Ben 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: California Court Says New Records Law Covers Past Police Misconduct Records

    Ben ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2019 @ 11:11am

    Re: Ask a stupid question...

    No, No, No, as thousand times No! They needed confetti for New Years!

  • On the post: California Court Says New Records Law Covers Past Police Misconduct Records

    Ben ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2019 @ 11:08am

    Re: Re: Re: Isn't that unfair?

    The police are saying that no, they don't have to release old records (that's what they mean by saying it's not retroactive).
    Speaking for myself, as opposed to this "they" you refer to, the law is not retroactive. The law clearly requires the release of records, old or new doesn't matter, for a proper request with potential penalties for not fulfilling the request. It is not retroactive in the sense it does not assign penalties for unfulfilled requests from before the enactment of the law. A quibble of terminology, I suppose, but it is actually a significant difference. The law applies to any records they have, and I hope the courts continue to hold that to be the case. I also hope that there is some way to punish Inglewood for blatant destruction of potential evidence.

  • On the post: Authors Guild Attacks Libraries For Lending Digital Books

    Ben ( profile ), 31 Jan, 2019 @ 10:25am

    Let's be real

    If I'm going to buy a book, I'll reads it multiple times; I collect them and put them in my bookshelves.

    Books I'm in doubt of I will borrow from the Library, read and return -- just like Libraries expect to be used.

    If I go to a Library to get a specific book and they don't have it, I am disappointed, the Library is disappointed (they want people reading!), and nobody is happy. With eBooks that should not be a problem. The Library should be able to loan out as many copies as the demand requests: it's just bits.

    Yes, it would probably be nice to prevent the eBooks from being copied, but do they prevent people from photocopying books people borrow? Either their customers are honest or they are not. Treat them with respect and assume they are honest and save the headaches of DRM.

    The Authors Guild are the buggy-whip manufacturers of the information age.

  • On the post: Dept. Of Interior Wants To Rewrite FOIA Law To Make It Easier To Reject Requests

    Ben ( profile ), 09 Jan, 2019 @ 10:08pm

    Re: Re: Re: Easier?

    Thomas Jefferson said that every government should come with an expiration date. Barring that, we needed to keep enough guns in the hands of the people to keep the government honest.
    [citation needed]

  • On the post: Appeals Court Says Gov't Will Be Paying Even More Legal Fees For Its Extended Loss In TSA No Fly List Lawsuit

    Ben ( profile ), 07 Jan, 2019 @ 10:27am

    $4 million or $5 million?

    Ibrahim sought nearly $4 million in attorneys' fees and expenses.

    vs.

    she should be awarded pretty much every penny of the $5 million she's requested.

    A million here, a million there, pretty soon she'll be looking at some serious money.

    I just wish there was some way to punish the idiots who decided to push back because they thought they were more important than the rule of law. (and I really hope the district judge gets more than a simple "all wrong, do it again!"). They're all just bricks in the wall.

  • On the post: Inspector General: FBI Lost Six Months Of Important Text Messages Because Its Retention System Sucks

    Ben ( profile ), 14 Dec, 2018 @ 05:07pm

    Just send them on a trip!

    As a benefit for ending a task/job, DOJ members with official phones should be sent out of the country as a reward. DHS will image their phones and never delete the data, so it will be available for the foreseeable future!

  • On the post: Ninth Circuit Stops Monkeying Around And Denies En Banc Review Of The Monkey Selfie Case

    Ben ( profile ), 04 Sep, 2018 @ 05:10pm

    Re: So Far, So Biologically Correct ...

    But!

    Oh, the monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga,
    Oh, the monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga,
    Oh, the monkeys have no tails,
    They were bitten off by whales,
    Oh, the monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga.

  • On the post: NJ Courts Impose Ridiculous Password Policy 'To Comply With NIST' That Does Exactly What NIST Says Not To Do

    Ben ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2018 @ 04:57pm

    Re: Oh my

    You just had to link to XKCD didn't you? That's a half hour I'll never get back... saved only by the need to get up from my computer so I could stop looking at random pages. You evil evil mugwump you!

