Gwiz's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
from the golly-gee-whiz dept
This week's favorites post comes courtesy of Gwiz.
I have to admit that when I first said I would give the Favorite Posts a shot, I didn't realize how hard it would be to pick a few favorites from so many interesting articles. I happened to luck into a shorter week due to the holiday and I thought it might be easier, but not so much. Anyway, without further preamble, here are my picks for the week:
As an average working stiff with no vested interest in the industries usually discussed on Techdirt, my interests tend to lean towards the articles that deal with the slow erosion of things I hold dearly, like privacy, due process and protection against unreasonable search and seizures. The story about Austrian police seizing computers used as a Tor exit node was especially interesting to me. I found the initial discussion concerning anonymity on the internet to be very enlightening. This article also spawned an interesting phenomena in the comment section when one of the commenters voiced an extremely distasteful view of pedophilia. The subsequent reaction of the Techdirt community to this commenter became a very good argument in itself as to why the internet really is not a wild west that needs to be regulated and can do a fine job of policing itself.
Along the same lines, we had a few articles concerning PROTECT IP and the technological implications of this bill, which actually made me go and read the white paper written by some of the most knowledgeable people in regards to the DNS system. And, as an added bonus, we got to see a video of Mike discussing this issue. We also had the RIAA more or less attacking the public domain and telling us that it really has no value. At least, to offset that to some degree, we had the Polish Prime Minister realizing that things funded with public monies should be in the public domain. We need more thinking in that direction.
Making an account on any website is something I rarely do, but I felt compelled to register a profile on Techdirt for one main reason, the generally high level intelligence and mostly civil debates that happen in the comments section here. I have learned quite a bit from reading both sides of the debates and have on occasion had to revise my initial stance on issues because of it. The article about the arrest of people dancing at the Washington Memorial was one such post. When I last looked there were over 350 comments and the debate over civil disobedience and the reactions by law enforcement. Unfortunately, since I needed to keep abreast of all of the Techdirt articles this week, I haven't finished reading though them all, but what I did read was fascinating.
On a brighter note, it's good to see a body such as the UN acknowledging that the three strike laws and ACTA pose civil rights problems.
And lastly, on the humorous side of things, I found it very funny to see two fully grown companies acting like children on the playground and the Malaysian man who was required to apologize 100 times on Twitter for defaming someone, kind of like a modern day equivalent of writing "I will not say bad things about Susie" on the chalkboard.
Well, that's it for my Favorites this week. I hope you enjoyed them and it's back to lurking in the comment section for me.
(untitled comment)
What I find even more funny is that Jeff Bezos might end up in control of The Apprentice outtakes. I'm not real sure about all the legalese in the contracts, but imagining Trump shitting his pants because Bezos might release outtakes of him shitting his pants is kind of fun.
/div>Re: Masnick, what are you on about now??
It amazes me that some people are so short-sighted and stupid that they cannot even fathom that other people might not be simple mindless sheep (like themselves) and are able to contemplate important issues above and beyond which side of the aisle it came from.
I've been reading this site for well over 10 years and in my opinion, it is neither left nor right. Mike's opinions have always been based on logic and facts. I've seen him rip into both sides for stupid ideas and I've seen him praise both sides for good ideas.
With the way the Republicans are acting lately, I can sort of understand that opinions based on logic and facts would be considered a leftist thing these days.
/div>Re:
You know what else "amplifies people speaking bluntly"? Microphones, megaphones and PA systems. Are you going to sue the manufacturers of those items too?
Which parts are those, exactly? Have you actually read 47 U.S. Code ยง 230?
Um, no. That is not correct. Section 230 came about because we had conflicting rulings where one provider (Compuserve) was considered a newsstand and another (Prodigy) was considered a newspaper publisher with the only difference being that Prodigy moderated their users' content. So basically, if you moderated your users' content, you could be held liable for that content. Congress passed 230 because they wanted to encourage providers and platforms to moderate the content without fear of being held responsible for someone else's speech. Without 230, platforms would not be moderating their user's content or most likely, nobody would host user-generated content at all.
Taking personal responsibility for your own actions isn't asking too much either. If you choose to piss someone off on 4Chan while using your real life credentials, that is pretty much on you, my friend.
/div>Re: Re:
The real question is: If Trump says something in the woods and nobody is around, is it still considered lying?
