This Week In Techdirt History: June 26th – July 2nd

Five Years Ago

This week in 2017, Zillow got very angry about the McMansion Hell blog and sent a ridiculous legal threat, then followed up with a second equally wrong letter, then finally kinda-sorta backed down a little bit after the EFF got involved. The copyright office was recognizing that the DMCA is a problem for security research, and also somewhat inadvertently admitted that the law is more about giving Hollywood control than stopping infringement. We also saw one of the worst approaches to patent reform imaginable in Senator Coons's STRONGER Patent Act.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2012, Miami Heat owner Ranaan Katz sued Google and a blogger claiming copyright infringement over an unflattering photo, then doubled down and threatened to sue the lawyer defending the blogger. The EU Commissioner revealed he planned to simply ignore any rejection of ACTA by the European Parliament, and Parliamentarian Marielle Gallo called ACTA dissent a soft form of terrorism", while Australia's parliament committee issued its recommendation to reject the deal. Meanwhile, the USTR was giving the MPAA full access to the TPP text while still refusing to share it with Senate staffers and denying Rep. Issa's request to observe negotiations, while still ridiculously claiming it was being transparent.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2007, Senator Feinstein was seeking some sort of return of the Fairness Doctrine, and was soon joined by Senator Durbin. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was still focused on throwing people in jail for attempted piracy, the MPAA was suing sites for linking to infringing content, a new case against the RIAA asked questions about the legality of its investigation techniques, and we saw what happens without safe harbor protections as an Australian ISP deleted all user multimedia files.