I don't think that's "censoring" so much as "defining". And as a company, they can decide to exclude whatever goods they like. Are you equally upset over their refusal to list sex toys? Do you really feel that Google has a duty to treat all goods equally, or are you just mad because they took down something you like?
Two-step verification via phone eliminates roughly 99.9% of account hijack attempts. I could be wrong about that number though; it might be 100%. That's mostly because criminals are lazy, of course; your phone itself is easy enough to 'hack' (via social engineering on the dumb-as-rocks phone companies) but so far no one bothers.
I mean yes, clearly Google just wants to invade your privacy.
Actually he's right - or at least, he's more right than you. Google no longer has separate accounts for each service. If the first AC has a gmail account, he has a Google account, which is also a G+ account. Now he may not have any information filled in, but that's not really the point.
Do you know how many patents have been infringed upon by computer and software companies? Every time you use the internet, you're stealing from hundreds and thousands of inventors and patent holders. You should probably stop using a computer entirely.
Instead of an internet petition on obviously-biased-personal-website, whose results ultimately don't mean anything, why not start an internet petition on the official government website?Don't mention the criminal trial at all, just ask for the personal data of law-abiding citizens to be returned to them. Make reference to a safety deposit box, or some similar analogy.
Or start petitioning the media companies to start covering this story. Doesn't CNN have that "iReport" gimmick? Use that. But a petition only works if someone has agreed to listen to it, otherwise you're just yelling at the sky.
Yeah, that's not what I said. Of course it's threatening! But the OP implied that the police used these tactics as a "let's teach these internet punks a lesson!" type of thing. From what I can tell, the police actually thought that someone was going to make a bomb and blow up a police officer's house. Then the grabbed the first IP address they could find and called in SWAT.
The problem is, the police are allowed to do stuff like this because when there are rogue bombmakers, I would really like a SWAT team to toss flashbangs through the windows and bust down the doors. The failure here isn't that the police decided to mess with some innocent people for kicks, the problem is that they didn't bother to do the most basic investigation before assuming that the owner of an IP address must be a criminal explosives nut.
While I agree that the police should never be "punishing" people, I'm not sure where you got that from. The police didn't say they were sending in SWAT to rough a guy up - they did it to prevent a supposed threat.
Now granted this was a massive, massive overreaction to a random internet comment, and any ten-year-old could have told them that there was no actual threat. That still doesn't make the police here into bullies or thugs. It just means they are very very stupid.
I'm not sure why that would be relevant. Inman is going to hire the most expensive lawyers he can find, since the anti-SLAPP law will push those costs on to Carreon. Meanwhile, Carreon has a snowball's chance in hell of winning anything, regardless of whether he can claim costs on his own time.
FunnyJunk is not liable for anything (assume they can claim DMCA safe harbor - Inman's lawyer seems to think they may have screwed up here, but we'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they're safe).
Inman has broken no laws.
This isn't a court battle. The courts aren't even involved, and they shouldn't be. This is a media battle, a fight for public opinion about "right" and "wrong". No matter what happens, no one is going to jail, and the only people being paid are lawyers. Oh, and that charity than Inman set up.
Inman has indeed accused FunnyJunk of infringing his rights. However - and this is the important part - he has not threatened legal action. He has not even suggested there should be any legal action. FunnyJunk are the ones that cried "lawyer!", and that's why Techdirt is on Inman's side.
The point of Techdirt isn't "Copyrights are bad".
The point of Techdirt is "Copyright abuse is bad".
Most of the time, rights-holders are abusing their granted monopoly powers. That's why Techdirt seems like it hates copyright. But it doesn't, and this is a perfect example: when Matt Inman uses his copyrights correctly, everyone wins. Except FunnyJunk, but they brought this on themselves.
Mike, you've got it completely backwards. The studios weren't filing takedown notices because they didn't even know about these tools until the SOPA hearings.
I mean, do you really think they bothered to understand the laws they passed last time?
I think you're right. Unlike SOPA/PIPA, this bill doesn't directly hurt Google, so while they may not like it, it's not worth their rapidly vanishing PR clout to fight against it.
