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

from the special-edition dept

Five Years Ago

This week, instead of going through the usual look at what was happening five, ten and fifteen years ago, we're going to put all the focus on the events of this week in 2013. Why? Because it's the week that the revelations of NSA spying, which dropped last week, truly hit the fan. There was a whole lot of news about it, almost completely dominating Techdirt, and it's worth a closer look.

As the leaks kept coming, it was revealed that the source was Edward Snowden, who described his ability to wiretap anyone from his desk. As politicians scrambled to defend the program, the DOJ was trying to cover up the secret court ruling about it, and we realized the big scandal wasn't that the NSA did something illegal, but that it probably didn't.

Some defenders of the PRISM program tried to claim it helped stop an NYC subway bombing, but the evidence was lacking and even the Associated Press soon called bullshit. James Clapper was simultaneously claiming that the leaks were a danger to us all, and also no big deal, while the author of the Patriot Act stepped up to say NSA surveillance must end, and that the law was supposed to prevent data mining. It started becoming clear that the metadata story was the biggest one.

Some politicians began speaking out, with Senator Rand Paul calling for a class-action lawsuit against the NSA, and Senator Ron Wyden calling for congressional hearings, before a group of Senators got together to introduce a bill to end the secrecy of the FISA courts. One Senator had previously predicted a lot of this, but unfortunately he got voted out of office in 2010.

Meanwhile, a former NSA boss said the leaks show America can't keep secrets, even though they really showed the opposite. The public was divided in its opinion on the program, depending heavily on how the question was asked. And we pointed out that the leaks show the importance of Wikileaks and similar operations.

The backlash grew, with Derek Khanna calling for James Clapper to be impeached for lying, a team of 86 companies and other groups called on Congress to end the spying, and the ACLU suing the government for 4th amendment violations. Various former NSA whistleblowers spoke up in defense of Snowden and against the agency's practices. Of course, there was also some pathetic backlash in the other direction, with Rep. Peter King calling for the prosecution of journalists who report on the leaks, and Congress moving to improve secrecy instead of fixing the problem.

Then things began getting even worse, with the possibility emerging that the PRISM program enabled espionage against allies. A new leak at the end of the week revealed the NSA's talking points for defending itself, and sales of George Orwell's 1984 began to skyrocket, and... well, let's just say there's plenty more on the way in the coming weeks.

Filed Under: edward snowden, history, look back, nsa

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

from the it-happened dept

Five Years Ago

The big news this week in 2013 came from leaked documents revealing that the NSA was harvesting call data from millions of Verizon subscribers, followed by a Washington Post report saying the agency had direct access to information from Google, Facebook, Skype, Apple and more. The NSA was quick to try to deny it and weasel out of the accusations, while Senators revealed that they already knew all about it, and James Clapper tried to place the blame on journalists for revealing the spying. Both Verizon and the other tech companies tried to deny things with carefully chosen words, and the Washington Post tried to quietly backtrack on its claims.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2008, the Supreme Court refused to let MLB continue fighting to claim ownership of facts, while others were telling Viacom it should hope to lose its lawsuit against YouTube. UK authorities were charging users of the OiNK filehsaring network of conspiracy, while the push for a Canadian DMCA was rearing its head again and causing controversy. And the first attempt to academically look at takedown notices found, unsurprisingly, that a whole lot of them are garbage.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2003, the RIAA was launching a new lawsuit against Morpheus while EMI was joining Universal in suing Napster's investors. One Senator was trying to rein in the anti-circumvention rules in the DMCA, while the Supreme Court was ruling that using public domain content doesn't require crediting the creator. And in a massive too-little-too-late move, Metallica finally put some music online.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: May 27th - June 2nd

