This Week In Techdirt History: July 1st - 7th
from the how-it-went-down dept
Five Years Ago
This week in 2013, we kicked things off with the latest Snowden leaks revealing that the US had used bugs for surveillance on its allies, and that the PRISM program was huge and complex. George W. Bush stepped up to defend the NSA while President Obama tried to smooth things over with Europe, FISA court judges were upset about the scrutiny, and the Washington Post published a sad editorial calling for the leaks to stop. Then James Clapper shockingly admitted to lying to congress, but was apparently off the hook with nothing more than a staged apology.
Ten Years Ago
This week in 2008, while Sony was further fragmenting the movie download market and NBC was once again failing to offer compelling Olympic coverage online, EMI was showing off its promised "new approach" to the internet by suing more platforms over piracy. Bono joined his manager in blaming ISPs for the destruction of music, while we wondered if the recording industry would play by its own proposed three-strikes rule but for faulty DMCA notices. Meanwhile, the RIAA argued in the Jammie Thomas case that evidence of actual distribution shouldn't be necessary to sue for infringement, while Viacom convinced the court that YouTube should hand over logs of the IP addresses and usernames of people who watched videos.
Fifteen Years Ago
This week in 2003, the FCC launched its national do-not-call list, which was so popular that the website to sign up quickly went down. Some people quickly started calling for a similar plan for spam, while others questioned how well it would really even work for calls. Speaking of spam, one spammer won in court this week since spamming is not "trespassing", but another submitted a guilty plea in his case because it certainly can be fraud. Spam was, overall, getting worse and costing money, while the world braced for the expected onslaught of text messaging spam.
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Openly Supporting Socialism
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Re: Openly Supporting Socialism
much loaded
wow
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Re: Openly Supporting Socialism
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Re: Re: Re: Openly Supporting Socialism
I am just trying to understand the political orientation of this site. Be honest.
As we've stated many, many times in the past, this site has no "political orientation." Indeed, we think the very idea of "political orientation" is tribal nonsense.
This site is about supporting innovation and civil liberties. That's basically it. We've found that us not having political leanings tends to freak people out. People like you call us "liberals." Liberals tend to call us "right wingers." Neither is accurate. We don't look at things through a silly red team/blue team lens and root for one side or the other.
We look at things using basic concepts of innovation, economics and civil liberties and give our opinion on what seems likely to lead to the best overall outcome. That often means we disagree with "the party line" from any particular party -- but using that to lump us in with any other party is equally stupid.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Openly Supporting Socialism
The response you replied to contained the word "stupid" all of once.
It would seem basic numerical understanding is beyond your grasp. In which case, you would need a considerable amount of luck.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Openly Supporting Socialism
This site is for supporting corporatism and globalism, about unlimited immigration into the United States, anti-copyright and anti-patent.
You are a corporatist, first and last. For instance, you assert that corporations have "First Amendment Right" to control The Public's speech on the very "platforms" that are created to be Public Forums, completely contradictory to intent of both First Amendment and the statute.
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Nice job, corporatist.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Openly Supporting Socialism
So, in this very thread, we have one clueless person accusing me of being a socialist who hates profits, and another accusing me of being a "corporatist" who only favors corporations.
I believe that makes my point for me that because people can't classify us under the traditional groupings, they have to just make up that we're the opposite of whatever they are.
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But you are (not surprisingly) consistent in attacking the speakers and not addressing the question
I did not attack and I did answer the question. That you missed both of those things raises some significant questions about your reading comprehension.
The Facebook CEO is promoting minimum incomes (free money) for everyone - does that sound like Socialism?
If you're talking about the concept of universal basic income, I don't believe Zuckerberg has come out in support of it though I could be wrong. But, you know who has supported it? Such noted "socialists" as... Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek.
One thinks that your understanding of both capitalism and socialism is a little amiss.
Meanwhile, you claim to support copyright and patents. Both of those are government granted monopolies, in which the government chooses winners and losers. Frankly, to me, that sounds a hell of a lot more "socialist" than a free market system in which creators and inventors have to rely on the free market to make money.
You fail to persuade all but the poorly educated social outcasts that permeate this site. For the (huge) majority, we see right through your dishonesty and double speak.
That must be why we've stayed in business so long, are frequently invited to address politicians and policy makers, invited to contribute to leading journals, and have won numerous awards. I'm sure it's because no one is convinced by us.
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So much wrong...
