velox 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (149) comment rss

  • On the post: Senator Rand Paul Wants A Class Action Lawsuit Against NSA Surveillance

    velox ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2013 @ 06:33am

    Shane:
    I agree with your main point. I appreciate Rand Paul's willingness to take a stand in support of civil liberties, even when that sometimes means bucking his own party's historical positions.

    As to leftists however, there are quite a variety of political views on TD, and I don't believe leftist philosophy is more prominent than others.

  • On the post: Tech Companies Deny Letting NSA Have Realtime Access To Their Servers, But Choose Their Words Carefully

    velox ( profile ), 07 Jun, 2013 @ 09:57am

    Re: Re: Know who is in your computer

    Yes, it's "whack-a-mole", but is there any way to address the issue that does not involve constant vigilance?

    As to Linux, BSD and the like, yes, I run those too. You are kidding yourself however if you think you aren't being watched when you use a browser on a Linux machine. Using Linux only decreases the extent to which you are being spied upon. It does not eliminate it.

  • On the post: Tech Companies Deny Letting NSA Have Realtime Access To Their Servers, But Choose Their Words Carefully

    velox ( profile ), 07 Jun, 2013 @ 09:28am

    Know who is in your computer

    As this week's news shows, it's becoming increasingly clear that the government has been using data acquired through corporate activity to spy on citizens.
    If you don't like the idea of the government spying on your computer, then you need to get control of the commercial spying that almost all of us have been allowing to occur.

    For those who would like to put a stop to this, but perhaps don't know where to start, step 1 is knowing who is doing the spying. There are many ways to do this, but I suggest some free Nirsoft tools. Network TrafficView will give you are real-time picture of the IP addresses which are communicating with your computer. You can then use DNSDataView to identify the companies that are behind the IP addresses.

    Armed with that information, you can start blocking. You can block by domain name, IP address and in some cases by port number.

  • On the post: Utah Sheriff Claims Copyright On Mugshot Photos To Avoid Releasing Them

    velox ( profile ), 05 Jun, 2013 @ 01:05pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    The internet is changing many things. Among the most profound is the inability of the internet to forget.

    I think that society will eventually have to come to grips with this and decide what it really means to forgive. Much of what passed for forgiveness from society in the pre-internet age was simply forgetting due to the lack of access to old information. Now that the events of 20+ years ago are no more than a few key clicks away, we need to decide whether we are really going to forgive someone who has "paid their debt to society". We also need to decide what that debt really is.

    The Scarlett Letter needs an update.

  • On the post: New Zealand High Court Orders Kiwi Police & FBI To Return Seized Hard Drives To Kim Dotcom

    velox ( profile ), 31 May, 2013 @ 12:19pm

    Re: Re:

    "now with TechDirt almost 15 people know who Dotcom is !!!!.."

    You are apparently unfamiliar with this thing called Twitter.
    DotCom has roughly 300,000 followers.

  • On the post: Authoritarian Governments Still Trying To Seek More Control Over The Internet

    velox ( profile ), 28 May, 2013 @ 11:29pm

    Re: Re: WELL, the US gave up its control of the internet, and it got worse.

    If history is any predictor, eventually ootb will get tired of losing arguments, and we'll gradually see less of him. Then at some point he fades away... like angry dude and darryl. Even Average Joe has become much less frequent here than 2-3 years ago.

  • On the post: So It's Come To This: Seven High School Students Arrested For Throwing… Water Balloons

    velox ( profile ), 22 May, 2013 @ 09:21am

    Zero Tolerance = Unthinking Intolerance

  • On the post: Makers Of Nutella Force Fan Who Created World Nutella Day To Shut It Down [Updated]

    velox ( profile ), 21 May, 2013 @ 12:10pm

    Re:

    "This is typically the kind of situation that happens when lawyers are allowed to become too influential"
    You are exactly right.
    There is also another related [poor] business strategy: Sign on with a consulting firm that will provide "full service" protection of your brands and IP. In that situation, the business may not even be directly involved in the decision to do send this type of letter.

    Hint for the MBA set: Any time your decision making process consists of "leaving it up to" someone who is in a different business than you, watch out. They may be making decisions that are not necessarily in your best interest.

  • On the post: DOJ And Dept. Of Education To Colleges: Start Restricting Free Speech On Campus Or Kiss Your Federal Funding Goodbye

    velox ( profile ), 21 May, 2013 @ 09:12am

    Civil Liberties = Civil Rights

    Apparently at the DOJ and the DOE, the term "civil rights" no longer equals "civil liberties".

  • On the post: Winning But Losing: Lessons From An Internet StartUp

    velox ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2013 @ 04:48pm

    Bring the British system to the US

    What the US sorely needs to accomplish legal reform can be said in 2 words: Loser Pays.

    So called consumer advocates (who are really representatives for plaintiff's attorneys) hate the idea for the very reason it is a good idea. Increasing the risk associated with bringing a questionable lawsuit means there will be fewer lawsuits. Fewer lawsuits mean fewer lawyers getting paid, and less expenditure of resources in nonproductive ways by all concerned.

