This Week In Techdirt History: April 30th – May 6th

Five Years Ago

This week in 2018, we took a closer look at how the sex trafficking statistics used to justify FOSTA/SESTA were made up. Epic was doubling down on its legal crusade against a 14-year old who cheated in a video game, Microsoft was defending putting a computer recycler in jail, and the FTC called out several companies for illegal “warranty void if removed” stickers. In the UK, the high court ruled against bulk internet data collection, while Germany’s supreme court confirmed that ad blocking is legal, and a federal court in the US issued a much worse ruling, saying that compelled decryption doesn’t raise fifth amendment issues. We also took a look at how the CASE Act would help copyright trolls.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2013, governments were ramping up their attempts to censor content via Google, the DOJ was seeking the power to fine tech companies that don’t help it wiretap users, and ICE was raiding mobile phone repair shops over the use of aftermarket parts. We wrote about how Craigslist’s abuse of copyright and the CFAA was disgraceful, the art of evergreening patents through the lens of OxyContin, and the ways fair use is still too weak to be effective in many cases. Meanwhile, UK photographers were freaking out over a new law and hyperbolically claiming it eliminated copyright protections, while the fragmentation of TV and movie streaming was heating up as Warner Bros. and MGM collectively pulled nearly 2000 films from Netflix.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2008, Tanya Andersen dropped her admirable but unlikely-to-succeed charges of racketeering against the RIAA (which was also in the process of massively ramping up its file sharing warning notices to college students), a judge dismissed the EFF’s lawsuit accusing Universal Music of DMCA abuse in the infamous Dancing Baby case, and another judge rejected RIAA’s attempts to expand the definition of “making available”. We also got more details about the eBay/Craigslist fight, and took a look at how copyright law was making it increasingly difficult to produce documentaries.