post: Congress Might Actually Be Moving Forward On Fixing Outdated Email Privacy Law!

    tqk ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2016 @ 04:41pm

    Re: Re: The SEC really liked the fact that it could snoop through emails

    Interested in a reference to confirm that statement. Odd that having the power, and apparently the desire to do so, there haven't been any notable arrests of late.

    It's anecdotal. I've read many articles here mentioning it. I'm sure if you searched through them, at least one would mention, or allude to, where it came from.

    As for arrests, it's just like lawsuits. Agree to pay the fine/judgment, and the lawsuit (or charges) will disappear, with no judgment entered into the books. No precedent to go from either. Handy that. All parties involved happily agree to bury the controversy quietly.

    Sucks to be the poor slob that runs into the same wall next time.

  • On the post: A Tiny Cell With An Omnipresent Guard, Visitors Just Twice A Day: TAFTA/TTIP's German Transparency Room

    tqk ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2016 @ 03:47pm

    Re: TTIP in general

    What Germany does now is crazy in my opinion. Allowing some officials to make notes on a piece of paper in the 21rst century is not acceptable.

    Don't forget, you can take notes, but no quotes from the document.

    Rassa frackin' jigga friggen, ... Kroshnit!?!

  • On the post: A Tiny Cell With An Omnipresent Guard, Visitors Just Twice A Day: TAFTA/TTIP's German Transparency Room

    tqk ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2016 @ 03:27pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Some people might understand English and French but we are talking laws! Did you ever read the whole law book? Or even the Grundgesetz? Most of that stuff doesn't mean what you think it means. Not because you aren't able to read it but because the interpretation is something completely different from what a "normal" person would understand.

    Absolutely. I'm a programmer fluent in many programming languages, but I've never managed to understand a tax forms enough to do my own taxes. It looks like English, but it's not. Something reads like, "Oh, that's good for me!" invariably turns out "No, good for them." I get others to do my taxes for me. It keeps them happy and is far safer for me.

    Lawyering/legalese is shot through with Latin, a dead language. Yet people complain about the jargon we geeks use to communicate. Doctors (Latin), lawyers (Latin), and mathematicians (Greek) are far worse. They all need a reboot tossing that crap, and it's only about two thousand years overdue!

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