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

from the how'd-it-go? dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2015, while one judge was calling everyone's bluffs about encryption, James Comey was insisting that "dozens" of terrorists have eluded the FBI because of it and Chuck Grassley was telling the DOJ to get back to the fight, and some were noting how just because the administration had said it wouldn't pursue backdoors didn't mean the next one wouldn't change course. Plus, we noted that the lack of fervor from the NSA on the issue simply suggested that they already had a way into people's phones. Meanwhile, the appeals court handed a clear fair use win to Google over book scanning, while the battle over the Happy Birthday copyright was gearing up for its next phase.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2010, we looked at the rapid rise of copyright shakedown operations in the US — in fact, there were so many that they were starting to fight with each other over trademarks on their very similar names and copy ceach others' websites. Meanwhile, more countries were reacting to ACTA and Ron Wyden was seeking answers on whether it would impact US law (which independent analysis suggested it absolutely would) — but though all this was leading to some growing reluctance among US officials, we doubted that they would ever really decide not to sign the agreement.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2005, the instant messaging wars were in full swing and Microsoft and Yahoo were finally managing to provide some basic interoperability. RealNetworks and Microsoft settled their antitrust fight, more and more people were speaking up about patent trolls, and we looked at how it was the recording industry's obsession with DRM that helped make Apple so powerful, to the industry's chagrin.

Filed Under: history, look back

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

from the expecting-different-results dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2015, the TPP negotiators pulled an all-nighter to finish the latest draft of the agreement, though of course it still remained secret. An announcement from New Zealand, however, confirmed that it would extend copyright terms and lock-in terrible anti-circumvention rules, leading us to reiterate that it's not a "free trade" agreement but rather a protectionist one. Then, at the end of the week, Wikileaks released the final intellectual property chapter (and it was basically as bad as expected).

Ten Years Ago

Before the TPP, it was ACTA. This week in 2010, negotiators announced that ACTA was nearly complete and that the final text would be released by the end of the week — yet somehow (shocking!) the MPAA was able to announce that it was in favor of the current text it wasn't supposed to have seen. Many in the EU Parliament were not at all happy about the agreement, and in Mexico the Senate actually voted unanimously to remove the country from negotiations. When the text was released on Wednesday, it had shed some of the worst aspects of earlier versions but was still full of problems, and for some reason the negotiators were still obsessing about secrecy in their briefings about the now-public text.

Also, just to hammer home how long this thing's been going on, here's a 2010 post about some of the early blows in the fight between Oracle and Google.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2005, the Grokster decision was just one factor in the messy fight over the criminality of writing software, the USPTO was busy producing anti-piracy propaganda, and DRM-makers were espousing the importance of DRM even though, as usual, numbers suggested that file sharing is good for sales. The recording industry was demanding too much in its negotiations with tech companies and setting its sites on satellite radio as its new target, not to mention trying out new arguments against fair use. But we saw one great ruling from Australia, where the Supreme Court found that mod-chipping consoles does not violate anti-circumvention laws.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: September 27th - October 3rd

from the oh-yes,-that dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2015, while many sites were going to war with ad blockers, we unveiled the ability to turn off ads on Techdirt in your user settings. Various emerging info revealed sketchy behavior by the Secret Service, the State Department's success in planting anti-Wikileaks questions in the 60 Minutes interview with Julian Assange, and the surveillance failures of the Postal Service. Rightscorp was telling its copyright-trolling targets that they need to hand their computers over to police, PETA was defending its supposed right to represent the selfie-taking monkey, and — though it seems minor compared to what's going on right now — we talked about the increasing number of attacks on Section 230.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2010, Citibank was abusing the DMCA to try to hide its comments on Obama's bank reform policy, a city council was claiming copyright infringement over one councilor countersuing Righthaven. Meanwhile, Congress was pushing the COICA anti-infringement bill, and we took a look at all the technologies it would have blocked in the past, then all the current technology it was likely to interfere with, while Tim Berners-Lee stepped up as an opponent to the bill (and the RIAA, of course, stepped up as a hysterical supporter) — and by the end of the week, the bill was shelved.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2005, the ever-changing world of mobile phone etiquette was grappling with Bluetooth headsets while some restaurants were splitting into phone and no-phone sections. The pessimism about cameraphones was faltering as a new music video was shot entirely with a phone, and some early battles over transit map apps were popping up, while Motorola's CEO was whining about the iPod Nano and Seagate's CEO was making the case for hard drives over flash memory — while SanDisk made a much-anticipated announcement about flash storage that turned out to be... new copy protection technology. Professors were following in the shoes of doctors and freaking out about online reviews, Warner Music was foolishly overestimating its power in negotiations with Apple, and Sony was repeating its past ways by trying to block developers from hacking the PSP.

