Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

Techdirt

from the cableco,-cyberbully,-prosecutor,-prince dept

This week, after yet another incident of child porn laws being used against sexting teens, our winner for most insightful came from an anonymous commenter who neatly summed up this baffling attitude:

In order to prevent these teens from ruining their lives, WE’RE going to ruin their lives.

In second place we’ve got another anonymous commenter, this time responding to the story of a new homeowner’s harrowing experience with Comcast and CenturyLink, and pointing out that there’s a whole other ridiculous muni-broadband-regulation angle that we didn’t focus on:

You left out the best part, where there is a municipal fiber line running right near his neighborhood, but the law prevents him from accessing it.

This story makes me rage so much. The competition is non-existent. If we had anything resembling an actual market, we wouldn’t even need Title II.

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we’ll start with one more anonymous comment from that same story. This time, it’s a call to (congressional) action:

Members of Congress:

REIGN. IN. THESE. COMPANIES!

Seriously, this is getting absurd. What do the American people have to do or say to you to finally get you to actually listen to us instead of the paid mouthpieces from the broadband industry who want do what they want with no one to keep them in check?

No more mergers. No more protectionist laws to prop up their monopoly or duopoly gatekeeper power. Stop fighting against net neutrality and enact policies that dramatically increase competition.

Signed,
The Fed Up American People.

Next, we head to our post about the recent attempts to paint public backlashes against corporations as “cyberbullying”, which prompted ChurchHatesTucker to affirm his beliefs:

Now I’m even more convinced that cyberbullying laws are a terrible idea.

For first place on the funny side, we start out with the ongoing investigation into the investigation into Silk Road, where the facts continue to be astonishing, and where Michael decided to apply law enforcement’s own standards:

“Force communicated directly with Ulbricht using PGP encrypted emails”

Full stop. This guy is a terrorist.

In second place, we’ve got the capper to a thread sparked when someone (who apparently doesn’t know how to Google things) aimlessly attacked the credibility of one of our guest posters. Another anonymous commenter supplied them, and a third chimed in with this jeering rejoinder:

Wait a sec – you are citing data ….. and facts!
Are you sure that is allowed?

You see some folk think innuendo and vague references are quite sufficient and get all uppity when someone calls bullshit.

For editor’s choice on the funny side, we head to the ongoing story of Attorney General Jim Hood’s attacks on Google. One aspect of the ongoing case was the “Younger Abstention”, which would keep the courts out of the issue, and which the judge rejected thusly:

Moreover, even if the Younger elements were satisfied here, the court would not be required to abstain here because an exception to the application of the doctrine applies. Indeed, federal courts may disregard the Younger doctrine when a state court proceeding was brought in bad faith or with the purpose of harassing the federal plaintiff…

Mason Wheeler decided to put this in layman’s terms:

Translation:

Hood: Younger! Younger!
The law: I may be younger but I wasn’t born yesterday

Finally, we enter the always-insane world of Prince, who is currently facing an IP lawsuit because the universe loves irony. Prince has gone copyright-crazy over everything imaginable, and for some like jupterkansas, that’s getting to be his dominant legacy:

The only time Prince is even on my radar is when he’s mentioned here on TechDirt, and even then I feel I must be infringing something.

That’s all for this week, folks!