On the post: Universal Music Uses Bogus DMCA Claim To Take Down Negative Review Of Drake's Album
Re: Perjury
On the post: Universal Music Uses Bogus DMCA Claim To Take Down Negative Review Of Drake's Album
Re: Firearms
On the post: YouTube Wants You To Comment Under Your Real Name
Re: Phone numbers
I mean yes, clearly Google just wants to invade your privacy.
On the post: YouTube Wants You To Comment Under Your Real Name
Re: G+ account
On the post: Police In Tasmania Explain To The Public That Someone Saying Something Mean Online Is Not Illegal
Re: Legal Costs
On the post: Patent Troll Sues Facebook, Amazon, Oracle, Linkedin, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley & More For Using Certain File Systems
Stealing from Inventors
On the post: FBI Continues To Insist There's No Reason For Kim Dotcom To Be Able To See The Evidence Against Him
Re: Obama/Biden
On the post: FBI Continues To Insist There's No Reason For Kim Dotcom To Be Able To See The Evidence Against Him
Re: American rights and sovereignty
On the post: Nearly 50,000 People Ask Why The Government Is Seizing Their Digital Files
We the People
Or start petitioning the media companies to start covering this story. Doesn't CNN have that "iReport" gimmick? Use that. But a petition only works if someone has agreed to listen to it, otherwise you're just yelling at the sky.
On the post: The Short-Sightedness Of Wall Street When It Comes To Broadband Infrastructure Investment
Google's non-voting shares
On the post: Judge Posner Rips Apart Apple's Patent Litigation Strategy: Being 'Really Annoyed' Is No Reason To Sue
Re: So Much For Innovation
On the post: Police Send SWAT Team, Break Into Wrong House (With TV Film Crew) In Response To Internet Troll
Re: Re: Huh?
The problem is, the police are allowed to do stuff like this because when there are rogue bombmakers, I would really like a SWAT team to toss flashbangs through the windows and bust down the doors. The failure here isn't that the police decided to mess with some innocent people for kicks, the problem is that they didn't bother to do the most basic investigation before assuming that the owner of an IP address must be a criminal explosives nut.
On the post: Police Send SWAT Team, Break Into Wrong House (With TV Film Crew) In Response To Internet Troll
Huh?
Now granted this was a massive, massive overreaction to a random internet comment, and any ten-year-old could have told them that there was no actual threat. That still doesn't make the police here into bullies or thugs. It just means they are very very stupid.
On the post: Carreon's Full Filing Reveals He Donated To Oatmeal Campaign Himself, Plus Other Assorted Nuttiness
Re: Costs
On the post: Funnyjunk's Lawyer Charles Carreon Just Keeps Digging: Promises He'll Find Some Law To Go After Oatmeal's Matt Inman
Re: TaraCarreon
On the post: Funnyjunk's Lawyer Charles Carreon Just Keeps Digging: Promises He'll Find Some Law To Go After Oatmeal's Matt Inman
False dichotomy
FunnyJunk is not liable for anything (assume they can claim DMCA safe harbor - Inman's lawyer seems to think they may have screwed up here, but we'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they're safe).
Inman has broken no laws.
This isn't a court battle. The courts aren't even involved, and they shouldn't be. This is a media battle, a fight for public opinion about "right" and "wrong". No matter what happens, no one is going to jail, and the only people being paid are lawyers. Oh, and that charity than Inman set up.
On the post: Funnyjunk's Lawyer Charles Carreon Just Keeps Digging: Promises He'll Find Some Law To Go After Oatmeal's Matt Inman
Details are important
The point of Techdirt isn't "Copyrights are bad".
The point of Techdirt is "Copyright abuse is bad".
Most of the time, rights-holders are abusing their granted monopoly powers. That's why Techdirt seems like it hates copyright. But it doesn't, and this is a perfect example: when Matt Inman uses his copyrights correctly, everyone wins. Except FunnyJunk, but they brought this on themselves.
On the post: New Zealand Judge Won't Rubberstamp Kim Dotcom Extradition; Orders US To Share Evidence
That's horrible!
On the post: Did Hollywood Not Use Available DMCA Tools Just To Pretend It Needed SOPA?
Too much credit
I mean, do you really think they bothered to understand the laws they passed last time?
On the post: Vint Cerf Slams Congress Over CISPA
Agreed
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