Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

from the bad-ideas dept

Sun, Jul 3rd 2016 12:00pm — Leigh Beadon

It's been a while since we've had a double winner, but this week Rekrul took first place for both insightful and funny, in response to the warning from US intelligence agencies that Americans travelling abroad should use burner phones and trust nobody. His response was to note a key omission in this warning:

The video is incomplete! Where's the part where he returns to the US and gets his electronic devices searched and confiscated by the TSA while he's given a thorough groping?

In second place on the insightful side, we've got a response to Google's use of copyright tools to remove extremist content, where we wondered what anyone thinks this will actually accomplish. Almost Anonymous had an answer for us:

The answer is, "something". I know it is not a good answer, but it is the correct one.

For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start with one more response to the warnings for Americans abroad, this time from OldMugwump who had some hands-on experience:

It's not new, it's just how USG people think

In the 90s I used to go to UN-related meetings in Geneva a lot.

There was always a guy from the State Dept. there to watch over the "US delegation" (most of whom represented private firms).

Every Friday he'd tell us to let State know everywhere we went outside our hotel over the weekend - not for infosec reasons, but because it's a "foreign country" and we could get into all kinds of trouble. We could get arrested and have no rights, not like at home in the US.

This was in Switzerland, the child-proofed chocolate-coated rubber room of Western Europe. Far safer than any place in the US - the main danger was overdosing on cheese.

But I think they really meant it.

There's something about the mentality of people who go to work for the US government - they really, truly, think all them furriners in nasty, terrible places like Switzerland, the UK, Austrialia, Japan (Japan!) are lawless hellholes without Good Old Fashioned Merican Democracy where people will be skinned alive for blinking at the wrong time.

It's a kind of paranoia and fear of the strange.

But it's real, and sincere.

Next, we've got a simple anonymous response to the spike in DUI arrests in Austin since the city banned Uber and similar apps:

do you have any idea how much a city can make off a dui? austin has needs and safety isn't one of them.

Over on the funny side, we've already had our first place comment above, so we move on to second place, with a comment from W4RM4N in response to Microsoft's polite and gentle announcement that it would be screwing over all its Xbox Fitness customers:

I guess that gives a new meaning to "consoled."

For editor's choice on the funny side, we start out with a response to the Copyright Office's push to require regular renewal of websites' DMCA safe harbor registration. Machin Shin had a solution borrowed from the pro-copyright playbook:

I just had a great idea! They want these registrations to be for a limited time right?

So they should just make them last "life of the creator plus 70 years."

Finally, we've got a response to the worrying news that the EU wants to extend copyright protection to content created by robots and computers. DannyB was shocked to learn that this is a new idea:

Based upon what I see coming out of hollywood, I would assume that we already give copyright to robots?

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

12 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 3 Jul 2016 @ 12:37pm

"I just had a great idea! They want these registrations to be for a limited time right?

So they should just make them last "life of the creator plus 70 years.""

Oh wow, I didn't realize someone else independently thought of the same idea as me and posted it before I did. Lol.

Another thing I read on another message board is that it's amazing how a computer on the Internet has no expectation of privacy from being hacked, because computers get hacked all the time, yet DRM gives corporations a legal expectation of not being hacked regardless of whether or not DRM gets hacked all the time. Two sets of laws, one for the corporations and politicians/regulators/law enforcement and one for the rest of us.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Whatever, 3 Jul 2016 @ 5:50pm

This is an outrage! None of my valuable criticisms made it to insightful commentary again this week. Instead you unsophisticated plebs insist on elevating childish one-liners aimed at humiliating copyright enforcement, because you're all pirates. I stamp my foot in righteous anger and shake my fist in your general direction!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 3 Jul 2016 @ 7:18pm

Dangerous places
There's something about the mentality of people who go to work for the US government - they really, truly, think all them furriners in nasty, terrible places like Switzerland, the UK, Austrialia, Japan (Japan!) are lawless hellholes without Good Old Fashioned Merican Democracy where people will be skinned alive for blinking at the wrong time.
Australia is a dangerous place, the most venomous snakes, the biggest sharks, drop-bears, flying foxes, child snatching dingoes and that most deadly of substances - vegemite toast.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Jul 2016 @ 2:41am

Someone needs to make a video,
you can get your laptops,phones tablets scanned ,or taken away if you go to an airport .
your emails, phone calls ,texts,ims recorded,
windows 10 records your data,browsing .
Welcome to the usa.
home of the free .
nsa treats all foreigners as potential terrorists anyway.
The usa doesnt want people travelling anyway .
most usa citizens never get a password .
[ link to this | view in thread ]
justok (profile), 4 Jul 2016 @ 10:22am

Bad Robot produces alot of good movies. Don't see a problem with their copyrights.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Paul (profile), 4 Jul 2016 @ 10:43am

Foreign travel
Using a burner phone also makes for a far better reason to search you upon return. Who uses burner phones except terrorists.....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Jul 2016 @ 10:45am

Response to: Whatever on Jul 3rd, 2016 @ 5:50pm
It may have something to do with you being entirely devoid of any insight or even good humor
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Some Guy, 5 Jul 2016 @ 2:28am

Re: Response to: Whatever on Jul 3rd, 2016 @ 5:50pm
I honestly can't tell if he's joking. Sarcasm is difficult to communicate via text.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 5 Jul 2016 @ 2:31am

Re:
I think you just made Whatever drool ...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 5 Jul 2016 @ 9:40am

Re: Re: Response to: Whatever on Jul 3rd, 2016 @ 5:50pm
Funnily enough, even if it is meant as a joke, it's still miles more honest than the actual Whatever would be. And accurate to a T when you consider how much Whatever has been spamming the weekend posts about how his panties are all in a knotted bunch that a site he despises and trolls at aren't willing to entertain him according to his prissy standards.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
David, 5 Jul 2016 @ 11:45am

Re: Foreign travel
Who travels to foreign countries except terrorists? Well, actually, who would voluntarily return to the U.S.?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Seegras (profile), 8 Jul 2016 @ 9:46am

Swearing foreigners
in nasty, terrible places like Switzerland

Yes, we range the second-lowest when it comes to violent crimes (despite of having lots of guns; long guns however) but we also do something that must be terrifying for US Americans: We swear. A Lot. In public. On stages. In TV. On the fucking Internet. Everywhere.
[ link to this | view in thread ]