Upstream 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Trump FCC Demands ‘Pro-America’ Media Programming All Summer Long

    Upstream ( profile ), 26 Feb, 2026 @ 09:18am

    It is truly heart-warming that such a personage as Brendan Carr, in Washington, D.C., is enabling broadcasters to be responsive to the needs and interest of my local community. I am about to shed a tear, because I love Big Brother!

  • On the post: News Publishers Are Now Blocking The Internet Archive, And We May All Regret It

    Upstream ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2026 @ 11:45pm

    People vs AI

    News organizations: " We don't want their AI looking at the content we pay people to create. We want people to pay us to look at the slop our AI creates."

  • On the post: The Case For A 100-Justice Supreme Court

    Upstream ( profile ), 16 Jan, 2026 @ 12:12pm

    Another approach

    This idea certainly has merit, and is worthy of continued study. Of course, any system can be gamed, but this change might make this particular system much harder to game. This idea reminded me of another problematic aspect of our political system: its two-party nature. I think this problem has a very direct impact on the SCOTUS problem. Some version of a two-party system has existed in the US since shortly after the inception of the country. People who study such things say this situation is the inevitable result of our system of voting, where the winning candidate in each State takes all of that State’s electoral votes. Evidence to support this theory may be found in other countries that have different voting systems, and also have several strong political parties with much greater diversity than our own two. The fact that our two parties have largely become mostly indistinguishable on the fundamental principles (larger, more authoritarian and more intrusive government, and less individual liberty), and spend a great deal of their time trying to differentiate themselves on relatively slight differences of degree on just a few hot-button issues (drugs, guns, abortion, and immigration), may also be an indication that the two-party system that has developed is fundamentally flawed. In a system with more strong political parties it would likely be more difficult for all of them to jointly head in the wrong direction. A change in the voting / electoral system could lead to the rise of more strong political parties. So, in addition to a significantly larger SCOTUS, where each individual judge would matter less, and each President's appointments would have less effect, maybe a change in the electoral system to get more than just two points of view in the mix would help, too.

  • On the post: Trump Admin Goes Full McCarthy, Will Decide Whether Migrants Are Pro-USA Enough To Stay Here

    Upstream ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2025 @ 07:16pm

    Yep.

    What TOG said has been painfully obvious for quite a while now, and it is but one of the aspects of the headlong rush into the depths of vicious authoritarianism. I still find it amazing that so many people just refuse to see it. It is not just voluntary, willful blindness, but insistent, adamant, and fanatical blindness.

  • On the post: DOGE Falsely Targeted Him On Social Media. Then The Taliban Took His Family

    Upstream ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2025 @ 07:04pm

    Shame???

    Mr. Halimi has a very serious misapprehension of current reality. Shame is an unknown concept for the likes of Musk, Trump, or any of their band of sycophants, oligarchs, and related stooges.

  • On the post: Texas Lawyer Harassed At Home By Federal Agents, Fired By His Employer After He Tells His Story

    Upstream ( profile ), 01 May, 2025 @ 05:50pm

    But then . . .

    voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for someone who is evil. As in so many things, there is a big difference between principle and expediency. Often, adhering to one's principles is much more difficult than taking the more expedient route.

  • On the post: Appeals Court Judges Say Some Worrying Things While Re-Thinking Their Geofence Warrant Decision

    Upstream ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2025 @ 01:22pm

    Not quite a rubber stamp, yet. But getting closer all the time.

    While the courts do occasionally rule in favor of individual rights, those instances seem increasingly rare, trivial, or so severely limited in scope as to be effectively meaningless. More often the courts seem to rule in a very broadly statist, "the government is always right and should be all powerful" sort of way.

  • On the post: Another Court Says A Drug Dog Sniff Is A Search, Requires Probable Cause To Justify It

    Upstream ( profile ), 08 Jan, 2025 @ 10:01am

    Just to be clear,

    many dogs are quite capable of detecting many things by smell, like explosives, cancer and other diseases, live or dead bodies, truffles, or whatever. Some breeds seem more capable and more suitable for this type of work than others, and some types take to the proper training better than others. With proper training, proper testing, and proper handling detection dogs can often achieve near perfect accuracy rates, with few, if any, false positives or false negatives. This^ is the key. Drug sniffing dogs typically do not receive proper training, proper testing, or proper handling. When the dog's trainers, testers, and handlers are all incentivized to get the dog to perform the trick (aka "alert") most any time and most anywhere, then the dogs are no longer "detection" dogs, but simply "4th Amendment circumvention" dogs.

  • On the post: Trademark Relinquished After Backlash From Trademark Bullying A Decade Ago By Pho Restaurant

    Upstream ( profile ), 01 Nov, 2024 @ 08:07am

    Thank you, second AC!

  • On the post: Trademark Relinquished After Backlash From Trademark Bullying A Decade Ago By Pho Restaurant

    Upstream ( profile ), 30 Oct, 2024 @ 03:12pm

    chipotle

    The USPTO has been a travesty for decades. The USPTO has been issuing patents and trademarks on things that should in no way be eligible for such legal protection. Nowhere near all of these bogus patents and trademarks get the attention or the push-back that they deserve, and many are simply weaponized by patent trolls and a compliant legal system. Similar situation with the USCO, which has long been abusively extending copyrights beyond all reason, and has been at the center of trying to maintain an obsolete model of copyright as a concept, in spite of the fact that most of the justification for that model vanished decades ago with the arrival of the now ubiquitous computer and then the Internet. I am sure a lot of money and special interest publishing lobbies [looking straight at Disney, but there are many other, lesser players] are heavily involved in maintaining the status quo. Most times, the push-back simply cannot compete with hordes of well-funded lobbyists and a corrupt Congress and Federal bureaucracy. As Timothy Geigner points out in the article, this is a rare occasion where the push-back was able to have the necessary effect. P.S Pho is awesome, no matter how you spell it!

