This Week In Techdirt History: August 11th – 17th

Five Years Ago

This week in 2019, we looked at the loss of Aereo and its impact on policy, and also dedicated the first of two episodes of our podcast to dissecting the FTC’s Facebook settlement. The Wall Street Journal had Dennis Prager peddling complete nonsense about “Google censorship”, a Fox News commenter was calling for a backlash against big tech, and the New York Times published a second blatantly incorrect trashing of Section 230. It was enough to make one wonder if there was a conspiracy. Meanwhile, Nintendo went on a DMCA spree and copyright troll Malibu Media was sued by investors.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2014, a judge gave the DOJ a timeline to submit the declassified FISA court opinion justifying the Section 215 surveillance program (while the department was also releasing a report detailing the horrifying conditions at Riker’s Island) and newly released documents outlined the NSA’s abuse of its discontinued internet metadata program. We also took a look at how events in Ferguson, Missouri were highlighting a systemic problem of police militarization and the suppression of free speech. Meanwhile, we asked why the FCC was only holding net neutrality meetings in DC, and a data analysis of their public comments revealed almost nobody wrote in to oppose net neutrality.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2009, RIAA supporters were continuing to show they were afraid of what actual musicians think, a judge helped Hollywood kill more innovation by ruling against DVD jukebox systems, and the attacks on Redbox appeared to be expanding to Netflix DVD rentals. The FCC was giving unnecessary air to the RIAA’s radio witch hunt, while an EU government study said people won’t pay for content and new business models were necessary, and the German Green Party was pushing to legalize file sharing via a tax. But perhaps most memorably, this was when we first came across the analysis and now-famous associated graph (actually published the previous week) showing how the length of copyright has followed the age of Mickey Mouse.