Ugh. The Elonis decision was a mess and a half, and it was very disappointing to see how many people accepted his ridiculous claim that it was "just rap lyrics" at face value, considering how it came out in the trial that he had never performed nor tried to sell any rap music, and according to his ex, who he was blatantly threatening, he didn't even listen to rap. From the very beginning it was obvious that that was a ridiculous excuse he pulled out of his nethermost parts, and yet journalists across the country (including a few here) fell for it!
And now we get this. As I've seen noted on Techdirt before, bad cases make for bad case law.
Over the past few years, TrueCrypt has gone from "recommended by Snowden!" to a service of questionable trustworthiness. ... Either the intelligence/investigative arms of the US government have found a way in (by obtaining keys or compromising the RNG) or they're still very actively involved in trying to do so. Neither bodes particularly well for TrueCrypt users.
I can't help but wonder if there might not be a causal relationship at work here?
In May, a 21-year-old woman accidentally shot herself in the head in Moscow while taking a selfie holding a pistol. She suffered injuries but survived. In January, two young men died in the Urals while taking a selfie holding a hand grenade with the pin pulled out. The mobile phone with the selfie survived as a record. In May, a teenager in the Ryazan region died while attempting to photograph himself as he climbed on a railway bridge and accidentally came into contact with live electrical wires.
First thing that goes through my mind when I read this is: a bunch of people in a nation well known for having a serious collective drinking problem pull the kinds of stupid stunts that start to look like a good idea when you're impaired, and they decide to take pictures of themselves while doing these stupid things that end up killing them... and the problem is the cameras?
Seriously? Out of all of the possible first names that parents with the last name of Nelson could have picked, they chose William? They must have been big country music fans or something...
But, the big point remains: in the end it's not the music services that are to blame for small royalty checks to artists. It's the bad deals that artists themselves continue to sign with labels.
Seriously? That's the takeaway here? You had me right up until the last couple paragraphs, and then everything went off the rails.
Someone really needs to look up the concept of a "leonine contract" and why they're unacceptable in civilized society.
If you think that's going to happen, you're not paying attention. Don't get me wrong; I think that of all the candidates we've seen so far, Bernie Sanders is probably the best. But there's no way he's going to win the presidency. It would mean breaking a decades-long pattern in American politics, changing the effects while the underlying causes remain the same.
Remember Bush Sr? Remember "read my lips, no new taxes" and then new taxes, and the first Iraq war sending gas prices sky high? Well, the American people got sick of his bad leadership and so they threw him out and chose a new president from the other party who was the anti-Bush: a (relatively) young, hip saxaphone player who oh-by-the-way also happened to be a thoroughly corrupt sexual predator whose entire presidency was plagued by a never-ending stream of scandals. The Clinton administration was worse (and worse for America) than the Bush administration.
So we did the same thing again: elected a new guy from the other party who portrayed himself as the anti-Clinton. W got in on a promise to "restore dignity to the White House." Well, we all know how that went! And the W administration was worse (and worse for America) than the Clinton administration.
So what did we do? The same thing again, electing the anti-Bush, a man who campaigned on "hope and change," and then proceeded to spend the next 8 years (yeah, it's only been 6 and a half, but is there any reason to think the rest will be any different?) proving that the only "changes" he's bringing about are in the same direction as the changes we've been experiencing since the 70s: downward, ever downward. So far, the Obama administration has been worse (and worse for America) than the W administration.
It doesn't take a genius to call 2016 already: we're going to end up electing whichever Republican candidate most successfully portrays himself as the anti-Obama. And things will get worse.
From the quotes on the respectourprivacy.com site:
Using a WHOIS privacy service is no more suspicious than having an unlisted phone number.
That example made me wince a little. When I receive a call from an unlisted number, I don't even bother picking up, because experience has shown that they're always telemarketers, debt collectors, fraudsters, or other inherently suspicious and sleazy types. So trying to use that as an analogy is a perfect example of "not helping your case here."
