This Week In Techdirt History: June 28th - July 4th
from the it-can't-unhappen dept
Five Years Ago
This week in 2015, a missing document from the FISA court docket suggested that there was yet another undisclosed bulk records collection program hiding somewhere, while newly-released Wikileaks documents revealed that, despite its denials, the NSA was engaged in economic espionage, and a fresh FISA order authorised "as-is" phone recrod collections for the next six months. Just like today, the FBI was on an anti-encryption streak, fearmongering about "going dark" despite actual wiretaps almost never running into encryption. And the MPAA was launching another ad campaign against piracy... targeted at paying customers, for some reason.
Ten Years Ago
This week in 2010, we looked at the list of ten questions for ACTA negotiators that were being taken to a meeting in Sweden, and unsurprisingly got more of the same old stuff for answers. We looked at an economic analysis of the Viacom/YouTube decision, and then at the new important ruling of the week: the Supreme Court's narrow take on Bilski, which let business method and software patents survive while leaving the door open for future cases that might change things — all of which required a bit of tea leaf reading to determine what the court was truly thinking about software patents.
Fifteen Years Ago
This week in 2005, the Supreme Court issued its expected rulings in both the Grokster and BRand X cases, with a mixed bag of results — while former RIAA boss Hilary Rosen suddenly realized this kind of fight was probably harming the RIAA's future. A Taiwanese court ruled that file sharing software is perfectly legal, while Sweden's terrible file sharing law went into effect. Meanwhile, AMD resurrected its antitrust attack on Intel, and took out a bunch of ads to make its case to the public, though we wondered if the public would actually care.
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Rand Paul
@Randpaul
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4 minutes ago
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Happy 4th of July. Whether you’re on the right the left or anywhere in between, lets continue our commitment to a path of restrained and limited government to best protect our God given liberties. From my family to yours Happy #IndependenceDay
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History: Mr. Rushmore is NOT Racist, if your name is Obama!
And Michelle Obama and her girls visited Mount Rushmore too. No protesters:
First Lady Michelle Obama and her daughters, Sasha and Malia, showed a hankering for history Wednesday during a brief visit to Mount Rushmore National Memorial.
Then they showed a bit of a sweet tooth by stopping at the Turtle Town old-fashioned fudge and ice-cream shop in Keystone, where manager Deb Splinter served them ice cream and other treats.
“It was nice, really nice seeing her and the girls,” Splinter said at about 4:30 p.m., a few minutes after the Obamas and their security detail left the shop on Keystone’s main street. “We had fudge and ice cream, and we all sat and visited. The girls were very sweet.”
The Obamas arrived at the shop at about 3:45 p.m., following a visit to Mount Rushmore that restricted access to parts of the memorial and required visitors during that period to go through a security checkpoint where one officer wore a U.S. Secret Service shirt. The Obamas had flown into Ellsworth Air Force Base earlier in the day and rode in a gray Suburban that was part of a motorcade of about 10 vehicles.
Then again, to be fair, Trump is making a whole big thing about it, with a speech and fireworks. So there’s that.
Commies.
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You are making a moral point, right?
greed
/ɡrēd/
noun
intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food.
You are saying their are immoral, and you are doing so from a vantage of moral superiority.
Is that right?
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Apparently the most useful thing Hamilton thought he could do this July 4th was to be an insufferable fucknugget, just like Slonecker when the MPAA's plan to scold paying customers for not downloading the DVD they'd just bought.
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Re:
Your America is Biden's America. Biden’s America is “the marginalized, the demonized, the isolated, the oppressed” so after 48 years in Washington Biden will now fix everything he failed to fix for nearly a half century. Apparently in Biden’s America there has been no progress. You want America gone and replaced by ..... what again? Who will lead your America? You? Mike?
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A country that has…
protections for the disabled that, among other things, lets them retain any and all access to disability benefits even if they get married
protections for queer people that ensure they can’t be fired, evicted, or refused service in public accomodation businesses based on sexual orientation or gender identity
nationalized healthcare that prioritizes helping people stay healthy over turning a profit for the handful of people who run pharmaceutical companies
a policing system that holds cops accountable for (among other crimes) racist murders and acts of domestic violence
automatic mail-in voting combined with a ranged/scored voting system that lets more than two candidates have a chance of winning an election
infrastructure that focuses on better public transportation options, including light-speed rail
an energy system geared towards fighting global climate change
fewer tax breaks for corporations and anyone else with obscene amounts of wealth
no statues dedicated to a failed state that betrayed the country for the sake of preserving the enslavement of other human beings
the willingness to confront, reckon with, and attempt to make up for its horribly violent and unfathomably racist history (which includes both the genocide of indigenous people and the slavery and oppression of Black people)
abortion laws that don’t keep women who want abortions from getting them
comprehensive (and queer-friendly!) sex education in conjunction with affordable access to contraception, both of which help reduce abortion rates
a Universal Basic Income plan that helps people stop worrying about going homeless and hungry and without healthcare should they lose their job
…but hey, I’m a dreamer.
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Re:
How about this: Help the disabled so they are abled and happy.
Tell queer people they should try a straight life, and if they must be queer, hide it, because we don't want to see it. It's disgusting to normal people.
No nationalized healthcare. Competitive healthcare, let the market rule, and FUCK the AMA.
A political system that shoots rioters.
No tax for anyone, let the Mexicans and Chinese pay
All the statues we want, you fucking moronic asshole
Fuck your "racial history" get over it.
No abortions
No queer friendly anything. We tolerate queers, we do not promote them. They're disgusting and smell bad, for obvious reasons.
No unearned income.
Clean water, ok, you're right about that. About everything else you're a moron.
Signed,
George Washington, a Proud Slaveowner
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Re: Re:
Did you remind Shiva Ayyadurai that he's not white yet, Hamilton?
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Re:
Light-speed rail would be soooo cool, but I'm guessing a typo (high-speed?)
The rest? No significant objection here, but then, I'm not a US resident and have a different worldviewpoint, so they don't seem as outrageous as I expect others would view them.
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Yes, t’was a typo; too much Star Trek Wars for me or something. 😅
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