This Week In Techdirt History: November 21st - 27th

from the as-it-was dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, we learned more about the disturbing scope of the NSA's leaks of hacking tools, the IRS decided to demand information on Coinbase customers, and one federal judge was taking a closer look at "reputation management" libel lawsuits. Trump picked two net neutrality opponents to head the FCC transition, while cable's broadband monopoly was becoming stronger than ever and AT&T was singing the supposed benefits of zero rating. As expected, China was using America's concern about fake news to push for more control of the internet, and we we looked at the slippery slope caused by that and Facebook's efforts to comply with China's demands. Also, we saw an especially ridiculous hot news and copyright battle over chess moves.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, we took a look at how the rest of the world viewed SOPA, and how the bill wasn't actually about copyright but rather about regulating the internet. Even the copyright-happy BSA backed down from supporting the bill, apparently in large part because of Microsoft's cold feet (and they weren't the only strong copyright defenders who had issues with the bill). We applauded the senators who were willing to stand against PROTECT IP/PIPA (the Senate version of the bill) while Ron Wyden promised to read the names of public opponents as part of a filibuster if need be. We rounded out the week with a long, definitive post on how bad SOPA was.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, Universal Music decided to threaten Bank of America over a parody song, while EMI did the same thing over a parody lyric booklet created by some sports fans. Perhaps it's unsurprising that trying to play nice with labels like these was hamstringing Microsoft's Zune device too. Despite the hype around mobile video, the iPod was still primarily a music device for most people — though that didn't stop Steven Spielberg from worrying about people watching movies on iPod screens. An important ruling in California upheld Section 230's protections, though it did not (as some believed) make it impossible to sue bloggers. And the latest round of DMCA anti-circumvention exceptions was announced, with nothing much that benefited consumers.

Filed Under: history, look back

Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

from the words-with-friends dept

This week, Stephen T. Stone takes both top spots on the insightful side. In first place, it's a comment about the FBI raid on Project Veritas:

What’s sad is that Project Veritas can now use this situation as a pretext to grift gullible moro…I mean, fundraise for future bullshit stories by (somewhat accurately) claiming persecution at the hands of Democrats. Even when they “lose”, they win.

In second place, it's a comment about the trademark threat we received from North Face:

Hire dumbass lawyers, get dumbass results.

For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start out with an anonymous response to a commenter who served up a tired old screed about doing anything the police tell you (and deserving whatever you get if you don't) under the header "Ideas":

More ideas:

Having an expired registration does not merit a death sentence.
Having marijuana in a car does not merit a death sentence.
Smoking marijuana in a car does not merit a death sentence.
Fleeing a traffic stop in which no weapon or other violence was involved does not merit a death sentence.

I have seen daily duty reports submitted by police. I have seen many, many occasions where the duty report indicated that the officer terminated pursuit because circumstances dictated it became too dangerous to the community to continue.

The cop may have been doing his job, but he was doing it badly and he caused more harm than he prevented.

Next, it's an anonymous comment about legacy media's insistence that Facebook makes society worse:

Legacy media makes society worse by produing deliberately divisive ragebait (as if modern politics wasn't too full of hate and division already). Facebook is where we see the results.

Over on the funny side, both our winners come from the post about the threat from North Face. In first place, it's Thad with a thought about our response letter:

I'm not sure I would have had the self-control not to open with "Hey fuck-face".

In second place, it's MightyMetricBatman with a response to that comment, suggesting an addendum:

Don't forget to add 'Behave yourself accordingly.' to the end of said letter.

For editor's choice on the funny side, we start out one more comment from that post, this time from basstabs with a revision to the takedown letter:

"I, the undersigned, state under penalty of perjury, that I do not have any understanding of trademark infringement."

Finally, it's Pixelation with another take on the legacy media talking about Facebook, specifically a revision to our headline:

FTFY

"Media Spends Years Making Society Worse; Then Trumpets A Poll Saying People Think Facebook Makes Society Worse"

That's all for this week, folks!

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: November 14th - 20th

from the long-ago dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, we were dealing with the fallout of Trump's election. It was apparent that the First Amendment was under attack given things like Trump's constant whining about the New York Times, we spotted some big copyright problems with Trump's transition website, the incoming administration was preparing to gut the FCC's reforms, and the TTP was dead (for the wrong reasons) but we feared what would come next. At the same time, the role of fake news and fact checking became a prominent subject as people tried to figure out what happened.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, it's no surprise that the single biggest subject was SOPA. The House Judiciary Committee was holding hearings that were stacked five-to-one in favor of censoring the internet (though they insistently denied this was the case) — and they were predictably a lovefest for the bill. We featured pieces on how SOPA would be bad for filmmakers, online music services, VPNs and other important security and privacy tools, video games, investment in innovation, the health of Americans, and even the websites of Canadians. Opposition to the bill started lining up: major internet companies, lawyers and law professors, hackers, the ACLU, consumer rights groups, human rights groups, and all kinds of other people — not to mention general public opinion. But the fight was far from over...

