JohnG 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (179)

• On the post: Gawker Files For Bankruptcy, Begins Process Of Auctioning Itself Off

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 10 Jun, 2016 @ 12:16pm

  Re: Re: Re: Sigh

  I didn't say the government wasn't involved, I said the government wasn't going after them, meaning it wasn't the government that filed the lawsuit.

• On the post: Gawker Files For Bankruptcy, Begins Process Of Auctioning Itself Off

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 10 Jun, 2016 @ 12:12pm

  Re: Re: Re: Sigh

  The government didn't file the lawsuit. That would be the government going after Gawker.

• On the post: Gawker Files For Bankruptcy, Begins Process Of Auctioning Itself Off

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 10 Jun, 2016 @ 11:00am

  Re: Sigh

  There are no free speech concerns here. This isn't the government going after Gawker. Gawker is (relatively) free to publish whatever it likes. However, along with the freedom to publish what it likes it must also accept responsibility, liability in this case, for what it publishes.

• On the post: CIA Refuses To Release Osama's Porn Collection Information To Bro Who Submitted FOIA For It

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 15 Jun, 2015 @ 09:38am

  Or maybe there is no porn collection and the CIA lied about it?

• On the post: Congressional Rep Makes A Pull Request On GitHub, Which Is Then Merged By US Gov't CIO

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2015 @ 10:01am

  Politicians won't want to open things like this up to public visibility because then we'd all see how the beef is made. Right now it is hidden in the slaughterhouse.

• On the post: Border Patrol Agents Tase Woman For Refusing To Cooperate With Their Bogus Search

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 19 May, 2015 @ 04:42am

  Re:

  If she just wasn't dressed so provocatively she wouldn't have gotten raped.

  
  
  Yeah, sounds about right.

• On the post: DEA Takes $16,000 From Train Passenger Because It Can

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 11 May, 2015 @ 01:07pm

  Re: Not that I think the DEA is in the right

  Of course... the only correct answer to a LEO asking to search your belongings is "if you have a warrant". I understand why he didn't refuse though, it's inconceivable to most people that the DEA can just seize property like they did.

• On the post: FCC Net Neutrality Rules Finally Released, Cue The ISP Lawsuits And Hyperbole

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 12 Mar, 2015 @ 09:01am

  Re:

  "a big part of that is to convince you to not trust the only entity that can stop them."
  
  The only problem with that position is the track record of bureaucratic incompetence that exists at nearly every level of gov't.

• On the post: Sorry: AT&T & Verizon Can't Upgrade Or Repair Your Aging DSL Line Because Parts Are Too Hard To Find

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 25 Feb, 2015 @ 12:05pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

  why are data caps a bad thing if that's what the customer wants to purchase?

• On the post: Sorry: AT&T & Verizon Can't Upgrade Or Repair Your Aging DSL Line Because Parts Are Too Hard To Find

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 25 Feb, 2015 @ 12:03pm

  Re: Re:

  Once gov't becomes entrenched in a position it's difficult to near impossible to role it back.

• On the post: Sorry: AT&T & Verizon Can't Upgrade Or Repair Your Aging DSL Line Because Parts Are Too Hard To Find

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2015 @ 01:35pm

  Re: Re: Re:

  A lack of competition is a different problem, and certainly not a problem that making data caps illegal would solve.

• On the post: Sorry: AT&T & Verizon Can't Upgrade Or Repair Your Aging DSL Line Because Parts Are Too Hard To Find

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2015 @ 10:06am

  Re:

  Why would you make data caps illegal? Why not let different businesses offer different plans to match up with different customer profiles? Those who are OK with data caps can purchase plans with them, those who do not can purchase uncapped plans.

• On the post: Sorry: AT&T & Verizon Can't Upgrade Or Repair Your Aging DSL Line Because Parts Are Too Hard To Find

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2015 @ 10:07am

  Yet another problem Net Neutrality laws won't fix whereas destroying local monopoly and right-of-way laws would.
  
  Don't you see techdirt, this is why focusing on NN is misguided -- it won't fix the true underlying issue.

• On the post: Bill Introduced To Keep Bored Federal Employees From Viewing Porn While On The Clock

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2015 @ 04:55am

  There's no incentive to clean this up (pun intended) because in gov't there's ultimately no cost for being wasteful; it's not like the EPA or any gov't agency will have his/her budget reduced because of this or any wasteful spending.

• On the post: Comcast's Former Twitter Chief Says Dismal Support Won't Get Fixed Until Comcast Stops Being A Cheapskate

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2015 @ 08:34am

  And guess what, all the Net Neutrality laws in the world won't fix this. Abolishing franchise and right-of-way agreements would fix the NN issue and the terrible customer service issue.
  
  So I ask NN supporters again... why aren't you fighting to kill 2 birds with a more effective stone?

• On the post: Yet Another Horrible Comcast Customer Service Experience Goes Viral

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 31 Dec, 2014 @ 09:25am

  Re: Re:

  Precisely; in which case it would seem to make more sense for NN supporters to put their energies behind the removal of gov't monopoly support which would be more likely to kill two birds as opposed to fight for NN which will likely have unintended consequences.

• On the post: Yet Another Horrible Comcast Customer Service Experience Goes Viral

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 31 Dec, 2014 @ 07:30am

  Re:

  (that was sarcasm btw, for all of you whose meters are broken)

• On the post: Yet Another Horrible Comcast Customer Service Experience Goes Viral

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 31 Dec, 2014 @ 07:28am

  But Net Neutrality will fix this!!!

• On the post: Senator Whitehouse Is Very Angry About A Made Up Google Search And A Made Up Pirate Bay

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 11 Dec, 2014 @ 08:32am

  I have the distinct displeasure of having this particular Senator as a representative. He is a complete nincompoop about almost ever matter that comes across his desk.
  
  Of all the matters, ones pertaining to economics and technology routinely leave him befuddled.

• On the post: T-Mobile Still Doesn't Understand (Or Simply Doesn't Care) That Their 'Music Freedom' Plan Tramples Net Neutrality

  

  JohnG ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2014 @ 05:31pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

  have already found to to be immoral and we have made laws against them.
  
  I'll admit my use of the word "rape" was hyperbole, but certainly taxation and asset forfeiture are easy and clear examples of theft, and, as we've found out from Dr. Jonathan Gruber (which many had warned prior), ObamaCare was fraudulently sold to the American people. If we have laws against theft and fraud how are the prisons not full of politicians?
  
  Morals are subjective and mine are different than yours.
  The debate over morals will not be ended here, however even if you use the rules we currently have as a basis for morality we suffer from serious cognitive dissonance -- theft is wrong at the individual level, for example, but not at the governmental level.
  
  if individual rights are placed above the good of society as a whole
  But society is nothing but a collection of individuals; it isn't a thing that can benefit. Which means we're back to the beginning in that what you're really arguing is that it's OK to violate the rights of a smaller quantity of people so long as a larger quantity of people benefit from said violation.
  
  You do not have the right to defame another person
  
  Many laws exist which haven't been Constitutionally challenged. I believe defamation laws are one of them. Your reputation is what others think of you. Since you don't have a right to the thoughts of others or to force others to think a certain way about you, you don't have the right to tell someone how to speak of you. Therefore defamation laws clearly violate the right to free speech.

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