M. Alan Thomas II 's BestNetTech Comments

Latest Comments (216)

• On the post: Supreme Court Says Government Can't Take Your Money And Lock You Out Of Your Choice In Representation

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 12 Apr, 2016 @ 10:52pm

  The dissent envisions a world where the government wins every case . . .

  . . . because if it got its way, they would.

• On the post: AT&T Tries To Claim That Charging Users More For Privacy Is A 'Discount'

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 06 Apr, 2016 @ 02:52am

  Re: My cheers for FCC trying to slap AT&T for this

  1)
  Regular price $70
  Privacy surcharge +$30

  In which case their exec lied in the speech.
  
  

  2)
  Regular price $100
  Discount if you wave your privacy -$30

  In which case their base rate went up and they're presumably lying in their advertising.

• On the post: Can't Make This Up: Paramount Says Star Trek Fan Flick Violates Copyright On Klingon And 'Uniform With Gold Stars'

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2016 @ 06:59pm

  Re:

  You know, fan works are generally justified under fair use. Fair use is a constitutional right,* and it's a multi-factor test, not just "Profit, yes/no?" So there's a constitutional right to use established IP to make money as long as the other factors sufficiently favor fair use. If that right's being suppressed by baseless lawsuits—and I'm not saying it is, because I haven't fully examined this particular case—then yes, I consider that oppression by someone with enough time and money to throw around baseless lawsuits.
  
  *Which is to say that it is the expression of the limitation in the Copyright Clause.

• On the post: White House Further Embraces Open Source For Government… But Tell It To Do Even More

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2016 @ 10:38pm

  While you're right that code by federal employees would be in the public domain in the United States, open source or (preferably) a CC0 license would still be necessary to overcome foreign copyrights.* The United States government has always reserved the right to enforce foreign copyrights over material it's barred from copyrighting domestically, and I'm given to understand that it has—on rare occasion—actually done so. Thus, licensing of that content remains an issue for many software developers living in other countries.
  
  *The code would only be public domain in countries that use the rule of the shorter term and consider the U.S. term to be of zero length with respect to noncopyrightable content. Or which lack copyright laws, I suppose.

• On the post: Desperation Shows As Critics Argue That Nominated Librarian Of Congress Is 'Pro Obscenity'

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 04 Mar, 2016 @ 03:13am

  By "Sexual Exploitation" the NCOSE means, among other things, "pornography." This is the group known until recently as Morality in Media. Their annual "Dirty Dozen" list of "the top 12 facilitators of porn in America" / "leading contributors of sexual exploitation" regularly features such stalwarts as the American Library Association, the Department of Justice and/or Attorney General, the Department of Defense, Wikipedia, and anyone whose ad campaigns they felt were over-sexualized (although some of their claims suggest that their mind is dirtier than mine if that's what they're getting out of it).
  
  Basically, they're well-known, longtime haters operating under a new name.

• On the post: New Hampshire Legislator Introduces Bill Protecting Libraries' Right To Run Tor Relays

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2016 @ 11:48pm

  Just terrific…… that kid seems to be thinking an inch past the end of her nose

  Where else is she supposed to be thinking when the DHS is up in her face?

• On the post: Prosecutors Argue Cell Site Location Data Is Something Every User Shares With 'The Rest Of The World'

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2016 @ 01:15pm

  Re:

  The first and second parties are the police and their target. The phone company is not directly involved in A trying to catch B; they're just a third party, as is everyone else who is not the prosecution or the defense.

• On the post: Prosecutors Argue Cell Site Location Data Is Something Every User Shares With 'The Rest Of The World'

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2016 @ 01:12pm

  There is no Fourth Amendment right to evade a valid arrest warrant. Andrews was wanted on multiple counts of attempted murder. A life "on the lam" may require some inconveniences, such as not staying in one's home, and turning one's cell phone off when not in use. There is no constitutional right to avoid being arrested for one's crimes, and nothing unreasonable about the police using the same information that Andrews was sharing with the rest of the world to apprehend him.

  So what I'm reading here is that it is the government's belief that you do not have any constitutional rights if the government issues a warrant for your arrest; any and all methods to arrest you should be legal because "There is no constitutional right to avoid being arrested for one's crimes." Scary.

• On the post: DailyDirt: Harnessing A Lot Of Energy Ain't Easy

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2016 @ 12:49pm

  Small nuclear reactors may be expensive, but large ones . . . well, the infrastructure cost of the plants themselves is expensive, but the production cost of the energy is cheap.
  
  Of course, on the safety front, the safest reactors are the newest models, while we've been so worried about safety in the U.S. that we haven't let anyone build them (or any new reactor) and instead keep extending the permitted operational life of the old ones. 9_9

• On the post: Pick A Side: Video Of Creepy Girls Singing To Donald Trump Taken Down Over Copyright On WWI Song

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 30 Jan, 2016 @ 06:19pm

  Regardless of what I think of Trump, is there an issue here that the only takedown targeted a news network with which Trump is currently having a spat? Although I suppose that would require EMI to back Trump, and I have no idea what their position (if any) is.

