This Week In Techdirt History: April 11th - 17th

from the ah-the-memories dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, the encryption wars continued. Senators Burr and Feinstein were planning a one-sided briefing with law enforcement, and soon officially released their terrible anti-encryption bill (though it seemed to be missing some stuff). The US Attorney bizarrely suggested a ban on importing open source encryption tech, while on the other hand the Inspector General was noting existing abuse of cell phone forensic equipment by law enforcement. Apple was still fighting the DOJ, and it became increasingly clear that the access they got to Syed Farook's iPhone didn't accomplish much if anything.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, it was copyright nonsense all over the place. The EU was getting ready to vote on an unnecessary copyright extension while some European lawmakers were talking about browser-based site blocking; GoDaddy's CEO was attempting to use copyright to silence critics; a judge who had allowed mass infringement lawsuits backpedaled after people noted her RIAA lobbying past; police were going after mixtape-making DJs, with RIAA reps in tow; and Joe Biden said there's no reason to treat intellectual property any differently from physical property. This was also the week that Sony settled its jailbreaking lawsuit against Geohot, though his supporters were not thrilled.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, we looked at Disney's MovieBeam as a prime example of entertainment companies not understanding how to use new tech properly, even if there were some hints that the company might be starting to figure it out. MLB.com was still trying to grow into the music space by running band websites, and everyone was trying to get in on the game of programmatic ad auctions, and/or the booming MySpace economy. We also saw an early freak-out over the Internet Archive's activities.

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Filed Under: history, look back


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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Apr 2021 @ 2:56pm

    I love history day.

    Some editing bits:

    lawn enforcement - i really enjoyed this. Takes me back to my youth.

    GoDaddy's CEO was attempting to use copyright to backpedaled after people noted her RIAA lobbying past; To take down the elephant-shooting video that people were re-posting, it seems. Also Bob Parsons would be a his, given the pronouns in related articles, unless they identify differently now.

    Anyway, again thanks for taking the weekly effort to give us this look back.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    Leigh Beadon (profile), 17 Apr 2021 @ 6:17pm

    Re:

    Oh whoops - that second one is a broken link causing some of the text to drop out. Fixing (and the typo too) thanks!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Apr 2021 @ 10:29pm

    Search Techdirt for "Charlie Chester". No results. Odd, that.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Samuel Abram (profile), 18 Apr 2021 @ 3:05am

    Re:

    I love history day.

    So do I, but to be perfectly honest, I love new-games-from-works-that-just-entered-the-public-domain day even more! As I said before, the best thing about copyright and patents is when they expire.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2021 @ 9:48am

    Re:

    Not odd if you know the details of that story and aren't an ignorant buffoon.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. icon
    Stephen T. Stone (profile), 18 Apr 2021 @ 10:16am

    For what reason should Techdirt be obliged to cover a story broken by a group known to deceptively edit video footage and lie to the press?

    Also: If CNN is bad for being sincerely anti-Trump, for what reason is Fox News not similarly bad for being uncritically pro-Trump?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2021 @ 12:01pm

    Re: Re:

    Game Jam time is pretty awesome, for sure.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2021 @ 12:04pm

    Re:

    Also the story doesn't really fit anything techdirt generally covers.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2021 @ 7:32pm

    Re:

    The best part about history day is remembering how the trolls lost their shit over the years and never quite found it.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. icon
    oreotv apk (profile), 19 Apr 2021 @ 2:11am

    really i loved to history of day...it was generally change aggresive person...this is the change people need....

    link to this | view in thread ]


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