Filed Under: history, look back

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

from the rings-a-bell dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2015, a major scandal began when Volkswagen was accused of using software to cheat emissions tests. The White House was the FBI, CIA and much of the military were not doing basic email encryption — but in India things were going in the opposite direction. The monkey selfie saga began a new chapter with PETA filing a lawsuit on behalf of the monkey, and then an even bigger copyright bombshell hit when a judge ruled that Warner Chappell doesn't hold the copyright on happy birthday. Plus the world got a new famous villain with a sudden hike in drug prices introducing everyone to a man named Martin Shkreli.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2010, Intel was threatening to break out the DMCA anti-circumvention lawsuits against anyone using the recently-leaked HDCP master key, state AGs were turning their attention to Backpage (which was gearing up to fight back), and movie studios were freaking out about fan pages. The MPAA was apparently fishing for censorship tools in ACTA by talking about Wikileaks, while the Senate was offering them a gift with a new bill that would enable global censorship of "pirate sites" (with a special loophole allowing the DOJ to avoid due process. And we saw a variety of interesting developments in various lawsuits: one judge was entertaining the notion of implied licenses in a Righthaven lawsuit while another was shutting down US Copyright Group subpoenas, a UK judge was similarly not impressed by copyright pre-settlement campaigns, and a judge in Spain smartly ruled that Google is not liable for user uploads.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2005, there was a mess of internet jurisdiction cases in Canada with one ruling being overturned on appeal while another court muddied the waters with a ruling based on the overturned ruling. Hollywood was pouring money into an ill-fated attempt to build better DRM technology, which could be described as them calling their own bluff. Following the Supreme Court's decision in their case, Grokster was scrambling to sell to a "legit" company, as were several other file-sharing software providers. And one judge in a RIAA lawsuit thankfully recognized that parents aren't liable for their kids downloading music.

Filed Under: history, look back

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

from the oh-the-memories dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2015, we got a big, confusing mess of a ruling on fair use and the DMCA in the famous "dancing baby" video lawsuit. We also saw a loss for the Motion Picture Academy after its five-year crusade to make GoDaddy pay for "infringing" websites, and the owner of the Miami Heat was hit with $155,000 in legal fees after losing his bogus copyright lawsuit against a blogger. Meanwhile, China was beginning a big push to get American tech companies to agree to its rules, while the DOJ was backing down from charges against a professor driven by China hysteria.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2010, Yelp got yet another Section 230 victory against an attempt to hold it liable for bad reviews, while a reputation management company was threatening to launch a similar lawsuit against TripAdvisor in the UK, in what appeared to be a publicity stunt. A terrible appeals court ruling was killing the first sale doctrine, while Craigslist was engaged in a fight with South Carolina's attorney general and we wondered why other internet companies weren't standing up for it. And the latest big DRM-breaking event happened with the apparent leak of the HDCP master key which was soon confirmed by Intel.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2005, the fights over online reviews were in their infancy, with doctors leading the charge. Ebay spent an eyewatering amount of money to purchase Skype, and we noted this meant the company needed to become an expert on net neutrality, fast. The RIAA was going around overstating the results of the Grokster case, while the courts in Taiwan were contradicting an earlier ruling on the legality of file sharing software by sending file sharing executives to jail. And Lego was suing a Danish artist for using her middle name — "Lego" — to sign her paintings.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: August 30th - September 5th

