This Week In Techdirt History: May 2nd - 8th

from the what-went-down dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, we were pleasantly surprised when an Australian government commission spoke out about the harms of bad copyright law and bad patent law, while the University of North Dakota was teaching a student all about trademark abuse. The DOJ was issuing new rules on espionage investigations in the apparent hopes of avoiding embarrassment, while at the same time deploying some very questionable legal arguments in defense of the FBI's hacking warrants, and the National Intelligence Office's top lawyer was stepping up to defend bulk surveillance and the third-party doctrine. We also took a look at how the proper channels for whistleblowers were still a joke, as was the proper channel for requesting government records.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, Righthaven's woes continued as unsealed documents in one case had other judges questioning the legitimacy of their lawsuits, while the infamous John Steele also got slammed by a judge for a fishing expedition, and Perfect 10 sued the Usenet provider Giganews. Meanwhile, the White House published its obnoxious annual Special 301 naughty list of countries with IP laws the US doesn't like, and we took a look at just how dangerous the USTR's approach to naming-and-shaming could be.

But the biggest news of the week didn't have much of a Techdirt angle — until we saw the story of the man who unknowingly live-tweeted the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, there was growing buzz about whether software-as-a-service would kill piracy, while evidence continued to show that the war on movie piracy wasn't working. Epson was engaged in the fight against off-brand ink cartridges and the Supreme Court took a sudden interest in patent cases. The content industries were playing their game of sneaking bad rules into treaties, while we looked at the constitutionality of the RIAA's per-song fines. And it's always interesting to see a quiet, simple mention of Section 230 back before it was known to everyone, in this case in a post about all the lawsuits targeting Google.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: April 25th - May 1st

from the so-it-went dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, the DOJ dropped one of its big cases over iPhone encryption after the defendant suddenly remembered his passcode, while documents revealed that the FBI hid surveillance techniques from federal prosecutors in case they one day became defense lawyers. The FBI was also planning to ignore any court orders telling it to reveal its Tor browser exploit, while another court was joining the crowd saying one of the agency's hacking tools constituted illegal searches. And that wasn't all for the FBI: we also learned that the $1.3-million price tag for unlocking Syed Farook's iPhone just got them the phone unlocked, not the details of the exploit. Meanwhile, Congress was pressing James Clapper to properly admit how many Americans are spied on by the NSA, and the House voted unanimously to require a warrant for email searches — although some rule changes approved by the Supreme Court were moving in the opposite direction.

Ten years Ago

This week in 2011, everyone was trying to get a look at the supposedly-finished ACTA text, but negotiators were remaining secretive about it — although Homeland Security was complaining to the USTR that it was a threat to national security, one of its former officials was calling the text "a sweetheart deal for IP owners", and a CRS report (also withheld by the USTR) confirmed that the language was quite questionable. And it was confirmed that, as some suspected, the US was the lone holdout country refusing to release the full text. Meanwhile, Righthaven was smacked down by another judge (while continuing to make crazy demands in other cases), but we noted that even though copyright trolls were failing left and right in court, their shakedowns were still working.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, some questions were raised about whether music labels were honest to the DOJ regarding collusion on song download prices, while we also got a closer look at how inconvenient movie studio's new download offerings were, and the RIAA managed to once again sue a family that didn't own a computer. Schools were claiming "bandwidth scarcity" as the latest excuse to ban MySpace, while a prescient judge realized that internet use at work is normal and can't be the grounds for firing someone.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: April 18th - 24th

from the as-i-recall dept

Five Years Ago

EU regulators were busy this week in 2016, trying to force YouTube to be more like Spotify and going after Google for antitrust regarding Android, which prompted Microsoft to drop all its own antitrust complaints about Google and vice versa, while both companies claimed the timing was just a coincidence. The FISA court was still uncovering surveillance abuses by the feds while the EFF was suing the DOJ for refusing to release FISA court documents, and another court said that national security letters were constitutional under the USA Freedom Act. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court said it wouldn't hear the Authors Guild's appeal over the Google Books ruling, prompting the Guild to whine.

