Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
from the example-39 dept
Alana rocked the most insightful comment of the week according to you, the voters, with a comment on our story about how much of the popularity of Psy's Gangnam Style came about because no one was trying to enforce copyright restrictions on people:Funny story, yesterday I was thinking of pointing to Gangnam Style as an example of what would happen if things WEREN'T region blocked all to hell.We're only up to 39?
Imagine if it were only available in Korea. Would it have blown to this level of popularity? No.
Example #39 why region blocking is a stupid idea.
Coming in a strong second was a comment on the same post by an Anonymous Coward, who had a very simple, but very accurate statement about the popularity of Gangnam Style:
This got popular because he let people make it popular for him.Exactly.
Moving on to editor's choice, we'll start with this excellent response by Dark Helmet, to the story we had about the couple and photographer who were suing an anti-gay marriage organization, PAUS, for using one of their engagement photos in bigoted campaign ads. While we found the use despicable, I wrote that I was concerned that the emotional response might blind people to the legal questions, and that's how bad precedent gets set, and DH expanded on that point:
That's the important part. It's very easy to allow emotional reactions to dominate, and those emotional reactions are almost always, to some degree, wrong due to the coloration of emotion. The appropriate avenue for attack here is NOT copyright, though, like you, I'm less appalled by it or the likeness rights plea.And then we've got fogbugzd's very accurate explanation for why some people still can't recognize that people use online services because they get value out of the, and not because they're being exploited:
But again, the appropriate attack vector is to highlight the bigotry and pure idiocy of PAUS. I would simply request, in a public forum, "why did you feel it was okay to use this picture of two private people this way?"
I suspect, unfortunately, that the true answer lies somewhere in the realm of "because we don't consider them people". And FUCK PAUS for that. But in an age of relative enlightenment when it comes to gay rights, better to simply highlight the stupid and make them toxic than soil the morality of man by getting our stupid legal system involved in it....
Modern business executives see everything as a zero-sum game; if someone else is making money then I must be loosing. Zero-sum thinking and the failure to understand basic economics are the hallmarks of the modern board room.Over to the funny side of things, because I can tell you could use a good laugh today, we've got an Anonymous Coward responding to the Maine Republican Party insisting that a Democratic candidate for state senate must be lazy because she plays World of Warcraft. AC had only a slightly different line of reasoning:
Clearly she is a lazy person though. This World of Warcraft character demonstrates it beyond a shadow of a doubt.Coming in a very close second is DannyB discussing his thoughts on WIPO brand toilet tissue:
I mean, she's playing an Assassination rogue. That's the easiest spec of the most cheap-sauce class in the game. What a lazy, lazy player.
Now if she was playing a protection warrior or a healer or something though - that would be a different story.
I always immediately think, just for a moment, that WIPO must be a brand of bathroom tissue until I remember what it stands for. Then I remember that it is not something that is worthy or deserving of being elevated to such a usage.Moving on to editor's choice, we've got Josh in CharlotteNC responding to Attorney General Eric Holder's claim that shutting down Megaupload was "one of the largest criminal copyright cases in US history" in that the DOJ "indicted two corporations and seven individuals." Something didn't add up:
2 companies and 7 people is the largest ever criminal copyright case?Stay patient, Josh, I'm sure it's coming.
Wow, sure sounds like piracy is such a staggering problem that has destroyed an entire industry. This certainly justifies the millions of government tax dollars being spent on it.
Just imagine when we get more than New Zealand to help! We could go after 3 companies and 9 individuals! That will be a case for the record books.
And, finally, we've got an Anonymous Coward comment responding to Rep. Mike Rogers claiming that he can't sleep at night, because he's learned of a top secret super scary "unusual source" that is trying to threaten the country, which is why we all need to pass his overreaching CISPA law. The AC took a pretty good guess at who this "unusual source" might be:
Does he mean the public?Seems like as good a guess as any... So, while you, the public, keep Mike Rogers up at night, we're getting back to work on new stories that will (I'm sure) keep someone else up all night this week...
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Over on the funny side
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Of course I have no proof of this.
(If only this was reddit I would be tasting some sweet karma right about now :D )
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On the other hand, I love the AC system on this site to the point where I haven't registered just because I want to support it.
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Gangnam and region blocking
I seem to live in a country that's especially crappy when it comes to copyright issues...
