Entirely random selections of things I find interesting
Murdoch Phone Hacking Story Just Gets Worse And Worse | Techdirt
ahhh rupert murdoch. Maybe people will believe that rich folks are completely fucking crazy now?
We’ve heard a few times that the lack of lawsuits from those who have had their domains seized is “evidence” that they know the seizures were legal and that they would lose any court case. I began to wonder about this myself, and spent the last two weeks contacting people on all sides of these cases and found the answer to be exactly the opposite: it’s not the site holders who are scared. It’s the Justice Department, and they seem terrified to have one of these cases actually go to court.
— Why We Haven’t Seen Any Lawsuits Filed Against The Government Over Domain Seizures: Justice Department Stalling | Techdirt - boy will it be interesting to see this stuff make it to the courtroom.
With all of the talk about the TSA airport gropings, Homeland Security boss Janet Napolitano has been a bit on the defensive about the procedure. In answering questions at a press club lunch, she claimed specifically that “very, very, very few people get a pat down,” and that it only happens in “under very limited circumstances.” She also joked that whenever anyone does get groped, those “tend to get on YouTube.
— DHS Boss: ‘Very, Very, Very Few People Get A Pat Down’; Reality: ~1.8 MIllion People Per Month | Techdirt - Holy shit.
Confronted with evidence, a Facebook spokesman last night confirmed that Facebook hired Burson, citing two reasons: First, because it believes Google is doing some things in social networking that raise privacy concerns; second, and perhaps more important, because Facebook resents Google’s attempts to use Facebook data in its own social-networking service.
— Facebook Caught Hiring PR Firm To Smear And Attack Google | Techdirt - Yup, so all that “look google ain’t so great” shit, came from Facebook. I hope you guys are waking up to how that works and just how many people want to smear google.
Even worse, it would effectively make it against the law for you to try to put your own work into the public domain!
— Portuguese Politicians Want To Make Creative Commons Illegal | Techdirt - wow, look what happens when the US puts a shakedown on Spain. sigh.
I officially blame Sony for being PSN hacked.
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Sony Officially Blames Anonymous For PSN Hack - Slashdot - Here’s the reality: sony blaming Anonymous means they want to try to get gov’t involved to protect them from a falsely claimed “terrorist” organization.
In reality there were no plans from anonymous about stealing credit cards numbers. This is a hilarious sidetrack from Sony.
You know what the statistics are for business downtimes? They say that 90% of businesses that have their service down for 3 DAYS go out of business. Imagine how much this will hurt Sony overall and the answer is: probably enough to run them out of business. Good riddance.
Even more telling, the US ambassadors only seem to speak with either the government or copyright holder organizations in all of this. In one cable, it discusses concerns from the recording industry and the movie studios that Canada’s proposed legal changes don’t go far enough. Nowhere do they seem to speak to actual consumers or to anyone who represents consumers. Because, you see, it’s not about them. In fact, it appears that the “Canadian” Recording Industry Association has a very cozy relationship with the US government, with the two meeting to get feedback on proposals and strategize about policy issues.
— Latest Wikileaks Release Shows How US Completely Drove Canadian Copyright Reform Efforts | Techdirt - US regulatory capture of Canadian Government. Ain’t it grandly corrupt and unethical? Sure is.
2 notes
Source: techdirt.com
#politics#us meddling in other policies#us corruption#canadian corruption#abuse of process#going around laws#protecting business models#why ask consumers about things that affect them#legislate over innovate#idiocy#techdirt#copyright reform#us pressure to canadian copyright reform
Congressman Complains That iPads Are Killing Jobs In The Paper Industry | Techdirt
hahahahahaha. Yes, clearly people are going backwards in time. I believe the exact same argument was made of cars by the whip makers for horse drawn carriages. Man, this is entertaining.
Well, now, as pointed out by Radley Balko, Emory has been sentenced to 60 days in jail, 3 years probation and must remain 500 feet from minors. He does not have to put his name on the sex offender registry.
— Guy Who Didn’t Actually Sing Obscene Song To Kids Gets Jail Time & Restraining Order As If He Did | Techdirt - W T F. Dude got found guilty of something he’s never done. I hope the president or someone who can pardon this gets involved as this is fucking ridiculous.
In the latest case, upon returning from a conference in Europe by flying into Houston, Appelbaum again asked his detainers why he was being detained, and was once again not given a straight answer. He knows that there’s something on the screen that they pull up on their computers, but they refuse to provide him with any info. This time, they even went so far as to redefine detainment, telling him that he wasn’t being detained, but that he just couldn’t go until they were done with him. Perhaps he should send Homeland Security a copy of a dictionary with the definition of “detained” highlighted.
— ICE Redefines Detainment For Wikileaks Helper: You’re Not Being Detained, You Just Can’t Leave | Techdirt - these are the rights people are giving up but generally have no idea. I really hope people can awaken to that this is a big bipartisan political issue.
