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from the double-winner dept

Sun, Sep 1st 2013 12:00pm — Leigh Beadon

Out of almost 350 comments (at time of writing) on this week's most controversial post, only one made the list. Silverscarcat summed up what many people thought of the sentence handed down to Stacey Dean Rambold:

30 days for rape which led to suicide while some punk teenager makes a random comment on facebook that ends up with him facing 7-8 years in prison?!

What the holy fucking hell, Batman?!

In second place on the insightful side, we've got some anonymous perspective on the attacks directed at a firefighter responding to the Asiana Airlines crash:

Speaking as someone who trains first responders

I'm incredibly proud that Johnson documented his own actions and then turned them over -- even when they turned out to have dire consequences for one of the victims he was trying to rescue.

Accidents with mass casualties are messy: victims get left on the ground and forgotten, people administer the wrong meds, families get separated, all hell breaks loose. Yes, we train people over and over again to minimize all this, but as the saying goes, no plan survives contact with the enemy. It'd be great if every response was perfectly executed under time pressure, and we do work toward that goal, but it'll never happen.

So yes, it's tragic that rescuers ended up killing a victim, but that's just an extreme case of what happens every time there's a bus crash or plane crash or train wreck or anything similar. Until we can get 37 or 80 or 213 first responders to all think with one brain, it's going to keep happening.

And the first responders we want to keep are the ones who TELL US ABOUT IT. Because when they do, we can figure out what went wrong and train to avoid it. So Johnson probably just changed the response protocol for every FD in North America that rolls trucks into foam, because he had the integrity and guts to show us what happened. Yes, it's tragic, yes it's terrible, yes the FD will probably be sued, yes to all of that: but at least we have the opportunity to learn something instead of forever being in the dark and not knowing how or why Ye Meng Yuan died.

For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start with a comment from James Burkhardt, explaining why the "use it or lose it" aspect of trademark law doesn't always serve as automatic justification for spurious lawsuits, as some people repeatedly contend:

Bullshit. People like to throw that line around, but there is no likelyhood of confusion between Pirate Joe's and Trader Joe's. The use it or lose it doctrine is about when you name become synonymous with a product. That will only happen if Trader Joes spends another decade before getting into a market that wants it and Pirate Joe's moves on to far more then going across the border with a truck.

There is a clear distiction between the two, and he is open about what is going on. The only way for Pirate Joe's to become synonymous with Trader Joe's is for Pirate Joe's to expand and then it is only a problem if and when Trader Joe's attempts to enter the Canadian market, because until then, no consumer confusion CAN exist. Remember, he is actively admitting that he is not a licenced branch of the Trader Joe's name. In fact, the name suggests it.

Finally, if they wanted to preserve their trademark, they should be suing in Canada. Because the "Pirate Joe's" name is in use in CANADA, a US-based court can not remedy the situation. They aren't looking to protect their mark, they are looking for a defaul judgement so they can claim they have the moral high ground, or try to push the decision on the Canadian courts, which have been far less supportive of Trademark and Patent Lawsuits.

Also, Several legal scholars have pointed out there is NO CASE. Suggesting the use it or lose it doctrine does not apply

And last on the insightful side, since it feels a bit odd having no NSA comments on the leaderboard, we've got Quinn Wilde summing up all the things we've learned so far, and just how significant they have been:

The last few weeks have shown that:

The NSA have the power, authority and ability to view data and perform searches that even the genuinely paranoid might recently have sneered at.

Where they don't have the technology to crack encryption they are bullying companies into supplying them backdoors, secretly according to secret interpretations, with huge penalties for even discussing it, no choice in the matter, and so far as I can tell no due process or ability to appeal.

There is a lack of oversight, because the supposed overseers aren't allowed to see much of the relevant information, and a lack of internal oversight because the systems that might be used for this are outdated or worthless.

There is a lack of audit because there are more people who can access any of this information without logs, or as another person, than there are members of congress.

There is a history of abuse, not just because there would have to be, because humans always abuse anything that can be abused eventually, but also because we now have evidence of this.

