Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

from the comebacks-and-rejoinders dept

We've got another double winner this week! This time, it's That Anonymous Coward who responded to MTV's claim that it will start focusing more on music with a small prediction that scored first place for both funny and insightful:

MTV Exec walks back statement about going back to playing music after being presented with first 14 bills for rights demands bankrupt channel.

In second place on the insightful side, we've got a response to Hillary Clinton's "that's not what I've heard" comment about the tech industry's response to her ongoing demand for compromised encryption. JonC wondered where she's getting her insider info from:

Clinton said, “That is not what I've heard. Let me leave it at that.”

Hmm... Clinton shouldn't have heard anything other than what the public heard. She doesn't currently hold a public office that would give her a reason to have heard anything you or I can't. Sounds like someone may be leaking information. Obama should force her to give up her source so he can persecute, I mean prosecute, the leaker.

For editor's choice on the insightful side, we've got a double hit from frequent commenter That One Guy, who had two comments that racked up insightful votes but not quite enough to make one of the top spots. First, it's his thoughts on the entertainment industry's demands for a notice-and-staydown system:

Live by the DMCA notice, get de-listed by the DMCA notice

Much like calls for censorship should result in the ones calling for such having their speech censored first for the sake of fairness, I think if the *AA's are going to argue for notice and staydown, every single one of their links that gets accidentally tagged should be permanently removed, with stiff penalties in place to ensure that online services have plenty of incentive to never let them be re-listed.

Fair's fair after all, they're the ones calling for such draconian measures, and insisting that there's no problem with them because mistakes are just so very rare and inconsequential, I think it only right that they get to see what it's like being on the receiving end of such treatment.

Next, it's his quite reasonably pessimistic thoughts on the European Court of Human Rights apparently outlawing mass surveillance:

Good first step

Now for the even more important(and difficult) second step:

Getting those running and supporting the surveillance programs to care about what is and is not legal.

Over on the funny side, we've already had our first place winner above, so we move straight on to second place with an anonymous comment that requires some context. First, after it was revealed that ISIS favors open source encrypted messaging tools, one commenter suggested that politicians would soon start calling for bans on open source software, ending his comment with half of an old adage — "when all you have is a hammer..." — and prompting another anonymous commenter to finish the sentence:

whack the politician in the face?

For editor's choice on the funny side, we start with a response to the really bad idea from Google about kicking ISIS off the open web. Pixelation suggested that perhaps this project should be handed off to those with heaps of relevant experience:

Get the RIAA involved

Tell them ISIS is infringing their copyrights.

Finally, we've got an anonymous response to the news that the Interactive Advertising Bureau has banned AdBlock from attending a major advertising conference:

"To protect our world views we have shot the messenger! Rejoice!"

That's all for this week, folks!

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team