This Week In Techdirt History: March 25th - 31st

from the so-it-went dept

Sat, Mar 31st 2018 12:00pm — Leigh Beadon

Five Years Ago

This week in 2013, congress released its proposal for reforming the CFAA — and it managed to make the law even worse. Even the one change we at first thought might be good turned out not to be. The whole thing had experts wondering what the hell congress was thinking, and led Eric Goldman to make the case for ditching the CFAA altogether. Meanwhile, we continued to look at the dangers of CISPA, while Hollywood was still working on pushing SOPA abroad.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2008, a Columbia professor was jumping on the bandwagon of aggressively using patents and exploiting the ITC loophole, while Seagate was casually promising to try to stop SSD technology with a barrage of patent lawsuits. In Canada, Bell decided to start throttling traffic without telling resellers, and enjoying the monopoly position that let it respond to complaints with, pretty much, "deal with it". Meanwhile, TorrentSpy announced it was shutting down out of sheer exhaustion, Warner Music joined the crowd calling for an ISP tax, the IFPI kept putting pressure on ISPs around the world, and Rep. Berman trotted out the old line that anyone opposing new copyright laws just wants stuff for free.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2003, all eyes were on the war in Iraq, and we were looking at the impact on and from technology in many regards. Journalists were flexing new technological muscles in covering the conflict, and the military was flexing similar muscles to recruit new soldiers. The internet was changing how people get their war news, and sucking up a whole lot of time from people at home and in the office — and this empowered hackers and hosting companies to become censors. And in a stunningly politically motivated move, a congressman introduced a bill trying to pre-emptively ensure that any new cellular infrastructure built in Iraq after the war would be CDMA. (The war had so far existed for exactly one week.)

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Filed Under: history, look back

14 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2018 @ 5:50pm

November 19 2014
On November 19 2014 Techdirt published an article about StreamScale and patents owned by StreamScale. Since that time, this Techdirt article has been submitted and it’s legal analysis considered by the USPTO. The USPTO has held that StreamScale patent claims are fully enforceable and not invalid. The site that this same article references was published under a false name, Louis Lavile https://mobile.twitter.com/louislavile?lang=en. This name has been repeatedly publicly used by Loic Dachary, an employee of Redhat, who we believe paid Techdirt to publish this false legal analysis. We further point out that StreamScale is not a patent holding company, but the original author and inventor of the patents at issue. We respectfully ask that you immediately remove this false and defamatory material from publication. Sincerely, StreamScale Inc. Michael Anderson, President
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- Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 1 Apr 2018 @ 7:09pm
  
  Re: November 19 2014
  LOL.
  
  >who we believe paid Techdirt to publish this false legal analysis
  
  Believe what you like.
  
  Also, read up on what the legal definition of defamation is, you might be surprised, or your lawyers will be.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 1 Apr 2018 @ 7:48pm
  
  Re: The USPTO has held that StreamScale patent claims are fully
  Why didn’t you link to the article in question?
  
  Anyway, it doesn’t seem like those patents are valid at all, otherwise the website in question, and the code repos it links to, would have been taken down.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 2 Apr 2018 @ 7:25pm
    
    Re: Re: The USPTO has held that StreamScale patent claims are fully
    Linking to the article is the equivalent of republishing it.
    
    Concerning the patent’s validity, the USPTO speaks with authority, having specially reviewed the article and falsely published web site.
    
    Concerning the web site continued publicatiion, it appears to be published by the same false author who posed as Louis Lavile. The WHOIS information lists the same address for dachary.org and JErasure.org.
    
    jerasure.orgUpdated 1 second ago
    DOMAIN INFORMATION
    Domain:jerasure.org
    Registrar:Gandi SAS
    Registration Date:2014-12-15
    Expiration Date:2018-12-15
    Updated Date:2017-11-01
    Status:clientTransferProhibited
    Name Servers:c.dns.gandi.net
    b.dns.gandi.net
    a.dns.gandi.net
    REGISTRANT CONTACT
    Name:Jerasure Developers
    Street:12 bd de Magenta
    City:Paris
    Postal Code:75010
    Country:FR
    Phone:+33.664032907
    