And now we're learning that this super sensitive top secret foreign intelligence information is being used for domestic police work, simply because it can.

The above is a list of things that might have been considered paranoid this time last year. But the truth is, there's no real conspiracy here.

This is just standard human nature at work, that regular combination of avowedly good intentions and poor judgement that the US constitution was originally and thoughtfully designed to highlight, explain, and condemn.

On the funny side, first place goes to Baldaur Regis, who had the best response to our post about the best response to a copyright threat:

This is the epistolary equivalent of appearing in court and saying "Your Honor, our opponent's case is so laughably weak we won't even address it, and instead show you some cool card tricks we learned at a poker game last night."

Well done!

And in second place we've got... Baldaur Regis again! (It's been a while since we've had a double winner, so congratulations!) This time, he proposed an excellent potential revenue stream for the government:

Application For Patent Application

Product/Service Name: Adverdaction

Executive Summary: In addition to being aesthetically unattractive, the traditional 'black bars' used to obfuscate documents consume massive amounts of ink - in many cases, up to six times more than the unredacted document. Advercation replaces these black bars - deserts of non-information - with targeted advertising relevant to the document requester.

Example: An FOIA request is received from the EFF. Unredacted document:
On 6 Jan 2009, 13,529 koala bears were mistaken for terrorists, and were inadvertently rendered inert by friendly fire.
Traditional redacted document:
On [REDACTED], 13,529 [REDACTED] were [REDACTED] for [REDACTED], and were [REDACTED] by [REDACTED].
Adverdacted document - modified exclusively for the EFF:
On [Viagra for lawyers!], 13,529 [Legal transcriptions by Vivian] were [Eat at Maury's - by the courthouse!] for [Boodles Gin], and were [Scripto Pens] by [Ribbed for HER pleasure!].
Full Description: [REDACTED by Adverdaction!]

Contact Information: [Adverdaction is great!]

For editor's choice on the funny side, first up we've got HappyBlogFriend summing up the lesson learned from Cracked's excellent response to being copied:

People should hire humorists to handle copyright issues. They cost less and achieve more.

And, last but not least, we've got an anonymous commenter who had a dream nightmare about a world without copyright on Martin Luther King's famous speech:

If we don't enforce this copyright and the ability to monetize it, no one would would ever speak eloquently and forcefully to bring about social change. Mike, why are you against social change?

That's all for this week, folks! We're off tomorrow for Labor Day, and back to business as usual on Tuesday.

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34 Comments

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Reader Comments

The First Word

“

Re: Re: Out of 350 comments

OK, but how did AzureSky's comment end up at the top if it didn't get the most votes?
—Anonymous Coward
 ”

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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2013 @ 3:10pm

    Out of 350 comments

    "Out of almost 350 comments (at time of writing) on this week's most controversial post, only one made the list."


    You mean it's the only one that made your list.

    This comment by Azure Sky shows up as a featured comment at the top of the comments section and offers an interesting counterpoint to all the people complaining about a 30 day sentence being too short:

    "Please stop speaking of logic and science, they dont want to hear it, they want blood, they want vengeance, that want his guts on a stick....

    sadly im not kidding about that, I wonder when one of these guys is gonna make the news for murdering people they find on the sex offender registry.....with how they talk, its only a matter of time."

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Leigh Beadon (profile), 1 Sep 2013 @ 3:28pm

      Re: Out of 350 comments

      It's not "our list" -- it's the community's votes... In fact, personally, though I'm not sure if it would change the ultimate conclusion about the situation, I completely agree with AzureSky's observation that most people were surprisingly willing to let emotion prevent them from gathering all the facts. But silverscarcat's comment is the one that got more "insightful" votes from readers than any other comment this week.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2013 @ 3:34pm

        Re: Re: Out of 350 comments

        OK, but how did AzureSky's comment end up at the top if it didn't get the most votes?

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2013 @ 3:46pm

          Re: Re: Re: Out of 350 comments

          dont you have to be a paid subscriber for that bit of magic?

          [ link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          Gwiz (profile), 1 Sep 2013 @ 3:48pm

          Re: Re: Re: Out of 350 comments

          OK, but how did AzureSky's comment end up at the top if it didn't get the most votes?



