vilain’s Techdirt Profile

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

vilain ( profile ), 22 May, 2013 @ 12:52pm

Clearly school districts have to much money

because they keep doing stupid things (along with police departments) to kids and now their parents. If the DA chooses to pursue this, I hope that any civil suit that results will make the school district think before acting stupidly. And their new insurance company--cause it only takes one incident of 'being stupid' to get your insurance cancelled.

That's rent-a-cop better find a good lawyer.

On the post: This Is My Pencil. This Is My Pencil Pretending To Be A Gun. One Is For Writing. One Is For Mandatory Suspensions.

vilain ( profile ), 09 May, 2013 @ 04:42pm

I wonder, if, at the next school board meeting

If a group of parents stand as the School Board enters the chambers, aim pencils at them and make "pew pew pew". Some finger guns might also be used.

Then let the hijinks ensue.

On the post: Why The DOJ's Decision To Not Read Dzhokhar Tsarnaev His Miranda Rights Is A Terrible Idea

vilain ( profile ), 22 Apr, 2013 @ 07:18am

any trail should be interesting

I'd love to see Carmen Ortez in a courtroom against an attorney that would use her proprietorial record against her. And the fact that Miranda was withheld or delayed will severely hamstring sad prosecution.

That is, if he survives.

Could be fun. I'm making popcorn.

On the post: Montreal Student Arrested For Posting Photo Of Anti-Police Graffiti To Instagram

vilain ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2013 @ 10:34am

If she'd 'shopped it...

to have dick in the guy's mouth and a dog-collar, I doubt she would have been picked up. Or maybe Canadians don't have the right to mock their police like we do.

On the post: Teri Buhl Threatens To Sue Us And Others; Still Seems Confused About The Law

vilain ( profile ), 07 Feb, 2013 @ 04:44pm

Streisand Effect in full force

With this topic now throughly exhausted, Ms. Buhl continues to dig herself deeper and deeper into the dark hole of "clueless fool". If some attorney decides to take her case, I hope the judge slaps the case with sanctions and this woman walks away with her rectum handed to her in a handbasket.

Meanwhile, I'm going to CostCo and buy a pallet of microwave popcorn. Between the Righthaven, Preenda, and this case, I'm throughly entertained.

On the post: Redditor Points Out The Flaws In SimCity's Online-Only DRM, Gets Banned By EA For His Troubles [UPDATED]

vilain ( profile ), 30 Jan, 2013 @ 08:01pm

Time to short EA stock

This response says it all. Let's hope the gamers hear this a vote with their wallets.

On the post: OXO Shows The Right Way To Respond To Bogus 'Outrage' Over 'Copied' Product

vilain ( profile ), 28 Jan, 2013 @ 10:18pm

Quirky isn't so hot a startup

I bought a few things from them. Talking strictly about the company itself, it took WEEKS to fulfill my orders. And I finally had to email their CS person to find out where my stuff was. Apparently they can't track orders with their processing system or provide shipping info. So they mailed me another item, which I got two weeks later for a total of 6 weeks to get something. What is this, 1960?Thankfully Target's been carrying some of their stuff so I can bypass web-ordering.

Pricey, but nice, gifty things. That you have to wait for a while to get. Which precludes giving them as gifts.

On the post: California Senator Leland Yee Tells Gamers To Shut Up And Let The Grown Ups Talk

vilain ( profile ), 25 Jan, 2013 @ 09:55am

Pure trolling

Until I heard Rachel Maddow's show on the NRA Obama's Kids ad (it was really about trolling), I had no context for comments like this. And they would piss me off. Which is exactly what Yee wants. And to rally like minded people to his cause or show someone that he stands for something.

Guess SCOTUS telling him to STFU isn't enough. Maybe holding lawmakers in contempt (e.g. tossing them into jail for a week, a month or maybe a year) might be a solution. It worked for the the terrorists at Gitmo, right?

I'm bordering on trolling here myself but I have a problem with lawmakers infringing on what I can do legally in my own home on my own time. Belmont when after smoking in condos and apartments (which I don't do but reserve the right for anyone to smoke in their own home).

Now he wants to come after video games? You'll have to pry the keyboard out of my cold dead fingers, Senator Yee.

