z! 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (145)

• On the post: Massachusetts Lawmaker Wants To Make It A Felony To Have Secret Compartments In Your Car

  

  z! ( profile ), 20 Jul, 2017 @ 04:34pm

  Re: 'Possession of a kitchen knife is evidence that the accused intended to murder someone with it.'

  Or from the other side, if you found the compartment, it wasn't secret, was it?. A secret is only a secret if the other person doesn't know about it. Perhaps the gentleman from Massachusetts means hidden...but then pretty much all cars have spaces that would count as hidden.

• On the post: Third Circuit Appeals Court Establishes First Amendment Right To Record Police

  

  z! ( profile ), 10 Jul, 2017 @ 04:29pm

  Re:

  Ouch, the judges were not being subtle. Or tolerant.

• On the post: Licensing Body Agrees To Temporarily Allow Man To Criticize The Government Without A License

  

  z! ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2017 @ 08:21am

  Re:

  In most states, you must have a license to represent yourself a "professional engineer" (a term of art), abbreviated PE. This usually only applies to the licensed disciplines of civil, electrical, and mechanical (any others?). Call yourself a doctor, lawyer, dentist (or PE), and it's implied that you have that license. Everywhere, except apparently Oregon, the bare word "engineer" does not.
  
  I can call myself a "software engineer" or "computer engineer" all I want, and if I operate a locomotive, even just "engineer".

• On the post: Brazilian Journalist Detained By UK Border Police For Reading A Book About ISIS

  

  z! ( profile ), 25 May, 2017 @ 12:21pm

  I wonder how the police would treat it if I complained about someone reading the xtian bible? (Many xtians -do- make me nervous.)

• On the post: Police Union Sues Toy Gun Maker For Not Doing Enough To Keep Cleveland Cops From Killing 12-Year-Old Boys

  

  z! ( profile ), 05 May, 2017 @ 04:41pm

  Re: Re: Re: Simple solution

  Why not just ban cops? They seem to be the real problem.

• On the post: Ted Cruz Doubles Down On Being Wrong: Pushes Yet Another Net Neutrality Killing Bill

  

  z! ( profile ), 04 May, 2017 @ 09:46am

  Re: Re: net neutrality

  Yep. I live less than 10 air miles from San Francisco and have the "options" of--
  2 providers over existing twisted pair (Sonic & ATT)
  1 provider over existing CATV cable (comcrap)
  2 fixed wireless (maybe, might be too far)
  1 satellite provider (Hughes, with huge latency)
  
  Only one of the TP providers and maybe one of the fixed-wireless providers will give me static IPs, which I need (and please don't argue with me about that). AFAICT none of them will install "business" service into a residence.
  
  
  The basic problem with all the arguments against net neutrality are that they conflate content and carriage. Consider that after AT&T Divestiture in the 1980s (and wireline voice traffic is regulated), the content industry blossomed. What made it work is that the telcos were -required- to carry everyone's traffic (and they made money off that).

• On the post: Game Maker Sues Milwaukee Over Permit Requirement To Make Augmented Reality Games

  

  z! ( profile ), 03 May, 2017 @ 12:50pm

  Personal jurisdiction?

  I wonder if Candy Labs has made a tactical error in suing the city.
  
  By ignoring the permit process and then being sued for lack of license, CL may have been able to argue that the court doesn't and can't have personal jurisdiction over them. Unless CL has offices in Milwaukee, the city would have to find some other nexus to hang the action on, which would require something like identifying a person that has purchased the game while physically located within the city bounds; even that sounds tenuous.

• On the post: No, The Wall St. Bull Sculptor Doesn't 'Have A Point'

  

  z! ( profile ), 18 Apr, 2017 @ 02:56pm

  Re: Re: Advertisement??

  I'll go out on a limb here- the vast majority of the people complaining were probably told "it's an ad.". Unless you read the caption, how can you tell? Even then, unless you know what "SHE" might refer to in context, how can you tell?
  
  What makes it an advertisement?
  
  Please explain.

• On the post: No, The Wall St. Bull Sculptor Doesn't 'Have A Point'

  

  z! ( profile ), 18 Apr, 2017 @ 12:17pm

  Advertisement??

  I find the advertisement argument, um, unavailing.

  Advertising only works when the viewer actually knows what is being advertised. Not being a New Yorker, I've only seem pictures of The Girl. Until it was mentioned during this contretemps, I had no idea that the statue was either placed by an investment firm or that it might be intended as advertising. Unless you know the origins, it's "just" another piece of art. Nice one, too.

