Atkray's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
from the theme-o'-the-week dept
This week's favorites post come from Atkray.
I get asked about it, so for those who wonder, Atkray combines the ATK
from the motorcycle company, not the rocket engine manufacturer, with Ray my given name. I am grateful for this opportunity to give back a little and hope that my reflections on the past week will be of value or entertainment to some of you.
By Sunday night, I find that I have stared at the favorites, the most insightful, and funny posts long enough. Consequently, by Monday morning I am ready to see what the new week brings. This week I skipped the first post and went straight to the monkeys writing Shakespeare. I was a tad disappointed to see the output was not what I expected and for some reason the side note about the real monkeys typing mostly the letter "s" and then urinating on the keyboards left me wondering if, for the sake of authenticity, it is necessary to program the virtual monkey to do the same. Unfortunately, the comments deteriorated to personal attacks rather quickly before changing to a most interesting discussion of infinite and near infinite. I can see monkeys writing Shakespeare becoming the next folding@home.
Behaving more like monkeys than officers, NYPD kicked off what became the theme for the week, cops being caught on video and lying.
Building on that theme, on Tuesday we had the Canadians getting involved with a face-tasing, as well as the bonus multi-angle feature of the Wall Street incident from Monday. On Wednesday the police in Chicago felt left out, so we got the story of cops disrupting funeral processions and then lying about it. I really enjoyed the position put forth by an AC that it is only a small percentage of the cops that are bad so we shouldnt worry. On Thursday, the entire state of Illinois joined the theme and decided to appeal a ruling that filming police is protected by that pesky old Constitution. Of course allowing the focus to shift westward is unacceptable to New Yorkers so they started rounding up people with cameras and hauling them off in the paddy wagon, prompting an epic comment from Dark Helmet (widely rumored to live in or around Chicago) that made me go digging through old boxes so I could watch Ghostbusters again. Friday returned back to Illinois with the story of a guy being threatened with a felony and 15 years in jail for filming a traffic stop.
It is a rare week when we dont get more news from Righthaven, and I find it entertaining to see the Karma boomerang in action -- although it appears that even the judges involved may be feeling a little pity for Righthaven and the beating it is taking.
The seemingly inevitable arrival of the police state was shown to us by officials at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where officials decided to censor a professor by misunderstanding (totally) a poster he put up. Nice to see that freedom of thought and expression wont be interfering with the indoctrinations. This story was my favorite of the week with the second poster the professor put up making me literally laugh out loud.
I was disappointed to see Governor Moonbeam (disclosure: I lived in the state when he and Linda were an item) has the opportunity to help out the citizens by protecting their 4th Amendment rights on traffic stops, but appears to be bought and paid for by the law enforcement lobbyists.
The news that Direct TV sees that the prices Hollywood dictates are not the prices customers are willing to pay gave me a glimmer of hope. But then Time Warner's belief that no one is cutting the cord snapped me back to reality. Even the little old ladies in my neighborhood are talking about dropping cable.
The Friday afternoon downer that (as expected) the US will be signing ACTA still wasnt enough to overcome the unexpected surprise that at least 2 Senators on the Judiciary Committee believe that TOS violations should not be a crime. I fired off another email to Senator Hatch telling him to listen to his colleagues, but figure Ill get another form letter in about 3 weeks.
I want to close with an observation. Mike posted about a conference and mentioned a discount for TD readers. It was a nice gesture and the conference may appeal to visitors here. As can be expected, the usual group of ACs promptly chimed in with derogatory remarks and personal attacks. This is common and as mentioned here is not indicative of all ACs. Mike undergoes daily personal attacks by those who seem incapable of expressing themselves in an articulate and adult manner. Others are frequently attacked as well. Those attacking resort to third-grade playground bully tactics and run away when confronted. They truly are cowards. To those who insist on trying to degrade Techdirt, you only show others your true colors. I appreciate when someone with an opposing view brings a valid and well thought out disagreement, but unfortunately that seems to be an increasingly rare event. To those who do, I thank you. While I may not agree with you, at least I can respect you and should I meet you in person I would enjoy sitting down over lunch and having a conversation... You keep all ACs from being painted with the broadbrush of trolling.
Thank you to Mike for this opportunity to share.
(untitled comment)
Axel Springer may want to look into relocating to Missouri.
/div>The governor there has the same view of how browsers work.
(untitled comment)
I believe the military term for this situation is SNAFU
/div>(untitled comment)
Someone needs to tell George Clinton about this brewery.
Because trademarks
/div>Re: The Kids Are Alright
Leave it to a musician to quote 2 rock legends in a post.
/div>Re: It's ok, I locked it...
...and we got this open.
LPL
/div>Re:
Nah, that is the exact reason copyright needs to extend past death, to prevent hit jobs.
The unfair competition is always someone else is making money so it must be unfair.
I will confess I have the faintest hope they take this to court and Tarentino gets a win, with the copyright claim failing in such a way as to make it clear that linking to a non-infringing item is not infringement.
/div>Beware of Tech companies bearing gifts...
How is Apple going to profit from this?
1: They get to say that right to repair is redundant and a government overreach.
/div>2: They can conveniently price it so that no one uses it:
3: They can the further claim right to repair is pointless because they offer a service an no one uses it.
4:?????
5: Profit
Alright then,
The officer has knowledge and experience that the general public does not,” Massock said.
If this is true, then why do these same officers need qualified immunity?
/div>Thanks
Thank you for pointing this out an explaining it.
/div>Re: Re:
You have been here long enough to know that Mike is not going to implement a "Sad but True" button.
/div>Re:
"And yes, cell phones in prisons ARE a problem."
I would think getting the guards to stop smuggling in the phones is the real problem.
/div>Re: Re: Re:
Unlikely. Probably one of his nephews in middle school.
/div>(untitled comment)
"Look what you did, Jack Daniels! Look what you did! Bad corporate bully. Bad! "
Am I the only one that heard John Oliver's voice when I read this line?
/div>Re: Punch in the face?
Do you feel lucky?
Well do ya punk?
/div>Re:
The surprising bit in that story was that Adobe didn't pile on for using pirated software.
/div>Re: Re:
While I understand the emotion behind this response, this is the kind of reasoning used by the CIA on multiple continents for the last several decades.
I don't think it has worked out well for them(us).
/div>Wrong Headline
The headline should read:
DOJ lawsuit against Google reveals that Yahoo has a search engine.
/div>(untitled comment)
They can enforce a law that no one has heard of in decades and should be removed from the books, but when they are told that they can't stand on someone until they stop breathing they cannot imagine that would be against the law.
The only thing stupider, is the judges that let them do it.
/div>Sorry Mike, Santa is not real.
Mike,
Your statement:
" I'd previously believed that he was misguided, but stuck true to his principles. "
Is because even though you spend most of your time in a cesspool, you (as demonstrated by your end of year posts) try to see the good in people.
It is what makes the site readable and often infuriating but keeps it from becoming overwhelmingly depressing.
Many of the rest of us have long felt that Pai would sell his dying mother's hospital bed out from under her.
That said,
Thank you for being a lighthouse in the storm that is 2020.
/div>(untitled comment)
I have a feeling that once this gets thrown out the judge might find Mr. Friend standing outside his courthouse with a different sign.
/div>More comments from Atkray >>
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