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, we took a look at the intense hatred of the RIAA for the Consumer Electronics Association which was aptly opposing their propaganda, one defendant in a RIAA lawsuit was hoping to be covered by the settlement with Kazaa, and Larry Lessig was challenging the constitutionality of opt-out copyright. The MPAA was suing a firm for loading legally-owned DVDs onto iPods, while Universal Music was going after MySpace. There was still a lot of bandwagon-jumping from companies when it came to social media features and video sharing platforms, while we were concerned about YouTube's trigger-happy lawyers going after third-party tools. Also, we saw an important Section 230 ruling in a lawsuit against Craigslist.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: November 7th - 13th

from the living-memory dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, well... perhaps you remember what happened? On Monday we were criticizing Trump's hypocrisy on the First Amendment and James Comey's sudden reversal of his equally sudden renewal of the Clinton email investigation — plus covering other stuff like the illegal bulk data collection by Canada's spy agency and the absolutely stupid legal threats over podcast apps by Canada's public broadcaster. And then, on Tuesday night, Trump won the election. We wrote about what the unexpected result meant for Techdirt-related issues, and criticized the immediate move by many to blame the whole fiasco on Facebook and the unfortunate calls for clamping down on free speech online. Trump's first tweet as president was yet another attack on the First Amendment, and his opponents weren't necessarily doing much better on that front. And though everyone knew things were going to get even crazier, I don't think anyone fully envisioned just how ridiculous the next four years would be.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, there was some other news that is memorable to Techdirt readers: what had once been the PROTECT IP Act, and then became the E-PARASITES Act, was finally renamed to... the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. The fight over the bill only heated up from there, with the RIAA offering a bizarre interpretation while admitting it wants a DMCA overhaul, more research showing how the bill would harm investment in key innovations, lawmakers like Reps. Lofgren and Issa stepping up in opposition, and even mainstream press like Time Magazine explaining how it's a terrible idea. Opposition came from groups as diverse as librarians and sports bloggers — while the House Judiciary Committee refused to hear concerns from the wider tech industry. We wrote about how it's the exact wrong approach, and there were early plans for something similar to the blackout day that would come the following year. All in all, the fight was just getting started...

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, we had an early post about how ISPs should be demanding warrants before handing over customer info, and about how nascent services offering to delete embarrassing stuff about you from the internet weren't going to be able to live up to their promises. More and more lawsuits were piling up from people attempting to get a cut out of online video, while Microsoft was taking it upon itself to give the entertainment industry a cut of every Zune device it sold (add that to the list of dumb things about the Zune). Some people were betting a little too heavily on the idea that an open WiFi network would protect them from RIAA lawsuits, while a court agreed to examine the constitutionality of the RIAA's huge fines. Meanwhile, two years after the release of the infamous (and excellent) Grey Album mashup of Jay-Z and The Beatles, EMI admitted it didn't harm them at all (while still insisting it was good to fight so hard against it).

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: October 31st - November 6th

from the at-the-time dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, people were grappling with James Comey's surprise last-minute announcement that the Clinton email investigation was ongoing (and noting that it seemed to fly in the face of the FBI's ban on investigation disclosures), followed by the agency suddenly leaking like a sieve and opening an internal investigation into one of its own Twitter accounts. AT&T was making things up in an attempt to get its Time Warner acquisition approved, and Senator Wyden warned that the merger posed a massive threat to net neutrality. Meanwhile, the copyright office screwed over thousands of sites by changing its DMCA registration policies, YouTube finally buried the hatchet with Germany's GEMA, and the DOJ sued DirecTV over collusion on regional sports programming.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, the fight was on over the ridiculously named E-PARASITE Act. We were disappointed to see GoDaddy support the bill despite being a site dedicated to theft under its definitions, and we were not at all surprised to see the US Chamber of Commerce make ridiculous arguments in favor. Many in the content industries were insisting that the bill wouldn't require rewriting the DMCA, even though its author admitted that's the plan. Then the campaign for support got really desperate: an astroturf group inflated the number of letters supposedly sent to Congress, Warner Bros. (which had just announced record profits) started pleading poverty and asking people to support the bill (part of a pattern with successful rightsholding companies), and somehow the MPAA even dredged up meaningless support from firefighters. Meanwhile, we highlighted the single best article explaining why the bill was bad.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, Universal embarrassed itself when its lawyers didn't know about its marketing plans and sent cease-and-desist letters to fans participating in a guerilla campaign. It was also a big week for abusing the DMCA, and we took a look at how takedowns were used to silence critics and any content someone doesn't like. Following the big deal between record labels and YouTube, we learned how the deal was structured such that they didn't have to share any of the money with musicians, while a lot of other creators were starting to ask questions about what they would get out of industry deals with YouTube. Meanwhile, Google was getting an early start on making deals to pay viral video creators.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: October 24th - 30th

