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

from the looking-back dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, the DEA seemed to be making some kind of effort to curb its abuse of warrantless wiretaps, while a report in the UK showed that police improperly accessed data on citizens thousands of times, and Sweden was considering making DNA that had been donated purely for medical research available to cops and insurance companies. Two senators were speaking out against efforts to expand FBI surveillance, and one of them who is well known to Techdirt readers — Ron Wyden — joined the podcast to discuss it. This was also the week that Pokemon Go took the world by storm, and we had an early mention of what is now a household name with a post about AstraZeneca trying to extend a patent.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, we wrote about why PROTECT IP would fail in its goals because people would never accept it, while lobbyists were ramping up the pressure to get it passed. Righthaven was accused of avoiding paying legal fees it owed and was ordered to stop delaying, while it continued to suffer loss after loss. And the Monkey Selfie drama continued, with a news agency telling us to remove the photos from our post and the photographer claiming he owned the copyright because he thought the picture might happen, while we looked closer at why the photo is likely in the public domain.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, a judge handed down a worrying ruling that said it infringes copyright to edit movies you've bought. The recording industry in the UK was asking ISPs to shut down the accounts of file sharers, but they were not convinced by the evidence, drawing the disappointing ire of indie record labels that were failing to innovate. There was also a lot of think-of-the-children panic happening, and we took a look at the overbearing ways people were trying to keep kids "safe" by tracking and monitoring them, while some in congress were blaming MySpace for troubled children.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: July 4th - 10th

from the what-was dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, transparency was under attack on many fronts. A North Carolina legislator who was a former police chief pushed through legislation to keep body camera footage out of the public's hands, while in the course of two days we got two examples of cops making recordings disappear, and the Philadelphia police department responded to an open records request by releasing one document: the journalist's own request email. An Ohio court sanctioned a lawyer for sharing publicly-available court documents with journalists, while another court secured a grand jury indictment against a newspaper publisher for filing open records requests. The details about Hillary Clinton's email server showed several emails withheld from FOIA availability (as an appeals court said email stored on private servers is still subject to FOIA requests). And the FBI was vacuuming up local law enforcement documents about the Orlando shooting to block open records requests. President Obama did sign a FOIA reform bill... just in time for it to have no impact on his administration.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, a group of law professors came out against the PROTECT IP bill, while Hollywood was ramping up a smear campaign against opponents of the bill, and one Senator removed himself as a co-sponsor (though the reasons were unclear). PROTECT IP wasn't the only bad piece of copyright legislation either: an anti-streaming, anti-embedding bill caught the attention of video game streamers who realized how it could impact them, and a bunch of YouTubers started putting up videos to protest it.

But perhaps most memorably, this was the week that the infamous Monkey Selfie fiasco kicked off.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, the recording industry was wasting its time suing international sites while the Associated Press was taking a look at piracy around the world and largely missing the point. Attempts to get college students onto special music download platform swere a total flop, record labels were turning to elaborate deluxe CDs to compete with piracy, and Australia was seeking to regulate YouTube.

But, once again most memorably, this was the week that Senator Ted Stevens delivered the infamous "series of tubes" line about the internet.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: June 27th - July 3rd

from the that's-how-it-went dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, the Copyright Office was pushing a dangerous plan to strip websites of DMCA harbors, Google and Facebook were using copyright tools to take down extremist content, and lawmakers in Europe were floating the dumb idea of letting robots and computers have copyrights. Malibu Media was getting called out by a judge while also launching a lawsuit against its former lawyer, while two other important rulings in copyright cases stated that an IP address is not a person. We also took a closer look at Hillary Clinton's problematic tech platform and vague and confusing intellectual property platform.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, early hacktivist group LulzSec announced plans to disband, and we looked at the impact this kind of hacktivism was having while the RIAA was citing such groups as another reason for passing the PROTECT IP act. Sony's CEO was blaming its own hacking woes on people wanting everything for free, while PS3 jailbreaker George Hotz (aka GeoHot) was hired by Facebook. Meanwhile, Righthaven's troubles continued with racketeering claims brought in South Carolina and similar claims made in Nevada, while the company was begging to be put back into a case it was dismissed from and trying to avoid sanctions by blaming its lawyer. Amidst this, we looked at the silver lining of Righthaven's activities: they helped to establish a much more expansive view of fair use when it comes to copying newspaper articles.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, newspapers were at the peak of their efforts to block people from reading their work for free online. The fact that IP addresses are not people (and weren't in 2006 either) was proving an effective way of getting the RIAA to drop lawsuits. Amazon's plans to get into the video download business were leaked, while Metallica finally caved and decided to sell music downloads in iTunes, and Kazaa settled its lawsuit with the music industry and announced plans to go legit while Torrentspy was facing its own lawsuit and asking why Hollywood wasn't suing Google too.

