Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
from the loose-lips dept
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is an anonymous commenter with a straightforward reaction to the description of ICE's fake college for busting immigrants:
Undercover investigators with the Department of Homeland Security registered the University of Farmington with the state of Michigan as a university using a fake name.
At the request of DHS, a national accreditation agency listed the University of Farmington as being accredited in order to help deceive prospective students.
The university was also placed by federal investigators on the website of ICE as an university approved by them under a government program for foreign students known as SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Program)
How does that not add up to entrapment, and fraud. All the wrong doing is on the governments side.
In second place, we've got Thad with a response to a comment comparing Cindy McCain's bogus sex trafficking report to incidents where people really did catch criminals:
"You mean like the Christmas bombing in Times Square, that was prevented by the disabled ex-Marine street vendor (they get most or all the permits to sell on the streets of NYC) who spotted the suspicious car and told police?"
The car was suspicious because it was on fire. Are you having trouble understanding the difference between telling the police that a car is on fire and telling the police that a woman has a child of a different ethnicity?
"Then there is Richard Jewell."
- Again, you seem confused on the difference between finding something suspicious because there is a bomb in it and finding someone suspicious because of their ethnicity.
- We are talking, specifically, about the post-9/11 "see something, say something" doctrine. 9/11 was in 2001. You are referring to an incident that took place in 1996.
For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start out with one more comment from Thad on that post, mentioning another detail:
...it's particularly galling considering that McCain, herself, has an adopted Bangladeshi daughter (who the Bush campaign targeted in a malicious, racist whisper campaign during the 2000 primary season). McCain knows perfectly well that people can have children who do not share their ethnicity, because she has a child who does not share her ethnicity.
Next, it's jupiterkansas with thoughts on what will happen if the EU Copyright Directive leads to new blanket licensing systems:
Judging from the history of ASCAP licensing, they'll eventually just demand every website get a license whether they host content or not - "just in case." and take you to court if you don't comply.
Over on the funny side, our first place winner is Chris Brand with a response to our assertion that legacy copyright industries in Europe just want Google and Facebook to pay €x amount to satisfy them due to their failure to innovate:
Don't be silly - they want a blank cheque, not one with a number on it.
In second place, it's That One Guy responding to our post about Google and Apple hosting a Saudi government app that allows men to track their spouses' movements, and to a comment that noted installing it as a third-party app is only an option on Android, not iOS:
Oh darn, self-distribution is hard enough that if saudi men want to be able to track their wives/property as easily as they currently can they'll have to put some actual work into being terrible people, how terrible...
For editor's choice on the funny side, we start out with a comment from kallethen proposing a potential benefit to the "hot news" doctrine:
Come on, Mike. Don't you see the missed opportunity by not supporting Hot News? Whenever the inevitable troll post comes along saying "But why aren't you writing about <insert unflattering story regarding company troll hates>", you could just blame it on the Hot News Doctrine!
And finally, we've got That Anonymous Coward with a response to Sony's copyright takedowns of its own anti-piracy propaganda:
However if you let them install a rootkit, they'll let you see it.
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
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Another Guest Editorial...
...would be here, giving you fanboys more than the NOTHING that Masnick provides, IF you fanboys were less than hateful to me.
And why nothing here on Monday? None of the re-writers can on Friday dash off just an opinion piece to fill the holiday VOID and satisfy your desire to comment? -- NOPE. That's a key sign that Techdirt isn't driven by readers, only by Masnick's agenda. Techdirt doesn't even try to gain and hold an audience, let alone with mixed views, that's why dwindles daily.
This related VOID struck me for FUNNY: Masnick advises "Connect with fans", yet there's not even a bio or image of him or the re-writers to be found here! Particularly for Masnick: no mention at all of the expensive diploma and cachet his parents paid for. They're just ghosts, from out of the blue.
Now at least you have target for your pent-up hate. GRRR and stuff. Go to it. You're welcome.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Another Guest Editorial...
Your routine's getting old, mate. Got any new material?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Another Guest Editorial...
Watching you talk about "pent-up hate" is just hilarious.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Another Guest Editorial...
Please, show us your wonderful site with all the good shit we are missing out on. You do have your own blog, right? You don't just sit in your moms basement and throw shit thru the bars at the websites you haven't been banned from yet?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Another Guest Editorial...
Cute way to ask someone to self-dox.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Another Guest Editorial...
Cute way to deflect. So the answer is no content of your own.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Another Guest Editorial...
ermahgerd i feel so deprived now. please let me know where i can find quality content which you write or recommend .
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Techdirt Comments
some comments was fully funny and i really Enjoyed reading through this, very good stuff, thank you for share with us keep moving, waiting for more daily updates. - best regards- http://www.ghdsports.net/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: My cousin I assume
Thank you mr vinny for adding more substantive dialogue to this site in one comment, then blue boy has done in a decade of daily diatribes.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: My cousin I assume
That is a very good movie, and is apparently used in law schools as an exemplar of what a courtroom is like.
https://www.litigationandtrial.com/2012/03/articles/series/special-comment/my-cousin-vinny/
ht tps://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2017/03/13/25-years-later-my-cousin-vinny-keeps-laughs-and-legal-lesso ns-coming/
I want to go watch it again, now.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: My cousin I assume
"Two WHAT?"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: My cousin I assume
"I'm sorry ... the two youuuuuthhhhs."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: My cousin I assume
That exchange was actually improvised, because Fred Gwynne couldn't understand what Joe Pesci was saying. They left it in the film.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Once upon a time there was a cerulean individual of considerable repute, mostly for his legendary distaste for legal processes that ensured appropriate procedures to be followed in prosecution of offenses.
In response, his derogatory statements were all treated accordingly through copyright enforcement methodologies, which largely utilized creative interpretations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The aforementioned statements were then shoved up his rectal cavity and secured with a pointed metal pin by means of a screwdriver.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I think I preferred the limerick, but this is funny as hell too!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"Judging from the history of ASCAP licensing, they'll eventually just demand every website get a license whether they host content or not - "just in case." and take you to court if you don't comply."
Just like extra charges being added to media "just in case" they're used for unauthorized copying, content owners won't be satisfied with the blanket licenses and will continue to sue and prosecute sites that carry content.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]