Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

from the words-with-friends dept

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is an anonymous comment responding to Trump's description of his new microblog platform as "a beacon of freedom" and "a place to speak freely and safely":

Translation: "You are free to praise and agree with Trump or you are free to shut up and go away."

In second place, it's That Anonymous Coward with some thoughts on Hollywood lobbyists fighting against IP waivers for COVID vaccines:

Does anyone still have any doubt that they value copyright more than human life?

Not a SINGLE movie can prevent or treat covid, but JUST IN CASE we should make sure people die for not being able to pony up for access to the IP.

Tell me again how the system isn't broken and I will so bitch slap you into next week.

For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start out with an anonymous response to the ol' "intellectual property promotes innovation" claim:

Wow dude. Way to be completely wrong. Modern American innovation is stunted by modern American "intellectual property" laws. Innovation is discouraged by "IP" laws that penalize/ban innovation that anyone can argue is somehow related to their own works.

It is kind of like someone took a look at the history of western science and said "These people are learning from each other, and frequently come up with ideas based on the ideas that came before. Let us have less of this."

Next, it's another anonymous comment in response to the latest example of cops behaving badly:

Cops are... really not great at putting up arguments for why they shouldn't be defunded.

Over on the funny side, our first place winner is n00bdragon with another response to Hollywood opposing IP waivers:

Those researchers would never have created a COVID vaccine if they didn't expect a movie to be made about it.

In second place, it's Stephen T. Stone with a comment about the description of people who "had already decided their conclusion and was looking for strawmen to throw up and tear down in order to 'bolster' their point":

Kinda reminds me of someone around here. Oh, I wish I could think of their name. But damn it all, I can’t come up with that name right now. You got any ideas?

For editor's choice on the funny side, we start out with a comment from bobvious responding to the argument from Senator Tillis that we can't go sharing "government-supported research":

Come now Mike. Don't you realise that means that Senator Tillis is paying for this out of his OWN pocket??

Finally, we've got K'Tetch who did the legwork to make an ironic joke about our post on bogus DMCA scams based on plagiarized websites:

Oh for shame!

How dare you!
Don't you know I wrote this article first! back on April 31st 1957? How dare you try and claim it as yours!

That's all for this week, folks!

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  • identicon
    Bobvious, 9 May 2021 @ 2:08pm

    "intellectual property promotes innovation"

    If I have seen further, it is because I came up with this new idea, whole cloth, because standing on the shoulders of giants is only something the MAFIAA is allowed to do.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 9 May 2021 @ 7:20pm

      Re: "intellectual property promotes innovation"

      "Why stand on the shoulders of giants when you can kneel on their necks?"--RIAA

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Toom1275 (profile), 9 May 2021 @ 11:53pm

        Re: Re: "intellectual property promotes innovation"

        Too many treat copyright as squatter's rights now.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Annonymouse, 10 May 2021 @ 5:47am

          Re: Re: Re: "intellectual property promotes innovation"

          We need a shovel and lots of bleach to clean up the results of their squatting.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 11 May 2021 @ 2:17am

          Re: Re: Re: "intellectual property promotes innovation"

          "Too many treat copyright as squatter's rights now."

          This was always the intended effect. You can't blame stakeholders for using copyright the way it was intended. You can certainly blame legislators for letting people claim ownership to information though.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Bobvious, 9 May 2021 @ 2:48pm

    Scottish Independence vote surgin'

    at Sturgeon's urgin', https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-57046408

    Will we see the Untied Kingdom?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      PaulT (profile), 9 May 2021 @ 11:24pm

      Re: Scottish Independence vote surgin'

      One of the major reasons generally agreed upon as to why the last vote for Scottish independence went the way it did is because they wanted to retain access to the EU. Now that the idiotic Brexit vote ignored their wishes and sent the country tumbling out of the EU with no realistic long term plans, that reason to remain has gone. Now, there's a lot of people pissed off that the rights and wishes of the Scottish people were tossed aside so casually.

      A new vote might not necessarily lead to the breakup of the UK, but it's going to be one hell of a lot closer than it was last time.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 May 2021 @ 4:57am

    It is kind of like someone took a look at the history of western science and said "These people are learning from each other, and frequently come up with ideas based on the ideas that came before. Let us have less of this."

    One of the biggest things the printing press provided was the ability to write how to books and for other professions to take that knowledge and apply it to their own jobs. It gave rise to science as we know it.

    Copyright sends us back to the days of guilds protecting their own knowledge out of fear of progress hurting their own wealth.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Samuel Abram (profile), 10 May 2021 @ 5:40am

      Re:

      Copyright sends us back to the days of guilds protecting their own knowledge out of fear of progress hurting their own wealth.

      Medical Patents are literally doing that now as we speak.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Annonymouse, 10 May 2021 @ 6:16am

        Re: Re:

        The Pharmaceutical industry provides my bread and butter.

        White bread made from enriched pine flour.
        Butter from cows fed palm oil.

        I might have to rethink my career.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 11 May 2021 @ 2:19am

      Re:

      "Copyright sends us back to the days of guilds protecting their own knowledge out of fear of progress hurting their own wealth."

      This was always the intended effect, yes. Copyright is the Red Flag Act of the 20th century. And no less ridiculous.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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