Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

from the say-it-again dept

This week, we noted how the stupid ban on Olympic tweets was harming athletes, and expressed hope that someone would fight back against the IOC. Jason won most insightful comment of the week by suggesting things go a step further:

Or, while we're dreaming, how about hoping we just give the IOC what it really seems to want, and no one talk, post, tweet, watch, or think about the Olympics anywhere, ever?

In second place for insightful, we have michael with a personal-experience response to the surprising study showing internet trolls are even worse when they aren't anonymous:

I also thought trolls hid behind anonymity. But then I joined NextDoor, which is like Facebook for your neighborhood or community.

The open racism, confrontational attitudes, and flagrant trolling by neighbors I'd never met (and I live in a pretty close-knit community) and whose name and address are prominently displayed on the site was shocking.

Turns out it's not the anonymity; it's just that some people are assholes.

For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start out with another response to the Olympics' various stupid and questionable bans, where Whoever pointed out some of the legal intricacies:

Treaty is quite explicit, and limited.

In second place on the funny side,

The Nairobi treaty defines trademark protection for the Olympics. The interesting thing about this treaty and its implementation under US law is that it is limited to a small number of marks, and many that the USOC or the IOC claim people cannot use are simply not included in the treaty and law. For example "Rio" is not protected:

2. Which Olympic trademarks are protected in the United States?

The Olympic trademarks protected by U.S. statute (36 U.S.C. § 220506(c)) include the name “UNITED STATES OLYMPIC COMMITTEE”; the symbol of the IOC, consisting of five interlocking rings; the words “Olympic,” “Olympiad” and “Citius Altius Fortius,” and also the words “Paralympic,” “Paralympiad,” “Pan-American” and “America Espirito Sport Fraternite,” or any combination of these words; the emblem of the United States Olympic Committee, consisting of an escutcheon having a blue chief and vertically extending red and white bars on the base with five interlocking rings displayed on the chief; and the symbols of the International Paralympic Committee and the Pan-American Sports Organization, consisting of a torch surrounded by concentric rings.
http://www.inta.org/TrademarkBasics/FactSheets/Pages/ProtectionofOlympicTrademarks.aspx
https:/ /www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/36/220506

Next, we've got an anonymous response to the fact that even the RIAA's usual defenders were pointing out that it's lying about YouTube piracy:

Yet more evidence that piracy is merely the excuse that the legacy content industries uses to attack those that allow publishing without going through them, by trying to make a legal case against them. They cannot attack the individual self publishing content creators, as they are too numerous, but they can attack those who facilitate self publishing.

That same post is the source of our first place winner on the funny side. After one commenter showed up making broad and bizarre assertions about "regulation", another anonymous commenter couldn't resist mimicking his jumbled and repetitive approach:

Let me see if I understand what you're saying.
Regulation regulates regulations, but regulations are relegated to regulating the regulators. So, if we want to regulate the regulation of regulators, we have to put regulations into place that will regulate regulating regulations?
Do I have that right?

In second place on the funny side, we've got an analogy from MDT in response to the Manhattan DA's latest demands for encryption backdoors-but-we-won't-call-them-that:

We are not saying that every safe should have a second door on it. We are only asking for every safe manufactured to have a fixed combination that is given to the police for use when we need it. We will absolutely guard this police combination that opens all safes, and we will not allow criminals to have it. We will make it illegal for anyone other than police to use it, which will make it secure and safe and ensure no one but the 'good guys' can use that bypass combination code.

For editor's choice on the funny side, we've got another analogy for the DA, this time from an anonymous commenter and much more straightforward:

We're not saying we want 1+1 to = 3, but does it always have to = 2? I'm sure the smart mathematicians could come up with something if they really wanted to.

Finally, we head to our post about one Minnesota carpet cleaning company that did fight back against the Olympics, where we noted that the IOC had overstepped its legal boundaries, and Ryunosuke suggested a more appropriate phrasing:

and by "overstepped their legal boundaries" you meant pole hurdled, triple jumped, and pole vaulted over it, right?

That's all for this week, folks!

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