/div>(untitled comment)
Just reading the link address in that sentence made me laugh.
/div>Re: Schooling
Do you really think a company would bring a $1.3 million defamination lawsuit and not know that they would be subject to discovery? I really don't think Dominion is worried about that very much.
Huh. I've never seen any evidence to support this. You know that things that somone's brother's barber's cousin might have seen are not really considered evidence, right?
/div>Re:
What the fuck are you talking about?
/div>(untitled comment)
What's next? Is he going to sue the entire internet and all computer manufacturers because Telegram is available as a desktop version?
Hey Vanna, can I buy a clue for this guy? If he dosen't want to see what is on Telegraph, DON'T OPEN THE FUCKING APP! This isn't rocket surgery.
/div>Re: Re: Re: Let go of my Knee, Jerk
I think everybody's sarcasm meter took a jolt last week.
/div>Re: Let me get this straight
Aren't you supposed to see a doctor when your election lasts this long?
/div>Re: Re:
Most likely it isn't enforced for those stupid kid shaped "slow down" signs. I see those in my area too. A lot of the local laws covering this stuff have wording that says "within x amount of feet of a highway" or "within y amount of feet of a residential road", etc..
The reason I have reaseached this in the past is because it is a intersection of two things important to me: signage (which I make for a living) and the law (which I study as a hobby).
/div>(untitled comment)
I have researched this subject in the past and this one should be overturned on appeal. It is most definitely protected speech to hold a sign saying "Cops Ahead".
The problem some other people have had in the past is when the sign is giving motorists some kind instruction, like "slow down". Most localities have laws to stop random people from putting up their own traffic signs (which makes sense) and those laws make signs with instructions to the motorists illegal and therefore not protect by the 1A.
/div>Re:
This article was talking about the Vietnam War era. The draft was in place until 1973. 2.2 million American men were drafted into the military between 1964 and 1973 to fight in Vietnam. They didn't "choose" to serve, it was mandated.
I just wanted to clarify that point.
/div>Re: To True
Me too! I worry that ....um .....uh ....um .....what were we talking about again?
/div>Re:
Stephen, I am curious as to what your stance is on gun control actually is. Do you advocate for a complete ban on guns across the board or is your stance more nuanced than that?
/div>Linux Wine?
Will this ruling affect WINE?
I am curious because it seems to me that WINE is basically a complete rebuild of the Windows API in order to translate it's native function calls into POSIX-compatible function calls.
/div>Re:
I won't admit that because it's completely wrong.
Like Tim said the entire point of Adland was to archive and comment on ads and that falls squarely within the Fair Use doctrine.
As an aside: Anyone else feeling a Streisandian urge to find the original ad to see what the fuss is all about?
/div>Typo
That typo almost seems Freudian.
/div>Re: Re: except ATT/DirTV are NOT paying retransmission fees
Yep. I've been a loyal DirectTV subscriber for 15 years now. Both the wife and I were employed by a local DirecTV installation company when we first got DirectTV and have been very happy with it up to shortly after AT&T bought them.
The first thing we noticed is that the quality of the customer service department went in the toilet. The second thing we noticed is the constant push from them to bundle our internet service and landline (which were already from AT&T) together with our DirecTV.
Now we have lost all of the CBS channels including our local broadcaster (which we pay an additional fee to have included). My wife asked if our bill will be prorated for the channels we are no longer receiving and AT&T has no interest in passing the money they are saving by not paying CBS to it's customers.
We are now looking into other options - SlingTV, Roku, etc. It only took AT&T a few years to turn loyal DirecTV subscribers into cordcutters.
/div>Re: Re: Re:
Fair enough. I did think through some of those other examples too, but I wanted something simple as an example considering who I was responding to. The main point I was trying to get across is that any such system will be gamed somehow and I wanted to know how Blue would prevent that.
I haven't discounted this idea as something not worth exploring, but the devil would be in the details and all Blue can ever do is scream "TAX THE RICH!" without ever explaining how he would implement such a tax.
/div>More comments from Gwiz >>
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Gwiz.
Submit a story now.
Tools & Services
TwitterFacebook
RSS
Podcast
Research & Reports
Company
About UsAdvertising Policies
Privacy
Contact
Help & FeedbackMedia Kit
Sponsor/Advertise
Submit a Story
More
Copia InstituteInsider Shop
Support Techdirt