from the the-years-that-pass dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2015, the NSA was renewing its bulk records collection after a worrying and slightly suspicious court ruling. The FBI was somehow using Hurricane Katrina as an excuse to get more Stingray devices, just before the Wall Street Journal got a "win" (though the devil was in the details) in a lawsuit related to Stingray surveillance orders, and the DOJ told federal agents that they need warrants to use the devices. Meanwhile, the NYPD was volunteering to be copyright cops in Times Square, Sony was downplaying the damage done by the same hack it was hyping up before, and the entertainment industry was freaking out about Popcorn Time.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2010, we were saddened to see the US Commerce Secretary siding with the RIAA and telling ISPs to become copyright cops, even as more ISPs were stepping up to fight subpoenas from the US Copyright Group (and in France, some ISPs were fighting back against Hadopi, which was also becoming a tool of scammers). One court refused to dismiss a Righthaven lawsuit involving a copyright that was bought after the alleged infringement happened, while another court was seeking ways to minimize a Righthaven win with minuscule damages — and the LVRJ was defending the Righthaven suits and mocking a competitor for criticizing them.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2005, we were pleased to see that the judge in one of the first instances of someone fighting back against RIAA lawsuits seemed to recognize the issues, and less pleased to see another court give its assent to yet another form of DMCA abuse. It wasn't as crazy as what was happening in India, though, where it appeared that their equivalent of the MPAA got an open search warrant for the entire city of New Delhi to look for pirated movies. And even that didn't match the panic over mobile porn that was gripping parts of the world, leading to things like Malaysian police performing random porn spot-checks on people's phones.

Filed Under: history, look back

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

from the first-as-tragedy dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2015, new leaks confirmed what we suspected about AT&T's cozy relationship with the NSA, which was especially concerning given the company's long history of fraudulent and abusive behavior, and the fact that the NSA seemed to think telco partners freed it from the constraints of the Fourth Amendment. The leak also revealed that the agency was misleading at best about how many cellphone records it could access.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2010, Peter Sunde gave a fascinating presentation on the history of The Pirate Bay, while we were emphasizing that record labels can still have a role in music if they embrace the ways that role is changing, and a new comprehensive graphic aptly demonstrated just how insane the music licensing world is. The trend of established musicians and industry folk using apocalyptic language to describe the impact of the internet continued, with rants from U2's manager and John Mellencamp (who compared the internet to the atomic bomb).

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2005, we took a look at how the DMCA was not just a failure but a completely avoidable one with flaws that were obvious from the start, while we were pleased to see one person finally ready to fight back against the RIAA's lawsuits. The mobile music market was on the rise with Japan blazing the trail (and trying to debunk claims that this was due to a lack of wired connections), but we wondered if the market might be killed by aggressive use of DRM. Mobile games were also on the rise, but the biggest and most important development was one we (like many people) underestimated when it happened: Google bought Android, leading to some speculation that they might be building a mobile OS which we said "seems unlikely".