Encryption is at odds with haystacking, which these agencies continue to prize highly (and defend heatedly) despite clear evidence that intelligence gathering like this is inefficient at best, and wholly useless at worst.
I wouldn't say that. "Useless" implies that its utility value is 0, but didn't the 9/11 Commission discover that having too low of a signal/noise ratio was part of the reason that the hijackers were never apprehended before they got on those planes?
Seems to me the appropriate term for the "at worst" case is "actively harmful"...
Google filed the present motion because it insists on more. Google demands documents that the Attorney General never saw ... on the misguided theory that such documents somehow are probative of Attorney General Hood’s intent.
Considering how it's becoming increasingly clear with each new bit of evidence that comes to light that Attorney General Hood's intent was never his intent in the first place, but that of the studios pulling his strings, calling this theory "misguided" smells like outright perjury to me...
Oh, that's not the city's fault; the transportation budget has been crippled and shackled by Tim Eyman and all of the poor fools who fell for his con. If it weren't for I-695 and all of the aftermath in the years since it passed, there would be plenty of money available in the transportation budget, just as there was before he showed up on the scene and started throwing monkey wrenches into the machinery.
So you want a real solution to the homelessness problem, and not just something silly and superficial that makes people feel good while accomplishing nothing? Try looking at one of the most conservative states in the whole country: Utah.
They've all but eliminated homelessness by the simple expedient of providing free housing for the homeless, no questions asked. It's even turned into a net money-maker for the state, because they end up saving more on medical subsidies for indigent ER visits than they're paying on housing costs.
Yes, tax-loathing. Just look at the way Tim Eyman conned Seattle (and the entire rest of the state) into a bad deal that lost the average commuter more money than they were saving even before 9/11 drove gas prices through the roof, and they've been defending it at every chance since then, by promising lower taxes. (Or government fees, in this case, but it's essentially the same thing.)
On the post: First Post-Elonis Threat Case Handled By Appeals Court And We're Still No Closer To Discussing The First Amendment
And now we get this. As I've seen noted on Techdirt before, bad cases make for bad case law.
On the post: FBI Withholds 69 Pages of TrueCrypt-Related Documents, Most Of Which Can Already Be Found Online
I can't help but wonder if there might not be a causal relationship at work here?
On the post: Russian PSA: Quit It With The Selfies If You Want To Live
First thing that goes through my mind when I read this is: a bunch of people in a nation well known for having a serious collective drinking problem pull the kinds of stupid stunts that start to look like a good idea when you're impaired, and they decide to take pictures of themselves while doing these stupid things that end up killing them... and the problem is the cameras?
On the post: Venture Capital Trade Association Hires Patent Troll Lawyers, Fights Against Patent Reform... Even As Most VCs Want Patent Reform
Seriously? Out of all of the possible first names that parents with the last name of Nelson could have picked, they chose William? They must have been big country music fans or something...
On the post: Sony To Court: Of Course We're Allowed To Contractually Screw Over Our Artists
Seriously? That's the takeaway here? You had me right up until the last couple paragraphs, and then everything went off the rails.
Someone really needs to look up the concept of a "leonine contract" and why they're unacceptable in civilized society.
On the post: Google Fiber Has Accomplished More For Broadband Than Our National Broadband Plan Ever Did
Re: Re: Of all the topics in the world, you're back to flacking Google Fiber! Next will be the Russian propaganda again!
On the post: Another GOP Candidate Indirectly Promotes Bernie Sanders By Not Getting Music Cleared With Artist
Re: Re: But Bernie is no direct competitor...
Remember Bush Sr? Remember "read my lips, no new taxes" and then new taxes, and the first Iraq war sending gas prices sky high? Well, the American people got sick of his bad leadership and so they threw him out and chose a new president from the other party who was the anti-Bush: a (relatively) young, hip saxaphone player who oh-by-the-way also happened to be a thoroughly corrupt sexual predator whose entire presidency was plagued by a never-ending stream of scandals. The Clinton administration was worse (and worse for America) than the Bush administration.