You are hilarious, I will grant you that. The government “chooses” winners and losers with copyrights and patents? Back to school for you my friend. A copyright or a patent does not mean anyone wants to pay for your work. It only protects in the event that you produce something valued by OTHERS, then your creative talent is rewarded by ownership of YOUR OWN work.
Erm... no. IPR protects nothing, it just gives you the right to sue infringers. That is all. The "choosing" is done by the USTPO, which can accept or reject patents, which is why he's right and you're wrong.
As for your awards, you mean when you shared the stage with a TRAITOR? That’s an award? Wow. Perhaps in your small circle of socialist fanatics, you are a star - but nowhere else.
Traitor? Learn what words mean, particularly where the law is concerned. You've spelt "Whistleblower" wrong. It was the government that was breaking the law.
There is a reason that the US leads in the world in innovation - and it’s not because we promote “free” anything.
The US promotes free trade and a free market. This actually does lead to more innovation.
Own your ideas, Masnick. Maybe I don’t agree with them, but everyone respects you less when you pretend to be anything but a flaming liberal socialist.
https://medium.com/@wendycockcroft/what-is-a-liberal-socialist-c6de6584f304
Stand up, man, you’re pathetic. Even with Chelsea Manning beside you, you still don’t appear to be a man.
Now you're getting nasty. Mike is a principled libertarian. All you do is lie and hate as an anonymous coward. That's it.
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I often argue with libertarians and I've argued with Mike, but where he differs from most of the others is that he's a small "L" publicly-minded one, which is where I agree with him. Caring about the public interest shouldn't be conflated with mad full-on property-grabbing communism or anything like it.
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Fuck me sideways, Hamilton's back.
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Re: Re: Re: Openly Supporting Socialism
Personally yes, I'd generally describe myself as a liberal and a progressive, though there are plenty of things people assume about both those labels that don't describe my beliefs too. But of course, I live up here in the socialist hellscape of Canada, so if I said anything else they'd probably ship me off to the gulag right? You can give your speech about us awful "flaming liberals" now, if you like.
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From my reading, the liberal agenda would give everybody free everything, and no one would work
Then it's a very unsophisticated reading.
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If the government really does produce nothing of value to the rest of us what about schools? Infrastructure? Just two examples of the value that government provides. Does the private sector also provide? Yes, but to specific customers, not to the rest of us.
We are not stuck with a choice between government running All The Things! or the private sector running All The Things! That is not the way anything works.
As for work, somebody's got to do it. While I'm not a "flaming" liberal I do have a lot of sympathy with some progressive and liberal positions because I personally benefit from them in practice. But then, I've not reduced the entire universe to a choice between "X" or "Y."
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Well one thing that is enabling people to contribute to society, and co-operate to improve their lives and skills is the Internet. Don't try to organize people, or tell them what to do, but rather give them the tools that enable them to learn, co-operate and enrich their own lives. Work to make sure that the Internet stays open, as it is a counterbalance to the 1% who control more the worlds the countries wealth and resources.
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People want to contribute to something they believe in. What can we do to encourage such belief?
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Re: Openly Supporting Socialism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE
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Re: Openly Supporting Socialism
"This comment brought to you by Senator McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee"
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Re: Openly Supporting Socialism
Advocating for non-infinite copyright terms, the abolishment of statutory damages, and stricter patentability standards should not be considered socialism. Taking power away from corporations and corrupt judicial districts that should never have been granted that power is also not socialism. As intellectual property is something contrived and not real, so for the government is cut back its recognition of IP is not the same as private property confiscation, a hallmark of Marxist-style communism.
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Capitalism, especially as practiced by the US, including the legacy publishers,labels, and studios, rewards having lots of money, and uses that as a signals that the endevours of people with lots of money are worth investing in. It enables those with lots of money to buy the products and labor of ordinary people quite cheaply; they have to be able to buy food, clothes and shelter, even if they struggle to earn enough to do so.
It occasionally picks someone with a creative gift to make rich, but is so structured that they end up investing that money in corporations that make the extremely rich even richer.
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Re: Re: Re: Openly Supporting Socialism
See, to have a real discussion, you should define something honestly and then proceed to make your case for why you disagree with it. Baking your condemnation into the "definition" is just dumb, childish rhetoric.
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Socialism bends over backwards to reward people who do little except eat sleep and (literally) produce crap.
Read Das Kapital before you say that again. Seriously, you know nothing about Socialism. Conservative here, I just hate being lied to.
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Re: Openly Supporting Socialism
Tucker Carlson, did you say?
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Socialism Boogeyman
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