  • On the post: You Caught A Bullshit 'Photographing The Police' Arrest Too Soon, Federal Judge Tells Plaintiff

    Ben ( profile ), 01 Aug, 2018 @ 09:12am

    Re:

    This incident happened in 2016. The Turner case started in 2015. The Turner case was decided in 2017, which implies that the right existed in 2015 (since the ruling was that Turner had the right to film the officers) albeit stipulated in 2017.

    I find the dismissal of this case just stunning.

  • On the post: EFF Asks FBI, DOJ To Turn Over Details On Thousands Of Locked Phones The FBI Seems Uninterested In Cracking

    Ben ( profile ), 17 May, 2018 @ 01:00pm

    Judicial push back?

    "The FBI is in no hurry to make this information public, so it will probably take a lawsuit to get its response rolling."

    When that lawsuit is presented to a judge, there should be a question of what plausible reason there could be to not release the count and how it was achieved. They should then be slapped down/fined/whatever to point out that they are wasting the time of the judicial branch by not following the FOIA law, which is rather hypocritical of the Department of Justice

  • On the post: Amended Complaint Filed Against Backpage… Now With SESTA/FOSTA

    Ben ( profile ), 13 Apr, 2018 @ 11:09am

    Re:

    ex post facto law definition A law that makes illegal an act that was legal when committed, increases the penalties for an infraction after it has been committed, or changes the rules of evidence to make conviction easier

    A law that removes penalties after the fact does not qualify as prohibited.

  • On the post: Amended Complaint Filed Against Backpage… Now With SESTA/FOSTA

    Ben ( profile ), 13 Apr, 2018 @ 09:54am

    How can this be valid/constitutional?

    Wouldn't that be the definition of applying the law ex post facto? Backpage was taken down before the law was signed.

  • On the post: Virginia Politicians Looks To Tax Speech In The Form Of Porn In The Name Of Stemming Human Trafficking

    Ben ( profile ), 01 Feb, 2018 @ 04:36pm

    Re: I guess it is time to publicize their browsing habits.

    Since the computers are public property, the browsing history of every computer owned by the states should be posted on a regular basis, maybe once a month. That should allow the automatic removal of sites which are somehow considered "privileged" (by whatever metric).

    Machine (MAC? IP address?), date time, and URL would be all that is needed. A FOIA-equivalent request would then be able to link the Machine to a location if something untoward was noticed (why was the chief of police's computer connecting to porntube.com?)

  • On the post: Montana Says It Won't Do Business With Net Neutrality Violating ISPs

    Ben ( profile ), 23 Jan, 2018 @ 01:20pm

    Re: Re: Re: "5 TB of data in a month should not place an undue burden on a fiber network" -- ONE won't, sure.

    You seem to be as usual making "net neutrality" mean only what you want it to (ISPs having infinite bandwidth), not what's practical in light of capacity and local drives.
    No, I expect "net neutrality" to mean exactly what it is supposed to mean: neutrality to the content. That is all it has ever been. There are other issues with regulation of local ISPs which are either monopolies or duopolies for the last mile connections to the customers, but that isn't part of "net neutrality" (btw: why the quotes? that is its name) Saturation is a capacity issue that the customer shouldn't have to worry about. If the ISP is selling me a 50 MB pipe, they should be able to have all their customers able to use their pipes while I'm using the capacity I (and all the other customers) paid for. There is no subsidy. Just like every other system (power distribution comes to mind) they plan their capacity on expected usage; if that usage increases (e.g. when more and more people discover the delights of Netflix), then they have to invest in infrastructure. Fortunately, they should have all that money we've been paying to help them do that. If an ISP sets up a content distribution/caching system for something like Netflix (in order to cut down on internet backbone usage) more power to them; they know the numbers and if the cost of setting up the CDS is cheaper than the haul fees for Level 3/whatever, then that is a business decision. I don't even see how that touches on the real meaning of Net Neutrality.

