This Week In Techdirt History: April 15th - 21st

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from the it-happened dept

Sat, Apr 21st 2018 12:00pm — Leigh Beadon

Five Years Ago

This week in 2013, as the fallout for Prenda Law continued, we shifted our focus to the cybersecurity bill CISPA. While the White House was threatening to veto it if the privacy issues were not addressed, the House was rejecting all the amendments that might actually do so and its sponsors were ignoring the fact that it would render online privacy agreements meaningless. Sponsor Mike Rogers (whose wife, surprise surprise, stood to benefit hugely from the bill) made his infamous comment about the only opposition being 14-year-olds in their basement, prompting rapid and widespread backlash. We knew from history how the bill would be abused, and the only amendment that was being truly considered was pretty toothless. Then, of course, the bill was passed by the House, with 288 supporters.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2008, the threat to privacy was the DHS's domestic spy satellites — but more was happening on the copyright front, such as J. K. Rowling trying to use emotional appeals to block a Harry Potter guidebook and push silly legal theories like the idea that spoilers are copyright infringement. And Warner Bros. was threatening the filmmaker behind the movie Troll, which he was seeking to remake, because it happened to have a character named Harry Potter ten years before Rowling's books were written. Hollywood was starting to turn its attention to 3D movies as a way to revive cinemas, the recording industry was seeking more money because it deigned to let people transfer media between devices, and we took a look at how everyone overvalues content and undervalues services.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2003, it was the ten-year anniversary of the release of Mosaic, the first "major" web browser. The entertainment industry was succeeding in its crusade against piracy within various organizations, with CIO Magazine telling corporations to worry about the legal issues of employee downloading, and a bunch of Naval Academy students being disciplined for sharing music. Copyright fears were holding back books about hacking and internet security research and — in an early precursor to the sort of sharing that would be formalized by CISPA a decade later — the government was asking corporations to hand over details on their infrastructure and just trust the agencies to keep it safe.

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Filed Under: history, look back

11 Comments

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Pixelation, 21 Apr 2018 @ 5:51pm

Wow!
I can't believe it's already been five years since the whole Prenda soap opera began. Time flies when your entertained!
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Toom1275 (profile), 21 Apr 2018 @ 6:37pm

Re: Wow!
And Elizabeth Pierce getting nailed gor her frauf recalled Popehat's "Anatomy of a Scam Investigation" series - as it was a bogus invoice that kicked off that saga.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Apr 2018 @ 6:39pm

Re: Wow!
It's also now the fifth year that the weekly "Techdirt History" has been around.
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Benjamin, 22 Apr 2018 @ 4:15am

Broken link
Mosiac links are broken
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Apr 2018 @ 8:02am

Re: Wow!
Indeed. I needed a good laugh watching average_joe, out_of_the_blue and horse with no name losing their collective shit. Thanks for the reminder!
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Leigh Beadon (profile), 22 Apr 2018 @ 9:45am

Re: Broken link
Unfortunately a lot of the source links in the posts from 15 years ago (and sometimes even 10 years ago) are broken now, since a lot of news sites have not made the effort to preserve old links as they've updated their websites and such.
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Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 22 Apr 2018 @ 7:31pm

Re: Broken link
Sometimes you can find copies saved at archive.org.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Apr 2018 @ 9:16am

Re: Re: Wow! Were dissenters ever right on court cases and law!
For anyone new here (which I doubt there is!): out_of_the_blue is a screen name that hasn't been used since 2014, but which the fanboys still regard with fear and awe. -- Because out_of_the_blue didn't enagage in childish ad hom back and forth, but unarguable bullet-pointed views:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140117/10562125920/copyright-week-fair-use-is-not-exceptio n-rule.shtml#c158

"out_of_the_blue" has been mentioned at least three times today! Because the fanboys need a target for ad hom, they've nothing on topic.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2018 @ 12:52am

Re: Re: Re:
Which they were. But thanks for pointing it out. Because we all needed the reminder that you were a fucking tool then and now...
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Wendy Cockcroft, 24 Apr 2018 @ 5:56am

Re: Re: Re: Wow! Were dissenters ever right on court cases and law!
LOL! You're an idiot, Blue, whose sole purpose on this site is for us to point and laugh at you.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2018 @ 8:04am

Re: Re: Re: Wow! Were dissenters ever right on court cases and law!
lol
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