This Week In Techdirt History: April 17th – 23rd

from the similar-as-it-ever-was dept

5 Years Ago

This 7 days in 2017, new CIA director Mike Pompeo went on a hypocritical rant about Wikileaks and cost-free speech, the administration killed Open.Gov, and the DOJ manager was railing against encryption. Tech firms had been combating towards Trump’s vacation bans in two unique courts, and Roku was having into the lobbying world to fight for internet neutrality. Meanwhile, Google’s rumored shift to construct an advert blocker into the Chrome browser was increasing bizarre antitrust thoughts, whilst the famed Fearless Female statue positioned subsequent to the Wall Street Bull was raising silly copyright notions.

10 Several years In the past

This 7 days in 2012, ACTA was edging nearer to loss of life as its remaining EU supporters begun wondering about rejecting it, and the Rapporteur’s recommendation was to scrap it and arrive up with a replacement (which it seemed like G8 nations might presently be tough at function on). The Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN was participating in whac-a-mole in opposition to the Pirate Bay but not always having its way in court docket. The Meguapload authorized combat was continuing, the API copyright struggle in between Google and Oracle was obtaining started off, and the legislative combat was on above the terrible cybersecurity monthly bill CISPA. We also took a nearer search at the extent of the revolving door amongst the government and the MPAA.

Fifteen A long time Ago

This week in 2007, Microsoft was complicated Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick on antitrust grounds, a judge rejected webcasters’ complains about new webcast royalty charges, and Clear Channel was becoming extremely hypocritical about media consolidation. An effort to show prior artwork on Verizon’s VoIP patents was relocating slowly but surely, when a new patent reform hard work in Congress was lacking the huge image. Also: the FCC admitted it sucks at measuring broadband levels of competition, Jack Thompson settled his lawsuit with Just take-Two Interactive, Sony’s DVD DRM was creating problems, and (extended right before the cord-cutting craze was in total swing) Time Warner was relocating to minimize its reliance on cable Television set.

Submitted Under: heritage, glance again