So we did the same thing again: elected a new guy from the other party who portrayed himself as the anti-Clinton. W got in on a promise to "restore dignity to the White House." Well, we all know how that went! And the W administration was worse (and worse for America) than the Clinton administration.
So what did we do? The same thing again, electing the anti-Bush, a man who campaigned on "hope and change," and then proceeded to spend the next 8 years (yeah, it's only been 6 and a half, but is there any reason to think the rest will be any different?) proving that the only "changes" he's bringing about are in the same direction as the changes we've been experiencing since the 70s: downward, ever downward. So far, the Obama administration has been worse (and worse for America) than the W administration.
It doesn't take a genius to call 2016 already: we're going to end up electing whichever Republican candidate most successfully portrays himself as the anti-Obama. And things will get worse.
On the post: The Latest In The 'Collect It All' Collection: An Entire Nation's DNA
...except that this is an Arab country we're talking about.
On the post: Google Fiber Has Accomplished More For Broadband Than Our National Broadband Plan Ever Did
Re: Re: Of all the topics in the world, you're back to flacking Google Fiber! Next will be the Russian propaganda again!
On the post: Florida Judge Sued After Banning Protestors From 'Questioning Integrity Of The Court'
Someone report this guy to the Department of Redundancy Department please...
On the post: Governor Tells High School Students He'd Like To Shoot A Student's Dad; Arrest/Investigation Fail To Ensue
Re: Re: Re: Wrong stage
On the post: ICANN's Threat To Privacy Is Not Theoretical
That example made me wince a little. When I receive a call from an unlisted number, I don't even bother picking up, because experience has shown that they're always telemarketers, debt collectors, fraudsters, or other inherently suspicious and sleazy types. So trying to use that as an analogy is a perfect example of "not helping your case here."
On the post: Daily Deal: White-Hat Hacker & Penetration Tester Course
* Over 25 lectures and 4.5 hours of content
4.5 hours = 270 minutes, which works out to slightly more than 10 minutes each. That really doesn't sound like much of a lecture...
On the post: Dept. Of Defense Defends Strong Encryption While Its Impetuous Child -- The NSA -- Continues To Lament The Coming Darkness
I wouldn't say that. "Useless" implies that its utility value is 0, but didn't the 9/11 Commission discover that having too low of a signal/noise ratio was part of the reason that the hijackers were never apprehended before they got on those planes?
Seems to me the appropriate term for the "at worst" case is "actively harmful"...
On the post: Hollywood Resists Revealing Details Of Its Cozy Relationship With Mississippi AG Jim Hood, But Glimpses Come Out
Considering how it's becoming increasingly clear with each new bit of evidence that comes to light that Attorney General Hood's intent was never his intent in the first place, but that of the studios pulling his strings, calling this theory "misguided" smells like outright perjury to me...
On the post: Seattle City Council Member Urges Grass Roots Broadband Revolution After Ten Years Of Failing To Fix Broken Broadband Duopoly
Re:
On the post: Seattle City Council Member Urges Grass Roots Broadband Revolution After Ten Years Of Failing To Fix Broken Broadband Duopoly
Re: Re:
They've all but eliminated homelessness by the simple expedient of providing free housing for the homeless, no questions asked. It's even turned into a net money-maker for the state, because they end up saving more on medical subsidies for indigent ER visits than they're paying on housing costs.
On the post: Seattle City Council Member Urges Grass Roots Broadband Revolution After Ten Years Of Failing To Fix Broken Broadband Duopoly
Re: Tax-loathing? Seattle?
On the post: DailyDirt: Playing Super Mario By Rote... Is Fun?
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Donald Trump's Lawsuit Against Univision Is Absolutely Hilarious
Re: Re: Defamation insane, breach of contract, probably not so much...
(Just to be clear, I'm not saying that it did. I don't know either way. But if that's true, it would be a valid reason to claim breach of contract.)
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