{"id":24230,"date":"2022-12-17T22:34:18","date_gmt":"2022-12-17T22:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/17\/this-week-in-techdirt-history-december-11th-17th\/"},"modified":"2022-12-17T22:34:18","modified_gmt":"2022-12-17T22:34:18","slug":"this-week-in-techdirt-history-december-11th-17th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/17\/this-week-in-techdirt-history-december-11th-17th\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week In Techdirt History: December 11th \u2013 17th"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\n
<\/p>\n

\n

from the how-many-roads<\/i> dept<\/h3>\n

Five Years Ago<\/strong><\/p>\n

This week in 2017, the NY Attorney General found that two million fake comments<\/a> flooded the FCC\u2019s call for feedback on net neutrality, while two separate studies found that the fakes made up the majority of comments supportive of the repeal<\/a>, all while Ajit Pai was making a tone-deaf \u201cjoke\u201d<\/a> about being a Verizon puppet at an industry gala. Pai was also falsely claiming that net neutrality hurts small ISPs although this was contradicted by the agency\u2019s own data<\/a>, while the agency was insulting everyone\u2019s intelligence by misrepresenting broadband investment<\/a>, and a leaked email showed that even the FCC\u2019s own CTO thought that gutting net neutrality harms the public<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ten Years Ago<\/strong><\/p>\n

This week in 2012, France\u2019s Hadopi scheme was gutted in favor of other bad ideas<\/a>, DMCA takedowns were skyrocketing following the failure of SOPA<\/a> (with notices to Google alone increasing tenfold in just six months<\/a>), and we got a good example of DMCA abuse with one company issuing takedowns over comment spam<\/a> with a claim of \u201cURL copyright\u201d. Rep. Marsha Blackburn\u2019s office was lashing out at the RSC copyright report<\/a>, while the entertainment industry was mourning the lost seat of Hollywood-friendly congressman Rep. Howard Berman<\/a>. Meanwhile, the Prenda saga was getting more ridiculous<\/a> and we looked at the case for why sanctions were deserved<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fifteen Years Ago<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking of Howard Berman, this week in 2007 he was complaining that the PRO-IP bill wasn\u2019t strong enough<\/a>, even as the DOJ was coming out against it. And speaking of fake FCC comments, we got an early example of that following the comment period on the XM-Sirius merger<\/a>. ISPs were catching flak for inserting their own messages into Google<\/a> and using surfing data to inject ads into websites<\/a>, the Canadian version of the DMCA was delayed<\/a> as opposition grew<\/a>, and the RIAA was (for the time being) refraining from claiming that personal use copies are illegal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\nFiled Under: history<\/a>, look back<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n