Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 30 Nov 2018 @ 5:53pm
Re: Re: Optimism
Except that this is a Reagan era (?) law intended to be directed at drug cartel leaders. In their inevitable fashion the legislators made the law with enough loopholes to allow the present day quagmire. There shouldn't be any forfieture without criminal conviction, let alone anything else. And the idea that the 'criminal' (aka accused or relative of the victim) being charged rent for space to store 'evidence' is just purly greed. And since it is not law enforcement that collects that rent, then there must be some kickbacks.
In this case it is not the unions or lobbyist that created the laws, though I agree that they are probably benefiting from them. Both monitarily and otherwise. Dues and lobbying payments come from...somewhere.
Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 28 Nov 2018 @ 7:09pm
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Sometime someone else posts as John Smith and they might be being sarcastic. But when the 'real John Smith' posts (said with tongue in cheek as he is not Pocahontas's husband), it is evident. Surprisingly, he is not smart enough to go out and create an email address that he will never read or respond to and use that the create a Techdirt account so that others might not be able to spoof him. Either way, flag and move on when the name appears. No need to read the post. They are all bullshit.
Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 28 Nov 2018 @ 6:53pm
Re: 'We're the bosses, it's up to you to nerd harder!'
Seems like the parallel to witch trials applies. Dunk them and see if they float. If they do, kill them, they are witches, if they don't, then what's the problem?
Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 28 Nov 2018 @ 4:54pm
Re: Re: Use the power, correctly, but what is correct?
No reason Amazon shouldn't be for net neutrality, nor is there a reason that I can think of why they shouldn't participate in an online protest. It could be a big impact, except that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are now over, and if the protest had been timed better, such a much bigger impact. Amazon could have just presented a screen with quick basic information before the requested page is shown which also contained links with more detailed information. Some would have objected, but many, many, many more would have been informed.
Could they really be hurt by those that are against net neutrality? Well maybe, in their online data storage component and the uses made of that, but then they wouldn't be the ones hurt. Their customers would.
Not just bandwidth restrictions (low resolution video), but data caps (how many videos can you see in a month) are in question with this. And those are just the most simplistic, general, consumer related examples. The implications are much more wide spread.
Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 28 Nov 2018 @ 2:49pm
Use the power, correctly, but what is correct?
Methinks there needs to be a better definition of 'online protest'. I know it worked for SOPA, but that involved a lot of platforms. I am not sure this one will, though it is to their advantage as well. We are also at the disavantage as the midterm elections have already passed. Timing could have been better.
Some suggestions about how to contact your Congressional representatives. In the subject line include whether you are or are not a constituent, and whether you are for or against whatever the protest is about. In the body, give them your reasons why. Also let them know that you vote.
And don't leave the protest to just your legislators. Contact your favorite websites and ask them to paricipate as well, and not just on their homepage as I suspect that platforms like Facebook (for example, I don't know for sure as I don't use them) the home page is not where people bookmark to. Their protest must span all of their pages.
For companies like Google, who don't have good ways to contact them, make sure you express your concerns, and their relationship to those entities, verbosely every place you can. For Google, the spiders will pick up the comments, whether anyone there reads those results is another matter.
Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 28 Nov 2018 @ 2:23pm
Supergood Doublespeak
If they define disinformation the same way that Trump defines disinformation, then anything they don't like will be disinformation, whether it is or isn't. Then how are they going to rightously defend "...representative democracy is too important and too hard-won to be left undefended from online harms..." and not lose the concept of democracy?
Oh, and whose notion of free speech (an underpining of democracy) are they going to use? One where the 'right to be forgotten' is a viable thing? One where 'they' decide what is good speech and which is bad? One where non-democratic governments decide which speech is good (and since this is about democracy but they address every nation and not all nations are actual democracies despite what they claim for example the Democratic People's Republic of Korea also known as North Korea)?
Ah, got it. Like Trump, anything they don't like will be vile and disinformation (aka fake news), but unlike Trump the 'democratic' nosey Fourth Estate in the various entities will not be able to bring anything other than 'their' truth to the table. Situation Normal, All Fucked Up (aka SNAFU), and by design.
