zgaidin 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: DOJ Racks Up 90% Failure Rate In Inauguration Protest Prosecutions, Dismisses Final Defendants

    zgaidin ( profile ), 09 Jul, 2018 @ 04:29am

    Re: Sure about that?

    Sadly true on all counts, and they learn from their mistakes. So, now they know which judges aren't going to give them access to Facebook accounts or other website PII, so next time they file elsewhere and try different judges. They figure out ways to tell the 90% who will be dismissed vs. the 10% early on, and don't have to waste any more time and effort on the 90% than it takes to string them along and keep the charges alive long enough to deter people.

  • On the post: Kim Dotcom Loses Latest Round In Extradition Fight, Will Try To Appeal Again

    zgaidin ( profile ), 05 Jul, 2018 @ 04:12pm

    The entire debacle, regardless of what you think of Dotcom as a person, is exactly why we see nonsense like the EU's newest round of copyright madness. Legacy publishers tried going after end users and got lambasted for going after 13 year old kids. They tried going after platform owners (a la Dotcom) and while it may eventually go the way they want, it's taken forever, and the internet's short attention span has largely forgotten him. So, they've decided it's better to chill platform owner's desire to host user content rather than ever risk battling things out in court.

  • On the post: Another Police Accountability Miracle: Five Officers, Zero Body Cam Footage, One Dead Body

    zgaidin ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2018 @ 04:14am

    I'm curious as to generally when we expect the downward-sloping curve of public opinion/trust in cops to intersect with the upward-sloping curve of officer violence, militarization, and criminal obstruction conspiracies to intersect. I suspect it will result in a very unpleasant watershed moment for everyone involved, and I'd very much like to be inside that year (or better yet, on a different continent). Anyone care to make a guess?

  • On the post: Studios Remove 'Spyware' From Several Games As Gaming Public Revolts

    zgaidin ( profile ), 22 Jun, 2018 @ 06:00am

    Re:

    I'm not so sure. You may be correct, of course, but it seems that the true culprits are a the publishers who smuggled this into their installers and patches. Red Shell licensed a software package to ZoS (and others). It's not Red Shell's job to inform anyone that they did so.

    As a gamer myself, I understand why people are pissed and why they're taking action, but direct your anger where it belongs.

  • On the post: Dear EU Parliament: Why Are You About To Allow US Internet Companies To Decide What EU Citizens Can Say Online?

    zgaidin ( profile ), 19 Jun, 2018 @ 02:42pm

    Re: Opting Out

    While the cynical part of me that likes to watch karma come back around a curb-stomp idiots approves of this idea, on the whole, I don't think any of us would really like to see the internet so fractured. That is, however, the direction we're headed in some ways. The suspicious, conspiracy theorist part of me thinks this may be the point since it was much harder to question your government's narrative about what's going on in the rest of the world when you couldn't just hop on Reddit, Discord, Twitter, etc and ask people in other nations about it.

  • On the post: How Twitter Suspended The Account Of One Of Our Commenters… For Offending Himself?

    zgaidin ( profile ), 20 Apr, 2018 @ 09:03pm

    Re:

    Text is green. You are likely to be eaten by a Nym.

  • On the post: Recordings Capture Cops Discussing Department's Most Rotten Apple

    zgaidin ( profile ), 05 Apr, 2018 @ 07:53pm

    Re: Was a good cop, now a silent cop.

    I don't think anyone would argue the point that incentives are skewed into encouraging cops to keep their mouths shut about misbehavior by other cops. However, a perverse incentive system is not an excuse for an immoral decision.

    Richard M is right. Even if you, personally, never beat the shit out of anyone, or kill anyone without good reason, or take a bribe, or plant evidence, or whatever - if you know other cops do and you keep your mouth shut, you are part of the problem, and a bad cop.

  • On the post: The Future The FBI Wants: Secure Phones For Criminals, Broken Encryption For Everyone Else

    zgaidin ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2018 @ 11:16pm

    Re: Just which criminals were you talking about?

    Wow, when I started reading your comment, I thought the second sentence was going to read: "There are those criminals who rob and murder and rape and extort other people, etc.. and then there are criminals who aren't cops." Sadly, still true.

