Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

Techdirt

from the so-you-say dept

This week, we’ve got a double-winning comment from Shannon Vanshoon that took first place on the insightful side and second place on the funny side. It’s a response to a particular passage in our post about the scammy AI company that fooled the New York Times:

Or in other words…

“So to my friends and family members wondering why I haven’t built my own billion-dollar AI company: apparently the missing ingredient wasn’t AI — it was being willing to run a deepfake-powered spam operation selling potentially inert pills to desperate people.“

Or, to quote my partner, ‘I’d be rich if I was just a little more evil.’

In second place on the insightful side, it’s a comment from Thad about the depths of dysfunction in American government and beyond:

I forget who said it, but I once saw it framed as “If you want to know whether this is a Trump problem or a GOP problem, consider that the two most pro-Trump justices on the Supreme Court were appointed by the Bushes.”

That comment was a reply to Heart of Dawn‘s comment raising the subject, so we’ll start with that comment for our first editor’s choice on the insightful side:

What gets me is not the pedophile war monger’s unhinged rant, crashing of the global economy, or taking a sledgehammer to America’s status as an ally to the West and a global superpower- it’s that despite all this, he still has full support of Congress, the Supreme Court, and 30% of the US population.

The country has a rot to it’s very core that won’t be removed by ousting Trump alone.

Next, it’s an anonymous comment about the limits of the DMCA and the companies that go beyond them:

But, as bad as the law is, it doesn’t actually allow for takedowns of references to copyright infringement (unless perhaps judges invented such a requirement via case law). Google apparently chose to allow people to use notices that way, despite a lack of any legal basis. And other search engines kind of copied from them. Maybe the film companies applied pressure as advertisers.

By contrast, in the old days, I don’t think anyone ever had their phone number removed from the phone book, or disconnected altogether, based purely on unproven accusations of illegal activity (like maybe a video store that was a little shady regarding copyright law). I’m not sure that was even an option after a court found someone guilty or liable.

Over on the funny side, our first place winner is MrWilson with another comment about Medvi and the New York Times:

I’m half expecting an announcement that Elizabeth Holmes has endorsed MEDVI from her cell and is being given a seat on the board.

We’ve already had our second place funny winner above, so we’ll head straight on to the editor’s choice, starting with That One Guy and a comment passing on a famous book passage that suits Congress’s latest attempt to put the law behind a paywall:

‘Publicly acessible’ doesn’t mean ‘Publicly accessible in a usable format’

And the bill is sneaky about it: it includes a provision requiring that incorporated standards be made “publicly accessible online,” which the bill’s supporters point to as proof of their commitment to transparency.

” …You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them had you? I mean like actually telling anyone or anything.’

‘But the plans were on display…’

‘On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.’

‘That’s the display department.’

‘With a torch.’

‘Ah, well the lights had probably gone.’

‘So had the stairs.’

‘But look you found the notice didn’t you?’

‘Yes,’ said Arthur, ‘yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying “Beware of The Leopard”.’ –Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams.

Finally, because someone had to say it, it’s an anonymous comment about the prosecutors who are still trying to convict a 62-year-old woman for wearing a 7-foot-tall inflatable penis costume to a protest:

Somehow isn’t the biggest dick of this story.

That’s all for this week, folks!