Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 10 Dec 2014 @ 1:50pm
Re:
Agree.
I feel sick reading this article. I am actually surprised by the revelations here.
This is worse than even I thought it would be. I thought, or even hoped, that while completely immoral and unethical, the torture was at least run by people who knew what they were doing.
No wonder so many people feared the release of this report.
I'm struggling for words. This was *intentionally* *incompetent* and approved at the highest levels of our government. This cannot stand.
These people, and the ones who approved it, and the ones who even knew about it but wouldn't speak up, are guilty of war crimes.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 9 Dec 2014 @ 7:20am
Re: Re: Re: Fair and balanced...
The arrival of commercial versions of VoIP in 1995 created a policy crisis. Did VoIP fall under Title II like all other voice services or remain an non-regulated information service like all other data/computing services. Keep in mind VoIP/Internet were born entirely from non-regulated information services parents.
I find that argument disingenuous. While VoIP and the information services were not regulated, the infrastructure was regulated - the phone lines that most people used to connect to their dial-up modems. All of the non-regulated services would never have been possible without the regulation, going all the way back to the Carterphone regulatory decision.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 9 Dec 2014 @ 6:23am
Re:
This.
Really, only an increase of $17? Even if the study was accurate (its not), an increase of $17 doesn't sound too bad when my rates keep going up, and service keeps getting worse, even without Title II.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 4 Dec 2014 @ 10:06am
"but the Authors Guild raised the possibility of hacker disseminating the digitized books in full."
That statement is all the more amusing since the Sony hack. Allegedly entire movies have been released as a result of the breach of the producer's network, not of a tech company's.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 1 Dec 2014 @ 9:32am
Re:
Can't they just get a subpoena for the person's information followed by a court order?
Yes, of course they can. However, the courts have been pushing back on the bulk fishing expeditions based on nothing more than "we saw these IPs in a bittorrent cloud" bullshit. Which means that the copyright holders have to both do a something more than minimal investigation and cover initial court and legal fees - which is costly upfront and doesn't come remotely close to covering even in the event of a judgement.
The short answer is that the copyright holders want to enforce their rights by pushing all theirs costs onto other services.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 24 Nov 2014 @ 10:22am
Re:
You're conflating a company's policy with the law. Regular TD readers are aware of the hassling that ordinary citizens regularly are subject to for taking pictures.
The details of the situation are thus: 1) guy posted photo take in public, unsecured area of a bunch of obviously marked cars 2) Either the hotel's management lied to their employee about endangering the contract, or somehow the DHS became aware of this random citizen's facebook page. 3)Instead of acting like adults, either the hotel management or DHS completely overreacted and got this guy fired. 4) Because of #3, many many more people now know these details.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 24 Nov 2014 @ 10:10am
Re: What happens at Motel 6 stays at Motel 6.
How many more people now know that the DHS stayed at that hotel *because he was fired*?
Really, how many people were following this guy's facebook page? Couple dozen or so? And how many of them even saw his update (remember, facebook news feeds don't share every update with all your friends)?
Yet, because the hotel fired the guy, tens of thousands or more know about it via Streisand effect.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 24 Nov 2014 @ 9:54am
Re: Well, it depends...
There's a lot worse things than being kicked in the groin:
1) Paying my TimeWarner-soon-to-be-Comcast bill 2) Having to call TimeWarner customer service 3) Having my TimeWarner internet service cut out in the middle of a gaming session or Netflix binge 4) Switching my crappy TimeWarner service to even slower and crappier AT&T service
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 13 Nov 2014 @ 12:38pm
Re: Forcing Freedom?
go to the competitor
What competitor? >80% of Americans are limited to at best, 2 broadband options, both of which act in nearly identical ways. There. Is. No. Choice.
That unpopular ISP then goes out of business
When the unpopular ISP is a monopoly, and ISP service is a necessity, it won't go out of business.
If ISPs don't want to be regulated, then they need to promote competition in actions (not press releases) and stop doing everything in their power to stop it. No more laws stopping cities from building their own options. No more wink wink nods at non-competing over customers. On the other hand, if ISPs want to be monopolies - just like the utility providers they are - then they damn well are going to be regulated. No having their cake and eating it, too.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 13 Nov 2014 @ 12:03pm
Back to the 90s
Does anyone remember what e-commerce was like in the 1990s? Basically it was little to none. Because no one trusted putting their credit cards into some form on a computer. Do we really want to head back to the bad old days?
(disclosure: I work in information security at a major bank, so it could be bad for me if trust in being able to securely conduct financial dealings online was significantly disrupted)
This article is timed pretty well. Microsoft just 2 days ago issued a critical patch for vulnerabilities in their version of TLS (schannel or secure channel - update now if you haven't yet, this one is important). And within the last year, every major implementation of TLS has had serious vulnerabilities - OpenSSL (Heartbleed), Apple's SecureTransport, and GNUTLS.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 4 Nov 2014 @ 7:00am
Tools are only tools
Terrorists have long made use of the internet.
You can replace "internet" with hundreds of other words and make the same case that other companies or governments are supporting terrorists.