Filed Under: history, look back

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

from the so-it-went dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, the Supreme Court was chipping away at the Fourth Amendment while the FBI was continuing to use its bad facial recognition database and getting away with problematic warrants and hacking — and congress was seeking to legalize more FBI abuses (in an attempt that narrowly failed). The DOJ was fighting against privacy advocates, and CIA director John Brennan was bizarrely claiming that only the US had encryption technology. We were also disappointed to see Twitch bring CFAA and trademark claims against bot operators.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, Righthaven was losing lawsuits left and right, and the CEO was not taking it well. Sony was fighting against PS3 modding and Microsoft was claiming it could use the DMCA to block competing Xbox accessories, while Universal launched a war on popular hip-hop sites and blogs, which even swept up 50 Cent's own website. A new court filing explained how ICE's domain seizures violate the First Amendment, while Senator Leahy was praising the agency's initiative. We also took a look back at the many things that people thought would kill the music industry in both the analog and digital eras.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, the NY Times was in the midst of one of its many paywall experiments while the LA Times was subjecting reporters to stifling web filters. Blockbuster was fighting against Netflix's patents while GoDaddy was sued over a patent on server auto-configuration. We wrote about how ISPs were screwing everyone, and how their cooperation with the NSA was boosting the encryption market. Meanwhile, social media sites were booming but struggling to figure out how to make money, and of course still facing a variety of vague freakouts.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: June 13th - 19th

from the the-style-at-the-time dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, we were learning more about the scope of Peter Thiel's attack on Gawker (and the further exploits of his laywer...) while Gawker was exploring a questionable legal counterattack. The issues with corporate sovereignty in trade agreements were getting more mainstream attention while the paperback version of Hillary Clinton's memoir removed text about her support fro the TPP. Europe was getting ready to create a link tax just as its top court was confirming that copyright levies don't work. An appeals court handed a big loss to record labels in their attack on Vimeo over lipdub videos, while Twitter, Facebook and Google were hit with claims of material support for terrorism following the Paris attacks.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, while some websites were playing pranks by pretending their domains had been seized by ICE, several of the sites that were actually targeted were challenging the seizures — and notable target Rojadirecta sued the US government, Homeland Security, and ICE. But ICE was still stalling on FOIA requests seeking more information about the seizures. And at the same time, China was getting in on the website seizure game while using copyright infringement as an excuse. Meanwhile, a judge was threatening sanctions while tossing out a Righthaven lawsuit, and the Denver Post was sued over its considering taken action, leading Righthaven to threaten them with more suits.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, we were bracing for the onslaught of political spam, and also for the inevitable freakout about mobile social media, while rolling our eyes at the latest panic about violent video games. We took a look at how the recording industry had Canadian politicians in its pocket, while the RIAA seemed to be reaching the denial stage of its war on piracy (and opening up a new front by sending out cease-and-desist letters to people dancing to music on YouTube). And while we were glad to see Congress starting to recognize the problem of patent trolls, we were not so optimistic about Rep. Lamar Smith's approach to combating them.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: June 6th - 12th

from the and-then-and-then-and-then dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, there were lots of stories about questionable actions by the FBI, and amidst all that, the agency turned down our FOIA request to find out how much money they spent getting into Syed Farook's iPhone. A worrying appeals court ruling chipped away at privacy while Senator Jeff Sessions was seeking to blast a giant hole in the Fourth Amendment. We learned more about the NSA's handling of Ed Snowden's concerns prior to his leak, and took a look at how despite all the supposed damage, the agency was doing great. This was also the week that Gawker filed for bankruptcy.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, the RIAA was arguing that changing copyright terms is unconstitutional, though only if they get shorter, while the Supreme Court agreed to hear the Golan case examining the opposite. YouTube added Creative Commons licensing options for videos while Russia's president proposed baking similar options right into copyright law. ICE declared victory in its domain seizure campaign while Homeland Security appeared to be stalling on related FOIA requests. Meanwhile, the ridiculous prosecution of whistleblower Thomas Drake was falling apart and by the end of the week, Drake took a plea bargain deal.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, long before ICE's domain seizures, we wondered why the US government was getting involved in takedowns of foreign music sites. We also took a look at the negative impact of the DMCA on innovation, and the way that the music industry's efforts to shut down sites often served as free advertising via the Streisand Effect — and the same was true with the movie industry, as was soon demonstrated by the MPAA going after Isohunt. Meanwhile, the copyright industries were trying to sneak through a huge and insane change to the law around "incidental copies". Blizzard relented on its attempts to block third-party World Of Warcraft game guides, the story of how Canada's "Captain Copyright" propaganda mascot might himself be a copy continued to develop, and we were surprised when some British politicians appeared to have reasonable views on copyright.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: May 30th - June 5th

