This Week In Techdirt History: October 30th – November 5th
Five Years Ago
This week in 2017, declassified documents revealed the NSA's efforts to prosecute a journalist for successful FOIA requests, a judge refused a boilerplate request from the DOJ for a gag order, Dianne Feinstein was trying to get Twitter to just hand over a bunch of private communications, and we took a closer look at Ron Wyden's bill aiming to rein in the NSA. Verizon was lobbying the FCC to stop states from protecting broadband privacy and net neutrality, while the FCC itself gave a massive gift to Sinclair Broadcasting by demolishing media ownership rules. Meanwhile, Rob Portman decided to push forward with SESTA, and the Internet Association disappointed everyone by caving in and supporting the revised bill.
Ten Years Ago
This week in 2012, though the year was not quite over, we took a look back at how it had been a busy year for SLAPP suits. India's recording industry was seeking the power to take down content without notification, the MPAA and Megaupload were both trying to get into a hearing over whether a former user could get his data back, and a Comcast lobbyist admitted to holding internet service for the poor hostage in order to get the NBC takeover approved. The ill-fated MoviePass service launched to a chorus of how's that going to work?", but the biggest shock in the movie world was the surprise announcement that Disney would be acquiring Lucasfilm.
Fifteen Years Ago
This week in 2007, the FCC finally realized that exclusive deals for cable aren't very competitive, but apparently didn't realize that people didn't want it to release more bogus broadband data, while the FTC was seeking more power to fine spyware companies. Sam Adams Beer was wielding its trademark in an attempt to stop a real man named Sam Adams from using his name, Fox was sending out cease-and-desist letters to politicians using debate footage, and a lawsuit was filed over stolen goods in Second Life. Meanwhile, Trent Reznor explained why the file sharing tool OiNK was cool, while Oregon's Attorney General and the University of Oregon rebuffed the RIAA's attempts to make them investigate file sharing.
In The Beginning...
This week's issue of the Up To Date newsletter that would become Techdirt went out on November 1st, 1997, and mentioned the rollout of the first ever full DSL service in the US.