from the looking-back dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2013, we took a look at a big intellectual property report that focused on fearmongering about Chinese IP theft (while asking the public to foot the bill), called for companies to be allowed to use malware against infringers, and proposed cutting off funding to the World Health Organization if it doesn't start prioritizing IP protection, for some reason. Meanwhile, Hollywood studios were trying to wipe Kim Dotcom's Mega off the web, the RIAA was denying that it stifles innovation (while facing opposition from the Internet Association over its attempts to wipe out DMCA safe harbors), and CBS was trying to deny that its direct threats to sue Aereo actually meant it would sue Aereo.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2008, Viacom and YouTube were slugging it out in court while the former tried out some new anti-embedding arguments. The RIAA dropped its attack on the defunct Allofmp3, while ignoring the resurrection of the site under a different name, and ASCAP released a hugely problematic bill of supposed rights for artists. Metallica was trying to embrace the internet without offering any free downloads, and discovering that they had already squandered all their goodwill in that arena. And ACTA went from obscure trade agreement to a source of pushback and protests in record time.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2003, eBay lost a patent lawsuit over the Buy It Now feature, leading to a scramble from other online retailers to buy up the patents in question. We saw early discussion of tech ideas like personal 3D printers and telepresence robots (oh, and anti-infringement watermarks on content). Microsoft settled its dispute with AOL with a $750-million payout. And a court solidified many of the problems with the DMCA by ruling that rightsholders don't have to investigate the sites that they target.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: May 20th - 26th

from the same-as-it-ever-was dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2013, we watched plenty of copyright hysteria as a trade group insisted that accommodating the deaf and blind would mean "casting aside" copyright, a Swedish prosecutor tried to label the Pirate Bay's domain registrar as an "accomplice", and all the major Hollywood studios sent bogus DMCA notices over a documentary about said Bay. Meanwhile, we were watching the TPP negotiations over the contentious intellectual property chapter, a key legal fight over DMCA abuse (while the RIAA continued whining that safe harbors are broken), and the effort in Congress to fix the anti-circumvention provisions.

Ten Years Ago

Five years earlier in 2008, we were already talking about how far behind the mainstream media was when it came to the DMCA and DRM. We took a look at how the RIAA and MPAA helped make The Pirate Bay even more popular, while the MPAA was getting people to settle lawsuits over simply linking to content, and Hollywood was working hard on making sure set-top boxes suck.

This was also the week that we got our very first leaked glimpse at something that would become a huge topic in years to come: ACTA, which at the time we called The Pirate Bay Criminalization Treaty.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2003, worlds collided in an odd way as Roxio, the company that acquired the Napster name, made a deal to buy Pressplay, the music studios' crappy download service. Meanwhile, a Spanish site was claiming to offer legal music downloads, which as you can imagine the industry didn't quite see the same way. In the mean time, the music industry got into its head that a website listing out legal services was the key to ending piracy, while Disney was preparing to offer its own video-on-demand service, and Jack Valenti was busy rewriting history as usual. And, to bring us back around to the very first link in this history post, it was this week in 2003 that we first started hearing about the blind and deaf fighting back against the DMCA — something we optimistically thought might actually be effective, but that was giving the industry too much credit, apparently.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: April 29th - May 5th

from the stuff-that-happened dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2013, while the MPAA was being accused of tampering with evidence in Finland, and a bunch of movie studios were fragmenting the streaming market by pulling films off Netflix, Chris Dodd was trying to claim he supports helping the blind while refusing to approve of the copyright exceptions that would do so. Meanwhile, the government was clashing with technology on many fronts, from increased censorship requests to Google to the DOJ wanting to fine companies that don't let it wiretap users to ICE raiding mobile phone repair shops.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2008, the RIAA was employing the questionable strategy of giving music services a bunch of publicity by suing them and the ugly strategy of aggressively targeting college students, while a court was thankfully rejecting its "making available" argument about copyright law. We took a look at all the problems copyright was causing for documentary filmmakers, and the smear campaign against Larry Lessig and free culture in general. And, for something that looks amusing in hindsight, many people were predicting that the mobile web was a huge threat to Google's dominance.