  • On the post: Trump's Lawyers Apparently Unfamiliar With Streisand Effect Or 1st Amendment's Limits On Prior Restraint

    zgaidin ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2018 @ 05:30pm

    Re: Re: Trump's usefulness

    I would have to assume it's Demon. Devils are Lawful Evil.

  • On the post: State Board That Fined Man For Criticizing The Government Without A License Admits It Was Wrong

    zgaidin ( profile ), 07 Dec, 2017 @ 01:04pm

    Re:

    Too lazy to go back and check, but I believe the original story was about traffic-cams that issued automated tickets for running a red light, and Mr. Jarlstrom's research indicated that the yellow light timing on intersections with these devices was much shorter than those without.

  • On the post: Yet Another Legal Action By Dogged Privacy Activist Brings Good News And Bad News For Facebook In EU's Highest Court

    zgaidin ( profile ), 28 Nov, 2017 @ 04:42am

    Re: Re: Why title for Facebook's perspective? Favor it over users?

    I'm not sure I agree with this assessment of TD's viewpoint. I've read several articles over the last few years criticizing EU and non-American law makers and judges for the exact opposite, for passing laws and delivering judicial decisions that are likely to have a negative impact on non-American innovators and start-ups trying to break into a digital space. Speaking as an American, I agree with that sentiment because I would like a more geographically diverse set of providers for internet services. One, I think a diverse market pushes companies to offer better services, or at least differentiate them sufficiently enough that I might find one I like better than another. Two, I'd be thrilled to have as many of my "third party documents" stored outside the US as possible.

    That's always been my takeaway of TD's criticism of non-US law & policy decisions in the tech sphere: they're intent has been to hinder US-based giants, but the unintended consequences always look worse for EU and other non-US up-and-comers, who don't have access to the monetary and political resources of the big incumbents to fight them.

  • On the post: Uber Hid Security Breach Impacting 57 Million People, Paid Off Hackers

    zgaidin ( profile ), 23 Nov, 2017 @ 04:23am

    Honestly don't have a problem with CEO response

    According to his wikipedia article, Khosrowshahi didn't become CEO of Uber until August of this year, so it appears that none of this happened under his watch (or if the last parts of this shitshow did, he didn't have any part in it). He found out about it, ordered an investigation, and then went public with the info. That seems like a pretty stand-up thing to do. Honestly, I'd like to dislike this guy, as I worked at Expedia during his tenure and left the company with a very nasty taste in my mouth (he had nothing to do with it personally), but I just can't find any fault with his response here. If you're going to change a company's culture, it has to start at the top, and this looks like a promising start.

  • On the post: Dozens Of Tech Experts Tell DHS & ICE That Its Social Media Surveillance And Extreme Vetting Should Be Stopped

    zgaidin ( profile ), 22 Nov, 2017 @ 09:55am

    Re:

    I was thinking about something like this while reading the article from yesterday about Google collecting info while an Android device wasn't networked.

    I don't know enough, and am willing to admit that, about the tech to know if this is possible, but could someone build an app that peer-to-peer swapped random information, like bits of GPS data, small sections of browser history, etc with every other user of the app on a regular basis? Basically, since we can't stop the snoopy bastards from digging through our hay piles, can we make our hay piles so big and so full of fake needles that searching it becomes worthless?

  • On the post: Dozens Of Tech Experts Tell DHS & ICE That Its Social Media Surveillance And Extreme Vetting Should Be Stopped

    zgaidin ( profile ), 22 Nov, 2017 @ 06:21am

    Re: Pig. Leg. Wrong.

    While you're almost certainly correct in this case, Mike's point about Clarke's Law and it's reverse is still valid, and something to bear in mind as policy makers try to legislate uses for technology.

    As with any field of knowledge both broad and deep (say medicine and it's related sciences), the wider and deeper the field grows the more impossible it is for even an "expert" to know everything about the field. If you're a professional app developer, you probably know a ton about APIs, app dev languages, and the hardware and firmware in the products you develop for. That doesn't mean you know much more than any layman on the street about AI development, how to code a robust encryption algorithm, or design a new chip set. My ENT is a good doctor, but his knowledge of neurology is limited to whatever he learned in med school and his internship, and even that's at least out of date by 10+ years. He's not really qualified to make a neurological diagnosis or prescribe medicine to treat a neurological disorder. If, like these legislators, you're not a tech expert of any kind, it all looks like magic, and the temptation to believe that it can be made to do whatever you want is real. I'm not a tech expert, but I've been tinkering with computers as a hobby since 300 baud modems were the order of the day. Beyond setting up a new desktop for use and slightly more advanced troubleshooting that a clueless layman, my tech knowledge can most adequately be summed up as "there are some things current technology can't do." That's what my 20+ years of fiddling around with these machines has earned me, and I'm fine with admitting it, but these guys don't even have that going for them, which makes even their well-intentioned ideas (which I agree this is probably not) frightening.