Ten Years Ago

Righthaven was having a bad time this week in 2011, with a judge slamming their legal tactics and unsealing the document that revealed "sham" copyright assignments to the company — while, in another state, Righthaven was continuing its self-destruction by directing their petulant tone at the judge. It wasn't over, either, as yet another court told Righthaven its demand for domain names was silly. And another similar company, Digiprotect, was also getting dinged by a judge. On the other hand, one of the RIAA's lawyers in the Limewire case was recommended as a federal judge.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, people were beginning to notice how much free product placement Apple was getting in movies and television shows, high-price domain names were back and we wondered where the skepticism was, and AT&T was pretending to love competition. We looked at the story of how NTP kept prior art on its wireless email patent quiet, and we were irritated at the fact that the Patent Office needed to be told to look online for prior art on patent applications. More and more states were pursuing driving-while-yakking regulations without paying attention to the broader data about distracted driving in general. And the Supreme Court declined to hear Jerry Falwell's typosquatting case.

Filed Under: history, look back

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.

Filed Under: history, look back

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

from the back-in-the-day dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, broadband providers were either fighting against privacy protections or trying to charge a premium for them (not unlike their approach to uncapped bandwidth). Evidence continued to show that encryption and "going dark" were not the cause of recent terrorist attacks, but that didn't stop Senators Burr and Feinstein from releasing an anti-encryption bill that was even more ridiculous than expected (while the White House aimed to punt on the question). But this was also the week that WhatsApp finished rolling out end-to-end encryption, and the week of the massive Panama Papers leak.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, the MPAA filed its expected lawsuit against Zediva, while an appeals court heard the Joel Tenenbaum case, and Congress had a hearing on file sharing that turned into everyone against the COICA censorship bill, but Senator Leahy was happy to completely ignore the first amendment concerns. We also saw some worrying assertions emerge about what constitutes infringement, like linking to legal videos by rightsholders, being liable for people finding infringing movies via your search engine, and even forwarding a single sentence from a mailing list.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, there was yet another fight over song pricing on iTunes, while movie studios were continuing to attempt digital distribution with all the convenience sucked out, and newspapers were simultaneously bragging and whining about how much traffic their websites got. The RIAA was continuing its tradition of drop out of school to be able to pay a settlement fee. Also: the latest attempt to create a law about violent video games was once again declared unconstitutional, Netflix disappointingly (and unnecessarily) tried to use business model patents against Blockbuster, and, after insisting it would never happen, Apple began officially endorsing the use of Windows on new Macs with Intel chips.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: March 28th - April 3rd

from the what-'twas dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, while forensic experts were exploring the DOJ's recently announced ability to get into Sayed Farook's iPhone, the DOJ was saying that it only applies to that specific model and sticking by its request for Apple to help it with other devices — all while refusing to tell Apple how it did it. Meanwhile, the Copyright Office was seeking comments on the DMCA notice and takedown provisions, and given the huge problems and spate of automated takedowns, we obviously had some thoughts to submit.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, we were debunking the claim that bad things happen when works fall into the public domain, writing about how greater IP enforcement doesn't work, and pointing out how sometimes it's best to just let people copy. Another judge rejected the idea that the DMCA requires a proactive approach from service providers, while it turned out that a judge who gave approval to the lumping together of multiple unrelated copyright claims was a former RIAA lobbyist. This was also the week that we saw a very worrying ruling on fair use (which would later be overturned in an important appeals court decision that has recently become very relevant again) when a judge said Richard Prince's appropriation art is infringing.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, a new German law was set to give casual file sharers significant jailtime, while TorrentSpy was fighting the MPAA's attempts to reinterpret the Supreme Court's opinions on file sharing. The DRM makers were getting ever more elaborate even as more and more people were pointing out that copy protection doesn't work. YouTube was seeking to shake its reputation as a piracy haven with legit partnerships, and a ten-minute video limit that is hard to imagine today. This was also the week that Apple's lawyers, in their trademark fight with the record company of the same name, brought out the now-famous "moron in a hurry" test.

Filed Under: history, look back

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

from the back-to-the-past dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, the press was still pretending encryption contributed to the Paris attacks when there was another attack in Brussels and... politicians rushed to blame encryption without waiting for the evidence (which didn't come). Meanwhile, the DOJ was fighting Apple in court over encryption when a new flaw in iMessage encryption was discovered, leading the DOJ to ask for a postponement in the case — and this all raised some questions about apparent contradictions in the DOJ's various statements as well as statements by the FBI.

