from the happy-new-year(s) dept
Five Years Ago
This week in 2021, 60 Minutes aired misleading claims about Section 230, while Parler desperately sought attention by pretending it didn’t need Section 230. Ajit Pai, in his final days, refused to advance Trump’s attack on section 230.Lawmakers complained about Comcast’s data caps as AT&T reinstated its own caps. Most notably,the January 6th attack on the Capitol occurred, prompting extensive coverage and ultimately Twitter’s ban of Donald Trump.
Ten Years Ago
This week in 2016, Homeland Security admitted it seized a hip-hop blog for five years without evidence of infringement. The Authors Guild petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the fair use ruling in the Google Books case, and the US Copyright Office sought public comment on DMCA procedures. Richard Prince faced another copyright lawsuit over his Instagram art, while a judge allowed PETA to reargue its monkey selfie copyright claim. We also reported on how the TPP prioritized corporate interests over the public interest.
Fifteen Years Ago
This week in 2011, congressional leaders prioritized investigating wikileaks, an anonymous Senator blocked whistleblower protection legislation, and we debunked claims that Wikileaks endangered lives in Zimbabwe. Homeland Security, after seizing domains, became less communicative about its errors, while we analyzed the legal flaws in their domain seizures and questioned whether they invented a legal justification for the seizures. A report revealed that the discredited study linking vaccines to autism was based on outright fraud.
