Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

from the quite-a-week dept

Coming in first this week, as it should, was a comment from an Anonymous commenter, who got to the crux of the Dajaz1 situation noting that the due process issue is really quite insane:
Even if Dajaz IS a pirate site with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, that doesn't matter (much). Due process is, much, much more important than whether a site is guilty or innocent in one particular case. We can't just ignore due process for the guilty. The government, by definition, thinks anyone it's prosecuting is guilty.

Also, I'm trying to think of one good reason why everything needed to be filed under seal to the point where the lawyer could not even get a redacted copy to prove that the court had even done the things the government said it did. Even if there was some horrible unimaginable thing in those files that could absolutely never be seen, couldn't they have at least shown the part where the judge in fact grants the extension?

"And could the ICE have given it back merely because it was just too much bother to prosecute even the obvious? Because there are just too many? "

Ever drive 66 MPH down the freeway right past a cop? They don't bother to prosecute everyone. But that doesn't mean that they get to stop you and impound your car for over a year without even having to bother with not only the speeding trial, but the forfeiture proceedings themselves. If there's too many to prosecute, either get more lawyers and judges, or choose your targets more carefully.
Coming in second was a comment from rubberpants, concerning how businesses view government-granted monopolies:
Government-granted monopolies are the heroin of the business world.

1. As soon as a business get's a taste, they're hooked. They can rarely transition back to a competitive environment.

2. They'll spend millions lobbying and influencing policy to make sure they can keep getting high.

3. When people try to give them an intervention, they lash out with anger, hostility, and complete denial.

4. They'll systematically destroy their customer relationships, waste their future opportunities, and eventually wind up bankrupt in the gutter.
For editor's choice, we've got another Anonymous commenter rather brilliantly linking the astray Mythbusters cannonball to PROTECT IP and SOPA:
There is a moral to this story. When things go wrong in the Physical world, everyone takes notice. We consider the idea of building a homemade cannon. We want to see it tried.

Then it doesn't quite do what we expected.

It rips through our public spaces, bouncing off hills and roads.

It enters our homes, racing up our stairs.

It blasts through our bedrooms.

It takes out a van.

Now you can expect calls to stop this. It isn't worth the risk to our property, to our homes, to our very bedrooms, to allow this all in the name of Entertainment.

You likely see where I am going now....

... but in the name of Entertainment we are willing to fire off SOPA and PROTECT IP. It has a great chance of ripping through the Internet in just the same fashion. Exposing us to risk in our public dealings, and in our private dealings. But here we believe the risk is acceptable.

Because the blast of SOPA through our bedrooms destroying our privacy and security is all digital.
Moving on to the funny, we've got trusty Marcus Carab reacting to the story of the first grader investigated for sexual harassment for kicking another child in the groin. Marcus explored the logical conclusions:
That's a pretty bizarre definition of sexual assault. I thought it was supposed to mean sexually motivated. If kicking someone in the nuts because it's a vulnerable spot is sexual assault, then how do we know kicking them in the shins isn't also sexual assault committed by someone with a really weird fetish?
Coming in a close second (and getting a legitimate laugh out of me) was SD's response to the wayward Mythbusters' cannonball:
What a trajectory... This must be what happens when your ballistics education consists entirely of playing Angry Birds.
For editor's choice, we've got trails responding to an incomprehensible argument involving secondary liability for "Pirate P and Host H." Many others built on this concept, but Trails wins for the most amusing to me:
Also, what Mike has said is that if Drunkard D drives Car C on Road R and kills someone, then no one is legally responsible!

It is also true that if a Gopher G is next to an Orangutan O using a Fork F under an Umbrella U, along with Corkscrew C and Knife K to attack a Yurt Y without consent of the Orangutan O who takes the Umbrella U one should deliver a Soliloquy S on the Evils E of Larceny L of Foreign sites F.
And, finally, an Anonymous commenter responding to someone else threatening to "steal" the analogy that rubberpants used above to win an insightful award. This commenter pointed out that stealing analogies is wrong:
Ahh man, I wanted to steal this analogy, but if you've already taken it, it is obviously gone now, and no one else can make a copy or ever use it again unless someone sees you use it, and steals it again.
That's right, folks, stealing analogies kills language. So stop doing it.
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  • icon
    Atkray (profile), 11 Dec 2011 @ 3:18pm

    Oh great, now AC is going to flame Marcus.

    I somehow missed the one by trails, Thanks.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 11 Dec 2011 @ 4:35pm

      Re:

      Which AC? Going by DH's favourite posts post I presume you mean the one with a thing about darryl's ass...

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Marcus Carab (profile), 11 Dec 2011 @ 7:30pm

        Re: Re:

        Actually his obsessions seemed to be with DH's ass, Mike's ass, my location in relation to the latter, and darryl's ass-handling abilities. I suspect he's doing research for some steamy Techdirt slash-fic.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 12 Dec 2011 @ 2:42am

          Re: Re: Re:

          I'm seeing a pattern to the modus operandi of these ACs. With their research ranging from industry losses to the sexuality of specific individuals, they don't need no stinkin' evidence...

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Violated (profile), 11 Dec 2011 @ 11:30pm

    Rude

    I hope they realise that the comment mike said spells out GO F**K YOU SELF.

    Not the best advertisement for your home page.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Dec 2011 @ 12:40am

    The day freedom died.

    Quote:
    Senate Amendment 1456, proposed by Senator Feinstein, was a last-minute amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act’s provision on military detention.

    Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinunderhill/2011/12/07/you-say-indefinite-military-detention-of-citiz ens-like-its-a-bad-thing/

    Did anybody saw this?

    Now American citizens can be jailed indefinitely in American soil without due process.

    While the groping people keep cool with their brand new snow cone machines paid by TSA funds.
    http://www.loweringthebar.net/2011/12/the-homeland-security-snow-cone-machine.html

    Everyd ay justice weeps copiously from the actions of societies representatives that are not able to hold their stupidity back but unfortunately can hold a public office.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    ComputerAddict (profile), 12 Dec 2011 @ 4:47am

    "Ahh man, I wanted to steal this analogy, but if you've already taken it, it is obviously gone now, and no one else can make a copy or ever use it again unless someone sees you use it, and steals it again."

    I finally get a post into the funniest comments of the week and I forgot to login... damn.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Dan (profile), 12 Dec 2011 @ 6:35am

    "If there's too many to prosecute, either get more lawyers and judges, or choose your targets more carefully."

    Or maybe this is a stupid law that no reasonable person wants to follow and should be repealed...prohibition, anyone?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 13 Dec 2011 @ 1:04am

      Re:

      "Or maybe this is a stupid law that no reasonable person wants to follow and should be repealed..."

      Maybe, and maybe not. My point was that even if they were breaking the law, and even if the law is just, the government's actions have to respect their rights. Unfortunately, the person I was responding to seems to think that due process is only a marginal concern at best. We've got the government seizing property without filing charges, and filing secret motions to a judge the other side has no access to, and he's concered with alleged infringement? Those are some messed up priorities. (Also, yay for me winning insightful comment of the week!)

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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