Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
from the virtual-gathering dept
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side comes from That One Guy in response to FOSTA supporters making an unsurprising pivot to killing off pornography:
Fetch me my fainting couch!
You know what would make finding actual exploitation a hell of a lot easier, as shown post-FOSTA? Not lumping any and all sexual content into the same bucket and making it so platforms have a very strong incentive to not see anything lest they be hit with massive fines, driving sexual content off of sites that are willing and eager to help law enforcement find actual victims and instead having that sort of content on sites that don't give a damn and/or are incentivized to look the other way.
There's some dark hypocrisy to be found in the fact that those decrying the victimization of a group of people are themselves using those victims as nothing more than props for their own ends, all because some people just can't stand the idea that naked bodies and sex exists.
In second place, it's Jeremy Lyman with thoughts on why the pandemic has led to a huge uptick in cord cutting:
You Only Need One Channel™
Nothing like being home 24/7 to make you realize that having 300 channels just means that you're paying for 300 things you don't want to watch.
For editor's choice on the insightful side, we've got a pair of comments about the Copyright Office. First up, it's MathFox pushing back on one commenter's suggestion that its staffers are being bribed, since the truth is likely far simpler:
I don't think the grunt-workers are bribed. They self-select (why else apply to the copyright office) and are keep hearing all that stories why copyright is good and their work protecting and expanding it is important. An institutional echo-chamber. And if you provide a report-writing team with data that supports a specific message it's easy to get the message in the report; especially when the writing team beliefs in the message too.
It could be that some in management pulled some strings when selecting the team and selecting the data infuenced by "external incentives" like personal friendships, previous or future employers or other lobbying.
Next, it's Anonymous Anonymous Coward talking about the office's attack on libraries:
Pay me, pay me, pay me
Yet another example of the Copyright Office being co-opted by the 'everything must be owned, and by owned we mean controlled and monetized on a per use basis' crowd (read one chapter tonight, another payment is due tomorrow for the next chapter).
This push for control is just another step on their way to a one way Internet where they 'control' all the content and want payment for even 'thinking' about their IP. You cannot create because we are the creators (by which we mean we control the creators ability to get their works out there) and we control all original thought. Culture, ha! It ain't culture unless we say it is and have proper income even if you are just singing to yourself in the shower.
The open Internet scares the hell out of them. Give them an inch and they will take ten miles. Now, how do we get the also co-opted congresscritters to see things from our side, rather than theirs.
Over on the funny side, both of the winners come in response to the aforementioned uptick in cord cutting, and anonymous first place comment comes in response to Jeremy Lyman's winning insightful comment:
Or, if you're lucky, 299.
In second place, it's justok questioning our post title that described it as "the worst quarter ever" for cord-cutting:
Error in title
Should be: Covid-19 Just Triggered The Best Quarter Ever For Cable TV 'Cord Cutting'
For editor's choice on the funny side, we start out with Bloof and a reaction to the spate of op-eds claiming the internet only works because of the death of net neutrality:
I for one refuse to believe that Sam C. Cot of the WSJ is merely a PR shill for big telecom conglomerates! He's as trustworthy and neutral as NYT opinion writer Adam T. Telegraphson!
Finally, we've got Crafty Coyote deploying the perennial, practically obligatory, but still very apt response to copyright overreach (although that was tangential to this particular story):
But without the financial motivation that copyright provides, how will grandmas all over the world be properly motivated to post pictures of their little angels online? It's a 95-year monopoly for 95-year old people
That's all for this week, folks!
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And?
Fosta..
You would think that those folks behind HIDING SEX, are embarrassed to have had children, or anything dealing WITH having children.
Love watching Anime, and Girls screaming "Hentai!"(weirdo, pervert,...) And it it werent for us Perverts, there wouldnt BE any children.
Cord cutting..
DITTO:
Thats something Iv shown to friends and family over many years.. HBO is a group of channels, owned by a corp, that once the show is on TV, it travels around, and in 6 months will be on every channel they OWN. then sold to another corp to do the Exact same thing.. It might be 1-2 years after release, but you will see it on EVERY channel..
Every year there are over 400 Movies made and dumped into the DVD market. Big number, but how many make it to TV. There are 2nd and 3rd movies in a series, have you ever seen some of them? Secret of NIMH, had a 2nd movie. Allot of those end up being B grade, but there are some good ones also.
Copyright office?
Consider our gov. and NOT upgrading computer tech for 20 years. How much fun is it to scramble around looking up info on Everything submitted? How much knowledge do you need to get this job? and KNOW everything about the subjects, even if there were 1 person per group of subjects ITS HUGE.. And we are holding copyrights that have expired, so we can show you CANT copyright it Again.
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Re:
Are you STS?
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Re: Re:
??
Myself, considering I was born before Reagan,
Watched the Old mix with the New, and my Washer fail because of a computer in it that cant be replaced.
The idea comes around that Efficiency Sucks, as the corps or the state will take the extra money anyway, and the consumer wont see any REAL changes.
More often is worse, in some way. But we are still paying the same price if it was 100% Equal to the past products.
Iv watched most of the tech mags, disappear.
Iv read an RV mag that suggested using Chlorine based cleaners is fine even when using other Cleaner. And sent them a letter about Mixing Chlorine with Anything could kill someone.(rubbing alcohol(?) makes Chloroform).
Watched proprietary goods Made for products that are no longer covered by Copyright..and you cant modify it to be BETTER. Or even fix it, 1 year and 1 month later.
Iv watch AIWA get bought up by Sony, and changed from the #2 Commercial product to a CRAP stereo maker(until recent products that cost 10 times what they should)
Iv Watched Sony, fall from Grace, as my 25+ year old headphones (ITE) Sound better then ANY of the new ones.(MDR-W14)
Had a 30 year old boombop that finally died, because I couldnt find another Volume slider that would fit. that had more options then most Current stereo systems Even near its price point.
Watched the corps over value the Companies they operate by over 100 times the world Value in money.
Watched corps try to take over other countries..AND BP not pay India for the Accident they had LONG ago. And BP isnt their original name..they have had MANY.
And if we were a true capitalist Gov. We would have let the banks fail, and Enron fail, and about 1/4 of the major Corps fall with them...And it would have fixed allot of things..
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