Tag Archive for: 13th

This Week In Techdirt History: January 13th – 19th

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Five Years Ago

This week in 2014, as congress was preparing to give up its authority and fast-track agreements like the TPP, and the USTR was not even showing up for hearings on the subject, the EFF and others teamed up to launch Copyright Week, for which we featured daily posts about copyright. On Monday, we looked at the reasons why the USTR and Hollywood hate transparency; on Tuesday, we dug into the loss to culture from killing the public domain; on Wednesday, we pivoted to knowledge and learning with a post all about Open Access; on Thursday, we looked at how copyright can destroy property rights; and then on Friday we wrapped it up with a look at the importance of fair use.

Ten Years Ago

Copyright was also on our minds this week in 2009, especially since it turned out the RIAA’s promise to stop suing file sharers was not so solid when they filed yet another new lawsuit. Less awful but still very disappointing was the discovery that Apple’s much-vaunted removal of DRM from iTunes songs also meant they were watermarking all the files with your email address. We took another look at how friendly DRM is an oxymoron, how collection societies like ASCAP and BMI harm up-and-coming singers, and the long, fraught history of copyright and music in general. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court was asking the administration for input on copyright issues related to remote DVRs, and the judge for a case challenging the constitutionality of the RIAA’s actions agreed to broadcast the trial live online.

Fifteen Years Ago

Sometimes it’s eerie and depressing how little changes across these five-year jumps. In 2004, the RIAA was just in an ever-so-slightly different phase of its activities following the loss of its ability subpoena file sharer information after the Verizon case: it was just trying to get ISPs to do it voluntarily, and having a hard time getting any on board. Studies suggested that the war against file sharing was gaining little ground, as piracy appeared to be on the upswing again while moving deeper underground. Over at the MPAA, the situation was similar: having just been blocked by a judge from banning screener DVDs for award shows, the agency was drumming up concern over the copies that began to show up online, which they started slowly finding one by one. Meanwhile, some folks were suggesting ways to deal with video piracy by totally missing the point of online video.

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This Week In Techdirt History: October 7th – 13th

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Five Years Ago

This week in 2013, the US government shut down. Former CIA director Morell used that as an excuse to skip an NSA surveillance review board meeting, while James Clapper warned that failing to pay the agency’s mercenary contractors might lead to security problems. The TSA similarly used the shutdown as an excuse for letting a nine-year-old sneak on to a flight, and a lawsuit by tech companies over NSA surveillance was put on hold. Outside the government, some folks were having fun with the shutdown, such as the Russian pirates offering to host the NASA website, someone submitting a bug report to GitHub describing how “government occasionally shuts down”, and Good Old Games started offering some free thematically-appropriate games to furloughed government workers.

But hey, at least Congress’s members-only gym was deemed essential and kept open.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2008, it was still the early days of the global financial crisis. Many self-serving and/or bizarre explanations popped up, blaming things like short selling and Wikipedia edit wars or, most strangely, flickering computer screens (according to author Tom Wolfe). Cooler heads took a closer look at the real causes: leverage and derivatives and a toxic, complex financial system.

Meanwhile, bogus stats and arguments were coming strong from the US Chamber of Commerce and members of congress in a push to get the president to sign the bill creating a copyright czar. At the same time, a judge ordered an injunction against Real’s DVD copying software and for some inexplicable reason kept it secret, then extended it.

Also, long before the Snowden leaks and following Congress’s capitulation on warrantless wiretapping, early leaks were already documenting NSA surveillance abuse.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2003, as we took a look at the role of music retailers in the industry’s failure to adapt, the record companies were trying to ape the success of DVDs by adding “extras” to CDs. That’s extra content — not extras like BMG’s new DRM system, which a researcher discovered could be defeated by holding down the shift key while inserting the disk. SunnComm, the company that made the laughably useless DRM, naturally announced plans to sue the researcher for besmirching their good name — but reversed course in less than 24 hours in the face of public outcry. The software industry, on the other hand, was just beginning to dip its toe into the waters of a DRM approach that would gain much more traction (even while still being quite easily circumvented): product activation codes.

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Air Force hackers win NSA’s 13th annual Cyber Defense Exercise

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Did you hear about the big game last week? Perhaps not, since as “this annual battle might not yet have achieved the same mythic status as, say, the Army-Navy football game,” but there was a simulated cyberwar being waged from April 16 – 18.
Ms. Smith’s blog

‘Paranormal Activity 2’ and ‘Friday the 13th’ Used in Blackhat SEO Malware Attacks, According … – Earthtimes

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Oct. 29 — PandaLabs, Panda Security’s anti-malware laboratory, advises computer users to be careful this Halloween … Activity 2″ and “Friday the 13th,” to implement Blackhat SEO attacks that target unsuspecting online users through search results.
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