And to think this is all social medias fault. Not the users, the owners. What are they going to do when they find out it is in fact the users and not the owners? The private prison industry is going to blossom like an atomic bomb. Get your stocks now while they are cheap.
Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 28 Nov 2018 @ 7:18am
Re: Re: They're just....
Oh, an additional thought...voting for the winners could be done by executives from the collective Chambers of Commerce and Better Business Bureaus. The creation of various categories could be interesting as well.
Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 28 Nov 2018 @ 7:13am
Re: They're just....
"..."creative" pricing..."
I love it. Now we need to have some kind of competition, annually, for the most 'creative', "creative" pricing. Bonus points for effective implementation and more bonus points for the percentage of annual increase. This competition should be along the lines of the Oscars, or Emmy's or whatever. Any reality TV producer would have sufficient competence to put on such a show. I wonder what their TV viewership ratings would be? Is there a chance that they could get fans rooting for one or another? And the envelope please...
Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 27 Nov 2018 @ 5:08pm
Re: When ego and profits are on the line
There is that statistic that says most sexual abuse comes from people the abused knew and/or even family members, not strangers. Just what activity at a school event, with lots of other adults and one would think faculty members around, is a sex offender going to do? The odds tell us that they already know their victim, most of the time.
Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 27 Nov 2018 @ 4:22pm
To think or not to think, but the machine told me so!
There's the concept of doing things right, or doing the right thing, a concept many polititians have a hard time with, and seemingly bureaucrats as well.
This incident also points out the lack of critical thinking traing in our educational systems. If the person running the machine couldn't decide that two unlike photographs meant a machine error, they they shouldn't be able to get a license to walk, let alone a position of responsibility with any school system.
Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 27 Nov 2018 @ 11:02am
Re: Re: End users? What about shareholders?
Shareholders seem to be single minded. This quarters profits.
I would love to see a study that shows how many shareholders are users of the products/services of companies they hold shares in. There are some companies where individuals don't have access to, or need of the products/services, so the study should look at those where the end users are individuals.
Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 27 Nov 2018 @ 10:46am
Re:
I am not disagreeing with your premise (it makes sense), but given the attention span of the general public towards real politics (aka elections), how does one go about getting them to pay attentions to these things? In addition, those entities (both the corporations and their 'representatives' will work with a whole lot more in the way of assets (both money and comminication lines) than any of their opponents.
I get to deal with a whole lot of crazy at work. The following rules are applicable to lots of flavors of crazy, but I've had a heavy dose of borderline personalities lately. So here are my ten rules for dealing with borderline personalities and other crazy people:
If you don't have to deal with a crazy person, don't.
You can't outsmart crazy. [Thanks to Lisa J] You also can't fix crazy. (You could outcrazy it, but that makes you crazy too.)
When you get in a contest of wills with a crazy person, you've already lost.
The crazy person doesn't have as much to lose as you.
Your desired outcome is to get away from the crazy person.
You have no idea what the crazy person's desired outcome is.
The crazy person sees anything you have done as justification for what she's about to do.
Anything nice you do for the crazy person, she will use as ammunition later.
The crazy person sees any outcome as vindication.
When you start caring what the crazy person thinks, you're joining her in her craziness.
Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 26 Nov 2018 @ 9:06am
Double or triple standards
I am wondering what they have done to make Facebook comply, without these shenanigans? I suspect that Facebook has equipment/personnel in the UK, why haven't those things been confiscated or people detained? Or if they have, why wasn't that sufficient?
Then there is the whole concept that the Cambridge Analitica is about privacy, and the method to enhance their position is to abuse someone else's privacy?
Finally, this was an act of Parliament, apparently, and not the UK government as a whole, or the prosecutorial portion of the UK government. Is there some sort of plausible deniability going on here?
Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 25 Nov 2018 @ 2:28pm
Re: Re:
Which might be the reason they moved from HTML to markdown, for us. That doesn't mean they cannot make an error. The error I see, with some repitition, is forgetting to check the markdown box. For this comment, which does not use any markdown formating I have checked the markdown box. Any issues?