  Heck, even walking by, you'd probably never see the caption.

  Advertisement? I think not.

• On the post: Alabama Sheriff In Court For Starving Inmates, Paying Critic's Grandson To Install Keylogger On Her Computer

  

  z! ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2017 @ 04:16pm

  Unless I'm mistaken, if the inmates were under 18 years old, this would be considered child abuse, or even child endangerment. If they're over 65, there's elder abuse. A competent DA from another county ought to look at this.

• On the post: Legal Threat From Creator Of Wall St. Bull Statue Even More Full Of Bull Than Expected

  

  z! ( profile ), 13 Apr, 2017 @ 10:02am

  I wonder if Di Modica has ever met Barbra Streisand; perhaps they can compare notes when it's over.

• On the post: If You're Going To Forge A Fake Court Order To Delete Search Results, Maybe Don't Choose A Prenda Case

  

  z! ( profile ), 31 Mar, 2017 @ 02:54pm

  Re: "This is a problem, now how do we make it bigger?"

  "...but forging a legal document in the process makes it look downright brilliant in comparison."
  
  And starting with a doc that some of Google's lawyers very well might have read, if nothing else for the amusement, moves it into the Gold-Plated-with-Oakleaf-Cluster Stupid category.

• On the post: Trump's Internet Brigades Shocked To Realize The Government Just Sold Them Out On Privacy

  

  z! ( profile ), 30 Mar, 2017 @ 05:42pm

  AFAICT, all of the discussions have falsely compared the last-mile service network providers (comcast, at&t, TWC, etc) with content providers (google, faceboek, etc). Problem is that they're completely different animals. If google wants to analyze my search history (or email), that's my price of using a free service. Since I -pay- for connectivity, the only value they can add is passing the bits off faster, and I don't see that happening. (Noted that there are last-mile providers, like sonic.net, whom explicitly don't look at your traffic.)

  The discussions should really revolve around the difference between carrying the traffic and providing any end-point service for that traffic. AT&T wants to provide email? Sure, make it a separate service.

  All I want in a last-mile provider is to move the bits from my premises to an interchange site then hand them off to whomever. That's it. I don't need their caching, email, or even DNS. Unfortunately, very few providers will sell you that.

• On the post: California News Publisher Files SLAPP Suit Against Competing Online Publisher

  

  z! ( profile ), 28 Mar, 2017 @ 04:03pm

  And, of course, there is a rather long tradition of newspapers with similar names competing, like the New York Times & Post and the Washington Times & Post, to name just a couple. -They're- not bothered by it.

• On the post: UK Intellectual Property Office Refuses Beer Brewery's Request To Block Trademark Application For Whisky

  

  z! ( profile ), 09 Mar, 2017 @ 09:11am

  Re: Yeah, right

  At least in the US, the problem is that many stores have passable malt & corn whisk{e}y, but very few have decent r{h}um. IMHO there are only five or six in the SF Bay area that would qualify.

• On the post: Court Tells Cops They Can't Use GPS Data Gathered After Suspect They Were Tracking Sold The Vehicle

  

  z! ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2017 @ 06:51pm

  Re: Quite lazy indeed

  Exactly. Would have been a lot less work than a stakeout to see who's driving it.

• On the post: Prenda's John Steele Pleads Guilty, Admits To Basically Everything

  

  z! ( profile ), 06 Mar, 2017 @ 08:23pm

  If I read the plea correctly, there's no admission of perjury. And there's still the IRS to deal with. I wonder if they'll get to any remaining funds before restitution is paid.

• On the post: New DOJ Boss Says He Hasn't Read DOJ Investigations Into Abusive Policing, Calls Them 'Anecdotal'

  

  z! ( profile ), 28 Feb, 2017 @ 03:25pm

  So, Sessions has now said he doesn't trust the work of his department's attorneys. Wonder if he'll investigate anything at all.

• On the post: Court Orders Small Ohio Speed Trap Town To Refund $3 Million In Unconstitutional Speeding Tickets

  

  z! ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2017 @ 07:58am

  Reminds me a bit of both Hampton and Waldo Florida. IIRC both had to disband their police forces.

• On the post: City Passes Ordinance Mandating CCTV Surveillance By Businesses, Including Doctors And Lawyers Offices

  

  z! ( profile ), 23 Dec, 2016 @ 01:29pm

  Re: Re: Re: This is a good thing folks...

  Unions and regulations are not the same thing... but yea shocker there that you cannot grasp that. Seems that you can not read. He wrote that they "fill the same role", that of providing a check on the employers, not that they are the same, which obviously they are not.

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