Filed Under: history, look back

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

from the memory-hole dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2015, Google was in the news twice — first for their inevitable admission that Google+ was a failure, and then for their surprising announcement of the new corporate structure under the parent company Alphabet. Meanwhile, a CIA FOIA dump provided new information about spying on the Senate, including the accidental release of an apology letter the CIA wrote but never sent. We also saw more DMCA shenanigans as Vimeo complied with bogus mass-takedowns over the word "Pixels" and a convicted fraudster sent a bogus takedown to Techdirt over our coverage of previous bogus takedowns.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2010, RIM managed to work out a deal with the Saudi Arabian government to prevent a BlackBerry ban, raising the question of just what device security would be like under this new agreement. We saw some... questionable journalism choices as the Washington Post peddled anti-Craigslist ideas by citing one of its own anti-Craigslist advertisers, and the Associated Press was strangely not reporting on the judge denying sanctions in its lawsuit against Shepard Fairey. Meanwhile, we took a look at how the FBI was prioritizing copyright issues, Congress introduced yet another iteration of a disastrous fashion copyright bill, Viacom unsurprisingly appealed the YouTube ruling, and, in a major move to protect free speech, the anti-libel-tourism SPEECH Act became law.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2005, AOL was trying to regain some relevance by moving into the wireless space, while Blockbuster gave up on trying to beat Netflix on price by raising its online DVD rental prices to match. The FCC was subtly but significantly downgrading the concept of internet freedoms, one school was refusing to back down on felony charges against students over some harmless hacking, and an Australian ISP was threatening to sue a forum over public information. We also talked some more about the myth of copy protection as a useful idea, and wondered if some of the companies trying to foist it on people thought buyers were complete idiots.

Filed Under: history, look back

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

from the it-was-the-style-at-the-time dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2015, we wrote about how the TPP would override five years of democratic discussion about patents in New Zealand, and then got a look at the latest leak of the agreement which showed the US fighting hard to permit patent and copyright abuse, opposing provisions in support of the public domain, trying to include rules that would kill any future Aereo clones, and generally making copyright mandatory but public rights voluntary — but then, after missing a key deadline because of the failure to reach an agreement, the whole deal was put in jeopardy.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2010, Indonesia ordered a ban on all online porn while the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia announced plans to ban Blackberry usage and lawyers in New Zealand were suggesting total internet bans for repeat copyright infringers. Meanwhile, the Pentagon was freaking out about Wikileaks in a way that was reminiscent in some ways of the RIAA's response to Napster, first demanding the "return" of the digital documents then taking a total head-in-the-sand approach and banning military personnel from accessing the site. And the FBI was starting its own stupid fight with a different "wiki" — telling Wikipedia that it can't display the FBI logo.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2005, we were watching the rise of the online counterfeit drug market and the beginning of the deflation of the ringtone market bubble. Even back then, the US was already working hard to export the worst of its copyright law to other countries, though plenty of other countries had it was sued for letting people download movies and music, but that didn't seem to put a dent in the massive investments that flowed in when the IPO hit.

Filed Under: history, look back

This Week In Techdirt History: July 26th - August 1st

from the thinking-back dept

Five Years Ago

This week in 2014, we saw a judge slam a sheriff for an attack on Backpage that raised serious first amendment questions, and a student succeed after an eight-year legal battle against a university over being expelled for speech. On the other side of the free speech coin, we saw the cops shut down a hologram concert because they didn't like a rapper's lyrics, James Woods sue a random Twitter user for $10-million, and of course Donald Trump continue his lawsuit against Univision (and that post contains our first mention of a certain lawyer, with the now-entertaining phrasing of "apparently, it's some guy named Michael Cohen, who isn't just out of his depth on stuff, but he appears to be actively making things worse.")

We also saw a huge bombshell in the lawsuit over the copyright status of Happy Birthday, with new evidence showing the song is in the public domain that Warner Music quickly tried to muddy the waters around.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2010, we wondered why the press was still blindly believing entertainment industry "studies", and how there were new copyrights being claimed on work by an artist who died 70 years ago. Copyright was interfering with technology both old-old and new-old, disrupting the preservation of decaying player piano rolls as well as obsolete video games. And the new round of DMCA anti-circumvention exemptions surprised everyone by including phone jailbreaking, though it left out plenty of good suggestions too.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2005, the anti-open-WiFi brigade was stirring up FUD about cantennas and the press was taking the bait. ISP Telus learned all about the Streisand Effect by blocking its customers from reaching websites supporting its employees in their union battle against the company, while offering weak excuses, and we were not exactly shocked to learn that Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs doesn't like muni-WiFi. Canada put the final nail in the idea of an iPod tax, one UK court showed it wasn't fooled by ridiculous claims of losses to software piracy, and yet another study showed that file sharers are the music industry's best customers.

Filed Under: history, look back