-Guns - frequently the same that governments (including the US government had made or supplied directly to the same terrorists) -Cash -the international banking system -the same intelligence training and procedures used by every government on the planet -any other kind of technology you can think of
The simple matter is that all of these things are tools. Tools in and of themselves have no morality. They can be used for good beneficial purposes, or they can be used for nefarious reasons.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 4 Nov 2014 @ 6:32am
Re: Automatic protection is excessive as-is, but has some value
For example, free software relies on the interaction of copyright with permissive license grants to remain free.
Either you are being disingenuous, or you haven't thought that through.
What you are saying is that: 1) Free software needs to use those licenses to remain free because copyright law is utterly insane. 2) Because free software is using licenses, we should keep copyright law utterly insane.
Just because a generally good thing has figured out a way to use a broken system against itself doesn't mean we should keep the broken system.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 30 Oct 2014 @ 11:23am
Re:
I'm sure you're being sarcastic, but of course they'll do it again. Even after settling these cases, they're ahead.
I haven't seen numbers for Comcast yet, however the damages to Verizon customers was estimated at $156 million. Verizon paid $64 million. By my math, that means Verizon is up about $90 million minus lawyers cost (and since the "winning" side's lawyers got $20 million, Verizon is still definitely ahead).
Until companies have to pay more than what they gained when they break the law, there will never be any incentive for them not to do it in the first place.
And even if in some twisted version you see it that way, the DOJ **still** lied about him being involved in a bombing plot.
There is no law or statute that requires the DOJ or a prosecutor to label someone a co-conspirator or to make shit up that is clearly not true on a warrant.
The DOJ clearly lied, and Holder signed off on it. But there is no accountability, so nothing is going to be done and clear acts of perjury will just be let by.
On the post: Profiting Massively From Torture: Designers Of CIA Torture Program Raked In $81 Million (And Are Still Getting Money)
Re:
I feel sick reading this article. I am actually surprised by the revelations here.
This is worse than even I thought it would be. I thought, or even hoped, that while completely immoral and unethical, the torture was at least run by people who knew what they were doing.
No wonder so many people feared the release of this report.
I'm struggling for words. This was *intentionally* *incompetent* and approved at the highest levels of our government. This cannot stand.
These people, and the ones who approved it, and the ones who even knew about it but wouldn't speak up, are guilty of war crimes.
On the post: The Broadband Industry Pretends To Be Worried About Your Soaring Bill In Attempt To Undermine Net Neutrality
Re: Re: This Is Not The Best Of All Possible Worlds, Daniel Berninger To The Contrary.
On the post: The Broadband Industry Pretends To Be Worried About Your Soaring Bill In Attempt To Undermine Net Neutrality
Re: Re: Re: Fair and balanced...
The arrival of commercial versions of VoIP in 1995 created a policy crisis.
Did VoIP fall under Title II like all other voice services or remain an non-regulated information service like all other data/computing services.
Keep in mind VoIP/Internet were born entirely from non-regulated information services parents.
I find that argument disingenuous. While VoIP and the information services were not regulated, the infrastructure was regulated - the phone lines that most people used to connect to their dial-up modems. All of the non-regulated services would never have been possible without the regulation, going all the way back to the Carterphone regulatory decision.
On the post: UK Web Filtering Blocks Access To Website Of Europe's Largest And Oldest Hacking Community
Re: Hey, Techdirt!
So you want TD to start up their own DNS, when there are thousands of them already? Why reinvent the wheel?
On the post: The Broadband Industry Pretends To Be Worried About Your Soaring Bill In Attempt To Undermine Net Neutrality
Re:
Really, only an increase of $17? Even if the study was accurate (its not), an increase of $17 doesn't sound too bad when my rates keep going up, and service keeps getting worse, even without Title II.
On the post: Comcast Accidentally Admits It's Unsure Of The Competitive Impact Of Its Own Merger
Re: Re: Re: As much as I am against the merger...
On the post: Authors Guild Argues That Google Books Should Be Infringing Because Aaron Swartz
That statement is all the more amusing since the Sony hack. Allegedly entire movies have been released as a result of the breach of the producer's network, not of a tech company's.
On the post: Music Publishers, With Help From Rightscorp, Test Legal Theory That DMCA Requires Kicking Repeat Infringers Off The Internet
Re:
Yes, of course they can. However, the courts have been pushing back on the bulk fishing expeditions based on nothing more than "we saw these IPs in a bittorrent cloud" bullshit. Which means that the copyright holders have to both do a something more than minimal investigation and cover initial court and legal fees - which is costly upfront and doesn't come remotely close to covering even in the event of a judgement.
The short answer is that the copyright holders want to enforce their rights by pushing all theirs costs onto other services.
On the post: Employee Fired After Posting Pictures Of DHS Vehicles Parked In Hotel Parking Lot
Re:
The details of the situation are thus:
1) guy posted photo take in public, unsecured area of a bunch of obviously marked cars
2) Either the hotel's management lied to their employee about endangering the contract, or somehow the DHS became aware of this random citizen's facebook page.