Also, though it happened the previous Friday afternoon, this was the week that we covered Hulk Hogan winning his lawsuit against Gawker.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, a major loss for Righthaven set up the important precedent that copying an entire work can still be fair use. We were dismayed by the loophole-happy lawyers defending the government's domain seizures, and had a post about how copyright filters were presenting a serious challenge for DJ culture. Meanwhile, the New York Times was getting used to its new soft paywall, and it was a bit of a mess: columnists were telling readers how to get around it, while the paper was trying to shut down a Twitter account that aided people in doing so, and somehow convincing itself that most people would pay — all while we wondered what the DMCA anti-circumvention implications were.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, the Supreme Court was considering some important cases to do with what can be patented. Companies were rushing to build web-based word processors after Google's purchase of Writely, Microsoft was embarking on an attempt to compete with Craigslist, and credit agencies were fighting against any rules that would force them to protect people's privacy. One judge tossed out a bizarre lawsuit claiming open source software violates antitrust law, and another shut down the RIAA's dreams of randomly hunting through everyone's computers. Meanwhile, the FBI was still trying to figure out email.

Filed Under: history, look back

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

from the new-years dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, the world was responding to the death of David Bowie, and we looked back on his innovation in music business models, and then noted how copyright limited the ability to pay tribute to Bowie on the radio. Obama used his final state of the union address to both praise and complain about the open internet, while New York's District Attorney was calling for a ban on the sale of encrypted smartphones. The movie industry was once again reporting record box office numbers despite their complaints about piracy, with even leaked films raking in record-breaking cash, and Netflix was still in its don't-try-to-stop-password-sharing phase while NBC was still in its Netflix is not a threat phase. Plus, lest we forget battles over content moderation have been going on for a long time and can touch all kinds of industries, Lego backed down after blocking people from buying blocks for political projects.

Ten Years Ago

Five years before that in 2011, other content moderation and liability debates were raging — especially in the lawsuit against Backpage. We also saw the beginning of a major fight between Sony and George Hotz, who jailbroke PS3s to restore their ability to run different operating systems. Meanwhile, we were learning more about the government's attempts to get info from Twitter for the Wikileaks investigation (and were pleased to see the social network fighting back, while wondering who else the government might have targeted). Customs officers were trying to intimidate Wikileaks volunteers, Rep. Peter King tried to have Wikileaks put on the Treasury Department's terrorist list (the Treasury thankfully refused), and the EFF debunked the myth that the leaked cables weren't important. Meanwhile, Congress was continuing its annual traditions of promising patent reform that would never come and promising a Patriot Act renewal that very much would.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006 we saw the appearance of the first Apple computers with Intel chips, and the launch of the much-hyped Google Video offering that turned out to be completely underwhelming (and not just because of its embrace of copy protection). Sony was still trying to downplay its rootkit scandal while we talked about whether DRM will always introduce security problems, and while the use of copy protection continued to screw over actual creators.

Filed Under: history, look back

Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

from the threaded-thoughts dept

We've got a double winner this week, with a comment from Bloof taking the first place spot for insightful and the second place spot for funny. It's a pretty comprehensive response to the allegations of fraud in the 2020 election:

Voter fraud that only happened in the parts of the ballots and the states that went against Trump, not the house and senate races where an unassailable democratic majority would be incredibly useful, only the top ticket featuring a massively unpopular republican candidate. Voter fraud so cunning that it only happened in cities filled with minorities among whom Trump is about as beloved as porcupine skin toilet paper. Voter fraud so cunning it somehow managed to happen in places where republicans controlled the elections. Voter fraud so cunning the Trump team have been unable to present any evidence of it whatsoever and had their legal teams back down the moment any judged asked them for actual proof because they don't fancy parroting the same lies they vomit on TV in a place where there'll be consequences for lying. Voter fraud so cunning that republican donors are suing the groups they funded that claimed they're able to prove it happened, for not being, in fact, able to prove anything. Voter fraud so cunning even the most hyper partisan right wing 'news' outlets like Fox and Newsmax issued on multiple on air retractions the moment the election machine companies got the lawyers involved because their stories were based on 4chan posts and the say so of the son of the guy who runs notorious pedophile and Qanon hangout, 8kun.

They have no evidence, there is no evidence, it did not happen and screaming and committing acts of terrorism will not make your far right fever dreams of fraud and persecution into a reality. They had ample opportunity to present evidence in front of friendly TV hosts like Tucker Carlson, as well as judge after judge after judge, some of which were appointed by Trump himself and they showed nothing and their cases were rejected every single time.

