Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

Techdirt

from the reality-has-an-anti-riaa-bias dept

We haven’t had one of these in a while — a comment that shows up in both the funny and insightful winners’ circle — but this week, we’ve got Rich Fiscus, who was voted most insightful and second funniest, by paraphrasing Stephen Colbert in saying:

Reality is known for its frequent anti-RIAA bias.

Coming in second on the “insightful” side of things was a comment from TMWaH in response to one of our regular critics claiming that SOPA/PIPA would have no impact on Reddit. TMWaH wondered why that should matter:

Just because SOPA wouldn’t take down Reddit doesn’t mean they can’t be opposed to it. It’s like speaking out against racism when you’re a part of a racial majority. The fact that you’re not directly affected doesn’t mean that you should just let it slide.

Of course, an even more to the point response is that the original person is totally wrong. While the bill could not directly take down Reddit, since Reddit is an information location tool, under PIPA, it would be required to maintain a blacklist of links which it could not allow to be shown, even if users posted them. That creates both significant compliance costs and significant risks should they fail to properly block such links.

For editor’s choice, we’ll lead with this fantastic comment from an Anonymous Coward, responding to ICE boss John Morton patting himself on the back for ICE’s successes last year. In the video, Morton keeps talking about how he’s Saving American Jobs, but this AC noticed that many of the examples of “counterfeit” products that ICE showed were from foreign companies:

Several of the examples of counterfeit goods were not even made by American parent companies, much less American workers.

For example, early in the clip they show a website selling presumably-counterfeit Manolo Blahnik shoes, a Spanish designer that has its headquarters in the UK.

Then in another clip there is a news clip talking about counterfeit Louis Vuitton handbags, but that’s a French company.

I doubt any of these foreign companies manufactured products in America, ever, so the only American jobs involved in their distribution and sale are the guys unloading freighters, driving trucks, and manning cash registers, and Americans can still do that whether they are selling counterfeits or knock-offs.

And our second editor’s choice comes from :Lobo Santo who had an open letter to Congress:

Dear Congress:

Stop making new laws. Completely stop.

Examine closely the FRICKING HUGE body of laws which you’ve already shoved upon us–and take the time to revise/correct/remove those laws.

Once you’ve learned to take care of your toys, er, laws then you can have new ones. But not until then.

So, we already mentioned that Rich’s comment came in second in the funny category. What comment could top it? This one from Capitalist Lion Tamer, in response to the stories of Warner Bros. and HBO making it more difficult for consumers to watch their movies:

WB, HBO Increase Piracy Window to 56 Days

Spokesmen for the oft-idiotic content companies stated that they previous 28-day window had shown little effect on piracy numbers or DVD sales but felt that they could make it up in volume by doubling the size of the window.

“We feel that the average consumer will likely forget about our new product within 56 days, meaning we’ll see no additional revenue from the rental and streaming markets as well,” stated the spokesman before trailing off into an incomprehensible mumble while updating his resume on his Blackberry.

Further requests for comment were drowned out by horrified shrieks of “OH MY GOD I DON’T HAVE ANY OTHER ‘MAJOR SKILLS’!!!” and embarrassingly loud sobbing.

Since Rich’s comment came in second, we’ll just bump up the number three comment… which, it turns out was also written by the very same Capitalist Lion Tamer (nice week), in which he channels Lamar Smith in response to a commenter’s question of why SOPA supporters were still trotting out The Pirate Bay as an example of a rogue site, despite the fact that SOPA doesn’t apply to .org, which is what TPB mainly uses. CLT tried to guess Lamar’s answer. But the truly winning part isn’t so much the comment, but the graphic that went with it:

Because PIRATE, goddammit. Christ, do I have to draw you a picture?

Sincerely,
Lamar Smith

We’ll close out with just one more editor’s choice. In response to the amusing story of Sega suggesting a “hard reset” might be the best way to deal with SOPA, Mesonoxian Eve decided to take the analogy further:

Electrical Engineering 101: Start half way. If it’s discovered the output is bad, the source is the issue. If it’s discovered the output is good, the components beyond are the issue.

*puts multimeter between Article 1, Section 8 of US Constitution and SOPA/PIPA/DMCA

The output is bad.

If only it were that easy. Anyway, time to gear up for another week. Hopefully… that output won’t be bad.