This Week In Techdirt History: September 24th – 30th

Five Years Ago

This week in 2018, a district court ignored the real issues when it dismissed the EFF’s constitutional challenge to FOSTA, while we looked at how the law was becoming another tool for silencing people you dislike, legislators were pushing for even more draconian laws under the guise of fighting sex trafficking, and the effort had begun to rewrite history and claim FOSTA took down Backpage. The New York Times sued the FCC over its refusal to adequately respond to FOIA requests about fake net neutrality comments, a bunch of people tried to explain the First Amendment to Jeff Sessions, and free speech warrior hypocrite Jordan Peterson was threatening and filing defamation lawsuits over criticism.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2013, Universal Music tried to use copyright to kill a wacky mashup comic, only to face a strong fair use counternotice and then back down after realizing it was a stupid, stupid crusade. Spain ratcheted up its anti-piracy laws to even more ridiculous levels with criminal penalties for linking to infringing material, while more and more research was showing that copyright law is based on fundamentally incorrect assumptions. The Brazilian president blasted the US over NSA spying in front of world leaders at the UN, while Senator Leahy was slamming them in congress, and Senators Wyden and Udall introduced a bill aimed at comprehensive reform of surveillance programs.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2008, China was blocking all online talk about its contaminated milk disaster, while France managed to make it more or less illegal to mention alcohol brands online. TorrentFreak discovered that a big anti-piracy contractor favored by Hollywood was running some porn websites on the side, while a whose who of entertainment and tech companies were founding yet another anti-piracy lobbying group. We looked at the RIAA’s playbook of making sure it owns any new business models, the European Parliament rejected laws that would kick file sharers off the internet, and the Senate passed the bill that would give the White House a new copyright czar.