No, so why isn't the markdown box checked by default, or eliminated? My only guess is that by checking the box, something is counted. For what reason is unclear.
Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 21 Nov 2018 @ 7:53am
Re: Re: Norms
There are limited choices for what to do when the question asked is not answered. Ask again, maybe a bit differently, or more pointedly, or report the non-answer and mention that the answer given did not answer the question asked, then speculate as to why, maybe even wildly.
Neither is likly to please the one who did not answer. Neither is actually uncivil. At some point, however, when it becomes clear that an answer is not forthcoming, then the questioner should just report the non-answer and speculate like hell about reasons why is might not have been answered. Which will likely piss the one who did not answer off greatly.
Things might move from civil to uncivil once it becomes apparent that no answer is going to be given, and grandstanding just becomes rude, for both. The solution to this is just not call an that person for questions, not revoke access. In the instant case the 'cure' was worse than the 'disease' as one of the two involved could have been the bigger person and realized their other options.
On the post: Supreme Court Appears Inclined To Apply The Eighth Amendment To Civil Asset Forfeiture
Re: Re: Optimism
Except that this is a Reagan era (?) law intended to be directed at drug cartel leaders. In their inevitable fashion the legislators made the law with enough loopholes to allow the present day quagmire. There shouldn't be any forfieture without criminal conviction, let alone anything else. And the idea that the 'criminal' (aka accused or relative of the victim) being charged rent for space to store 'evidence' is just purly greed. And since it is not law enforcement that collects that rent, then there must be some kickbacks.
In this case it is not the unions or lobbyist that created the laws, though I agree that they are probably benefiting from them. Both monitarily and otherwise. Dues and lobbying payments come from...somewhere.
On the post: Activists Make One Last Push To Restore Net Neutrality Via Congressional Review Act
Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Activists Make One Last Push To Restore Net Neutrality Via Congressional Review Act
Re: Re: Re: Re: Use the power, correctly, but what is correct?
On the post: Pompous 'International Grand Committee' Signs Useless But Equally Pompous 'Declaration On Principles Of Law Governing The Internet'
Re: 'We're the bosses, it's up to you to nerd harder!'
What do you mean I have that backwards?
On the post: Activists Make One Last Push To Restore Net Neutrality Via Congressional Review Act
Re: Re: Use the power, correctly, but what is correct?
Could they really be hurt by those that are against net neutrality? Well maybe, in their online data storage component and the uses made of that, but then they wouldn't be the ones hurt. Their customers would.
Not just bandwidth restrictions (low resolution video), but data caps (how many videos can you see in a month) are in question with this. And those are just the most simplistic, general, consumer related examples. The implications are much more wide spread.
On the post: Pompous 'International Grand Committee' Signs Useless But Equally Pompous 'Declaration On Principles Of Law Governing The Internet'
Re: Solving problems is not the goal...
On the post: Activists Make One Last Push To Restore Net Neutrality Via Congressional Review Act
Use the power, correctly, but what is correct?
Some suggestions about how to contact your Congressional representatives. In the subject line include whether you are or are not a constituent, and whether you are for or against whatever the protest is about. In the body, give them your reasons why. Also let them know that you vote.
And don't leave the protest to just your legislators. Contact your favorite websites and ask them to paricipate as well, and not just on their homepage as I suspect that platforms like Facebook (for example, I don't know for sure as I don't use them) the home page is not where people bookmark to. Their protest must span all of their pages.
For companies like Google, who don't have good ways to contact them, make sure you express your concerns, and their relationship to those entities, verbosely every place you can. For Google, the spiders will pick up the comments, whether anyone there reads those results is another matter.
Any other suggestions?
On the post: Pompous 'International Grand Committee' Signs Useless But Equally Pompous 'Declaration On Principles Of Law Governing The Internet'
Supergood Doublespeak
Oh, and whose notion of free speech (an underpining of democracy) are they going to use? One where the 'right to be forgotten' is a viable thing? One where 'they' decide what is good speech and which is bad? One where non-democratic governments decide which speech is good (and since this is about democracy but they address every nation and not all nations are actual democracies despite what they claim for example the Democratic People's Republic of Korea also known as North Korea)?