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First time commenting, and I really hate to be that guy, but I think something ate a letter or the rest of your sentence here Mike.
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Actually it's dozens of companies and thousands of affiliates.
Too bad you guys aren't very good with the truth.
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It's like Thomas or Tenenbaum - they were charged with a small number of files compared to how many they actually shared.
Don't be shocked if, after Mega is found guilty, that other related companies are charged and individuals taken down.
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Now, dear AC. I'm going to accuse you of sharing 3 songs.
Enjoy your 250,000$ minimum fine. Proof? Bah. Proof is for wimps.
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Now, dear AC. I'm going to accuse you of sharing 3 songs.
Enjoy your 250,000$ minimum fine. Proof? Bah. Proof is for wimps."
Where did I say that?
Fuck me, you are an idiot.
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"after Mega is found guilty"
Stated as if it were a fact.
Fuck me, you are an idiot.
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GROW UP.
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Oh, and before you tell others to grow up, try and not use ad homs in every comment, as well as being a bit more polite and respectful to others. It takes a real lack of maturity to call people fucktards despite knowing nothing about them, more so when they're just pointing out your absolutes based on no facts.
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The RIAA/MPAA wasted a lot of bribe money on their government thugs to get this guy. This will be little more than a setback for Megaupload, et al, and they will come back with a vengeance.
The legal actions taken lately against services and technology on the internet stinks of desperation. They know they can't stop individuals from sharing files on the internet, so they foolishly try to eliminate the tools that enable it under the assumption that it will make the behavior go away. Well, I can tell your for a certain, that it will not stop. Every time one method is eliminated, people find a new method that's harder to track, harder to find, and harder to shut down. The only thing the RIAA/MPAA is "educating" people about is how to never get caught. They keep trying to spy on people to gather evidence they can send to their ISP to get them to either cut off service or send a scary letter full of empty threats. People will just find a new way to do it that grants anonymity, or at least plausible deniability. If they keep this up, they're going to drive everyone to the Darknet where nobody can see what you're doing and nobody respects the "artists'" rights.
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The basic stuff that the US was working from is still sound, it's only the local work from the NZ cops that appears to suck. You have to remember they wouldn't have been poking around if the US didn't have something to work from.
"The legal actions taken lately against services and technology on the internet stinks of desperation. "
Actually, it is pretty much on par with a neighborhood getting overtaken by gangs,graffiti, and crime. Soon it will be unlivable, and you will have spoiled your own feast.
One day, internet people will learn not to shit where they eat. Until then, you are doomed to destroy everything you touch.
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NWhat now ? Technological darwinism is so tough on you that you turned to the copyright-creationism belief ?
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What sort of warrant is required for tapping a foriegn corporations emails outside of the US?
The US is relying on a former BSA lawyer now in place at the DOJ, the same sort of reliance that brought down Dajaz1 on trumped up fanciful charges that had no basis in fact. The RIAA never bothered to provide ANY evidence of the crimes they claimed were committed, and had no intention of doing so. Instead they expected the DOJ to take down Dajaz1 and piracy to be stopped.
Yeah the internet is getting overrun by corporations refusing to adapt to changing markets and desperately trying to buy laws to keep their business model afloat. We keep trying to stop them...
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This is the silliest thing I've ever read!
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No, your follow comments contradict that assertion.
You're way, way off. The NZ cops don't "suck", they took inappropriate and illegal action against a citizen on the say-so of the US and their copyright paymasters. The US didn't have anything to work from other than the copyright industry's prostrations of wrongdoing and tantrum-infused demands for action.
This was nothing more than an extrajudicial attempt to remove Megaupload from the internet landscape, a plan that is quickly falling apart. MU will return eventually and all of this will have been for absolutely nothing.
"Actually, it is pretty much on par with a neighborhood getting overtaken by gangs,graffiti, and crime. Soon it will be unlivable, and you will have spoiled your own feast.
One day, internet people will learn not to shit where they eat. Until then, you are doomed to destroy everything you touch."
Oh yes, the dominant in-group always perceives the behavior of an out-group that threatens their control as deviant. "Shit where they eat?" No, I'm sorry. That's what the copyright industry is doing. And we're only beginning to discover the potential benefits to culture an internet unhindered by copyright can provide. Copyright was created with the intent to increase the availability of works for the public to make use of. Now the internet is far more capable of that than copyright ever was. Copyright has lost, the internet surpasses it in every way. People will continue to create art and culture regardless of monetary incentives, as they actually do already.
