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

Five Years Ago

This week in 2020, we looked at the encryption dilemma created by the EARN IT Act, while a federal case showed that cops already had plenty of options when dealing with device encryption. There was pushback against the Trump administration’s attempt to corrupt the Open Technology Fund, the FCC’s assault on a low-income broadband program was making the COVID-19 crisis worse, and we heard early rumblings of the notion of banning TikTok. Also, this was the week that Harper’s published a certain infamous open letter, to which we joined several others in proposing alternatives.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2015, we got glimpses of the details of Hollywood’s cozy relationship with Mississippi AG Jim Hood, as well as the fact that the MPAA was trying to keep emails from the Sony hack out of the lawsuit, and we also wrote about the implications of the Lenz v. Universal case following oral arguments in the Ninth Circuit. The Senate held hearings on encryption, resulting in some unsurprisingly ridiculous statements from Senators and some more impossible demands of the tech industry, even as the federal government was busy searching for better encryption. And we wrote about the privacy concerns surrounding ICANN.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2010, a copyright fight broke out between a Senate candidate and a Senator, quickly escalating to threats of a lawsuit. The Associated Press was threatening a blog for quoting newspapers, and some publishers were pushing an ASCAP-like system for news, while yet another push to expand publicity rights was thankfully rejected. The Washington Post called out Summit Entertainment’s twisted view of IP law and the Twilight movie, and we looked at the ongoing failure of the copyright industries to make any progress in their war on file sharing.