Upstream 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (655)

• On the post: University Of Hong Kong Wants To Remove A Sculpture Commemorating Tiananmen; To Preserve It, People Have Crowdsourced A Digital 3D Replica

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 14 Oct, 2021 @ 12:50pm

  Wrong bear

  the big panda in Beijing

  Xi Jinping hates being portrayed as Winnie the Pooh

• On the post: Prosecutors Drop Criminal Charges Against Fake Terrorist Who Duped Canadian Gov't, NYT Podcasters

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 14 Oct, 2021 @ 11:35am

  Not enough real crime, apparently.

  All of this coalesced into Chaudhry's arrest for the crime of pretending to be a terrorist. Chaudry was charged with violating the "terrorism hoax" law, which is a real thing, even though it's rarely used.

  This kind of reminds me of the laws in the US against simulated controlled substances. Apparently when the cops and legislators don't have enough actual crimes to worry about, they turn to non-crimes*, and then to simulated non-crimes.

  *The controlled substances, not the terrorism.

• On the post: In Latest Black Eye For NSO Group, Dubai's King Found To Have Used NSO Spyware To Hack His Ex-Wife's Phone

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 13 Oct, 2021 @ 01:43pm

  Different standards?

  If NSO weren't an identifiable company located in a friendly nation, but rather "shadowy hackers" in China or Russia, wouldn't they be considered international criminals, or maybe even "terrorists?" I don't see them as any different from the people selling dangerous ransomware and other malware on the dark web.

  I know that these kind of double standards are SOP for unprincipled, corrupt governments, but it is still hard to get used to.

• On the post: LA Sheriff's Handpicked 'Public Integrity Unit' Doing Little More Than Harassing And Intimidating The Department's Critics

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 13 Oct, 2021 @ 04:01am

  Re: "we declined"

  Exactly. Until these criminals with badges get prosecuted and imprisoned for their crimes they will keep on committing them. This DA who "declined" to do the right thing should be considered an accomplice after the fact.

• On the post: Alabama Supreme Court Rules Law Enforcement Can Withhold Almost All Records Indefinitely

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 13 Oct, 2021 @ 04:15am

  A competition?

  Maybe the Alabama SC is trying to compete with the Louisiana SC for the "Worst and Most Absurd State Supreme Court Decision in Favor of Law Enforcement" award?

• On the post: Most People Probably Don't Need A VPN, Experts Now Advise

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2021 @ 01:09pm

  Re:

  The same applies to encryption of all types (chat, email, etc). If everyone does it, if encryption and privacy are the norm rather than the exception, there is no way that using encryption or other privacy-enhancing features can attract extra scrutiny.

• On the post: Facebook Banning & Threatening People For Making Facebook Better Is Everything That's Wrong With Facebook

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2021 @ 01:04pm

  And if you make a tool to remove the fangs from a viper...

  the viper is sure to object.

• On the post: Does An Internet Infrastructure Taxonomy Help Or Hurt?

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 11 Oct, 2021 @ 07:04am

  Categories / Definitions

  At the risk of clouding or distracting from the point of the article, here is an analogy.

  There is a fundamental difference in companies that use the roads, like:
  UPS
  Fedex
  J. B. Hunt

  and companies that build and maintain the roads, like:
  APAC Inc
  Bob’s Barricades
  State DOTs

  even though all of them drive lots of trucks on the roads as an integral part of their operations.

  The distinctions that are fairly obvious between these two types of road-related organizations may not be quite so obvious when it comes to Internet companies and their operations, but they are the kinds of distinctions that need to be made in order to have fruitful discussions of the topic.

• On the post: If Your Takeaway From Facebook's Whistleblower Is That Section 230 Needs Reform, You Just Got Played By Facebook

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 06 Oct, 2021 @ 01:20pm

  Re: 'It's got a lock and heavy door, whatever shall I do?'

  Bingo! If Facebook is in favor of it, it is the wrong answer . . . and probably just plain wrong . . . and probably full blown evil.

• On the post: Does An Internet Infrastructure Taxonomy Help Or Hurt?

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 06 Oct, 2021 @ 01:15pm

  Good discussion

  This is an issue that really needs to get more attention, particularly amidst all the calls for and against regulation, censorship (or the opposite: requiring content be allowed), anti-trust action, etc.

  Anywhere you attempt to draw a line in the Internet, the blurring and exceptions quickly become apparent. The heavy hand of government regulation has never been good at dealing with such nuances.

  And, as Mike correctly points out, with technology and the Internet, change happens very quickly. Government and it's regulations are famous for lagging far behind, even when it comes things that change much more slowly.

  We can never have an intelligent discussion about anything unless the terms involved are clearly defined, and those definitions are well-understood by everyone involved in the discussion.

  While a new taxonomy (which tends to focus on categorizing things into groups or layers) might not be in order, maybe some new terminology, clearly defined and broadly understood, might be what is needed.

• On the post: Minnesota Dept. Of Public Safety Now Handing Out License/Insurance Carriers In Hopes Of Keeping Cops From Killing More Drivers

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 25 Sep, 2021 @ 03:46am

  My plan

  I have not been pulled over by a cop in a very long time, but in the event that should happen, I will try to get my registration and proof of insurance out of the glove compartment and put it in my lap or on the seat beside me in clear view before the cop even has a chance to get out of the cop car. Same for wallet w/ license.

