urza9814 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Anti-Vaxxers Countermeasures Show Why It's Not So Simple To Just 'Delete' Anti-Vax Misinfo On Social Media

    urza9814 ( profile ), 26 Jul, 2021 @ 03:29pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Oh, and in addition to "wear your damn masks", stay the heck out of crowded bars and clubs and such! I really don't think those morons are any better than the anti-vaxxers. This global pandemic is not magically ended just because you personally got a somewhat effective prophylactic! It is not party time yet! An anti-vaxxer who stays home is still a MUCH lower risk than the unmasked vaccinated guy at a rave...

  • On the post: Anti-Vaxxers Countermeasures Show Why It's Not So Simple To Just 'Delete' Anti-Vax Misinfo On Social Media

    urza9814 ( profile ), 26 Jul, 2021 @ 03:20pm

    Re: Re:

    The antivaxers are far from the only problem though. The vaccinated ones acting like it's a 100% effective full immunity aren't helping much either. We know the vaccines aren't 100% effective at preventing symptoms. We suspect they're even less effective at preventing infection. We know that vaccination can create a higher rate of asymptomatic carriers, which is one of the biggest problems with covid to begin with! If the mask mandates had stayed in place we could have stopped this. With the current tactics, we can only hope the vaccines alone will be enough, and it doesn't look like they will be. Wear your damn masks, people! It legitimately feels like our elected officials are trying to keep this pandemic around sometimes...every time we start to make progress they all trip over each other racing to roll back protections before the rates can fall too far..and then the rates start to climb again and everyone acts like it's a complete mystery why... TL;DR: the world is full of idiots and anti-vaxxers are merely one particularly potent strain...

  • On the post: LA Court Abusing Copyright Law To Take Down (Unauthorized) Recording Of Britney Spears Hearing

    urza9814 ( profile ), 02 Jul, 2021 @ 08:08am

    Re: YouTube mistake?

    I don't think "They didn't have the form I wanted" is a valid defense against perjury....surely there are ways to serve a court order to YouTube even if they don't have an automated system set up to handle it.

  • On the post: A Second Cambrian Explosion of Open Source Licenses Or Is it Time For Open Source Lawyers to Have Fun Again?

    urza9814 ( profile ), 29 May, 2021 @ 03:48am

    Re: Re: Re: Call a spade a spade

    Well sure, but it's fraud to call this an open license, and it's kinda fraud to call it a license at all. It's no different that a regular copyright really. You can use it as you want until they decide you can't. Most licenses can't be revoked in that way. Most licenses have clearly defined terms. And furthermore...I think this document claims rights that they legally do not have. Ultimately it's all based on copyright, right? You agree to and comply with the terms or it's copyright infringement. Since when does the copyright holder of a book get to say who can READ or OWN the book though? Copyright covers production and distribution, not use. This license is trying to claim a right to regulate use. You could say it's just a combined distribution license and EULA, but EULAs cover services. A document isn't a service. You can regulate access to a server with a EULA, but once it leaves that server (which this license allows) the EULA can no longer apply (but this license claims it would). The whole thing is a mess and hopefully largely unenforceable...

  • On the post: A Second Cambrian Explosion of Open Source Licenses Or Is it Time For Open Source Lawyers to Have Fun Again?

    urza9814 ( profile ), 29 May, 2021 @ 03:37am

    Re: Context free zone

    No concrete examples? Did you miss the paragraph about ml5.js and the link to its bizarre terms?

  • On the post: A Second Cambrian Explosion of Open Source Licenses Or Is it Time For Open Source Lawyers to Have Fun Again?

    urza9814 ( profile ), 28 May, 2021 @ 09:17am

    Re: Call a spade a spade

    "Freedom 0" is the Free Software definition, this article is discussing open source. And in THAT context....we just need to talk about principles five and six of the open source definition. :) Most CoCs are more of a terms of service document for a project's private infrastructure...and as far as F/OSS goes, that's perfectly fine. But making that into a license -- saying you can revoke someone's right to use a library (not distribute, use, which goes beyond what traditional open licenses even attempt to regulate -- although that may make sense in a SaaS age) if you feel they don't sufficiently "acknowledge others' feelings" or because you used it to build a dildo is a clear violation of the OSD and also just an utterly ridiculous thing to do. The license says that if you use that library, you MUST make me "feel heard". So if I ask a question but I'm distracted and don't hear your response, YOU violated the license terms! My personal feelings are now YOUR responsibility! Brilliant idea, isn't it? Isn't precision also something lawyers are supposed to like? Kinda goes along with the hating uncertainty thing, doesn't it? But this license sets up a small, self-appointed committee (with no system in place for that committee to ever change or be in any way responsive to the community) that can revoke anyone's rights for any reason at any time -- literally "they looked at me in a way that made me uncomfortable" seems to be a perfectly valid justification under that text, so ultimately the committee can justify almost any decision they want. I really hope nobody would use such vague, arbitrary, and dictatorial terms for anything serious....