It is clear to everyone with even a lick of common sense that the people parroting these lies are so full of sh*t even the Trump gutted EPA would consider them for a potential superfund site.

In second place on the insightful side, it's Stephen T. Stone with a response to Josh Hawley freaking out about his publisher dropping his book:

A reminder for those who need it

Ah, I get to break this out for the first time in 2021:

Moderation is a platform/service owner or operator saying “we don’t do that here”. Personal discretion is an individual telling themselves “I won’t do that here”. Editorial discretion is an editor saying “we won’t print that here”, either to themselves or to a writer. Censorship is someone saying “you won’t do that anywhere” alongside threats or actions meant to suppress speech.

For editor's choice on the insightful side, we've got a pair of comments from That One Guy. First, it's a response to tiresome attempts to equate this week's events with the summer's protests:

GIve me a minute, I'm sure it'll come to me

Let's see, protests against police brutality and a legal system that treats certain people as second class citizens, versus a 'protest' against the fact that the 'wrong' person won an election that involved an attempted insurrection to overthrow the democratic process, there's something different between these two but I just can't place my finger on it...

Next, it's a comment expanding on the point that Section 230 protects both big and small sites:

'Their pocket-change is your entire site's budget'

Not just protects big and small, it protects small businesses way more than it protects big ones. Gut 230 and Facebook will have some extra expenses to deal with but they've got the resources to do so, whereas smaller companies that might compete with them, either now or in the future are going to be screwed as they lack the needed resources and are forced into the position of either crippling themselves if not shutting down entirely.

It's the ultimate irony that when dealing with the people attacking 230 the companies they like to hold up as boogiemen and justifications to gut the law are the very ones that stand to gain the most by it's removal.

Over on the funny side, our first place winner is Thad with a comment on our post about how easy it will be to identify insurrectionists thanks to them posting all their activities on social media. The comment comes in the form of a link to a frame from The Simpsons, so I'll replace it with the image itself:

We've already had our second place winner above, so it's on to the editor's choice and a comment from Crafty Coyote about a circuit diagram being spread with claims that it's a 5G chip inserted in the COVID vaccine, but which turned out to be schematics for a guitar pedal:

So if the implanting chip really is just the schematics for a guitar pedal, does that mean we'll be getting The Cure when we get the cure?

Next, it's an anonymous comment about CERN's new open data policy:

This is a disaster! How will scientists be motivated to collect data if their great-grandchildren can't cash in on the copyrights? How will they pay for their supercolliders, supercomputers, and vacation homes? How can they keep individuals from inferior races from doing science also?

And just imagine, some of the data might be chanted by a rapper without attribution. Or used to remote-control a John Deere tractor.

Stand up and stop the madness! Send your anti-proton to CERN now!

That's all for this week, folks!

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: December 27th - January 2nd

from the old-year's-eve dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2015, China was doing exactly what many warned they would do and pointing to the US to defend its own anti-encryption stance, while Mark Zuckerberg was desperately defending Facebook's "Free Basics" power grab. It was revealed that the NSA never stopped spying on foreign leaders and even swept up the US congress in the process, leading to some amusing backlash from former congressional defenders of the agency. Meanwhile, Harvard Law Review was freaking out about a public domain citation guide, 50 Cent was hypocritically suing over a mixtape, and CBS filed a lawsuit over the Star Trek fan film it had previously seemed to be supporting.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2010, a Dutch court threw out criminal charges against a P2P index site for relying too much on information from a private anti-piracy group, while leaked cables revealed that Swedish officials had complained to the US about the impact of a Hollywood-pushed copryight law, and a Canadian music collection society was demanding payment for 30-second song previews and France was trying to extend its private copying levy to tablets... unless they run Windows. We talked about permission culture and the automated diminishing of fair use, while NBC Universal and the MPAA were getting New York City to run anti-piracy propaganda and Gibson got an injunction over PaperJamz.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2005, there was a dust-up online over the question of blog piracy, while one Chinese blogging firm with big dreams was collapsing before it got started. The movie industry was pointing fingers over its poor box office returns, the RIAA was accused of coaching a 15-year-old witness in a file sharing lawsuit, and Australia was considering expanding fair use. We talked about how the Sony rootkit scandal had woken more people up to copy protection and the war on modifying your devices, while Sony was giving away a whole lot of free downloads in a settlement over the infected CDs.

Filed Under: history, look back