This Week In Techdirt History: October 6th – 12th

Five Years Ago

This week in 2019, Deupty AG Jeffrey Rosen was complaining about companies like Facebook offering encryption, while FBI Director Chris Wray was deploying straw men arguments about the tech, and the DOJ was conflating the content moderation debate with the encryption debate. We learned more about ICE’s massive surveillance network, and the FISA court found the FBI was still violating the Fourth Amendment. The Ellen Show issued a copyright takedown over a video highlighting Ellen’s friendship with George W. Bush, and we wrote about how the right to be forgotten stifles the free press and free expression.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2014, said right to be forgotten hit the New York Times, while the Washington Post published a clueless editorial about phone encryption, and President Obama made some vague and meaningless statements about net neutrality, patent reform, and copyright reform. Twitter sued the US government for the right to disclose surveillance requests, Google petitioned the Supreme Court to make it clear that APIs are not copyrightable, and we noted that net neutrality laws will face legal challenges no matter what. Also, Lindsay Lohan kicked off her revised attempt at suing over Grand Theft Auto 5.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2009, the US Chamber of Commerce was making things up about intellectual property while fears of a coming wave of book piracy had people in a tizzy. The UK’s Royal Mail used a copyright claim to shut down postal code info online, some professors were beginning to claim copyright over their lectures, and the Olympics were trying to block an Olympia, Washington newspaper from trademarking its name. Meanwhile, some musicians were starting to assert copyright termination rights against record labels, and we wrote about why “balance” isn’t the right standard for judging copyright law.