  • On the post: Investigation Finds Google Collected Location Data Even With Location Services Turned Off

    zgaidin ( profile ), 21 Nov, 2017 @ 02:18pm

    Re: Re: Re: It is still possible to not use a cell phone

    His response could have been phrased better, certainly, but there's no denying that even if, cellular devices aren't fundamentally required at this point for everyone, the number of people for whom they are required (for work if nothing else) increases year by year. Sure, maybe you, personally, can avoid cell communication right now. Maybe you'll even be one of the last holdouts that doesn't need it, but the genie is out of the bottle, so to speak. Companies and entities, both those you work for and those you do business with, are going to continue finding ways to leverage the technology and at some point even if a few people can avoid using it, most people will not be able to do so, even if they so desired. So, saying "you don't have to use the devices" isn't a particularly valid long-term solution. They're more necessary today than they were yesterday, and will be more necessary still tomorrow.

  • On the post: UK Man Gets 12-Month Sentence For Refusing To Turn Over Passwords To Police

    zgaidin ( profile ), 26 Sep, 2017 @ 05:13am

    Compel?

    "The officer who performed the attempted search and actual arrest wouldn't say whether he was acting on specific information about Rabbani, or simply hassling someone UK police had hassled several times before without feeling the need to turn it into a terrorism case."

    Wtf does this even mean? Can the judge not compel the officer to answer the question? He's not a reporter that gets to protect his sources. He's a law enforcement officer presenting evidence for the prosecution. If he can't or won't specify that there a) was evidence, and b) where he got it, then there isn't any evidence. Right?

  • On the post: Florida Sheriff Plans To Use Hurricane Irma To Bump Up Arrest Numbers, Fill His Jail

    zgaidin ( profile ), 07 Sep, 2017 @ 05:49am

    Lolwut!

    This article opened with "Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County, Florida" and all I could think was, "With a name like that in Florida, this can only end hilariously badly."

    http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/THISGONBGUD.gif

  • On the post: CCTV + Lip-Reading Software = Even Less Privacy, Even More Surveillance

    zgaidin ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2017 @ 07:00am

    Sad Trombone

    CCTV + Lip Reading Software + Facial Recognition Software + Third Party Doctrine = No More Privacy in Public places

  • On the post: ACLU Tells Court Long-Term Cell Site Location Tracking Should Require A Warrant

    zgaidin ( profile ), 11 Aug, 2017 @ 03:50am

    I don't get it

    I do not understand both law enforcement and the courts' reticence to implement warrant requirements for things. Any adversarial portion of a warrant happens well after the fact, once charges are brought, and getting the warrant in the first place seems like a formality these days. Exigent circumstances can bypass a warrant requirement. I can envision such an instance with CSLI, such as a kidnapping victim doesn't know where they're being held but manages to get a hold of a cell phone briefly and calls 911. Great! Call the provider, explain the situation, and tell them you need the CSLI for that phone.

    The only possible explanations I can think of for this attitude are laziness (they don't want to fill out the forms and affidavits, go to the judge, etc.) or malfeasance (they're using 3rd party doctrine to get info on people they have no business getting info on, like spouses or other romantic interests, personal enemies, etc.) Neither looks good, but I could believe either from police (or both!), but the courts alignment on this issue baffles me.

  • On the post: Yes, Donald Trump Can Create Problems For Free Speech & The First Amendment

    zgaidin ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2016 @ 12:21pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Sad but true

    Electing the least effective politician into office (any office) should always have been the purpose. Government is always some combination of coercive force and brute force, and never anything else. Even when it promotes something you agree with, it's still forcing a significant portion of the population to alter the way it lives, speaks, acts, and conducts business to avoid legal trouble.

    "It may not be possible to do away with government — sometimes I think that government is an inescapable disease of human beings. But it may be possible to keep it small and starved and inoffensive..." R. A. Heinlein

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