Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of 2013 At Techdirt

from the happy-new-year! dept

Happy new year, everyone! As you can tell, we're taking a break from regular posts today — so it seems like a perfect time to run down the top comments of 2013. Instead of just two winners, we've got the top five from each category. Looking forward to another year full of great comments!

Insightful

  1. Akari Mizunashi on the post ICE Starts Raiding Mobile Phone Repair Shops To Stop Repairs With Aftermarket Parts:
    "Immigration & Custom's Enforcement (ICE)"
    Uh, sorry, but that's not what it stands for.

    Industry & Corporate Enforcement.

    Please make note of this in the future, for accuracy. ;)
  2. silverscarcat on the post Guy Who Wrote Legal Memos Defending US Torture Defends NSA Because It Takes Too Long To Obey The Constitution:
    There's one thing John Yoo missed

    the terrorists have already won.

    After all, Bin Laden said that he didn't have to do anything anymore after 9/11, since America would destroy itself.

    He was so right.
  3. Anonymous Coward on the post Bizarre 'Attribution' Troll Bullies Twitter Users Into Compliance With Baseless Legal Threats:
    I enjoy the irony of someone being a complete jerk regarding a quote about being polite and civil.
  4. Rikuo on the post London Police Order Registrars To Shut Down A Bunch Of Websites Without Any Legal Basis; Threaten Registrars If They Don't Comply:
    Before certain people come in and vomit their usual idiocy, be aware of these facts.

    This is a police body issuing orders to parties to shut down and censor other parties all WITHOUT A COURT ORDER. Not only that, but in the case of EasyDNS, it's a BRITISH police body demanding action from a CANADIAN domain registrar to redirect a website based in SINGAPORE (I did a WHOIS search) to competing websites based in LONDON, or the police would complain to ICANN, a body based in the USA. Again, no courts involved.
  5. rw on the post Former DHS Official Says Boston Bombing Proves ACLU & EFF Are Wrong About Surveillance And CISPA:
    And what about all the (self-created)terrorist plots the FBI keeps breaking up. A real one comes along and they miss it completely.


Funny
  1. Gareth on the post DJs' 'Dihydrogen Monoxide' April Fool's Prank Results In Suspension And Possible Felony Charges:
    Hardly surprising, given:

    A) It's Florida, and

    B) It's a Country station.

    Not exactly a Venn diagram that would contain a lot of smart listeners.
  2. Double win! Second place for Funny is the anonymous comment on the post Bizarre 'Attribution' Troll Bullies Twitter Users Into Compliance With Baseless Legal Threats that won third place for Insightful.
  3. Cowards Anonymous on the post Lawsuit Filed To Prove Happy Birthday Is In The Public Domain; Demands Warner Pay Back Millions Of License Fees:
    Happy Lawsuit To You!
    Happy Lawsuit To You!
    This Song Is Public Domain,
    Happy Lawsuit To You!

    (To the tune of Good Morning To You)
  4. Arsik Vek on the post Did Paul Duffy's Wife Admit That He Was Engaged In Interstate Extortion On Facebook?:
    Duffy's next comment: "I'm not sure who that woman is. She may or may not be my wife, but I have no direct knowledge of any relationship."
  5. Anonymous Coward on the post Teri Buhl Responds To Our Story; Still Confused About The Internet And The Law:
    Re: TLDR

    Hey everybody, I didn't read the article but here's a stinging critique anyway!
Hide this

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  1. icon
    Rikuo (profile), 1 Jan 2014 @ 9:45am

    *Shakes hands with Akari, silverscarcat, AC and rw* Very good comments, my good sirs/madams.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    silverscarcat (profile), 1 Jan 2014 @ 10:41am

    Re:

    *Shakes hands with you* Indeed.

    Surprised my comment got so high overall. Whee!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    Rikuo (profile), 1 Jan 2014 @ 10:50am

    Re: Re:

    Same here. My comment up there was really just a quick summary of the article. I didn't present any insightful viewpoints, just condensed it for certain people.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    out_of_the_blue, 1 Jan 2014 @ 2:03pm

    Now here's some FUNNY CLONING AROUND!

    Heh, heh. Entirely by chance, came across my valuable screen name being faked here:

    http://torrentfreak.com/scary-site-blocking-announcement-threatens-750000-sites-131231

    To save you time, this fake is spreading plain and simple lies that I'm for MPAA, RIAA.

    Mainly, again shows the inability of Techdirt fanboy-trolls to think through what being my clone means, even with false messages.