  • On the post: Big Telecom Sues New York State For Trying To Bring Cheap Broadband To Poor People

    urza9814 ( profile ), 07 May, 2021 @ 09:49am

    Re: competition

    They don't need to. I recently purchased a perfectly good PC for $25 at a local thrift shop. They had a whole wall of 'em. They aren't Ryzen or RTX, but they'll run office stuff just fine. If you can afford $15/mo for internet then you can probably afford $25-$50 for a PC that should last at least two or three years. And the government itself already provides food at least through food stamps, although you are correct that the government isn't setting retail prices there. However, the government also hasn't given grocery stores billions of dollars in grants specifically intended to provide access to low income or otherwise under-served communities, so it's also about time that they actually start asking for some return on those investments...

  • On the post: Captive Markets Are Just Hostages; Or Why Your McDonalds Never Seems To Have A Functioning Shake Machine

    urza9814 ( profile ), 22 Apr, 2021 @ 03:09pm

    Re: Re: Customers?

    "The other thing that is idiotic is why are there goddamn electronics in a fooken shake machine? Like, at all." Because otherwise you've gotta train the employees how to properly operate the thing. Much easier to train the electronics. Plus it keeps the employees less secure when the job is basic enough that they could be instantly replaced by any stoned teenager off the street.

  • On the post: Reporter Sues DOJ To See If It Is Trying To Help Devin Nunes Unmask @DevinCow Twitter Account

    urza9814 ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2021 @ 01:40pm

    Fucking fantastic...

    So, our nation's top law enforcement officials can neither confirm nor deny that they were involved in behavior that was at the very least extremely unethical, if not outright criminal.

    Yeah...even if they didn't do it, the fact that they can't give a straight 'no' is extremely concerning...or at least it ought to be in any nation whose laws actually mean anything...

  • On the post: ACLU Tells Congress: Do Not Add Copyright Trolling Bill To Government Funding Bill

    urza9814 ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2020 @ 03:55am

    Re: Re:

    I called, emailed, and then typed up a letter and mailed it.

  • On the post: Trump Makes It Official: He's Going To Pull Military Funding, Because Congress Won't Kill The Open Internet

    urza9814 ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2020 @ 04:27pm

    CASE Act?

    Good. Veto that fucker so they can't use it to sneak the CASE Act into law. And if that requires cutting off our bloated military budget for a short while...what's the problem, exactly?

    I mean I get it, Trump is a moron, but even a broken clock is right twice a day, right?

  • On the post: WHO Is Blocking Commenters From Even Mentioning Taiwan On Its Facebook Page

    urza9814 ( profile ), 12 Nov, 2020 @ 10:36am

    Re:

    Stop fuckin trolling. That's basically the only thing the Human Cheeto ever got right! WHO's absurd denial of the existence of Taiwan started long before the US left. Stop inventing "facts" just because you think they'll support your "team". This shit is not a goddamn sport, there are peoples' fucking lives at stake...

  • On the post: CBP So Confused It Seizes Clearly Labeled OnePlus Earbuds, And Falsely Claims They're Counterfeit Apple Airpods

    urza9814 ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2020 @ 04:16pm

    fraud.

    Hmm...there's a link on that page to report "suspected fraud". The claims that these are counterfeit Apple products seems pretty damn fraudulent to me...

  • On the post: The Next Generation Of Video Game Consoles Could Be The Beginning Of GameStop's Death

    urza9814 ( profile ), 12 Sep, 2020 @ 05:06am

    They sure aren't going retro..

    No way is Gamestop going to go retro and focus on older consoles. As far as I can tell they seem to deliberately try to stay out of that market. Sure, they'll sell whatever they get in trade-ins, but have you ever tried to buy any specific older hardware from them? Every time I've looked, even for stuff just one generation old, even for stuff that's still being manufactured, whether it's controllers or games or consoles, you've gotta search every Gamestop in the city and hope you get lucky. You might end up driving two hours just to find a single controller...or you could just buy it on Newegg. I bet they're already trying to get all the PS4 inventory out of their stores....