    DOMAIN INFORMATION
    Domain:dachary.org
    Registrar:Gandi SAS
    Registration Date:1999-05-10
    Expiration Date:2019-05-10
    Updated Date:2018-03-30
    Status:clientTransferProhibited
    renewPeriod
    Name Servers:c.dns.gandi.net
    b.dns.gandi.net
    a.dns.gandi.net
    REGISTRANT CONTACT
    Name:Dachary
    Organization:Dachary
    Street:12 bd Magenta
    City:Paris
    Postal Code:75010
    Country:FR
    Phone:+33.142450797
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    - Mike Masnick (profile), 2 Apr 2018 @ 10:31pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: The USPTO has held that StreamScale patent claims are fully
      How can you falsely publish something?
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      - Anonymous Coward, 3 Apr 2018 @ 6:09am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: The USPTO has held that StreamScale patent claims are fully
        By signing the work using a false name, for example. By registering a web site under a false name, for another. Or, even knowing this, to use such work as a supposed legitimate reference.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Gwiz (profile), 3 Apr 2018 @ 12:05pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: The USPTO has held that StreamScale patent claims are fully
      
      Linking to the article is the equivalent of republishing it.
      
      Umm, no it's not.
      
      https://www.rcfp.org/browse-media-law-resources/news-media-law/news-media-and-law-spring-2014/r ethinking-hyperlinking
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - Anonymous Coward, 3 Apr 2018 @ 7:23pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: The USPTO has held that StreamScale patent claims are fully
        Interesting article, thank you for that. Question: Since the USPTO has reviewed the article at issue, and the web site material that it references, and subsequently ruled that StreamScale Accelerated Erasure Code System and Method patent claims are valid and enforceable, that means the article is factually incorrect, right? Do you think Techdirt is right to still stand behind this article? Should they be liable to those who depend on this faulty legal opinion in their business decisions? Do you think their publication is protected as free speech, or is this “Commercial Speech”, designed to promote the sale of a product?
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        Mike Masnick (profile), 4 Apr 2018 @ 3:06pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The USPTO has held that StreamScale patent claims are fully
        Question: Since the USPTO has reviewed the article at issue, and the web site material that it references, and subsequently ruled that StreamScale Accelerated Erasure Code System and Method patent claims are valid and enforceable, that means the article is factually incorrect, right?
        
        No. We can have an opinion that your patent is bullshit. We are allowed to have that opinion and state that opinion.
        
        Do you think Techdirt is right to still stand behind this article?
        
        Yes, we are.
        
        Should they be liable to those who depend on this faulty legal opinion in their business decisions?
        
        LOL.
        
        Do you think their publication is protected as free speech, or is this “Commercial Speech”, designed to promote the sale of a product?
        
        Are you threatening to sue us for our opinion?
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        Anonymous Coward, 4 Apr 2018 @ 7:08pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The USPTO has held that StreamScale patent claims are fully
        I issued no threats. I pointed out the false author of the web site the article links to, the fact that his signed name Louis Laville is actually an alias for Loic Dachary, an employee of Redhat. I pointed out his web site JErasure.org is also registered under a false name but at the same address as Loic Dachary. What I am saying is that the source you refer to in your article is not legitimate and you.are misleading your readers by using it. But since Loic Dachary also signed his name to the comments, I am guessing you are already knew that. Combined with the fact of the review by the USPTO of your article and the subsequent ruling by the USPTO, I thought I might persuade you to voluntarily withdraw this article. Do you have any legitimate sources as the basis of your opinion, or only manufactured sources signed by non-existent authors?
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        Anonymous Coward, 6 Apr 2018 @ 6:14pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The USPTO has held that StreamScale patent claims are fully
        One more simple question Mike, I assume a one word answer would suffice: To your knowledge, did you or any other Techdirt employee or member author, co-author, edit, revise, review or otherwise contribute to the content of the web site that the article refers to, and if you did, could you please provide the names, dates and contributions of you or any other Techdirt member. If none please reply none.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        Anonymous Coward, 16 Jun 2019 @ 11:27pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The USPTO has held that StreamSc
        You want a one-word answer? How about two? "You lost."
        
        ...Ah, what the hell. I'm feeling generous. Have two more!
        
        "Fuck off."
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- Mike Masnick (profile), 1 Apr 2018 @ 11:11pm
  
  Re: November 19 2014
  This is an April Fool's joke, isn't it?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 2 Apr 2018 @ 4:41am
  
  Re: November 19 2014
  Sounds like someone's late to the Shiva Ayyadurai party.
  
  What the hell is it with idiots who claim defamation, yet can't back it up with anything more than a flimsy rag that doesn't pass the sneeze test?
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