On the post: Carmen Ortiz Releases Totally Bogus Statement Concerning The Aaron Swartz Prosecution

vilain ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 10:48am

Time will judge her

While she may get away with her actions in this case, justifying and outright lying about them to the public. In private, her family and her conscience ultimately will judge her for what she did. If she has no conscience, then, as a true sociopath, she's perfectly positioned to become the next governor of Massachusetts. My only hope is that people of that state have a long memory for such things and her opponent will hammer home the "she drove a 24 boy to suicide" over and over and over.

While she may never see the consequences of her actions, time may judge her more harshly than if she was actually removed from office and stripped of her law license.

Please sign the Whitehouse petition to fire her.

http://boingboing.net/2013/01/14/whitehouse-gov-petition-to-rem.html

On the post: 'Under American Law, Anyone Interesting Is A Felon' – Tim Wu On The Prosecution Of Aaron Swartz

vilain ( profile ), 15 Jan, 2013 @ 10:33pm

Sign the Whitehouse Petition to remove this prosecutor

BoingBoing has a link to a petition submitted to Whitehouse.gov to remove this prosecutor from her job. I think the more people that sign it, the more the Whitehouse will have to look at the problem.

If the petition process was enough to get Obama to say "We're not going to build a Death Star. Get over it." Maybe getting them to review this person's position in the Justice Department (a misnomer if ever I've heard one).

http://boingboing.net/2013/01/14/whitehouse-gov-petition-to-rem.html

On the post: Police Chief Deploys Officers With Assault Rifles To Stop & ID Everyone; Says Local Crime Stats Give Him Probable Cause

vilain ( profile ), 21 Dec, 2012 @ 05:44pm

ACLU challenge detected...

I'd like to see a group of 10 different ACLU attorneys, all of different ethnicities and ages, go walking in this area with remotely uploading video uplinks. When asked to show their papers by the various officers, they can go through the dialog "What's your probable cause." and refuse to produce them. Videos would then be used for litegation against the arresting officers, police chief, and mayor. That city is going to be bankrupt from all the litigation very quickly.

Time to dump these clowns.

On the post: BPI Threatens To Sue UK Pirate Party Leaders Personally Due To Internet Proxy

vilain ( profile ), 18 Dec, 2012 @ 09:16am

up the anti on crazy

And by threatening MPs, the next step is for all the Board members of BPI can be pulled into local police stations and questioned about ALL their activities around this threatening behavior. Police interrogation and the information used to assemble a case against BPI for the UK equivalent of racketeering. Love to see these guys behind bars.

On the post: HuffPost Moderates Comments To Please Advertisers [Updated: Or Not]

vilain ( profile ), 30 Oct, 2012 @ 11:59am

What about the writers?

Granted the HuffPo doesn't pay writers. What about 'moderating' the opinion of writers and columnists? I know someone who writes freelance for various PC magazines who went to 'the mall' recently to buy Windows 8 and a Surface tablet. He walked away based on his interactions with the store's staff who actively tried not to help him. Although he actively defriends people who pull the Mac vs. PC debate on his FB wall, he did marvel that just across the Mall the Apple Store was doing booming business. And that every sales associate was actively trying to help him _solve his problem_ (not the same thing as sell him a computer). Will his little FB rant ever appear as a column in the PC magazines where he appears? That remains to be seen. Faulting Microsoft in print isn't a good strategy for a magazine that want to continue publishing. I wonder if my friend will stay silent on this or post a YELP review or email someone in Microsoft corporate directly to provide them with the feedback that they're customer service sucks dead bunnies. Before he publishes his opinion in print along with comments from various Microsoft sources. His main job is 'plotting revenge for a living' and he's been writing for 40+ years so I don't think he'll go hungry.

Moderating what 'the great unwashed' (e.g. the general public) says on your website is just good business. Keeps the lawyers at bay. I'm sure Techdirt's had to pay lawyers regarding user comments on more than one occasion.

On the post: School Suspends Students For Finding 'Racy' Photo Teacher Accidentally Put On Their iPads

vilain ( profile ), 19 Oct, 2012 @ 10:28am

Beth Clarke is a lawsuit waiting to happen

especially when they find screen grabs from MAGIC MIKE on her phone and laptop.

On the post: California's Law Barring Demands For Social Media Passwords Sounds Good… But Might Not Be

vilain ( profile ), 28 Sep, 2012 @ 01:45pm

Doesn't matter for big companies

In the end, big companies make their own rules. If someone hiring does the wrong thing in California, there may be legal consequences for failing to hire because you declined to give access to your social media. But it requires the lawyers become involved.

