This Week In Techdirt History: June 25th - July 1st

from the blogging-through-the-ages dept

Sat, Jul 1st 2017 12:00pm — Leigh Beadon

Five Years Ago

This week in 2012, we saw some obstinate reactions to the ACTA protests, with an EU Parliamentarian saying dissent was "a soft form of terrorism", and the EU Commissioner saying he would simply ignore rejection of ACTA by the EU Parliament — while Australia's parliamentary committee on the subject was recommending rejection. As for the TPP in the US, we were annoyed but unsurprised to learn that the MPAA had full online access to the text of the agreement even as Congress continued to struggle to get even the slightest glimpse. Rep. Darrell Issa made the reasonable request that he be allowed to observe the next round of TPP negotiations, but he was (again unsurprisingly) rejected.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2007, some people were beginning to ask whether the RIAA's piracy investigation tactics were even legal. Of course, Attorney General Albert Gonzales was far more interested in throwing people in jail for attempted piracy. Rolling Stone rolled its eyes and wrote an obituary for the recording industry, while the MPAA was off doing its own thing — suing sites for just linking to infringing content. Meanwhile, statistics about reality kept being disobedient to the world of anti-violent-videogame crusaders, with their protests driving up the hype around Manhunt 2, and violent crime rates continuing to fall while violent video games got more popular.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2002, the new era of the web was slowly being born as the world noticed that broadband internet access unlocked entirely new usage patterns and behaviors for internet users — even though broadband was still really struggling to catch on in the US. Meanwhile, a congressman introduced a bill to legitimize all sorts of nasty anti-piracy vigilante tactics including the increasingly popular music industry scheme of trying to swamp file trading networks with fake files. Newspaper executives were looking to the future of the mobile web, while newspaper columnists were stuck in the past and moaning about those newfangled "blogs". And the RIAA succeeded in scaring workplaces into cracking down on employees sharing MP3s.

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Filed Under: history, look back

11 Comments

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Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 2 Jul 2017 @ 12:37am

If Violence In Video Games Reduces Violence In Real Life ...
... you think that would work for other undesirable personality traits as well? Would allowing--nay, encouraging--people to play racist, sexist and homophobic video games reduce the incidence of racism, sexism and homophobia in real life?

And then of course there is child abuse...
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- stderric (profile), 2 Jul 2017 @ 5:17am
  
  Re: If Violence In Video Games Reduces Violence In Real Life ...
  I've always liked the idea that our reality might just be an extremely complex sim game being played by hyper-intelligent descendants of humanity in the far future. Now I'm worried we're just here for them to use as a safety-valve for venting their darkest desires. It would explain a lot though, given that the world seems to be running on dream-logic at this point.
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  - Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 3 Jul 2017 @ 9:44pm
    
    Re: I've always liked the idea that our reality might just be an extremely complex sim game ...
    ... which would seem to be the opposite of what I’m arguing.
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    - stderric (profile), 4 Jul 2017 @ 8:52am
      
      Re: Re: I've always liked the idea that our reality might just be an extremely complex sim game ...
      Hey, I only said they're hyper-intelligent. Doesn't mean they get everything right. After all, humans are more intelligent* than banana slugs and have come up with Double-Stuff Oreos & Archer... but we still elect cabbages to our highest political offices.
      
      _____
      * - No, I can't actually cite any peer-reviewed journals that support my claim. I'm just saying this for the sake of argument.
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      - Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 4 Jul 2017 @ 12:35pm
        
        Re: I've always liked the idea that our reality might just be an extremely complex sim game ...
        Does saying “it’s only a sim” excuse what happens in real life?
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        Roger Strong (profile), 4 Jul 2017 @ 3:55pm
        
        Re: Re: I've always liked the idea that our reality might just be an extremely complex sim game ...
        The judge would probably quote the general rule governing all those Philip K. Dick stories and movies where the protagonist's reality is called into question: "Whatever you can't wake up from, IS reality."
        
        He'll explain that if the crime only happened in a sim, then the same goes for the jail term.
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shitted cunt, 2 Jul 2017 @ 5:03am

fucked in the arse hole cunts
you are all fucked in the arseholes you cunts fucked like a cunt holed cunt you cunts
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- Anonymous Coward, 2 Jul 2017 @ 5:38am
  
  Re: fucked in the arse hole cunts
  It's more honest than out_of_the_blue or My_Name_Here, I'll give him that.
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  - stderric (profile), 2 Jul 2017 @ 10:55am
    
    Re: Re: fucked in the arse hole cunts
    I like to think of him as the Profane Zorro of Chaos, swooping in, slashing a 'C' on the wall, and leaping out the window yelling 'CUNfused yeT!?!'
    
    Can't help but wonder about his true identity...
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  - Roger Strong (profile), 2 Jul 2017 @ 11:10am
    
    Re: Re: fucked in the arse hole cunts
    Not really. He plagiarised Comcast's mission statement.
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  - MyNameHere (profile), 5 Jul 2017 @ 2:03am
    
    Re: Re: fucked in the arse hole cunts
    I think Leigh is still hung over from Canada Day. Too much bacon.
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