  To the poster who pointed out that they can look these things up on their computer: Of course they can. But that would deprive them of the pretext to shoot you, or maybe just to ticket you for not having useless pieces of paper in your possession.

• On the post: Texas' Unconstitutional Social Media Censorship Bill Challenged In Court, Just As Texas Joins The Legal Fight For Florida's Unconstitutional Social Media Bill

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 25 Sep, 2021 @ 03:28am

  Redefining everything

  Moving your mouth while slowly exhaling thereby making sounds to communicate audible information is now conduct, not speech!

  1984 was not subtitled A Beginner's Guide to Dystopia.

• On the post: The LAPD Is Asking City Residents To Hand Over Social Media Account Info To Feed To Its Unsupervised Monitoring Software

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 17 Sep, 2021 @ 05:12am

  Re: Re: Re: Why not?

  Not just Southeast Asia. Look no further than the US, and everyone who voted for either Trump / Pence or Biden / Harris, all four of whom had solid histories of authoritarianism. The widespread popular support for authoritarianism, and even totalitarianism, is some very scary stuff.

• On the post: Minnesota Troopers Decided Being Sued For Excessive Force Was The Perfect Time To Delete Emails And Text Messages

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 17 Sep, 2021 @ 05:22am

  SOP

  This is the people entrusted with making sure the rest of us abide by laws abandoning their duty to be law-abiding themselves.

  This is what a majority of elected, appointed, and hired "public servants" do as standard operating procedure (SOP). Exceptions to this rule are rare, indeed, and are usually purged, themselves (recent, high profile case-in-point: Justin Amash).

• On the post: The LAPD Is Asking City Residents To Hand Over Social Media Account Info To Feed To Its Unsupervised Monitoring Software

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 16 Sep, 2021 @ 08:10am

  Re:

  peoples' private fascbook pages

  There is no such thing as a "private" Facebook page, or group, or whatever.

• On the post: Mistrial Declared In Backpage Founders' Trial; After DOJ Ignores Judge's Rules Regarding What It Could Present

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 16 Sep, 2021 @ 04:18am

  Re: Re: Re: Re:

  all they're doing is burning bridges and gutting any chance that companies and individuals will be willing to help them when they come asking in the future, making their jobs all the harder if not outright impossible when that day comes.

  While I suppose there might be some drawbacks to this result, I think that it would be a net positive, and probably a large one, at that.

• On the post: The LAPD Is Asking City Residents To Hand Over Social Media Account Info To Feed To Its Unsupervised Monitoring Software

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 16 Sep, 2021 @ 04:21am

  Just say "No!"

  To both social media and the LAPD (and anyone else who asks). There is too much surveillance and spying that we cannot avoid. There is really no excuse for not avoiding the instances that we can avoid.

• On the post: Mistrial Declared In Backpage Founders' Trial; After DOJ Ignores Judge's Rules Regarding What It Could Present

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 15 Sep, 2021 @ 09:36am

  Re: Mistrial is too lenient

  Mistrial is almost always too lenient, particularly when it comes to clear, intentional prosecutorial misconduct.

  dismissal with prejudice, sanctions and Bar disciplinary referrals.

  These should be standard procedure, and maybe add some big fines, too, so the taxpayers would have reason to be mad at the prosecutor(s), and might be motivated to find a new one.

• On the post: Mistrial Declared In Backpage Founders' Trial; After DOJ Ignores Judge's Rules Regarding What It Could Present

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 15 Sep, 2021 @ 05:31am

  Re: Re:

  Exactly! in places where judges are elected (either to the position or to retain the position) attack ads painting them as "soft on crime are still the order of the day. At least this judge had the backbone to make this decision, which was clearly needed, given the contents of the opening arguments. Hell, the DOJ lead off with pure mistrial material.

• On the post: Dallas PD Hid Massive Data Deletion For Months From City Officials, District Attorney's Office

  

  Upstream ( profile ), 15 Sep, 2021 @ 05:23am

  Re: Re: Accident?

  I'm sure you could come up with many more examples of data loss, but of the six examples listed (the Sidekick example was duplicated on both links), all are rather old, and only three were complete loss of data due to accident / incompetence: Disney / Pixar - <1999 - accident / incompetence
  Sidekick - 2009 - accident / incompetence
  DreamHost - 2007 - accident / incompetence
  NARA - 2009 - theft / It appears that only one copy was lost, data existed elsewhere
  AMAG Pharma - <2015 - It appears that only one copy was lost, data restored from backup or other source
  UK Prison system - 2008 - It appears that only one copy was lost, data existed elsewhere I mentioned the examples were old because in years past making backups was more costly and time-consuming than it is today. Storage was more expensive and data transfer rates were slower. In the time frames of the incidents linked to, terabyte drives and gigabit/sec devices were not quite the commodity items they are today. These may be small points, but they can make a difference Another, much larger and more important, point: in the above examples, there is a possibility that corruption and / or criminal intent was involved. After all, business rivals could have a motive for causing a competitor to lose data or experience some other kind of setback. In the case of the Dallas PD, given what we know of police departments in general, and given what we know about the likely contents of the data that they keep, I would suggest that there is a strong probability that corruption and / or criminal intent was involved. Murderers can be highly motivated to cause the "loss" of evidence of their guilt, and I doubt that they would consider bribes, blackmail, or similar to be beneath them. So, yeah, accidents happen and incompetence exists. But in this case I think an investigation should start with the assumption that this data loss is probably not the result of either one.

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