This Week In Techdirt History: September 30th - October 6th

from the what-was dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2013, as we discussed how the NSA had essentially built its own "shadow" social network, we learned and then confirmed that the agency was collecting GPS data from mobile phones. A We The People petition calling for a pardon for Ed Snowden was being quietly ignored, while Michael Hayden was joking about putting Snowden on a 'kill list'. We also learned that the NSA was storing all metadata for at least a year, and performing man-in-the-middle attacks with the help of telcos. Plus, it was working hard to compromise Tor, despite James Clapper's claims that they were just trying to "understand" it.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2008, the House followed the Senate in creating a copyright czar position, even as it let orphan works legislation die and the Senate moved on to more international piracy shaming. Cox was quietly adopting a copyright three strikes policy and lying about it being required by the DMCA, a comprehensive review of the RIAA's lawsuit strategy showed just how much of a failure it was, and The Pirate Bay was launching its own copyright lawsuit to expose the absurdity of the system.

Fifteen Years Ago

Five years earlier in 2003, in the early days of the RIAA's lawsuits, another 63 people gave in to its shakedown letters this week, while the agency concluded a Senate hearing by promising to at least leave a little time in between the letters and the lawsuits in future — but at least one senator wanted much more substantial change. There was talk about compulsory licensing for music and a lot of questions about how it could be abused depending on how you define "music" — not to mention talk about how the cost of making music was going way, way down. It was also around this time that the practice of bundling TV, internet and phone service was picking up steam.

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Filed Under: history, look back


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  • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Oct 2018 @ 7:04pm

    This was a historic week in American History. What happens on Techdirt regularly happened this week in Washington DC. The same smearing that Shiva underwent was repeated on a national scale. The same type of angry mob that appeared on a micro-scale to unjustly smear the Email guy on this forum appeared on a national scale to unjustly smear Justice Kavanaugh.

    In the Senate, though, Mr. Masnick could not exercise his censorship. He could not silence the sage voices of Collins, or Grassley, or McConnell. In the Senate, the adults came to the room and gave the children a lesson in American values and the American Constitution . And the Right outcome came to be. The shameless campaign of personal destruction was put to an end by American Patriots. America is moving the Right and not the Wrong. Techdirt would be wise to follow.

    God Bless America, the American Constitution, and centuries old American Values.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 6 Oct 2018 @ 10:36pm

      Re:

      How many pussies did you grab in celebration, Hamilton?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      John Roddy (profile), 7 Oct 2018 @ 6:00am

      Your definition of "censorship" needs about as much work as your definition of "smearing." Sounds like a refresher on some basic facts couldn't hurt either.

      Shitty Ayyamadumbass is a shameless liar who retroactively decided he invented something, and moved to weaponize the legal system to rewrite history to support it. He failed, and continues to fail after refusing to learn from his arrogance (ahem), to the point where some of his more vocal "supporters" on Facebook were revealed to be fake accounts. When confronted about this, what "sage" words did he have?

      “You’re doing a racist interview right now because you’re a racist. You are."

      He's a sore loser who shamelessly pulls the race card when things don't go his way. I think it's perfectly just that he gets his name dragged through the mud. He's already wallowing in it.

      I'm also unaware of any instance where Masnick himself personally censored you, or anyone else here. Blame him all you want, but the one who hit the report button was me, as did many others. You're not being censored. You're being buried because that's where your bullshit commentary belongs. If that's too hard for you to believe, you're welcome to try suing me to make reality conform to you. It works for "the email guy," right?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        That One Guy (profile), 7 Oct 2018 @ 7:31am

        Re:

        He's a sore loser who shamelessly pulls the race card when things don't go his way. I think it's perfectly just that he gets his name dragged through the mud. He's already wallowing in it.

        If his tantrums weren't so damaging they would almost be funny. Watching him pull the race card like that(offensively and defensively), as though that was why people don't care for him and/or as a reason to vote for him is just downright pathetic, which seems to fit him perfectly.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
        identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2018 @ 8:00am

        Re:

        “Needs about as much work as” ...

        Needs work?

        The work is done. Kavanaugh is confirmed. More winning to come.

        You, and your leftist radical friends, are losers.

        Republicans and Conservatives and Constitutionalists are Winners.

        Keep America Great.

        And Celebrate American Patriots. We are learning who they really are.

        God Bless America.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2018 @ 8:18am

          Re: Re:

          Dude, we get it, you wanna suck Trump's orange dick.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2018 @ 9:23am

            Re: Re: Re:

            Funny how if a politicians manages to pick the right slogans, some people will support them without question, until they wake up one day and find they are serfs serving a small elite.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

            • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
              identicon
              Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2018 @ 5:58pm

              Re: Re: Re: Re:

              It’s not the slogans that deserves the support.

              It is the American Constitution.

              It is American Fairness.

              It is all those things that leftists have ignored that deserve support. Like Presumption of Innocense. And Due Process.

              link to this | view in chronology ]

              • identicon
                Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2018 @ 7:28pm

                Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

                Last I checked, copyright enforcers weren't usually leftist.

                link to this | view in chronology ]

              • identicon
                Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2018 @ 8:20am

                Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

                Yes, "due process," like having a fake investigation that isn't hamstrung from the start.

                Or having an investigation that isn't called a witchhunt at 1:00 AM on Twitter every 2 days.

                link to this | view in chronology ]

              • identicon
                Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2018 @ 9:13pm

                Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

                Innocense is what happened between you sibling parents and explains your many, many derangements.

                link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          John Roddy (profile), 7 Oct 2018 @ 7:38pm

          And Celebrate American Patriots. We are learning who they really are.

          Does this include the multiple people currently in or on their way to federal prison for blatantly breaking the law and/or lying openly about it in the process?

          link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2018 @ 9:11am

      Re:

      lol

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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