3)Instead of acting like adults, either the hotel management or DHS completely overreacted and got this guy fired.
4) Because of #3, many many more people now know these details.
On the post: Employee Fired After Posting Pictures Of DHS Vehicles Parked In Hotel Parking Lot
Re: What happens at Motel 6 stays at Motel 6.
Really, how many people were following this guy's facebook page? Couple dozen or so? And how many of them even saw his update (remember, facebook news feeds don't share every update with all your friends)?
Yet, because the hotel fired the guy, tens of thousands or more know about it via Streisand effect.
On the post: Misleading Rasmussen Poll Helps Prop Up Bogus Net Neutrality Partisan Divide
Re: Well, it depends...
1) Paying my TimeWarner-soon-to-be-Comcast bill
2) Having to call TimeWarner customer service
3) Having my TimeWarner internet service cut out in the middle of a gaming session or Netflix binge
4) Switching my crappy TimeWarner service to even slower and crappier AT&T service
On the post: Republicans And Democrats Alike Overwhelmingly Support Net Neutrality; Why Don't GOP Officials In Congress Recognize This?
Re: Forcing Freedom?
What competitor?
>80% of Americans are limited to at best, 2 broadband options, both of which act in nearly identical ways.
There. Is. No. Choice.
That unpopular ISP then goes out of business
When the unpopular ISP is a monopoly, and ISP service is a necessity, it won't go out of business.
If ISPs don't want to be regulated, then they need to promote competition in actions (not press releases) and stop doing everything in their power to stop it. No more laws stopping cities from building their own options. No more wink wink nods at non-competing over customers. On the other hand, if ISPs want to be monopolies - just like the utility providers they are - then they damn well are going to be regulated. No having their cake and eating it, too.
On the post: German Spy Agency Wants To Buy Zero-Day Vulnerabilities In Order To Undermine SSL Security
Back to the 90s
(disclosure: I work in information security at a major bank, so it could be bad for me if trust in being able to securely conduct financial dealings online was significantly disrupted)
This article is timed pretty well. Microsoft just 2 days ago issued a critical patch for vulnerabilities in their version of TLS (schannel or secure channel - update now if you haven't yet, this one is important). And within the last year, every major implementation of TLS has had serious vulnerabilities - OpenSSL (Heartbleed), Apple's SecureTransport, and GNUTLS.
On the post: New GCHQ Boss Blames Tech Industry For 'Facilitating Murder' And Being Terrorists' 'Command-And-Control' Center
Tools are only tools
You can replace "internet" with hundreds of other words and make the same case that other companies or governments are supporting terrorists.
-Guns - frequently the same that governments (including the US government had made or supplied directly to the same terrorists)
-Cash
-the international banking system
-the same intelligence training and procedures used by every government on the planet
-any other kind of technology you can think of
The simple matter is that all of these things are tools. Tools in and of themselves have no morality. They can be used for good beneficial purposes, or they can be used for nefarious reasons.
On the post: UK Libraries Protest Ridiculous Copyright Laws By Showing Empty Cases Of Works They Can't Display
Re: Automatic protection is excessive as-is, but has some value
Either you are being disingenuous, or you haven't thought that through.
What you are saying is that:
1) Free software needs to use those licenses to remain free because copyright law is utterly insane.
2) Because free software is using licenses, we should keep copyright law utterly insane.
Just because a generally good thing has figured out a way to use a broken system against itself doesn't mean we should keep the broken system.
On the post: Both Comcast And Verizon Agree To Pay Millions To Settle Overbilling Claims
Re:
I haven't seen numbers for Comcast yet, however the damages to Verizon customers was estimated at $156 million. Verizon paid $64 million. By my math, that means Verizon is up about $90 million minus lawyers cost (and since the "winning" side's lawyers got $20 million, Verizon is still definitely ahead).
Until companies have to pay more than what they gained when they break the law, there will never be any incentive for them not to do it in the first place.
On the post: Eric Holder Says He Regrets Lying To A Judge And Saying A Reporter Was A 'Co-Conspirator' But The Law Made Him Do It
Re:
No, it really cannot be by any sane reading of it. While I'm not a lawyer, it clearly is not written to be applied to news reporting.
http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/18/I/37/793
And even if in some twisted version you see it that way, the DOJ **still** lied about him being involved in a bombing plot.
There is no law or statute that requires the DOJ or a prosecutor to label someone a co-conspirator or to make shit up that is clearly not true on a warrant.
The DOJ clearly lied, and Holder signed off on it. But there is no accountability, so nothing is going to be done and clear acts of perjury will just be let by.
On the post: California Cops Passed Around Explicit Photos Harvested From Arrestees' Phones
Re: Re:
On the post: Guidelines On Who Might Be Suspicious: Too Nervous? Too Calm? Blending In? Standing Out? It's All Suspicious
Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Roca Labs Story Gets More Bizarre: Senator Threatens Bogus Defamation Lawsuit, While Nevada Quickly Rejects Bogus Bribery Charge
Re: Re:
It definitely feels more human with it in there.
Not that there's anything wrong with robots. (I welcome our robot overlords and stuff.)
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