Fifteen Years Ago

Both of this week's stars were in the news in 2003 as well. We got a look at how the MPAA stays one step ahead of consumer rights organizations, while the RIAA was settling an earlier round of lawsuits against students, and also creepily sending threatening IMs to file sharers. Amidst this, Apple officially launched its online music sales for the first time — we were lukewarm on the idea, and of course at this point it was still laden with DRM.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: April 22nd - 28th

from the past-and-present dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2013, while Prenda was facing new court orders and getting angry (but still trying to pull its same old tricks, we also saw lots of DMCA and copyright abuse all over the place. Fox managed to take down Cory Doctorow's book about censorship with a bogus DMCA notice, a copyright troll was suing over the wrong movie, and Google's problematic handling of DMCA requests led to a bad takedown being even worse. There were a couple victories too, though, such as an appeals court overturning the verdict denying Richard Prince's fair use defence of his appropriation art, and a court rejecting a dentist's attempt to use copyright to censor negative reviews.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2008, an AT&T lobbyist was soothsaying about the supposed dire future of broadband capacity, Cablevision was caught blatantly lying to customers about the switch to digital TV, and Bill Gates was making some simply bizarre claims about open source software. News companies were considering hitting back against MLB's attempts to restrict reporters, while ABC was trying to do a similar thing by restricting coverage of the presidential debates. And Neil Gaiman was weighing in on J. K. Rowling's ongoing copyright crusade against a Harry Potter guidebook.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2003, the DOJ was stepping up to take the RIAA's side in its fight against Verizon, and a district court got on board and ruled in the RIAA's favor, while Penn State was succumbing to the industry's demands to help it crack down on student filesharing, and a whole bunch of record labels decided to sue the venture capitalists who backed Napster. We also got a look at the budding friendship between Hollywood and the FBI. In more positive news for the history of copyright, though, this was the week that Creative Commons went global.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: April 15th - 21st

from the it-happened dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2013, as the fallout for Prenda Law continued, we shifted our focus to the cybersecurity bill CISPA. While the White House was threatening to veto it if the privacy issues were not addressed, the House was rejecting all the amendments that might actually do so and its sponsors were ignoring the fact that it would render online privacy agreements meaningless. Sponsor Mike Rogers (whose wife, surprise surprise, stood to benefit hugely from the bill) made his infamous comment about the only opposition being 14-year-olds in their basement, prompting rapid and widespread backlash. We knew from history how the bill would be abused, and the only amendment that was being truly considered was pretty toothless. Then, of course, the bill was passed by the House, with 288 supporters.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2008, the threat to privacy was the DHS's domestic spy satellites — but more was happening on the copyright front, such as J. K. Rowling trying to use emotional appeals to block a Harry Potter guidebook and push silly legal theories like the idea that spoilers are copyright infringement. And Warner Bros. was threatening the filmmaker behind the movie Troll, which he was seeking to remake, because it happened to have a character named Harry Potter ten years before Rowling's books were written. Hollywood was starting to turn its attention to 3D movies as a way to revive cinemas, the recording industry was seeking more money because it deigned to let people transfer media between devices, and we took a look at how everyone overvalues content and undervalues services.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2003, it was the ten-year anniversary of the release of Mosaic, the first "major" web browser. The entertainment industry was succeeding in its crusade against piracy within various organizations, with CIO Magazine telling corporations to worry about the legal issues of employee downloading, and a bunch of Naval Academy students being disciplined for sharing music. Copyright fears were holding back books about hacking and internet security research and — in an early precursor to the sort of sharing that would be formalized by CISPA a decade later — the government was asking corporations to hand over details on their infrastructure and just trust the agencies to keep it safe.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: April 8th - 14th

