Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

Techdirt

from the this-post-is-now-diamonds dept

The top two most insightful posts this week were both short and sweet, proving that you don’t have to expend too many words to be insightful. First up, we had John Doe, responding to my point about former Judiciary Committee staffers now lobbying Congress on SOPA: “At the very least, it raises questions about who the staffers are really working for when they’re in Congress: the people… or their future employers?” John Doe has a depressing, but accurate, response:

I don’t think it raises the question, it answers it.

Coming in second was an Anonymous Coward, responding to a note that “supporters of SOPA will continue to say that it can’t be abused,” by noting that might be true, but for different reasons than you might imagine:

Well of course it can’t be abused. Things like this are the intended use.

For editor’s choice, we’ll start with (a registered) Anonymous Coward’s response to the DOJ seizing and hanging onto Torrent Finder, noting how this makes no sense:

The DOJ has a website that they say points directly to infringing material. Instead of using those pointers to all of that “obviously” infringing material, going to the source and taking it down, they want the search engine to hide it. It will still be there but now “one” search engine just won’t see it. BOY IS THIS PROGRESS.

And, finally, we have Karl responding to a comment we get all too frequently, where people insist that the Constitution gave content creators copyright. We’ve gone over this in the past, but since this myth persists, it’s nice to have a thorough debunking:

Sorta like how you’re undermining the rights the founding fathers gave to the Constitution

You probably meant “in,” but even that is inaccurate. The Founding Fathers were not “giving” fundamental rights, but recognizing them: “We hold these truths to be self-evident…”

Also, you will notice that copyright was never granted to artists or publishers. Copyright was granted, exclusively, to Congress.

There is a very simple reason for this: Congress is supposed to be representing the public, not rights holders or private industries. It is the sole ability of the public to decide what copyright laws are, or are not, appropriate.

So, for example, Congress could do away with copyright altogether, and nobody’s rights would be trampled upon. Copyright is purely, and solely, a creation of statute; and if those statutes disappear, so does copyright, “without claim or complaint from anybody.”

That is because copyright’s purpose is solely to benefit the general public. It may also benefit publishers, but it’s not the reason copyright exists; it exists solely to benefit the public, and if the public loses more than it gains, then copyright law is wrong, and must be amended or repealed.

Moving on to the funny side of things. Dominating the voting (seriously, by a lot) was a comment from fogbugzd in response to Louis CK’s awesome direct-to-fan experiment in which he was polite and human and offered up an awesome and convenient package. He applied a form of Masnick’s Law to note that there’s nothing to be learned from this:

Oh, sure. This works for nice guys who respects the fans. But this method would never work for the typical industry executive.

As amusing as that comment is, I have to admit, I’m kinda shocked that the second place comment didn’t win, as it was my personal favorite for the week. It was from Jay in response to a regular critic who not only made a ridiculous argument, but thought that I had written a story that was actually written by Zachary. Jay decided to channel the Old Spice guy:

Look at the author, now back at your comment, back at the author, now back at your comment.

Sadly, the author is not Mike. But if you took the 5 seconds it took to make an intelligent argument like Zack you would have respected comments like Mike.

Look down, back up. What is that? It’s a highly effective counter-troll. Look again, MY COMMENT IS NOW DIAMONDS.

Anything is possible when you think before you post.

I’m on a PC.

Seriously: well done, Jay. You win one thousand internets.

As for editor’s choice, we’ve got John Doe again, responding to someone talking about “stealing someone else’s identity”:

I had my identity stolen once; I wondered around aimlessly not knowing who I was. After I got my identity back I was hoping someone else would steal it. After all, when it was gone I had not responsibilities, no job, nobody knew who I was. I could come and go as I please. Once I got it back people recognized me, made me report back to work, pay my bills and so on.

And, finally, we had an Anonymous Coward responding to a critic who complained that of the 40,000 blog posts I’ve done on Techdirt, 39,800 were about SOPA:

There’s that Hollywood Accounting again.

No wonder you guys think you’re losing billions of dollars – you can’t count!

Now it’s all clear…