  • On the post: Montana Says It Won't Do Business With Net Neutrality Violating ISPs

    Ben ( profile ), 23 Jan, 2018 @ 08:27am

    Re:

    So if my next door neighbor uses 5 TB of data a month, and I use 100 MB a month, why should it be illegal for our ISP to charge him more than me, or even slow his down so my internet isn't at a crawl?
    That is not net neutrality. Net neutrality has nothing to do with the price an ISP charges you (or your neighbor) for the line (and data) going to your house. Net neutrality deals with the content that those lines carry. If your neighbor watches Netflix while you watch YouTube (or vice versa) the ISP is not allowed to tweak the delivery so Netflix comes out smooth in HD because the ISP is getting paid extra by Netflix. Net Neutrality is about being neutral to the content, be it video vs text vs sound, or source, be it Amazon vs YouTube vs Netflix vs Bob's video emporium. 5 TB of data in a month should not place an undue burden on a fiber network, but if the ISP wants to charge extra that is their right subject to the regulatory controls they operate under (contracts and state oversight if any). If both you and your neighbor purchased a 50 MB broadband connection and you only use 100 MB a month and they used 5 TB -- what is your complaint? you are both limited to the same 50 MB speed, they are just using it all the time. (50MB/s x 3600s/hr x 24hr/day x 30day = 129,600,000 MB = 129 TB possible per month, and you're complaining about them using 5???)

  • On the post: The Stasi's Tiny Torn-Up Analog Files Defeat Modern Digital Technology's Attempts To Re-Assemble East Germany's Surveillance Records

    Ben ( profile ), 09 Jan, 2018 @ 07:08am

    Re: Re: Book scanning writ large

    In the modern era, yes, all the data/memos would be on servers, so getting rid of it is much easier than in the past (and easier to explain away -- oh! that project ended so we decommissioned the server with a sledgehammer...) The issue is the so-called "paperless office." The reality is people still print things out -- it is just that they can re-print it at need. That is what they have shredding parties for.

  • On the post: The Stasi's Tiny Torn-Up Analog Files Defeat Modern Digital Technology's Attempts To Re-Assemble East Germany's Surveillance Records

    Ben ( profile ), 08 Jan, 2018 @ 11:53pm

    Book scanning writ large

    In Vernor Vinge's Rainbow's End there was a (somewhat) horrifying mechanism for scanning books: toss the books in a shredder and while the shredded pieces are floating down an air-filled channel they are photographed and then digitally reassembled. It certainly gets away from having to carefully scan each piece; I just wonder if the technique would require the re-shredding (further shredding?) of the Stasi papers to deal with the less than uniform existing pieces.

    Once a workable solution is found, however, this will have very big implications for the SEC and FBI trying to recover documents after corporate shredding parties.

  • On the post: Hawaiian Supreme Court Says The First Amendment Protects Filming Law Enforcement

    Ben ( profile ), 29 Dec, 2017 @ 09:34am

    It's a solid win for Hawaiian citizens and another favorable court opinion to be cited in upcoming courtroom battles

    Is it really? How much did it cost the reporter's side to fight this? How much did the citizens of Hawaii pay for defending what amounts to a stupid arrest? The win may be solid, but the road to get there was a little too mushy for my taste.

  • On the post: FCC Boss Claims Net Neutrality Supporters Were Clearly Wrong Because Twitter Still Works The Day After Repeal

    Ben ( profile ), 19 Dec, 2017 @ 07:24am

    Re:

    No, the corresponding analogy is that a law gets passed decriminalizing heroin. The law doesn't officially take effect for 90+ days but the day after it gets signed they're saying "Look! Legal Heroin hasn't killed anyone!" The FCC keeps talking about "before 2015" as if it were the golden age of the internet. The reason the NN rules were added was because of what the ISPs demonstrated they were willing to do, in a hope of cutting them off before they went too far. If the reversion holds, this does not bode well.

  • On the post: Another Court Says Compelled Password Production Doesn't Violate The Fifth Amendment

    Ben ( profile ), 18 Dec, 2017 @ 03:08pm

    And he gives them a PIN...

    ...and it is the wrong PIN. Oops -- that is to my other phone. Try this one... and it is again, the wrong PIN. At which point will they believe any PIN he gives them (if three failures wipe the phone)?

    I really don't understand the court's logic. It is compelled speech which will incriminate him. That is the definition of a 5th amendment violation.

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