from the in-the-past dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, the American Bar Association prepared a report on Trump's libel bully behavior, but was scared out of publishing it... for fear of being sued by Trump. Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign was trying to deny the authenticity of the emails released by Wikileaks. The ACLU was taking the government to court over unreleased FISA opinions, new documents revealed how AT&T hoped to profit by helping law enforcement spy on the public, and Yahoo was trying to get permission to talk about the email scanning it did for the government. Via a FOIA request from the EFF, we learned more about why the copyright office misrepresented copyright law to the FCC — unsurprisingly, it was at the behest of the MPAA, which began trying to mock EFF over the story. Also, this was the week that Oracle officially appealed Google's fair use win over API copyright.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, Apple was continuing its trademark war against anyone using an apple in a logo, Universal was using copyright to go after parodies, and we learned that ICE seized 20 domain names for the NFL over the weekend. The House of Representatives was rushing out its version of PROTECT IP, which emerged with the even more ridiculous name of the E-PARASITES Act — and it was really, really bad and required some interesting flip-flopping on behalf of its sponsors. Amidst this, we published a three-part series on the many historical "killers" of the movie industry (part one, part two, part three).

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, we looked at how the DMCA takedown process was working for the now-Google-owned YouTube, and at the way many of the weak lawsuits against Google (and not just for YouTube) were strengthening the company's position by giving it easy wins. We also looked at how copy protection and walled gardens were making music annoying for consumers while, amidst lots of fearmongering about the internet hurting music sales, Weird Al was crediting it with his album's success. We saw another way to rebuff the RIAA's lawsuits — by hiring a lawyer that has beaten them before — while the association also failed in its attempts to legally scour the hard drives of its lawsuit targets. Meanwhile, a newspaper was called out by a lawyer for thinking it could unilaterally tell people that "fair use is not applicable" to uses of its content, leading the publication to change the language on its site — but when the lawyer who called them out sent a thank you note, they threatened to sue him for defamation.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: October 17th - 23rd

from the 'twas-ever-thus dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, we followed up on the previous Friday's ridiculous arrest of Amy Goodman for covering the North Dakota oil pipeline protests, with prosecutors changing their charges from trespassing to the even more ridiculous charge of rioting, only to have them rejected by a judge. An appeals court ruling confirmed what everyone knew about NSA surveillance — that it could be used to investigate domestic suspects — while a tribunal in the UK determined that intelligence agencies there had been illegally collecting data in bulk for more than a decade. Comcast was sued for misleading feeds that it claimed were about "transparency", T-Mobile was fined by the FCC for abusing the definition of "unlimited" data, and the FTC was warning that AT&T's court victory on throttling could screw over consumers for decades to come. Meanwhile, Team Prenda suffered yet another huge loss with an order to pay over $650,000 for a bogus defamation lawsuit.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, copyright troll lawyer Evan Stone was appealing a judicial slapdown and sanctions, another mass infringement lawyer was complaining about the number of people fighting back, and Righthaven was still trying to avoid paying legal fees (though the court wasn't having it) while also facing an imminent dismissal in yet another lawsuit. Ron Wyden was continuing to point out the problems with PROTECT IP while we took a look at the connection between that bill and Wikileaks censorship. This was also the week that we first wrote about the birth of CreativeAmerica, the latest astroturf organization from the entertainment industry.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, Belgian newspapers were doubling down on their "victory" in getting delisted by Google with demands to be removed from MSN as well, while a News.com editor was using the fight as a springboard for a ridiculous column about how Google is "immoral". Mostly, though, things were shaking out regarding Google's YouTube acquisition: it was causing turbulence for Google's existing advertising deals, there was a revelation that YouTube had given equity to record labels on the morning of the deal, and we noted that attacks from politicians might be an even bigger deal than attacks from the entertainment industry (and Universal Music chose this week to sue a bunch of other video sites instead). Meanwhile, the Authors Guild lawsuit over Google's book scanning was getting off to a very, very slow start.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: October 10th - 16th

from the total-recall dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, everyone was abuzz about the infamous Trump Access Hollywood recording that had dropped the previous Friday, and we learned about how NBC had delayed a story about it for fear of getting sued — after all, Trump was tossing around the legal threats to newspapers with wild abandon. At the same time, Charles Harder said he was no longer monitoring Gawker (though he was still sending takedown demands), but he was sending out a threat letter on behalf of Melania Trump. We also got some more details on the recent spate of bogus defamation lawsuits being used to block negative reviews.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, German collection society GEMA was demanding fees for music it didn't hold the rights to while the Pirate Party was continuing to build support, taking 9% of the vote nationwide in Germany. A Belgian court ordered the blocking of the wrong PirateBay domain, the UK government was admitting it had no evidence for its plans for draconian copyright law, and we wondered why PROTECT IP supporters couldn't just admit the bill was about censorship (while Yahoo was quietly dumping the US Chamber of Commerce over its extremist position on PROTECT IP).