from the collected-recollections dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, we were pleased to see a dearth of support for the Burr-Feinstein anti-encryption bill, but not so happy about the 4th circuit rolling back its warrant requirement for cell site location info. We were also watching the fallout from the second ruling in the Oracle/Google trial and digging into just what happened in an episode of our podcast. Meanwhile, an independent musician was suing Justin Bieber and Skrillex over a sample they didn't use, just as two recent rulings from around the world looked like they might clear the copyright barriers to sampling. And one court gave a very bad copyright ruling, saying that remastered old songs can get a brand new copyright.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, the copyright nonsense was widespread, with an EMI executive saying people should pay again to stream their own music, and both an industry lawyer and the RIAA talking about the supposed evils of the public domain. The push was on to criminalize more infringement too, with some senators seeking to make embedding videos a felony and the RIAA wanting to do the same for music subscription service password sharing. Amidst all this, we took a deep dive into why the PROTECT IP Act would break the internet.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, Canada was doling out entertainment industry propaganda to kids in the form of an embarrassing new character called Captian Copyright (who might have himself been engaging in infringement), while the industry was hard at work on the next generation of terrible DVD copy protection. We took a closer look at some easily-misinterpreted statements about net neutrality from the creator of BitTorrent, and at an early example of a still-ongoing tradition: fake public comments about net neutrality. But there was no need to worry about a lack of regulation, because AT&T's chairman promised they would absolutely definitely not violate net neutrality principles.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: May 23rd - 29th

from the memory-palace dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, Paramount announced its intention to back down from its lawsuit against the fan film Axanar, though not before the filmmakers got their next filing in. The legal battles over the FBI's hacking tools and malware continued, while the Senate Intelligence Committee was expanding the bureau's NSL powers with a secret amendment.

This is also the week we first heard the rapidly-confirmed accusation that Peter Thiel was financing Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker, and started writing about how worrying the situation was.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, ICE kicked off round four of its domain seizures and we continued looking at why the whole program is unconsitutional and how the Justice Department was stalling to avoid lawsuits in response. Meanwhile, the Patriot Act renewal moved forward, with only eight Senators presenting an obstacle and Harry Reid procedurally routing around attempts to fix it, eventually leading to a successful renewal.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, a desperate attempt to declare open source licenses a violation of antitrust law predictably failed as the lawsuit was thrown out, while the RIAA's lawsuit against XM radio appeared to be generating publicity for the company's newest device, and TV networks and studios launched a new suit against Cablevision over its network-based DVR. People were beginning to predict the death of MySpace, Verizon was trying to claim that passing on info to credit agencies was a gift to consumers, and we noted how crime reporting would often pointlessly focus on Wi-Fi if it was even tangentially involved. Also, this appears to be the very first time we wrote about a newfangled buzzword: "crowdsourcing".

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: May 16th - 22nd

from the memory-lane dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, we were digging deeper into the Oracle/Google fight over the Java API and the challenges therein. Comcast was trying to claim that it wasn't 'feasible' to deliver TV to third-party set top boxes, a cable lobbying group was saying that more competition would hurt consumers, and a former FCC boss turned cable lobbyist was complaining that the industry was being unfairly attacked. Meanwhile, the story of the CIA Torture Report was getting even stranger, and Senators Wyden and Paul introduced a bill to stop the expansion of government hacking.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, we looked closer at the awful PROTECT IP act, while Google noted the assault on free speech it represented — an attitude its defenders labelled as thinking you're above the law. A Supreme Court ruling took a huge chunk out of the 4th Amendment, while the Indiana Supreme Court took an even bigger chunk out of it. And it really wasn't a good week for said amendment in general, with the RIAA calling for warrantless searches and Congress extending the Patriot Act with no concessions.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, we wrote about how amazing an online searchable database of scanned books could be, and how it was already helping bring attention to commercially neglected works. MLB was trying to find a backdoor way to control game data, astroturf continued to grow in the net neutrality debate, and a Canadian politician gave a rare inside look at the RIAA's lobbying/fearmongering tactics. We got a couple important court rulings too, with the Supreme Court noting that injunctions don't always make sense in patent cases, and an appeals court highlighting why making a profit doesn't disqualify something from fair use exceptions to copyright.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: May 9th - 15th

from the back-then dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, the copyright fight over the Star Trek fan film Axanar was allowed to move forward — though without the too-soon attempt to raise the silly question of copyright on the Klingon language. The UK government was pushing for ten-year jail sentences for copyright infringement, HBO was abusing the DMCA process to stop Game of Thrones spoilers, and we took a look at Minnesota's insanely broad publicity rights law. It was also the week of the opening statements in the Oracle v. Google case that would carry on for years.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, two important DMCA cases (IsoHunt and Veoh) were being heard by the 9th Circuit, while Limewire settled its own case, the US Copyright Group was allowed to move forward with a massive shakedown operation, and BMI was arguing that a single person listening to their own music via the cloud was a public performance under copyright law. Copyright maximalists were also opposing new TLDs for some reason and trying to get domain censorship capabilities included in the .net TLD. This was also the week that we first saw the PROTECT IP act and its extremely bad text that could gut parts of the DMCA and make linking a felony.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, Apple (the tech company) won its trademark battle against Apple (the record label) with help from the now-famous "moron in a hurry" defense. Movie studios were tepidly trying to embrace BitTorrent while failing to understand it, due in large part to the industry's obsession with DRM (though at the same time, the recording industry magnanimously decided it would allow people to rip their own CDs, and Sony was admitting that its DRM-laden proprietary music format was a strategic error). We took a bigger look at why the argument for the necessity of copy protection doesn't make sense, in stark contrast to the analyst who was arguing that a lack of mobile DRM will lead to billions in losses.

Filed Under: history, look back