El_Segfaulto's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week

Techdirt

from the winner's-circle dept

Last week, el_segfaulto scored a rare double win, getting both “most insightful” and “funniest” comments of the week — on two separate comments (it’s been done on a single comment before). Given that, we figured he easily deserved to write up this week’s “favorites” post…

Good weekend everybody. Welcome to the recap and another round of favorite posts. When Mike first asked me to write this, I started brainstorming ways of doing it fairly. I wrote an algorithm to compare the number of total comments to the percentage of those that I find troll-like for each article. I solicited opinions from coworkers, friends, the crazy homeless guy that hangs out on the route I take to get coffee in the morning. Unfortunately for you all, I realized that all of that work was for naught and I decided to simply list off the articles that I enjoyed reading and the articles that elicited the best comments. A big thanks to Mike for the opportunity to write this up and for letting me have a little extra time to get everything in order.

So…without further adieu, let’s geek it up a notch!

Honorable mentions:

• Another viewpoint – Another View Of The Netflix Price Hike: It’s Speeding Up The Shift To Online Streaming
• Government out of control – Feds Say They Can Search Bradley Manning’s Friend’s Laptop Because They Can
• Comic Relief – Judge Waxes Comedic On Whether You Can Trademark Quilted Diamonds On Toilet Paper
• A sudden outbreak of common sense – Apple Does Not Have More Cash Than The US Gov’t; Stop Saying That It Does

10) I wanted to start with an encouraging article. As was noted throughout UK Government Announces Copyright Plans, the UK seems to be taking a surprisingly reasonable route towards copyright reform.

9) Apple Continues To Scream To The World How Competitive Samsung’s Tablet Is By Getting It Banned In Australia in a number of tech blogs throughout the internet. It’s always fun to see the Apple fans come out in droves to protect the mothership. Unfortunately most of the Techdirt readers kept it civil and calm…next time I want flames.

8) More good news! Apparently the Economist is starting to recognize that patents have become far more of a hindrance than an incentive to create. The Economist Once Again Worried About Our Innovation-Hindering Patent System may not have brought out a ton of comments, but the story itself was interesting and the comment thread good, albeit a little meandering.

7) I try to avoid reading too many patent articles if at all possible (they anger up the blood) but reading Hulu Sued For Violating ‘TV Guide’ Patent led me on a long rant at work so I felt it deserved some recognition.

6) 20th Century Fox Claims ‘Dice Age’ Game Sounds Too Much Like Ice Age Movie was a good read, but for whatever reason a lot of the comments had me in stitches.

5) Is Google Antitrust Investigation Simply A Repeat Of Wasteful Microsoft Antitrust Effort? brought up a lot of good points and actually changed my opinion of the software behemoths slightly, and that’s all anyone can ask from a written work.

4) For some reason I find that reading about multinational megacorps going at it reminds me of watching a Godzilla movie, no matter which monster wins the citizens of Tokyo lose. Amazon Stops Accepting Apps In Germany Due To Apple’s App Store Trademark Claim is a great story and thread of trademarks gone amok.

3) Really Bad Idea: Make ISPs Liable For Cybercrime Efforts was a good read and, as always, the comments failed to disappoint.

2) The infuriating post of the week has to go to Court Shuts Down Zediva: Apparently The Length Of The Cable Determines If Something Is Infringing. Hearing a court make this kind of judgment made me die a little inside.

1) As a security geek my favorite post of the week has to be Defense Department Pretty Much Incompetent In Dealing With Online Threats. Over the past year there has been a multitude of hacks and attacks throughout the world. Although I’m not convinced that the DoD is that inept, it was an eye-opening article with a ton of insightful comments.

If you’ve gotten this far…congratulations! Thanks for reading and enjoy the summer, while it lasts.