• On the post: 'Honey Badger' Narrator Sues Greeting Card Company For Selling Products Featuring An Apathetic Honey Badger

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 27 Jan, 2016 @ 11:58am

  Does anyone know if any of the other suits were valid? A lot of them seem to be against t-shirt companies, and I can see that being a lot more likely. Not just because they're a likely place for a meme, but because I've seen plenty of t-shirt companies with rapidly-rotating stock that strikes me as dubiously licensed (but gone too fast for most people to notice). But I want to know if I'm being overly-cynical here.

• On the post: Why Radio Stations Probably Couldn't Just Play David Bowie Music As A Tribute: Copyright Law Is Messed Up

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 18 Jan, 2016 @ 07:34pm

  Re:

  Dying relatively young just after your final work comes out is the sort of thing for which I respect copyright surviving the creator. Let's say you've got a 27-year-old artist who's just put out their latest work and had a kid. Then they die in a car crash. Dead people don't necessarily connect with fans well and certainly can't tour. I feel like they should be able to try to have their kid supported through college on their final work—no guarantee that any art is still making money after that long, but that's not the law's problem—especially given that most creators would have reasonably expected to be around and supporting their kid that long and most kids can reasonably expect their parents to support them until they're adults. And then because we don't want to make copyright some sort of incentive to keep having kids or a moral test, we put a flat minimum copyright duration into the law without asking who the heirs are and how deserving they are.
  
  Similarly, I don't want a flat expiration-on-death even for older works, because publishers might not want to publish new editions / retrospectives of old or sick creators if they're afraid that they won't have the rights long enough to earn out production costs. (Publishers aren't perfectly logical here, but the law should be designed to encourage them to not screw over old and sick creators regardless of what we think of their logic.) Of course, that only requires extended duration for a few years after death, and a flat copyright term wouldn't have death problems at all.
  
  There's also an argument to be made for ensuring that any spree-buying in the wake of a beloved creator's death goes through licensed channels rather than a fly-by-night publisher who swoops in to make cheap memorial editions of suddenly-public-domain works before the creator's body is even cold.

• On the post: Copyright Blocking Security Research: Researchers Barred From Exploring Leaked Archive

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 15 Jan, 2016 @ 09:14pm

  I feel like Online Policy Group v. Diebold, Inc. would cover this, that being a security-relevant leaked-emails case.

• On the post: Virginia Supreme Court Says 'No Thanks' To Improving State's Dismal Court System

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2016 @ 08:54pm

  Isn't figuring out which provisions of the law are interdependent and which are severable something that judges, y'know, get paid to do?

• On the post: NY State Legislator Proposes Ban On Sale Of Encrypted Smartphones

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2016 @ 11:45am

  When encrypted cell phones are outlawed, only outlaws will have encrypted cell phones.
  
  (Also, do they really think that international terrorists are going to solely use phones sold in New York?)

• On the post: T-Mobile Doubles Down On Its Blatant Lies, Says Claims It's Throttling Are 'Bullshit' And That I'm A 'Jerk'

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2016 @ 04:37pm

  Re: Re:

  What web page? T-Mobile.com, the website of T-Mobile, the company we're talking about. Why, did you think it might be hidden on Verizon's?
  
  Do you need to create a login to access it? Yes, you have to click the hot pink "SIGN UP" button if you have not done so in the past. If you've forgotten your username, it's your phone number. If you've forgotten your password, they can text it to you. (Not terribly secure, no, but not hard, either.) As someone who works in a public library, I can confirm that some people have trouble with stuff like this, but they also usually don't know how to use a smart phone.
  
  Why is it not a setting in the phone menu? I don't know why it's not a setting in the phone menu. I don't recall any T-Mobile-specific settings in my running-vanilla-Android phone menu; should my provider be inserting their own controls into my phone menu?
  
  Why do some people report not seeing it or it's greyed out? THOSE are excellent questions. No idea. I hear there's some conflict with some legacy data stash plans and so on, which DO have some sort of super-secret opt-out site. You should probably lead with those issues.

• On the post: Hateful Eight Pirated From The Inside, Widely Available, And It Won't Stop Its Success At The Box Office

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 26 Dec, 2015 @ 09:59pm

  Well, some of the people paying little-to-no money to watch it for free at home are the sort of people who would be willing to pay $20 to see it at the theater . . . and they will. The rest are not, and they won't. The better point is that very few people fall into the third category.

• On the post: Dave Chappelle Thinks A Sock And A Dream Will Keep People From Using Phones At Shows

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 14 Dec, 2015 @ 05:45pm

  Re: Re: Cell phone signal blocking.

  I agree; the use of mass shootings to push a point on cell phones at concerts seems contrary to the usual ethos around here. If the logic were more persuasive, that would be a different matter, but here it feels like an off-hand shout-out to tragedy to garner emotional support for a mostly-unrelated gripe.

• On the post: White House 'Responds' To Petition For Strong Encryption… By Asking For More Info From A Misspelled Ed Felten

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2015 @ 01:20pm

  I'm just copying the original petitions demands into the new form to tell them that no, seriously, we really mean it.

• On the post: NY Governor Announces App Version Of State's 'See Something, Say Something' Program

  

  M. Alan Thomas II ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2015 @ 01:58am

  Re: Things to do today ...

  Yes, but while they want you to report unattended items that may be potential bombs, they don't want you to report anything urgent that would require an immediate police response.

Next >>