This Week In Techdirt History: June 12th - 18th

from the same-difference dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2011, things were heating up around ICE's recent domain name seizures. Several of the targeted sites were challenging the seizures to get their domains back, with one — Rojadirecta — going ahead and suing the US government, Homeland Security and ICE. Those trying to get more information via FOIA requests were met with stalling by the government (which was not out of character). Then, the government decided to up the ante and sought to extradite one of the site operators from the UK on copyright charges (despite the fact that this essentially amounted to enforcing US copyright law outside its jurisdiction, since the target violated no UK laws). Meanwhile, some people online were busy turning ICE's gaudy takedown notice pages into the new Rickroll, and China was using the copyright excuse to clamp down on freedom of speech.

Ten Years Ago

There was a big fight over net neutrality happening in 2006, and this week we couldn't help but balk at all the propaganda, from terrible newspaper editorials to celebrity endorsements and good ol' propaganda music. The issue was muddied by nonsense, and only a few people had rational thoughts to share.

The RIAA seemed to have moved into the denial phase of grief about piracy, declaring victory and saying it was "contained". Perhaps that's why it had to turn its sights on YouTube videos of people dancing to music they haven't licensed. At least they still had Canadian politicians in their pocket.

Fifteen Years Ago

There were several technologies looming on the horizon this week in 2001. Digital cash was struggling to catch on long before the revolution of the blockchain; Ebooks were poised to change everything from the way people write to the role of libraries; and SMS text messaging was taking the world by storm, but the US was a major holdout.

Also this week in 2001: we saw a prototypical net neutrality crisis, the homepage takeover ad started to appear, Apple sued the Church of Satan for its own "Think Different" campaign, and Homer Simpson's iconic "Doh!" was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary.

One-Hundred And Ninety-Four Years Ago

Most of you surely know that the world's "first computer" is generally considered to be Charles Babbage's mechanical difference engine. It was on June 4th, 1822 that Babbage first proposed the possibility of such a machine to the Royal Astronomical Society. The project wound on for 20 years and cost £17,000, but never came to fruition, as the government abandoned it and Babbage moved on to his new analytical engine.

Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: history, look back


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2016 @ 5:22pm

    How's your rap career goin, bro?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    That One Guy (profile), 18 Jun 2016 @ 6:00pm

    Re:

    It's funny how you seem to think that making that comment again, and again, and again is suppose to make him look pathetic.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 Jun 2016 @ 1:00am

    Re: Re:

    It's coming from the chucklefuck who claims that trademarking "Thankyou" had its positives. What else did you expect from the guy with less brains than Oz's scarecrow?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Leigh Beadon (profile), 19 Jun 2016 @ 10:35am

    Re: Re:

    I think he thinks it will hurt my feelings. Because (quite tellingly) he literally can't comprehend the idea of making music for fun.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. icon
    That One Guy (profile), 19 Jun 2016 @ 6:51pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Well of course not, why were it not for the guaranteed income from any creation stemming from patents or copyright nothing at all would ever be created, since there's no other possible reason anyone would make something. If you're not making money what's the point? /poe

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.