While it's not required to get various forms of Trust and Durable Power of Attorney documents notarized, Wells Fargo requires all documents be notarized. Don't like it, bank somewhere else. Or sue.

On the post: Judge Says Sniffing Unencrypted WiFi Networks Is Not Wiretapping

vilain ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2012 @ 09:23am

All depends on who's doing the tapping

A reporter for a local paper sat on the bleachers of the local high school and accessed an OPEN mount point on the schools file server via an open WiFi network. He didn't modify any files but he was able to open and read stuff that shouldn't have been publicly available. Then he wrote about it for the paper. The school district's IT department was in a dither about the lack of security but don't know if the City attorney tried to go after this guy. This was in Palo Alto, the heart of the Silicon Valley.

If open WiFi networks aren't wiretapping, then the DA had no case. But that didn't stop them from trying to make one.

On the post: The Inevitable Crowdfunding Backlash When People Realize Projects Fail & Change

vilain ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2012 @ 08:47am

Depends on why you're funding a project

Up until seeing this post, I hadn't considered using Kickstart or other crowdfunding to do something other than offer a way to see a project that might not otherwise happen. I've funded two things so far--a gay-themed superhero comic book (and seen the pages the author and artist has posted over the last months) and a coming-out film (it didn't make it's goal so the film didn't happen and my card wasn't charged $20). In both cases, I was funding something I wanted to see happen.

If it something to "invest" in, where I expect a monetary return for my money, that's another matter. I see crowd funding as a dicey proposition for that--rife with fraud and possible criminality as well as an opportunity to make money faster. It's not what I would do with my money in order to grow it.

I'd rather spend $$$ to keep the Castro Theater in SF showing the nightly eclectic Queer-friendly fare rather than it turn into another souless cineplex for the yuppies that are invading the neighborhood. They growl at the same sex couples holding hands and get all bent out of shape when those same couples tell them to 'F*ing breeders. This was _our_ neighborhood before you were even born. Take your 2-cup baby stroller and go live in the Marina."

On the post: People Who Pay For A Service Are A Lot Nicer Than Those Who Don't

vilain ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2012 @ 07:16pm

NeoOffice users aren't so nice

The 2 guys in a garage who ported OpenOffice to MacOS have found that new users have become the bane of their existence. These people are upset that they have to pay $10/year for support of a 'free product'. It's gotten so bad that the developers have stopped fixing bugs because they're spending all their time answer tech support calls from users.

So, they shut down the payment system and let the current crop of people go without help. Only if you've bought support in the last year will they allow you to pay for another year for support and then answer your questions.

This seems just the reverse of what the original article is saying. But this is pissing off a LOT of people in the Macintosh news groups. You can't even post to the NeoOffice forums and emails from non-subscribers are bounced back. Their excuse is that they aren't a company and are doing this 'because they want to'. They took a free-software package (OpenOffice), forked it, changed the copyright to another form (it's legal), and now users are left twisting in the wind. The last time a developer did this (Brian Clark, 'author' of Thoth, a MacOS news reader), users either held their nose or told him to bite the big one.

Someone needs to drop a house on these guys who are doing this to NeoOffice.

On the post: Where Do Teens Discover New Music? YouTube.

vilain ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2012 @ 05:48pm

Certainly is for me

I stumbled across Sam Tsui (recent Yale grad) who's a "Youtube phenomenon". He and his music producer led me to other Youtube artists who subscribe to. The video for this summer's hit CALL ME MAYBE was mentioned by one of the Glee actors. The ending became the plot for quite a few fanfic stories.

The idea that you need a recording contract to get your music out there is, I think, no longer true. Those struggling artists need $$$ to tour and actually give live concerts. Kickstarter, maybe? That's why I buy covers from them in iTunes--they get more $ from the sale than any commercial album.

Time for the record and movie industry to stop with their rectocranially impacted business model. They're selling buggy whips and don't even smell the gasoline.

On the post: Bait & Switch: Buy A Lifetime Account For As Long As We Exist Or Until We Get Tired Of You

vilain ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2012 @ 03:27pm

Some companies keep their promises

An aunt was a 'lifetime' subscriber to the New Yorker until she died at 89. That subscription lasted 70+ years. Someone else down the block was a lifetime subscriber of The Reader's Digest (they were from the Midwest--not their fault) and had a similar run.

I'd love to see the early customers band together to launch a class action lawsuit against these clowns. No one really wins in those things except the lawyers, but if it makes the company keep their promises, great. Otherwise, they deserve to go out of business.

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