Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
from the double-winner dept
It's been a little while since we've had one comment take the top spot in both categories, but mermaldad managed the feat this week with a sarcastic repurposing of Jeb Bush's comments about net neutrality and not-actually-from-1934 regulations:
The idea of regulating free speech with a 1787 constitution is one of the craziest ideas I’ve ever heard.
Just think of the logic of using a 1787 constitution that was designed when we relied on hand-operated printing presses as the basis to regulate the most dynamic part of life in America. It’s not going to be good for consumers. It’s certainly not going to be good for innovation.
Coming in second on the insightful side, we've got a response to the Michigan AG who slapped a reporter with two subpoenas in a clear attempt at intimidation. Ninja made a simple and, sadly, probably accurate observation:
Will he get punished for the abuses? No? Then expect this to keep happening.
For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start with a response to a commenter who asserted that the parody of Chip Bok's net neutrality cartoon was not fair use because it was not creative enough and didn't take enough effort. Jupiterkansas pointed out that this is entirely besides the point:
Parody does not require creative effort to be parody, and the new captions are as much commentary as they are parody. This is about having the ability to criticize others using the same medium they are using to make their points. It's not about who is the most creative, or who worked the hardest.
And this week we're going to give a second nod to jupiterkansas for another excellent comment on a similar theme, this time in response to the extremely problematic decision in the Robin Thicke/Marvin Gaye dust-up:
The goal of art is not to create something new and original. The goal of art is to contribute something to the conversation. Every contribution enhances the conversation and if enough people contribute, it becomes a piece of culture. That's what made rock and roll a thing - lots of people doing it - and now rock and roll is a part of culture.
All the new and original stuff does is change the conversation, which is what makes the new and original stuff important. Most art does not do this.
And in today's world of pop culture, much of that conversation revolves around the copyrighted content of others. That's why having a robust public domain is necessary. Copyright stifles the conversation we call culture for the sake of profit.
The ridiculous thing is that if Thicke really wanted to copy Marvin Gaye, he could have easily just paid a licensing fee to do a cover like lots of artists do. The fact that he didn't shows that he wasn't intending to copy.
Meanwhile, coming in second place on the funny side behind mermaldad's double winner, we've got That One Guy with a response to Turkey's baffling attack on the oh-so-violent game of Minecraft:
I'm not sure where the mocking tone is coming from, Minecraft can have some seriously bad effects on children.
Why, just last week I saw a kid punching a tree and getting mad that is was taking so long to cut it down. Only a few days before that I saw another kid carrying a shovel towards the nearby park, muttering something about 'Going to find me some diamonds'. Probably worst of all, just yesterday I saw someone else, a teenager this time, throwing random sticks and piece of metal on top of a box and screaming about how they wouldn't turn into a pick-axe.
Laugh all you want at those in Turkey doing their best to head off the serious side-effects a game like Minecraft causes, I can assure you that they are very real, and very hazardous.
For editor's choice on the funny side, we've got two separate anonymous comments. First, a response to New Zealand's prime minister, who promised to resign if mass surveillance was uncovered, and subsequently, unsurprisingly, waffled on that promise:
Perhaps this is what he meant: "If we are found to have engaged in mass surveillance, I'll resign ... myself to the fact that we got caught."
Finally, we've got one more comment on the Thicke/Gaye affair, pointing out that the fact that it's even still an issue is ridiculous to begin with:
My momma always said that I can't take anything with me when I die. Well I fooled her, I am taking my copyrights with me for another 70 years!
That's all for this week, folks!
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What makes that part of the constitutions really crazy is that it does not regulate speech, it regulates politicians, and they hate that.
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But as for "Awesome Stuff" ... some of us might not mind its absence. And maybe in the future a new series could be created, combining those two themes, perhaps called something like "This Week In Techdirt's History of Awesome Stuff" and seeing if Techdirt's featured Kickstarter projects turned out to be successes or flops ... or even scams.
Yes, of course, the big Copia Conference is taking place (and wishing everyone the best of luck with that) but maybe some of us are just spoiled brats accustomed to our weekly treats.
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Thus generating material for "This Week In Techdirt History" five, ten, fifteen, and thirty-four (don't ask) years from now.
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Of course, there's no guarantee that TWITH -- or even Techdirt itself -- will still be around by then.
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Now if you want to give the government more power over your life then I suppose you might want to rewrite it but that has nothing to do with the passage of time.
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Posthumous copyright
I'd not mind anybody taking his copyrights with him. Angels have enough leisure time to come up with their own tunes.
The problem is rather leaving his copyrights to the beancounters.
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Just everyone exhausted from Copia summit... everything should go back to normal next week...
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Doesn't it bother anybody that the FBI has access and is scanning every ATM photo with facial recognition software?
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/11/us/ohio-ashley-summers-missing/index.html
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No, it just goes recursive after that. I for one am looking forward to "This week in 'This week in Techdirt history' history" posts.
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It must have been very exhausting indeed. Conspicuously missing from Monday's lineup was Techdirt's chief writer (perhaps busy putting together torrent videos of the copia conference?). Let's see what happens on Tuesday.
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