This Week In Techdirt History: January 21st – 27th

Five Years Ago

This week in 2019, we took a close look at an interesting and challenging case about Section 230, while Google asked the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling about copyright in APIs. We wrote about the decline in broadband network investment post-net-neutrality despite promises from Ajit Pai and the telecoms. US media companies were being proactive about censorship in response to looming hate speech laws in India, intelligence agencies were sued for refusing to turn over documents about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, and new privacy complaints from an activist demonstrated the impossibility of complying with the GDPR.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2014, there was a dust-up when a Google Glass wearer (remember those?) said he was yanked out of a movie theater on suspicion of filming. The allegation was quickly confirmed by the MPAA and ICE who admitted to interrogating him, and then ICE took to Twitter in a ridiculous attempt to defend itself. Meanwhile, Dianne Feinstein was claiming the NSA would never abuse its powers (clear factual errors in her statement notwithstanding) and we looked at Obama's weak surveillance reforms while NSA apologists were getting huffy. Also, Team Prenda took another hit when a judge agreed to sanctions against Paul Duffy.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2009, long before the Snowden revelations, an NSA whistleblower told us that the agency was regularly spying on US journalists. The UK government was looking to force ISPs to become copyright cops while the US recording industry was thinking about bribing ISPs to do the same, Sweden was considering a law to allow police to go after file sharers, and Italy was considering copying France's three-strikes law. The RIAA was also seeking sanctions against Charles Nesson in the famous Tenenbaum lawsuit, and the US's global IP cops were bemoaning interference from activists. Also, because nothing ever really changes and bad ideas are never really dead, we were celebrating the end of COPA but warning (as has proven true) that its bad ideas would be back.