from the the-way-it-was dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2013, Ken White returned to fill us in on the massive fallout from Prenda's hearing (as predicted), while the folks involved scrambled to get out of trouble — often by throwing each other under the bus. Paul Hansmeier played innocent, as did John Steele in his filing, both of them trying to turn the blame onto Brett Gibbs, who hit back with his own defence. And while Prenda and Paul Duffy fought hard to block any new evidence from being brought into the case, Judge Wright was having none of that and accepted new evidence from Morgan Pietz.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2008, we found out that e-voting problems were in some cases even worse than people thought, but while Congress was failing to do anything about it, some states were hard at work on fixing things. Meanwhile, we got a pair of examples of people using litigation instead of, you know, actually competing: ConnectU's settlement with Facebook, and Mattel/Hasbro's ongoing attempts to get rid of Scrabulous. And we had a big, long post looking at the deluge of amicus briefs in the Supreme Court's critical Bilski case on software and business model patents.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2003, there was lots of talk about spam, including the legal landmine for employers created by porn spam, and the overall fact that the battle against spam was not going well. One spammer tried to sue an anti-spammer for signing him up for a bunch of spam via his publicly posted business address, but the court very quickly smacked that down. And then the Senate introduced an anti-spam bill, though there was no reason to believe it would accomplish much.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: April 1st - 7th

from the then-and-now dept

Five Years Ago

We saw a mix of court rulings this week in 2013, with Aereo winning a victory before its eventual defeat, ReDigi losing in its attempt to resell MP3s, and a judge granting a copyright troll the maximum statutory damages in a default case.

Meanwhile, the Prenda saga came to another apex with the second hearing before Judge Otis Wright. Prior to the day, Ken White from Popehat took a look at what the judge might do, and then he provided a tremendous writeup on the 12-minute hearing in which Team Prenda pleaded the fifth (a transcript of which would later be released). Then Ken closed things out by declaring Prenda a dead law-firm walking based on what he saw.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2008, the BBC was fighting back against ISP traffic shaping, and UK ISPs were fighting back against BPI demands that they do it — all while it looked like traffic filters didn't actually work anyway. Meanwhile, there was some confusion over whether a court had ruled that "making available" is or is not distribution for the purposes of copyright infringement, though another court was much clearer in declaring that it's not. And, in a historic moment for the history of music, the echoes of which still shape our world today, major record labels teamed up with MySpace. (/s)

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2003, though there was less war-related hacktivism going on than some people expected, it was increasingly clear that the Iraq War was profoundly impacting people's internet and news-reading habits — and could even be called "the killer app for broadband" with the way it appeared to be spurring adoption. (Even AOL wa shifting its focus!) Meanwhile, the government took one of its perennial swings at encryption by trying to criminalize it, while the ACLU was slightly expanding its mandate to get involved in the surveillance fight.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: March 25th - 31st

from the so-it-went dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2013, congress released its proposal for reforming the CFAA — and it managed to make the law even worse. Even the one change we at first thought might be good turned out not to be. The whole thing had experts wondering what the hell congress was thinking, and led Eric Goldman to make the case for ditching the CFAA altogether. Meanwhile, we continued to look at the dangers of CISPA, while Hollywood was still working on pushing SOPA abroad.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2008, a Columbia professor was jumping on the bandwagon of aggressively using patents and exploiting the ITC loophole, while Seagate was casually promising to try to stop SSD technology with a barrage of patent lawsuits. In Canada, Bell decided to start throttling traffic without telling resellers, and enjoying the monopoly position that let it respond to complaints with, pretty much, "deal with it". Meanwhile, TorrentSpy announced it was shutting down out of sheer exhaustion, Warner Music joined the crowd calling for an ISP tax, the IFPI kept putting pressure on ISPs around the world, and Rep. Berman trotted out the old line that anyone opposing new copyright laws just wants stuff for free.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2003, all eyes were on the war in Iraq, and we were looking at the impact on and from technology in many regards. Journalists were flexing new technological muscles in covering the conflict, and the military was flexing similar muscles to recruit new soldiers. The internet was changing how people get their war news, and sucking up a whole lot of time from people at home and in the office — and this empowered hackers and hosting companies to become censors. And in a stunningly politically motivated move, a congressman introduced a bill trying to pre-emptively ensure that any new cellular infrastructure built in Iraq after the war would be CDMA. (The war had so far existed for exactly one week.)

Filed Under: history, look back