  • On the post: Judge Tosses Out Genius' Laughable Lawsuit Against Google Over Licensed Lyric Copying

    urza9814 ( profile ), 12 Aug, 2020 @ 06:34pm

    Re:

    " OK, let me see if I got this straight. Website copy-licenses content from one source that was created by another source, sets up a useragent file to request another entity to publicise it for download by anybody, then sues their publicity agent for ... doing too good a job?" Sounds a bit like a movie studio suing Blockbuster for having a movie night where they pick a random rental off the shelf and project it on the wall in their parking lot for $5 a ticket. And they would absolutely get sued for doing that if they didn't pay for the proper license. Even though the studios did agree to let Blockbuster help them get those movies to more people, that doesn't mean they can do it any way they want. You can't just pass someone else's content off as your own, even if you HAVE been asked to help publicize it. Which is exactly what Google did here...the only reason they got away with it is because the person they lifted it from doesn't legally own it either.

  • On the post: Judge Tosses Out Genius' Laughable Lawsuit Against Google Over Licensed Lyric Copying

    urza9814 ( profile ), 12 Aug, 2020 @ 02:07pm

    Re: Re: Hey judge... Is it a derivative work, though?

    Yeah, the judge seems to be saying that if it was a derivative work, Genius would be guilty of copyright violations themselves, because they don't have a license to create derivative works. It's not even that it doesn't matter -- Genius themselves shouldn't want their own argument to be true, or they'd be liable to be sued by every artist or label whose lyrics they watermarked. But when the judge starts with "Even accepting the argument..." that's a pretty good hint that they don't accept that argument...

  • On the post: Judge Tosses Out Genius' Laughable Lawsuit Against Google Over Licensed Lyric Copying

    urza9814 ( profile ), 12 Aug, 2020 @ 01:59pm

    Re: Re: One copyright, many documents

    Yeah, I wonder why Genius didn't go that route to begin with...they do have a lot of minor labels and independent artists that they seem to work pretty closely with, and several artists who do post their own lyrics directly to Genius and seem have some kind of official partnerships (I'll occasionally see artists posting photos of themselves working at the Genius offices...or at least I did pre-COVID)...I very much doubt that these generic major lyrics licenses cover everything that Genius hosts already. But Google might be smart enough to make sure they only copy lyrics for tracks that they have a license for?

  • On the post: Judge Tosses Out Genius' Laughable Lawsuit Against Google Over Licensed Lyric Copying

    urza9814 ( profile ), 12 Aug, 2020 @ 12:20pm

    One copyright, many documents

    So how exactly does one copyright/license cover potentially dozens of different sets of lyrics? Wouldn't the lyrics license only cover fully accurate transcriptions? Can I just submit the text of a book, say it's the lyrics to some Beyonce track, and it's magically covered? Because apparently Google can just lift anything from Genius and THAT'S magically covered...?

    I have seen a few instances where people submitted lyrics to completely different tracks on Genius, in addition to the usual arguments about the correct interpretation of a particular line...I know that wasn't part of this suit exactly but how is that handled? If it's not the correct lyrics, it can't be copyright by the musician/label because it isn't their work, so wouldn't that copyright still be held by the transcriber (who, by the ToS, licenses it to Genius alone)?

  • On the post: Copyright Troll Richard Liebowitz Says It's Really Unfair That He Should Have To Tell Clients And Courts How Frequently He's Been Caught Lying In Court

    urza9814 ( profile ), 22 Jul, 2020 @ 12:32pm

    Re: 'If people know I'm a liar they might not hire me!'

    "You also got to love how his excuses shoot each other in the back, as the dupes he hired to represent him try to both argue that he keeps making 'mistakes' because he lacks experience and that those 'mistakes' should be overlooked because he's just filing so many cases, something which I guess requires no legal expertise nor adds any?" Settlements don't add court experience, nor do cases that are dropped before going to court when a settlement offer is refused. How many of those cases he files actually go anywhere? That might explain how he can still be lacking experience...

  • On the post: Facing Multiple Lawsuits, ICE Decides Not To Punish Foreign Students For Furthering Their Education During A Pandemic

    urza9814 ( profile ), 15 Jul, 2020 @ 01:20pm

    Re:

    As you correctly point out, the problem here is the GOP. They don't control the whole country though, and in the parts they do control they're literally killing off their strongest block of supporters. The problem will solve itself if it has to... But blue states are generally doing much better. Here in the northeast (RI in my case) we're seeing lower transmission rates than most of Europe as far as I can tell. Those idiots in Florida and Arizona are getting exactly what they voted for -- rule by the Church of the Almighty Dollar.

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