    A true consumer advocate should accept this idea because if a corporation has wronged a consumer or group of consumers, the offender would be quicker to settle if it knew there was a good chance of losing not only the judgment, but also the opponent's legal fees. There is less chance that a true offender can just stall until the claimant runs out of money and gives up.

    Loser Pays means fewer frivolous lawsuits, fewer attempts at legal bullying and less expensive justice. Period.

  • On the post: Shameful: Tech Companies Fighting Against Necessary CFAA Reform And CISPA Fixes

    velox ( profile ), 12 Apr, 2013 @ 09:03am

    Re: Adobe wants guaranteed access to your private data

    uff... doubling typo.

  • On the post: Shameful: Tech Companies Fighting Against Necessary CFAA Reform And CISPA Fixes

    velox ( profile ), 12 Apr, 2013 @ 08:27am

    Adobe wants guaranteed access to your private data

    Adobe's subsidiary and suspected NSA contractor Omniture is the #1 merchant of private data taken from your computer without your permission or knowledge. (Yes, I know Google Analytics is right up there doing the same thing). Adobe/Omniture wants to ensure there is a legal framework for them to continue doing this without your approval, and certainly without any ability for you to block or otherwise interfere.

    And in case you might have wondered why the NSA picked Utah as the site for their new multi-billion dollar surveillance data facility, it is not a coincidence that Omniture's new Omniture's new headquarters is being built just "across the freeway"

  • On the post: French Politician Wants To Limit How Cheaply Companies Can Sell Goods Online Compared to Physical Shop Prices

    velox ( profile ), 12 Apr, 2013 @ 07:35am

    Price controls always fail.

    This proposal is a variant of price controls. The experience of 2000 years shows that of government control of pricing has never worked.

  • On the post: California Court Rules It Illegal To Check Maps On Your Phone While Driving

    velox ( profile ), 06 Apr, 2013 @ 09:30am

    Re: Re: Re: "That is also the law in Oregon"

    From The Oregonian, Aug 13, 2012: discussion of a ticket given for using a cell-phone map application while stopped at a traffic light. (look at the second half of the page)

    Here is the Oregon law in question: ORS 811.507

  • On the post: California Court Rules It Illegal To Check Maps On Your Phone While Driving

    velox ( profile ), 05 Apr, 2013 @ 08:07pm

    That is also the law in Oregon. You can use a dashboard GPS because it doesn't send out radio signals, but you can't use GPS on your phone because the phone does.
    Dumb law.

  • On the post: New Evidence: Homeland Security Spied On Peaceful Protestors; Worried About Protests Getting News Coverage

    velox ( profile ), 04 Apr, 2013 @ 03:49pm

    Re:

    "The very problem is that homeland security is told to work against anti-government for4ces. It would be better if it was told to work against anti-democratic forces"
    I'd like to hit [insightful] on this comment about 10 times!

  • On the post: Amazon Refuses To Publish First Cornish-Language Ebook

    velox ( profile ), 04 Apr, 2013 @ 02:10pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    No, Amazon should not be compelled to sell something they do not want to sell, and no, they have not done something terrible by exercising their right to choose what is sold on their site. I just happen to disagree with their choice. It also is most certainly censorship - not in a universal sense, and not in the sense that they are seeking to deny anyone the right to find and access material that others may judge to be objectionable. Such a limited meaning of "censor" isn't the only way to use the word. Consider, for example, that you can choose to censor your own expression.

    I do believe this policy is related to liability risk. Amazon doesn't want to get criticized and perhaps even sued by some angry parents alleging that Amazon should be liable for allowing their innocent child to be exposed to objectionable material on a site that Amazon made available to the public.

  • On the post: Amazon Refuses To Publish First Cornish-Language Ebook

    velox ( profile ), 03 Apr, 2013 @ 09:51pm

    Re:

    "They don't have anyone who can validate that the content "
    It should not be Amazon's responsibility to "validate" content. "Validation" in this context is just another euphemism for censorship. If Amazon is truly concerned about their inability to monitor what is being published, why can't they rely on crowd-sourced reporting of objections.
    This case is an example of why I believe the concept of safe harbors ought to be extended beyond DMCA liability. There should be similar safe harbors from tort liability as well.

  • On the post: Prince Sends A Takedown Over Six Second Vine Clips

    velox ( profile ), 03 Apr, 2013 @ 10:11pm

    How it really works...

    I seriously doubt Prince himself is trolling around the internet looking for supposed infringement. Almost certainly he signed a contract with a company that has promised to look out for his copyright interests so he doesn't have to personally worry with the details. The IP enforcement firm has incentive to find every miniscule scrap of music that can be attributed to their client. They must continue to keep proving their value in order to perpetuate their future paychecks.

  • On the post: What I Learned About My Own Daily Life From The Latest North Korean Propaganda Video

    velox ( profile ), 29 Mar, 2013 @ 07:41pm

    You forgot #9: "The hot snow tastes nice"

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