Not-Quite-Ready for The Dustbin-of-History: So it went and Here it Goes

Like they say Time is the Great Equalizer. . .Look back and look ahead and sometimes it all appears in a rear-view mirror glancing at the road ahead

FROM TECHDIRT > from the so-it-went department

This Week In Techdirt History: June 20th - 26th

Sat, Jun 26th 2021 12:00pm — Leigh Beadon

Five Years Ago

This week in 2016, the Supreme Court was chipping away at the Fourth Amendment while the FBI was continuing to use its bad facial recognition database and getting away with problematic warrants and hacking — and congress was seeking to legalize more FBI abuses (in an attempt that narrowly failed).

The DOJ was fighting against privacy advocates, and CIA director John Brennan was bizarrely claiming that only the US had encryption technology.

We were also disappointed to see Twitch bring CFAA and trademark claims against bot operators.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2011, Righthaven was losing lawsuits left and right, and the CEO was not taking it well. Sony was fighting against PS3 modding and Microsoft was claiming it could use the DMCA to block competing Xbox accessories, while Universal launched a war on popular hip-hop sites and blogs, which even swept up 50 Cent's own website. A new court filing explained how ICE's domain seizures violate the First Amendment, while Senator Leahy was praising the agency's initiative. We also took a look back at the many things that people thought would kill the music industry in both the analog and digital eras.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2006, the NY Times was in the midst of one of its many paywall experiments while the LA Times was subjecting reporters to stifling web filters. Blockbuster was fighting against Netflix's patents while GoDaddy was sued over a patent on server auto-configuration. We wrote about how ISPs were screwing everyone, and how their cooperation with the NSA was boosting the encryption market. Meanwhile, social media sites were booming but struggling to figure out how to make money, and of course still facing a variety of vague freakouts.

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