"we don’t agree that the proposed bills in Congress could “stymie legitimate speech.” To the contrary, the bills are specifically designed to focus on the worst of the worst sites whose model is predicated on theft."
I was always of the impression that "freedom of the press" and shield laws were to protect individuals. I probably won't articulate this point well, but do we really think the founding fathers meant it to be about 'big media corporations' and 'payrolled journalists' as opposed to the every day bloke who has some facts/opinions or reliable information that they believe should be heard? Were our state lawmakers blind to this when they came up with these shield laws? Aren't we all "journalists" at some point in time in one way or another?
"It's okay, we can do whatever we want with our legislation... Then that pesky tech world with all of that there interconnected series of tubes can figure out how to make it work."
I can see how this "Report as terrorist" button will work... It will probably let ICE take the site down after the first report -- then you have to pay money to fight it, no matter how unjustified it was. Months of legal hoops and lawyers to deal with.
The only thing I see happening if it does get implemented is that I could see sites like 4chan having a field day trolling with this... I can just see the floodgates of internet "terrorist report clicker trolls" do their worst to take sites down just for kicks (and easier than doing DDOS attacks probably, too).
But I forgot, there is no way this feature would be abused, because we live in a land of sunshine and happy thoughts. It would be used to stop terrorists. Won't we please just think of the children?
There are some specific phrases (or rather, 'loaded terms') to always watch out for when dealing with elected officials, such as "we are listening to legitimate concerns" or "this is some common sense legislation" and my personal favorite, "this legislation will not be abused or used for any nefarious purposes."
Because, you know... Sunshine, Rainbows and Chocolate Unicorns!
I am not endorsing piracy -- this is just an observation -- but I sure as hell don't see the MTV Video Music Awards available as a DVD on the internet. Is there actually a LEGAL means to see it, short of having managed to DVR or tape it when it aired?
Something about not serving your (would be) customers springs to mind, since apparently they think people want to keep watching it...
Full disclosure: This information was gleaned as per a twenty second Google search, which is time out of my life that I'll never get back.
I have no gripe with Ubuntu. I started out with Slackware 9.1 or so back in early/mid-2000... After going crazy with that for awhile, I finally settled on what I believe was Ubuntu 5.04. I followed it up through 6.06 and finally quit upgrading around 9.04 (starting to get a few issues with my older hardware on my Linux box). My Linux box got me through 4 years of college and I never felt any more limited by Ubuntu than any other distro I tried (newer Slackware, openSUSE, Fedora, RedHat, Mint, DSL, etc.). Plus, I couldn't beat the 6-month release schedule, either, and I participated in many of the alphas/betas of new versions. Fun times; unsure why you're bagging on them so hard?
Now John Carmack has to innovate a way to get around a patent somebody else filed on an idea he managed to independently discover around the same time.
/sarcasm
(Seriously though, John Carmack is awesome in my book. Open source software all the way!)
On the post: Big Entertainment Companies Issuing Wrongful YouTube Claims On Public Domain Works
Re:
On the post: SOPA Is So Bad, Political Cartoonist Comes Out Of Retirement To Create New Comics Warning About It
Re: Great.
On the post: Apple Abuses Patent System Again To Obstruct W3C Open Standard
Open
Pick one.
On the post: RIAA Boss Tries To Defend SOPA & PIPA To The NY Times
...
[citation needed]
On the post: Should Shield Laws Protect Journalists? Or Journalism?
Re: The Press Is No One
On the post: Paul Vixie: SOPA/PIPA Would Be Good For My Business, But I'm Still Against It
Yet again...
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Always classy.
The only thing I see happening if it does get implemented is that I could see sites like 4chan having a field day trolling with this... I can just see the floodgates of internet "terrorist report clicker trolls" do their worst to take sites down just for kicks (and easier than doing DDOS attacks probably, too).
But I forgot, there is no way this feature would be abused, because we live in a land of sunshine and happy thoughts. It would be used to stop terrorists. Won't we please just think of the children?
On the post: MPAA Pretends To Capitulate On SOPA, Will Offer Changes For 'Legitimate Concerns'
Well, that's great...
Because, you know... Sunshine, Rainbows and Chocolate Unicorns!
On the post: The Annotated Version Of Viacom's Employees Begging The Gov't To Censor The Internet To Save SpongeBob
Not endorsing piracy...
Something about not serving your (would be) customers springs to mind, since apparently they think people want to keep watching it...
Full disclosure: This information was gleaned as per a twenty second Google search, which is time out of my life that I'll never get back.
On the post: Ubuntu's Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator For Life: 'Whole Patent System Is A Sham'
Re: Re: Re: They take more than they give.
On the post: WSJ The Latest Mainstream Press To Run Anti-SOPA/PIPA Opinion Piece
Oooh... I like this part.
Or having politicians even try to keep up with the technology that they are looking at blindly approving sweeping legislation over...?
On the post: Kansas Governor Apologizes After Staff Gets High School Student In Trouble For Tweet About The Governor
Well...
Hint: The answer is no.
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Probably cause...
#amidoingthisrite?
On the post: Potential Patent Infringement Threatens To Doom Highly Anticipated Open Source Project
See, the patent system encourages innovation!
Now John Carmack has to innovate a way to get around a patent somebody else filed on an idea he managed to independently discover around the same time.
/sarcasm
(Seriously though, John Carmack is awesome in my book. Open source software all the way!)
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