This Week In Techdirt History: August 29th - September 4th
from the as-it-happened dept
Five Years Ago
This week in 2016, a leaked copyright proposal in the EU was a complete mess with lots of terrible ideas — though that didn't stop Hollywood from finding something in it to freak out about — while a report from the UK government pretty much accused Facebook, Twitter, and Google of being unrepentant supporters of terrorism. On the flipside, we were surprised that the EU adopted net neutrality guidelines that didn't suck. James Comey was calling for an "adult conversation" about encryption but still refusing to listen to experts, while the DHS's new Election Cybersecurity Committee also lacked any cybersecurity experts, and we noted the Clinton Campaign's hypocrisy on encryption. And, of course, the monkey selfie debacle continued, this time with PETA losing its "next friend" status.
Ten Years Ago
This week in 2011, we saw more of how ridiculous the lawsuits were from US Copyright Group and the Hurt Locker producers, the DOJ was battling Puerto 80 in court over its domain seizures (leading the latter to appeal on First Amendment grounds), and we took another look at the total lack of evidence for the supposed necessity of a fashion copyright. A DMCA takedown "prank" led to all of Justin Bieber's videos being removed from YouTube, and so all of a sudden record label executives were concerned about DMCA abuse (while Twitter was having its own problems with highly questionable DMCA claims leading to account suspensions). Meanwhile, an appeals court ruled that arresting a man for filming the cops violated the First and Fourth Amendments, but at the same time a man who filmed the cops in Illinois was facing 75 years in jail at the hands of an Assistant AG who insisted there is no right to record the police.
Fifteen Years Ago
This week in 2006, cablecos and telcos seemed to be suddenly realizing that their service sucks, not that they would be fixing that anytime soon, while we took a closer look at the telco shills polluting the net neutrality debate. A weird internal copyright battle at the UK Cabinet Office led to one part of the office pulling another part's videos off YouTube, while the New York Times was blocking an article for UK readers for fear of liability under the country's problematic laws. In the midst of the world learning about its highly questionable conditions, Foxconn was threatening reporters with life-destroying consequences, but then tried to back down. Meanwhile, the MPAA was using its rating powers to obstruct a documentary about its rating powers, and the RIAA (which at the same time was still fighting for the right to scour people's hard drives) was following the MPAA's lead and creating an "educational campaign" to brainwash people about the evils of piracy.
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