    I'm sure the trolls think it's undermining me, but here are the advantages to me:

    You are keeping opposition presence on virulently pro-pirate site where I had none! Keeping pirates stirred up and angry is FINE with me. They're not going to listen to my real message, you're just whipping them into frenzy that makes them blurt their true rage and hate against anyone creative. That'll turn off anyone at all thoughtful who goes to TorrentFreak.

    You are spreading my screen name, embiggening my reputation. Any publicity is good publicity.

    You are knowingly lying with each and every use of my valuable screen, wearing away your own already meager conscience.

    In order to at all imitate me, you are repeating the presumed opposite of your own views, and that burns the message into your mind. You always become what you resist.

    You are creating dissonance for anyone who reads my real posts here: that will keep interest high in checking out every out_of_the_blue post. Mine are distinguishable at a glance. Any effort put into faking me only makes you more like me!

    Besides that, you may accidentally or intentionally be "outed" and receive much unwelcome attention from your fellow pirates.

    There's already been a disparaging "go back to Techdirt" comment, giving here a rep I presume opposite to your intent.

    And at any time I can change screen name: as I've said, I've a couple doozies thought up but stick with out_of_the_blue to spin up you little liars.

    Oh, and you also give me ongoing reasons to paste this in to point out how my screen name is so valuable that have my own pet rabid ankle-biters faking it!

    So I'm not really sure this isn't an actual but a bit simplistic clone!

    Where the fanboys troll the site with vulgar ad hom, and call anyone disagreeing "trolls"!

    10:01:11[l-2-2]

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    out_of_the_blue, 1 Jan 2014 @ 2:16pm

    Re: Now here's some FUNNY CLONING AROUND!

    I forgot to include as advantage that you amused me. But even my forgetting just lets me put on another classic tagline:

    Where arrogance meets ignorance to conspire what they'll do with someone else's $100 million movie.

    10:16:43[l-257-7]

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. icon
    Rikuo (profile), 1 Jan 2014 @ 2:43pm

    Re: Now here's some FUNNY CLONING AROUND!

    I've seen people stroking their own egos before, but this...the question of whether or not we TD regulars are liars is besides the point, the sheer amount of arrogance dripping from your post just turns me off (and no, I don't mean in a sexual way). Yes I noticed the name being used there too, but I didn't really think much of it.
    Think about it. This short article is about the comments that got the most Insightful and Funny votes, and then here you turn up with a comment full of praise about yourself and contempt for everyone else. You even admit it, as long as you are being talked about, even negatively, you're satisfied.
    I implore you, as a fellow human being, to seriously take a look at yourself and what you've written. Seriously question whether waiting around for what you determine to be un-earned abuse from commentators on a website to be something worth your time. I don't do that. I received what in my mind was abuse from other websites, and I decided that they would lose my presence there. I didn't cultivate a persecuted messiah complex. If all you're getting from us here on TD is abuse, whether earned or unearned, do not be around to suffer it. There simply is no point to it.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Jan 2014 @ 3:08pm

    Re: Now here's some FUNNY CLONING AROUND!

    You don't know what the word "valuable" means.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    RD, 1 Jan 2014 @ 3:10pm

    Re: Re: Now here's some FUNNY CLONING AROUND!

    Please let this rebuttal of Rikuo's become one of THIS years top 5. It would be well deserved.

    It is hard to imaging a more self-serving, self-ego-stroking load of tripe than what ootb posted. Wow, arrogance knows no bounds apparently. I guess if all you have to be proud of is being crowned Douche of the Year then you have to post self-congratulatory back-slapping posts like his. Sheesh.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Jan 2014 @ 4:39pm

    Re: Re:

    Small wonder. The only grasp of value he has is the standards of a movie only rich corporations are capable of producing.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Jan 2014 @ 4:51pm

    Hahaha, I missed a couple of these the first time around. :) I love this site!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. icon
    bgmcb (profile), 1 Jan 2014 @ 7:33pm

    Pre Snowden

    As the phone repair busts were before Snowden's revelations perhaps the ICE interest got a bump from phones dropping out of the surveillance grid.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Jan 2014 @ 7:56pm

    number two needs some work

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Jan 2014 @ 3:00am

    Re: Now here's some FUNNY CLONING AROUND!

    my valuable screen name

    It is valuable to the Techdirt community, as it marks posts that can be ignored.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. icon
    Violynne (profile), 2 Jan 2014 @ 4:27am

    Re:

    I am stunned my ICE comment won first place for the year. Thanks, everyone.

    *shakes hands

    link to this | view in thread ]


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