          The First/Last Word feature isn't tied to voting.

          See http://rtb.techdirt.com/features/ for details.

          [ link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2013 @ 4:38pm

            Re: Re: Re: Re: Out of 350 comments

            So it's basically a paid spot for people to promote their own or other people's comments? That's too bad. I'd rather see top-rated posts in that position, or at least posts selected by Techdirt's editors.

            [ link to this | view in chronology ]

            • identicon
              Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2013 @ 5:59pm

              Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Out of 350 comments

              If only there was a list of top-rated posts plus posts selected by Techdirt's editors. Maybe this list could be posted weekly and then we could comment on it.

              [ link to this | view in chronology ]

              • identicon
                Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2013 @ 7:02pm

                Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Out of 350 comments

                I can hardly wait for next week to find out whether your post is funny.

                [ link to this | view in chronology ]

              • icon
                Ninja (profile), 2 Sep 2013 @ 4:13am

                Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Out of 350 comments

                I vote for this to have a honorable mention on the next Funniest article if. Considering it hasn't broken the record of fastest funniest comment ever.

                [ link to this | view in chronology ]

                • identicon
                  Anonymous Coward, 2 Sep 2013 @ 12:20pm

                  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Out of 350 comments

                  Because having a spot for top posts and a weekly summary of such posts are mutually exclusive concepts, right?

                  [ link to this | view in chronology ]

            • icon
              Rikuo (profile), 2 Sep 2013 @ 4:26am

              Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Out of 350 comments

              *Compulsory facepalm, Picard-class*

              [ link to this | view in chronology ]

            • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
              identicon
              Anonymous Coward, 2 Sep 2013 @ 6:43am

              Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Out of 350 comments

              "So it's basically a paid spot for people to promote their own or other people's comments?"

              Pretty much.

              Techdirt used to advocate a CWF+RTB approach. You know, create something useful, engage with your community and make them feel like they are part of what you do - the goal being that some people would, hopefully, like you enough to send a buck your way.

              But then - like some half-witted online game developer - they developed a few "pay2win" options, and - as expected - the website has been going downhill since.

              [ link to this | view in chronology ]

              • identicon
                Anonymous Coward, 2 Sep 2013 @ 7:34am

                Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Out of 350 comments

                Oh no, someone can pay to duplicate their comment at the top/bottom of the comments section? Heaven forbid you have to see their post twice, that means they've won the argument. It also couldn't possibly be a Reason To Buy for some people. Mike's whole formula is broken by this! Boo!

                [ link to this | view in chronology ]

              • icon
                Rikuo (profile), 2 Sep 2013 @ 8:44am

                Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Out of 350 comments

                It works. They did the CwF with me, and I eventually saw it was a RtB. Now I feel like part of the community, and no, not once have I ever thought it was a Pay2Win, that would imply that I view the comments section as some sort of war that I must win at any cost. Far from it.

                [ link to this | view in chronology ]

              • icon
                Leigh Beadon (profile), 2 Sep 2013 @ 9:21am

                Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Out of 350 comments

                Techdirt used to advocate a CWF+RTB approach. You know, create something useful, engage with your community and make them feel like they are part of what you do - the goal being that some people would, hopefully, like you enough to send a buck your way.

                You seem a little unclear on what CWF+RTB means. You've only described the CWF part. We have never advocated "give it away and pray" -- the RTB half is where you offer people a reason to buy, i.e. an interesting thing that they actually want to pay for, rather than just hoping they "send a buck your way" because they "like you enough"

                [ link to this | view in chronology ]

                • icon
                  AzureSky (profile), 5 Sep 2013 @ 3:43pm

                  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Out of 350 comments

                  I think it needs pointed out, Im not an insider(if I had the money I would be....sadly, I live on SSI(disabled) and dont have a ton of money :/

                  somebody else found my post of value and promoted it, whoever that was, thanks :)

                  [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
      identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2013 @ 6:31pm

      Re: Out of 350 comments

      Azure Sky is a wanna be child rapist. I suspect his life won't be long.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous, 1 Sep 2013 @ 7:13pm

    In addition to Funniest and Most Insightful, maybe we should also have Most Offensive. Bet I could make it every week!

