Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

from the irony,-absurdity,-hypocrisy dept

It's another big week for insightful comments, with the votes on that side shooting far ahead of those on the funny side. In first place, we've got btr1701 with a rephrasing of our condemnation of the terrible ruling against Chinese DVD ripper software:

seeking to wipe an entire company completely off the face of the internet for daring to do something that's basically legal in similar realms

More like seeking to wipe an entire company off the internet for daring to follow the laws of its own country instead of the laws of a country on the other side of the planet; laws which it is actually under no legal obligation to follow-- no matter what this self-important federal judge thinks.

A Chinese company, based in China, with no presence in the United States does not suddenly become subject to U.S. law and forbidden to do things that are allowed under Chinese laws merely because it puts a website up on the internet.

In second place we've got Ninja, who craved the opportunity to speak with Rep. Pompeo about the many ludicrous statements in his attack on SXSW:

I have a few questions to Mr Pompeo as well.

What is Mr Pompeo's relationship with the big military and security corporations, financial or otherwise? Has he ever received money or other compensation from any lobbying effort, in cash or in-kind, and will he provide bank statements to support his answer to this question?

Why should the audience at SXSW find credible a letter from a man who broke his oaths [towards upholding the Constitution] and deliberately deceived not only his employer, but his country, in order to protect unconstitutional programs?

If he ever flees the country when the people ask for the heads of those who are undermining the Constitution then I can add 2 more questions.

For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start with an anonymous comment about HBO Go's massive failure during the True Detective finale. As the comment points out, this wouldn't happen if big media wasn't so scared of technology:

This is the part where the bittorrent (or similar) protocol comes in. It efficiently deals with distributing large amounts of content to lots of people.

Looks like the pirates are years ahead in technology...

Next, we've got John Fenderson excellently pointing out another reason that companies flipping out over bad reviews online is idiotic:

The funny thing is...

The funny thing is that I would never make a business or purchasing decision based on what some commenter on some blog had to say. However, I will absolutely make business or purchasing decisions based on how companies react to what some commenter on some blog says about them.

Over on the funny side, first place goes to That Anonymous Coward for pointing out a key irony in Rep. Pompeo's aforementioned attack:

"flee to that beacon of First Amendment freedoms"

And I am demanding you not let him speak.

And in second place, we've got Emo with a reaction to Congress' painful-to-hear conversation about "free" in search results:

Banning the word free
makes perfect sense. After all, we're living in the land of the f-- wait, no that can't be right.

For editor's choice on the funny side, we start with an anonymous comment pointing out that maybe we just misunderstood what the CIA meant by "oversight":

The White House has been withholding for five years more than 9,000 top-secret documents sought by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence for its investigation into the now-defunct CIA detention and interrogation program.

Must have been an oversight

And, finally, we've got Andrew F making a keen observation about the student who was suspended under zero-tolerance rules for pointing his finger like a gun:

Ironically, if he used his middle finger instead of his index finger, he would only have gotten detention.

Ah, the delightful absurdity of any rule that is black-and-white.

That's all for this week, folks!

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