Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

from the insight-etc. dept

This week, we told the story of the FBI's harassment of a Tor developer, to an understandably outraged response. That One Guy won first place on the insightful side by digging in to just how threatening and foreboding the agency's actions were:

Taking notes out of 'Creepy Stalkers 101' I see

One of the most disturbing aspects to this is the continued insistence on a physical meetup, as though it simply wasn't possible to have the discussion over the phone or online in some way.

Given the repeated insistence on a physical meeting, refusal to state what they wanted her for, and the not so veiled insinuation that they'd really rather not have her lawyer present, yeah, I'd say she had plenty of reason to be worried.

We also saw a partly disappointing ruling this week when a judge told Twitter that revealing statistics on NSLs and FISA Court orders was not protected speech. An anonymous commenter won second place for insightful (and hit third place for funny) by suggesting another legal tactic:

The third party doctrine should apply here, by giving the company the letters and warrants, the government has no expectations of privacy.

For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start out with one more nod to That One Guy for pointing out a delightful detail of an Australian government commission's shockingly excellent report on intellectual property:

Using a right to show why it's important

Got to love how the section of the report dealing with fair use starts with a snippet from another report to list it's claims so that they can then be addressed, something that would not be legal were it not for fair use.

Next, in response to a case in which the DOJ's "good faith" defence for warrantless Stingray usage fell flat, an anonymous commenter wondered just how much strain the notion of good faith could really take:

"Good faith exemption" How did that argument go?

"We did everything we could to keep the use of this device secret from the courts and the defense attorneys, by using NDA's and having the US Marshals to come in take any record of their use before a court could force us to turn them over.... because we thought it was legal?"

Over on the funny side, for first place we return to the story about the FBI's pursuit of a Tor developer, where it was hard to ignore the coincidence that the developer in question bears the surname "Isis". One anonymous commenter figured this would just make for interesting clickbait:

I can see the headlines:
"TOR software developed by Isis, with financing from the US government!"

In second place, we've got a comment from TheResidentSkeptic also in response to Australia's copyright report, and the potential fallout:

News from the FAA

Every private jet in Hollywood has filed a flight plan to Australia on an "emergency flight" basis. All airlines are requesting extra flights due to sudden demand from law firms and lobbyist organizations.

For editor's choice on the funny side, we've got two comments that scored high in both funny and insightful votes. While our second place winner predicted the reaction to Australia's report from the private copyright industries, Vidiot anticipated a rapid assist from the USTR:

Coming up...

... a top slot in "Mid-2016 Special 301 Report - Rise of the Aussie Outlaws"!

Come on, RIAA... what did you expect from a nation colonized by pirates?

Finally, we return to Twitter's first amendment struggles with revealing supposedly classified statistics, where icarusthecow wondered why the government was so concerned in the first place:

Hmm, funny they should be so secretive... after all, It's just metadata right?

That's all for this week, folks!

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