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2013 @ 10:14pm

    Alll weekend !!

    And next to NO comments, how are you making your money this week Mr Masnick ??

    You censor free speech, stifle debate in the comments, makes you'r web site kind of worthless, less that worthless.

    If you will not allow debate or comment, no one will bother reading all your cultists constantly agreeing with you !!

    Or will you only allow comment where the people are commenting are blowing wind up your add ?

    Or is it that the people you censor are often right, and is it true that you are simply not capable of defending your stance.

    We all know you fanboys are not capable of defending you, that's why you will not allow debate..

    It's sad, you of all people have had to resort to cheap censorship and "DELAY TACTICS" (Held for MODERATION, 3 days +)..

    So now you are willing to give up your income to stifle speech !!!

    You might as well just close down the web site, email your fans (the 10 of them).

    Because if you make a statement, it should be that ALL people are able to comment on it equally.

    You of all people should avoid the abuse of censorship and power that you are abusing now.,

    The only person being hurt by your abuse of CENSORSHIP is yourself, (and your family) and anyone else who relies on your income from this site.

    Not to mention your 'reputation' and "standing", don't ever try to tell me you are against censorship or the abuse of power..

    Because, it's SO CLEAR you are one of the WORST abusers I have ever seen !!!!

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2013 @ 12:28pm

      Re: Alll weekend !!

      The top comment this week is from a 350 comment article that was absolutely full of debate over a contentious topic. Basically you've confused people not liking you because you're unpleasant for systemic suppression of unpopular ideas. This neatly absolves you of any responsibility for your actions so I can see why it's an attractive option for you.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      JMT (profile), 3 Sep 2013 @ 1:31pm

      Re: Alll weekend !!

      "You censor free speech, stifle debate in the comments..."

      And yet here you are...

      "...makes you'r web site kind of worthless, less that worthless."

      And yet here you are...

      "If you will not allow debate or comment, no one will bother reading all your cultists constantly agreeing with you !!"

      And yet here you are...

      You�re doing a fine job of completely undermining your own claims.

      "Because if you make a statement, it should be that ALL people are able to comment on it equally."

      Really? Where does it say that? Can you list all the other websites that have that have completely unrestricted commenting, no spam filter, no moderation of any kind?

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      AzureSky (profile), 5 Sep 2013 @ 3:46pm

      Re: Alll weekend !!

      reported, just so you know, if this gets hidden, its not mike but public opinion that hides this crap.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2013 @ 10:19pm

    What about all the CENSORED Comments

    From the people Masnick censors from TECHDIRT,

    we don't get to comment anymore, because out opinion differs from Masnicks! And he simply cant have people disagreeing with Masnick here..

    This is clearly a "NO FREE SPEACH ZONE" only opinions in full agreement with masnick will be allowed.

    Even if it totally destroys the web site, and makes it hardly worth visiting any more.

    So not Masnick can say anything he likes, no one will dare question his authority. Because if they do, Mick will simply CENOR THEM..

    "THIS COMMENT HELD FOR MODERATION, "

    "It WILL/MIGHT APPEAR ON TD AT SOME TIME IN THE FUTUER" (but probably not)..

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Gwiz (profile), 3 Sep 2013 @ 9:06am

      Re: What about all the CENSORED Comments

      Wow darryl.

      Is Labor Day a drinking holiday in Australia too? Your comments today appear to have required even less brain cells to create (didn't think that was possible myself) than your usual rants.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Leigh Beadon (profile), 3 Sep 2013 @ 4:03pm

      Re: What about all the CENSORED Comments

      FREE SPEACH ... CENOR

      Clearly Darryl, having finally accepted that we do not interfere with free speech nor do we do anything that qualifies as censorship, has invented his own slightly modified terms to use in his accusations. Think of it as ideological typosquatting.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    MonkeyFracasJr (profile), 3 Sep 2013 @ 8:35am

    Re:

    I agree.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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