Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

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from the tsa-tales dept

This week, we pointed out that the TSA’s investigation into agents who were caught conspiring to grope passengers left little chance that they would be prosecuted. A lot of it came down to the lack of a named victim which, as an anonymous commenter pointed out in our most insightful comment of the week, is a rare conundrum enabled by the very nature of the TSA itself:

They didn’t have a victim because they didn’t tell the victim he was a victim. In any other situation the victim of assault would know without having to be told, but here its just normal TSA procedure to be assaulted so the victim walks away.

Speaking of victims, this week we also all shed a tear for the poor MPAA which faces a possible spread of fair use principles around the globe thanks to the TPP. After a leaked email from Chris Dodd to a USTR ambassador revealed the association’s fear of fair use, jupiterkansas won second place for insightful with an accompanying letter of his own:

Dear Ambassador Froman:

The community I represent doesn’t think much about copyright or fair use at all, which is why you don’t hear from us very often. After all, we aren’t paid huge sums of money to send you emails like Chris Dodd is. We aren’t paid to try and get laws passed and trade agreements made to benefit ourselves. We aren’t in the room when all those industry representatives get together to decide what’s best for our country. In fact, we aren’t even allowed in the room.

But we’re the reason you have a job. We’re the ones you’re supposed to be helping. We’re the people most affected by your trade agreements. Your job isn’t to help Chris Dodd keep his job, and what’s best for Chris Dodd my not be best for us.

All we ask is that you keep us in mind through all of this, because your job, most of all, is to represent us. You’re all we’ve got to protect us from Chris Dodd and all those seeking to profit from your actions. Please stand up for us.

Sincerely, The American Public

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with a response to the assertion that Google somehow makes it impossible to find and use alternative search tools. That One Guy decided to put this notion to the test:

Well, congrats, you actually got me to do something that I haven’t for… I don’t know how long, I actually used Google to search for something.

Anyway, using Google to search for ‘Search engines’, here at the top 10 results:

1. Bing (search engine)
2. DuckDuckGo (search engine)
3. The wikipedia page for ‘Web search engine’.
4. Dogpile (search engine)
5. Ixquick (search engine)
6. Top 15 most populat search engines (Ebismba article)
7. Entireweb (search engine)
8. ‘Web search engines’ (article of some sort I’m guessing)
9. ‘The terrifying search engine that finds internet…’ (Forbes article)
10. ‘Ducking Google in search engines’ (Washington Post article)

If the claim is that they are intentionally modifying their results to keep people from finding alternative search engines, then this simple test would seem to put that particular idea to bed. Just because a good number of people don’t know about or use other search engines, is not Google’s fault, and they don’t really seem to be doing anything to hide the alternatives.

Next, we’ve got a straightforward and personal response from John Fenderson to the assertion that piracy forces creators to work for free:

Baloney. I have been producing commercial software for decades (without ever using copy protection schemes). Most of my software has been widely distributed amongst the pirate community. And yet, I’ve managed to make a very good living anyway. I can personally demonstrate that unlimited copying hasn’t forced me to work for free. If it hasn’t forced me, then how can it force anybody else?

For first place on the funny side, we head to yet another story about TSA agents, this time busy destroying Cory Doctorow’s “TSA-safe” suitcase. One commenter put on their tinfoil hat to suggest that the agents ripped the idea directly from one of Doctorow’s distopian novels, but another suggested that this was giving them far too much credit:

The assumption of literacy in TSA agents is a bold move…

In second place, we head to our post about the discovery of just how vulnerable Virginia’s voting machines were to hacking. The report noted that someone with a makeshift antenna made from a Pringles can could access the machines from anywhere within half a mile, leading Michael to wonder about the ever-shifting standards for technological liability:

So why isn’t the CEO of Pringles being arrested right now?

For editor’s choice on the funny side, we start out on the story of a new bill in California that would require libraries with 3D printers to post scary anti-infringement signs. One anonymous commenter pointed out that this feels kind of familiar:

This will surely eliminating infringement forever, just like the FBI warnings before every motion picture did.

Finally, we head to the story of the chess grandmaster who was caught hiding in the bathroom to analyze ideal moves with an app on his phone, leading another anonymous commenter to toss a dry and glorious pun into the conversation:

Brings new meaning to stalling.

That’s all for this week, folks!