Ah, got it. Like Trump, anything they don't like will be vile and disinformation (aka fake news), but unlike Trump the 'democratic' nosey Fourth Estate in the various entities will not be able to bring anything other than 'their' truth to the table. Situation Normal, All Fucked Up (aka SNAFU), and by design.
And to think this is all social medias fault. Not the users, the owners. What are they going to do when they find out it is in fact the users and not the owners? The private prison industry is going to blossom like an atomic bomb. Get your stocks now while they are cheap.
On the post: From $1.50 To $10 Per Month: How Comcast's Bogus Fees Are False Advertising
Re: Re: They're just....
On the post: From $1.50 To $10 Per Month: How Comcast's Bogus Fees Are False Advertising
Re: They're just....
I love it. Now we need to have some kind of competition, annually, for the most 'creative', "creative" pricing. Bonus points for effective implementation and more bonus points for the percentage of annual increase. This competition should be along the lines of the Oscars, or Emmy's or whatever. Any reality TV producer would have sufficient competence to put on such a show. I wonder what their TV viewership ratings would be? Is there a chance that they could get fans rooting for one or another? And the envelope please...
On the post: School Security Software Decides Innocent Parent Is Actually A Registered Sex Offender
Re: When ego and profits are on the line
On the post: School Security Software Decides Innocent Parent Is Actually A Registered Sex Offender
To think or not to think, but the machine told me so!
This incident also points out the lack of critical thinking traing in our educational systems. If the person running the machine couldn't decide that two unlike photographs meant a machine error, they they shouldn't be able to get a license to walk, let alone a position of responsibility with any school system.
On the post: Dear Silicon Valley Tech Companies: Stop Treating Your Structural Challenges As Political Challenges
Re: Re: End users? What about shareholders?
I would love to see a study that shows how many shareholders are users of the products/services of companies they hold shares in. There are some companies where individuals don't have access to, or need of the products/services, so the study should look at those where the end users are individuals.
On the post: Dear Silicon Valley Tech Companies: Stop Treating Your Structural Challenges As Political Challenges
Re:
On the post: Dear Silicon Valley Tech Companies: Stop Treating Your Structural Challenges As Political Challenges
Re: As the article notes, 'you expect of others what you would do.'
On the post: To Obtain Documents About Facebook Data-Sharing, UK Gov't Seizes And Detains A US Executive Working For A Different Company
Double or triple standards
Then there is the whole concept that the Cambridge Analitica is about privacy, and the method to enhance their position is to abuse someone else's privacy?
Finally, this was an act of Parliament, apparently, and not the UK government as a whole, or the prosecutorial portion of the UK government. Is there some sort of plausible deniability going on here?
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re: Re:
Which might be the reason they moved from HTML to markdown, for us. That doesn't mean they cannot make an error. The error I see, with some repitition, is forgetting to check the markdown box. For this comment, which does not use any markdown formating I have checked the markdown box. Any issues?
No, so why isn't the markdown box checked by default, or eliminated? My only guess is that by checking the box, something is counted. For what reason is unclear.
On the post: Court To Law Enforcement: You Can't Seize A House For 15 Hours Before Obtaining A Warrant
Re:
On the post: New White House Press Conference Rules Leave Door Open To Future Challenges
Re: Re: Norms
Neither is likly to please the one who did not answer. Neither is actually uncivil. At some point, however, when it becomes clear that an answer is not forthcoming, then the questioner should just report the non-answer and speculate like hell about reasons why is might not have been answered. Which will likely piss the one who did not answer off greatly.
Things might move from civil to uncivil once it becomes apparent that no answer is going to be given, and grandstanding just becomes rude, for both. The solution to this is just not call an that person for questions, not revoke access. In the instant case the 'cure' was worse than the 'disease' as one of the two involved could have been the bigger person and realized their other options.
On the post: But Her Emails: Ivanka Trump Also Used A Private Email Account For Official Government Business
Re: Re: Official of what?
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