  • On the post: AT&T Has To Settle Over Another 911 Outage, This Time For $950k

    Upstream ( profile ), 30 Aug, 2024 @ 06:08am

    Fines?

    Along with the above math, these fines don't even amount to a fraction of what AT&T could find behind the proverbial couch cushions.

  • On the post: Streisand Effect: Apple Gets Concept Renderer To Take Down Concept Art For Being ‘Too Realistic’

    Upstream ( profile ), 30 Aug, 2024 @ 06:02am

    Intentional?

    Maybe Apple intended to invoke the Streisand Effect for the free pre-publicity it would generate, thereby causing the hard-core, "must have the newest thing first" Apple fans to start salivating and forming lines around the Apple stores? Maybe it is an advertising version of FDR's saying about politics: "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way."

  • On the post: Zuckerberg’s Spineless Surrender: Rehashing Old News To Enable False GOP Narratives

    Upstream ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2024 @ 05:03pm

    Oops!

    I never mentioned experts on the subject of infectious diseases in my list of guilty parties, and that was completely intentional, because they were not guilty, they were the only ones trying to get things right, and they were definitely doing the best they could with what little information they had. It was very unfortunate that those that I did mention in my list were generally trying to silence those experts. I definitely should have made that clear. I failed, there. Mea culpa.

  • On the post: Lionsgate Marketing Consultant Built Movie Trailer Filled With AI Generated Fake Movie Reviews Of Old Films

    Upstream ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2024 @ 04:36pm

    AI applications

    There are some very legitimate concerns about AI being used in entertainment, but those are the least of my concerns. AI is already being used in politics, and it is only going to get worse and more dangerous as AI becomes more sophisticated. The thought of AI fooling people with their finger on the nuke button is quite terrifying. Sorry to hi-jack the comment thread, but every time I hear about AI stuff fooling people who are very knowledgeable and qualified, this is where my mind goes. There are many people with extremely dangerous power that are neither knowledgeable nor qualified, and therefore probably much more likely to be fooled by AI stuff.

  • On the post: Techdirt Passes Two Million Comments!

    Upstream ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2024 @ 04:15pm

    Congrats!

    Congratulations to the whole Techdirt crew! That really is an awesome milestone. Keep up the great work!

  • On the post: Zuckerberg’s Spineless Surrender: Rehashing Old News To Enable False GOP Narratives

    Upstream ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2024 @ 03:57pm

    Truth?

    Most of this whole discussion is based on the assumption that someone ... anyone, could have discerned what the truth about Covid was. IIRC everyone and their dog was lying through their teeth to promote their own political cause, personal agenda, career, etc. There is no way anyone could have discerned what was truth, what was misinformation, what was disinformation, etc. Hindsight discussions about the whole debacle miss the basic point that everyone involved, whether red, blue, social media bigshot, media mogul, pundit, or whatever, was, and still is, a huge, steaming, stinking pile of lying dog$#!t, and should be viewed as such.

  • On the post: FBI Wants More Access To Everything, Can’t Be Bothered To Protect The Stuff It Already Has

    Upstream ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2024 @ 03:28pm

    Hammers?

    Maybe just equip the field offices with one of these: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-21-oz-Wood-Milled-Face-with-17-7-in-Hickory-Framing-Hammer-SUO-007/321370762 They would really save on storage and shipping costs!

  • On the post: Civil Rights Complaint Filed Against Illinois Schools For Using Cops To Handle Normal Discipline Issues

    Upstream ( profile ), 01 Jul, 2024 @ 07:17am

    So what term can you use to mean all non-cops?

    Hmmm . . . let's see . . . . After much thought and careful consideration, "non-cops" comes to mind. It is accurate and does not seem too awkward to me.

  • On the post: Civil Rights Complaint Filed Against Illinois Schools For Using Cops To Handle Normal Discipline Issues

    Upstream ( profile ), 29 Jun, 2024 @ 11:44am

    Cops *are civilians*

    "That’s the level of professionalism we’ve come to expect from police officers when any aspect of their police work is questioned by a civilian."
    This implies there is some distinction between cops and "civilians," but in the US cops are civilians. Unless someone is subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), they are a civilian. This false distinction is typically made by government types and cops themselves, and really only serves to reinforce the "us versus them" mentality that we so abhorrent in cops. We should strive to avoid this false distinction, and instead try to reinforce the truth that cops are civilians, just like us non-cops, and are generally supposed to be subject to the same laws as the rest of us, too.** **Yes, there are a few legitimate exceptions to this, but really only a very few. The "completely above the law and completely unaccountable" status that the abomination of Qualified Immunity (aka Unqualified Impunity) has effectively granted to cops and other government types is absolutely not how things are supposed to work.

  • On the post: Seventh Circuit Sets Down Precedent, Says ‘Riley’ Warrant Requirement Doesn’t Apply At US Borders

    Upstream ( profile ), 24 Jun, 2024 @ 11:31am

    Feels like the War on Our Rights, Again. (FTFY)

    Just like: -Driving over the speed limit is suspicious. -Driving under the speed limit, in an apparent attempt to avoid suspicion, is suspicious. -Driving exactly at the speed limit, again in an apparent attempt to avoid suspicion, is also suspicious. -Driving on an Interstate highway to a city is suspicious. -Driving on an Interstate highway from a city is suspicious. -Yada -Yada -Yada Yeah, the all encompassing "profiling" that was inherently unconstitutional and completely ineffective in the failed War on Drugs is still very much a problem.

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