Michael Morisy's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
from the government-documents... dept
There was a lot of important news — good and bad — this week, on everything from how patent abuse tries to hold back healthcare even while making us pay more for it, to how a rag-tag, Whedon-esque coalition of organizations came together, against all odds, to fight NSA surveillance.
The following, however, are my daily favorites with a grand prizer winner at the end.
For those of you who don't know me, I am a huge government documents nerd and I co-founded MuckRock, a Freedom of Information request filing tool that occasionally graces these pages (including this week). If you're interested in this sort of thing, we have 20 free accounts set aside for Techdirt readers: Just email me with the subject line "Techdirt".
And now on to the week that was.
Monday: NY Times Profiles One Of The World's Worst Patent Trolls
I just caught up this week on This American Life's When Patents Attack, Part II, so while this story is one of the oldest in the book for long-time Techdirt readers, it's one that still resonates, and the reality is that if you run some kind of technology business (or even if you don't), you are in constant danger from patent troll looters backed by a broken legal system.
Tuesday: 7 Months Of Warrantless 'Just Metadata' Paints A Clear Picture Of Your Personal Life
There were so many great stories on Tuesday, but this one stood out. I feel like "Metadata" has received more widespread attention the past two months than in the prior 5 years, but perhaps it's still not enough given how open it is for abuse and poorly it is understood by policy makers, courts, and the general public. It was good to see some push back by the ACLU on this issue, as well as clear illustrations about the dangers and invasiveness of something so seemingly benign as just cell tower data. I'm hopeful that, like in Texas, the tide is changing.
There's nothing I don't love about this story: The cheeky Facebook post that sets off international intelligence alerts, the innocent farce that becomes a legal "demonstration," or the surreal response by local police doing a simultaneous call-and-knock. It's hard to tell which is more childish: The civilian playing as nature guide, or the law enforcement playing as spies.
Thursday: ACLU Presents Its Findings On License Plate Scanners, Most Of Which Is Bad News
In April, MuckRock and the Boston Globe did a joint investigation into the amazing lack of policy around license plate scanning technology throughout the state. Now the ACLU has taken it 49 steps further and found that it's a national problem. In New York, one city's usage policy was only limited by an "officer's imagination." Not to editorialize, but this is what happens when Homeland Security gives high-tech gizmos away to departments with little or no oversight from policymakers. Ok, I editorialized.
Friday: TSA Now Searching Valet-Parked Vehicles, Utilizing A Crack Security Team Composed Of... Valets
Honestly, ever since I had a TSA agent lecture me about how dinosaurs never existed and another make me tuck my shirt in to go through their scanner, nothing surprises me about how they operate. This came close. At least I can still take the subway to the airport and avoid asinine TSA security practices. Oh wait, I can't.
Top Pick: FISC Says It Will Declassify Ruling That Forced Yahoo Into PRISM
Like I said, I'm a huge government document nerd, so I found this ruling really exciting and pretty surprising. I'm guessing Mike is right and that the released documents will be heavily redacted, but the fact that anything will make it out is a great development. I've already used the decision as the basis for a number of my own FOIA requests, and I'm hopeful it will shed more light on the lines not even tap-happy telcos wanted to cross.
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LOL! How fucking dishonest are you, Mike? Can't even admit that you're sending my posts to the spam filter on purpose. Epic dishonesty there, Mikey.
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News @ 6:00
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1. posts that come from anonymizing services(likely some sort of repeat offender spamblocking)
2. trolls who post comments with no substance and are only here to personally attack mike or readers/rile up people. You know, like you
In both cases Techdirt is justified in blocking you
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Jul 20th, 2013 @ 2:12pm
Yeah, you really 'got' Mike there, sport.
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Jul 20th, 2013 @ 2:12pm
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A spammer personality or mindset seems to actually exist, and cause a lot of trouble, to mindset holder and to the rest of humanity.
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LOL! How fucking dishonest are you Troll? Can't even admit that you're spamming the comments on purpose.
Epic dishonesty there, Trolley
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I'm also digging the one-per-day limit and bold headings that make it a breeze to read. I'm tempted to recommend that as a template for every weekly roundup of favorites, but I know some of our Favorites' writers are prone to sprawling masterpieces.
I see you've also attracted the attention of a frequent commenter who constantly mistakes comment threads for impromptu stages where he can hurl ad hom, wild accusations, paranoid ravings and the occasional milk-related video in the general direction of Techdirt.
One might be tempted to answer a few of his not-really-questions, but then one might notice that he's prone to throwing "LOL" around mid-rant and think better of it. A person who punctuates baseless accusations with LOL can scarcely be trusted to focus on the discussion at hand, what with needing to peer suspiciously through the venetian blinds every time a vehicle passes within 100 yards of the house and occasionally duck out to top up on "poppers."
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And that's not the first time I've heard either. My sister moved back from the Middle East about a year ago, and there everyone joked that she was related to the (now ex-) Egyptian president.
Glad to see bad name puns are universal.
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Dang you guys were already on the ball and he was report hidden before I even saw it. How nice the troll gets his just rewards.
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Health Care Patent Abuse
One medication I take cost over $5k/mo. This drug was first synthesized in 1874 yet the pharmaceutical company has a patent on it.
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Re: Health Care Patent Abuse
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combine that with the things we consume, (knowingly or obliviously). food, beverages, beer, meds etc...
everything that we put into our bodies enters the blood and from there it travels through our entire body. of course it also travels to our brains. this, in turn effects everything we are, our abilities, our intelligence, competence, health etc. it's no wander we have the governments and leaders we do. and it's no wander we're being screwed over by them. no wander that we even need them.
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I love techdirt and there are intelligent people here. but you know what, I still believe it's true what I said above.
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Using Metadata to Find Paul Revere
A great analysis on the use of metadata to track people. In this case it singles out Paul Revere as a likely suspect based entirely upon the membership data of 254 people during the period preceding the Revolution. Imagine what would have happened.....if.
The footnote contains an interesting reference to a much more specific analysis performed by an NSA specialist which reaches the same conclusion and provides even more information based upon the same metadata consisting of only memberships.
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