"The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." - John Gilmore
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I did a double-take on that one. We are copyrighting people now?
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Example #39 why region blocking is a stupid idea."
Another very dumb comment, not sure why it's insightful. Rather, it's someone not grasping the different between the movie and the music world.
Music has no region blocking. Your comment sucks.
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Earlier in the comments:
>Funny enough when I clicked the first gangnam video link I saw I got a message that I can't see it due to the GEMA not allowing me to see it in Germany.
You were saying . . .?
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Too bad that YouTube and other video sites seem to refuse to work with GEMA.
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How nice! So you only think they should work with SOME criminals, not all of them?
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A hint for future endeavors though: when trying to make an argument based off of what you claim someone else has said, it usually helps if people can't just scroll up slightly to see what was actually said.
Also, I must say it is rather funny for you to admit that even you think GEMA is composed of a bunch of criminals. Honestly like that is hard to come by from your side, so congrats on that.
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Canada, Australia and Britain see a lot of content blocking as well, from their respective assholes. I can't speak for other countries.
As well, a lot of american companies restrict their content to american viewers.
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Experience would suggest otherwise.
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Fucking
Old
Overweight
Luddite
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Then why am I unable to purchase some US artists legitimately that interest me?
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Oh such an eloquent response. /s
Sadly, it's lacking in anything that is actually factual.
You are aware that music is region blocked in a number of countries. Heck, even legal music put up by the various big labels gets blocked for whatever reason by various groups like GEMA (in German).
So by using logic and looking at the facts, your comment sucks, but not just cause it sucks but because the facts are very much against you and you obviously have no idea what you're talking about.
And while you may come back with, "but but but that's YouTube", it still is music that is being region blocked.
Seriously, you ACs suck at trying to rip on the comments of others. And can you stop with the insults? Half the comments here are yours and they're quite disrespectful towards others you know nothing about. Or to put it in terms you might understand, "Would you mind chilling out with your stupidity, fucktard?"
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"Does he mean the public?"
People talking, Social media, and government monitoring overreach are going into a feedback loop. That is what is actually going to threaten the nation. Basically its a TMI paranoia loop.
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Summing Up
Then we have Dark Helmet setting himself up for (wait for it)
"There is nothing wrong with being gay, just don't like the sad's homosexual activities."
(As an aside, homosexuals are people too, no different to fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners, murderers, kidnappers, perjurers - I think that covers all of us, including the politicians and lawyers).
Then onto business and enlightened self-interest (don't hog all the gravy, allow someone else to have a go and make some money as well).
Next up, playing games and enjoying life, all work and no play make Jack a dull buoy. (Pun intended for non-american speakers).
Then we have the prudishness of the american. It's toilet paper for use in the outhouse, boghouse, inhouse outhouse, dunny, loo, throne room, lavatory, lav, latrine, john, can, privy. And if you are real careful, you can use both sides of it.
And lastly, making mountains out of a grain of sand, don't they have more important things like murders, muggings, rapes, arson, kidnappings etc to investigate and prosecute first?
I think I must be a bit out there today, its too cold outside and its now half-way through spring.
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I think you are having a stroke, and time lost is brain lost and you don't have much to lose.
Get to the hospital ASAP.
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I'm going to stop right there because: NO. Just... NO. If you are desperate want the attention that badly, then here you go! You got my attention and I'm more than pleased to answer just how irritating your message is to me. Now personally I am against how you think. I don't speak for anyone except for myself, so I'll say this with my complete honesty:
Your ideals stink as bad as your reference to bathrooms.
I can tell you that homosexuals are not as evil as the people you are describing. Even then, those kind of people are far more despicable than evil, but homosexuals? NO! Homosexuals are some of the nicest people on the planet, and you're comparing them to adulterers? That made me sick to my stomach reading that! You're no better than Joe when it comes to comparing copyright infringement to rape (and hey, you mentioned it as well! That doesn't make you any more likable, though...).
"I think I must be a bit out there today..."
"A bit?" You think that you're "a bit" out there? ... *facepalms* Why did I response to you in the first place? ... Wait, I got it:
You're an idiot. That's the bottom line. Listen to That Anonymous Coward and seek help. Maybe they could knock some sense into that empty head of yours.
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