This Week In Techdirt History: October 29th - November 4th
from the as-it-ever-was dept
Five Years Ago
This week in 2012, the UN's ITU was trying to butt in on patent issues despite nobody wanting that, while CNN was making the all-too-common mistake of equating patents with innovation. Both the MPAA and Megaupload were trying to get in on the fight over what would happen to users' files, while the DOJ was trying to make sure nobody took too close a look at its activities in the case. This was also the week that George Lucas surprised everyone by selling Star Wars and all of Lucasfilm's other properties to Disney.
Ten Years Ago
This week in 2007, following the shutdown of OiNK, Trent Reznor stepped up to explain why the file sharing network had been cool, while TorrentFreak was keeping track of the many new sites popping up in its wake and demonstrating the pointlessness of the shutdown. Meanwhile, the EFF was pushing movie studios to start respecting fair use in their "guidelines" for fan creations, and publishing videos that demonstrated fair use but also underlined how hard it is to determine — though perhaps they would have been useful for Fox as it went after Republican presidential candidates for posting debate footage online.
Fifteen Years Ago
This week in 2002, we took a look at how DRM for music CDs was just a plain ol' bad idea, and another at how developing nations should avoid strong copyright for (among other reasons) the sake of fair use. DVD burners had finally dropped enough in price that Hollywood was freaking out about them, while then RIAA-boss was flummoxed to lose an Oxford Debate about file sharing by being apparently surprised that file-sharers in the audience also bought more music.
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No more Ewoks
Thank you George.
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I'm somewhat surprised that Techdirt hasn't covered that yet, though it might be better if they didn't. We don't need out_of_the_blue, MyNameHere and an unsigned-in average_joe/antidirt to throw a temper tantrum/three-way TOR exit node masturbation session.
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Re:
The SWAT raid on Paul Manafort's house may have reached a new low. Not only was he cooperating with authorities, but the pre-dawn raid was done on the very day he was scheduled to testify before Congress. FBI agents could simply have entered and searched his house then -- while unoccupied -- since that was after all the purported purpose of the raid.
But for maximum scorched earth, rather than the standard no-knock practice of busting through the door, they quietly picked his lock so they could catch Manafort and his wife asleep in bed, to be forcefully awakened in a tempest of violence and terror.
It should be clear that intimidation and terror were not a by-product of the SWAT raid -- but its primary if not sole purpose.
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Re: FBI agents could simply have entered and searched his house then -- while unoccupied
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