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, the big rumors of the previous week became official when Google acquired YouTube for $1.65-billion in Google stock, which of course led to all kinds of varied opinions on the news and a renewed interest from entertainment companies in threatening to sue... and/or negotiate. Anti-video-game crusader Jack Thompson somehow convinced a judge that he should get to see the entirety of the game Bully before it was released, only to have his hopes of declaring it a public nuisance quickly dashed. We were shocked to see a Disney executive actually admit that piracy is competition, baffled to hear a Sony Pictures UK executive claim that getting rid of release windows was "not technically possible", and amused to see the Christian music industry start making a fuss about piracy as a moral issue.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: October 3rd - 9th

from the back-in-the-day dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, the Trump's campaign was reacting to the leaked pages of his 1995 tax returns by threatening to sue the New York Times, and also reacting to some ads from the Clinton campaign by threatening to sue them, too — while at the same time, the campaign was facing its own bogus threat from the Phoenix Police over imagery of cops in an ad. The big story, though, was the revelation that Yahoo had secretly built email scanning software under pressure from the feds. This led to basically every other tech company rapidly denying that they'd done the same, followed by Yahoo itself issuing a tone-deaf non-denial denial of the report. The media was very confused about the story, with the New York Times and Reuters claiming totally different explanations for the email scanning, and over the course of the week even more disagreements and confusion arose.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, countries around the world were signing ACTA and finally admitting that it meant they'd have to change their copyright laws, while Brazil was drafting its own anti-ACTA framework for the internet. The Supreme Court declined to consider an appeals court ruling that properly stated music downloads are not public performances, though this didn't mean (as some claimed) that downloading had been legalized. Meanwhile, another judge dismissed a lawsuit over streaming video, but mostly avoided the larger copyright questions, and we saw a set of good rulings against copyright trolls, and one bad one.

This was also the week that Steve Jobs died at age 56.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, Facebook was getting a start on its soon-to-be-tradition of threatening people who make useful third-party tools. Amazon was abandoning its attempt to make an early version of something like Street View, and Wal-Mart was abandoning its much more stupid attempt to offer a MySpace clone. The fight between Belgian news publishers and Google was continuing, while the copyright fight over My Sharona was dragging in Yahoo, Amazon and Apple. And the big news — though it was still just a rumor with lots of conflicting information going around, making it hard to tell if it was true — was that Google was planning to buy YouTube for $1.6-billion.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: September 26th - October 2nd

from the those-were-the-days dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, we looked at how the internet of things was fueling an unprecedented rise in DDoS attacks, while the DHS was offering its unsolicitied (and likely unhelpful) assistance in securing it, and we also learned more about the likely reason for the NSA's trove of hacking tools being discovered and published. The CFAA emerged at the center of a political dispute, the California Supreme Court agreed to hear an important Section 230 case, and the DOJ decided that copyright infringement could be grounds for deportation, while the RIAA was going around acting as though SOPA had passed, even though it didn't. Also, in an extremely silly move, four state AGs filed a lawsuit to block the IANA transition, which was quickly tossed out by a judge.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, the Senate let the copyright lobby set up shop in the Senate building during the PROTECT IP debate, while the House version of the bill added in a provision covering cyberlockers, an "analyst" from Disney was cheerleading for the bill. Canadian politicians were pushing for their own terrible copyright reform law, while we looked at how the EU's copyright extension was harming classical music. Multiple countries were getting ready to sign ACTA on the weekend, until it turned out that some weren't actually going to do it, even though the US planned to use its signing statement to defend the unconstitutional aspects of the agreement. Meanwhile, Righthaven suffered another huge loss, and continued trying to avoid paying legal fees, though it only succeeded in getting a brief reprieve.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, the fight between Google and European newspapers continued with the papers trying to reinvent robots.txt, new companies were trying to find a way to charge money for social media, and we wondered if it was possible to see the actual FCC data on broadband penetration. Microsoft was going after the anonymous person who cracked their copy protection system, the MPAA was touting its bizarre use of DVD-sniffing dogs, and Hollywood was raising the stakes in its claims of the damages from piracy. Meanwhile, a judge sadly agreed with the RIAA that Morpheus had induced infringement, while Limewire was hitting back hard against the RIAA with a lawsuit alleging antitrust and consumer fraud.

Filed Under: history, look back