Ben 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (442)

• On the post: State Department Exiles Critics to “Protect” Free Speech

  

  Ben ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2025 @ 05:14am

  I can't figure out whether you're supporting Mike's position sarcastically, or just don't understand a single word he wrote.

• On the post: 10 (Not So) Hidden Dangers of Age Verification

  

  Ben ( profile ), 26 Dec, 2025 @ 05:07am

  US sites for US people

  No-one seems to have considered that the Internet is international, but ID documents are not. I cannot ever get a US drivers license, and so any simplistic age/ID-gating based upon that document excludes roughly 8 billion citizens of the Internet, not just the approx 300 million (a mere 3.75% of the global population) population of the USA. An ID document based system (if you really want it to work, and I don't) needs to allow Tonga, Ukrainian, German, Brazilian, Chinese, Nigerian, and British formal IDs ... and all the rest, or you're excluding more than just a few LGBTQ+, Black, Native, or non-Caucasian people locally. Why are US internet businesses cutting off over 95% of their possible market by tolerating this shit?

• On the post: India’s Government Rolls Back Invasive Cell Phone Tracking Mandate 48 Hours After Issuing It

  

  Ben ( profile ), 13 Dec, 2025 @ 03:38pm

  The USA might be racist...

  ... but WTF has that got to do with the Indian government's actions and backpedalling?

• On the post: Not Just Measles: Anti-Vaxxers Have Produced 3 Infant Deaths From Pertussis

  

  Ben ( profile ), 27 Nov, 2025 @ 04:16am

  souls and worms

  Seems pretty clear that part of the meal for the brain worm included JFK Jr's soul. Or at least, the part that enabled him to distinguish fact from deadly fantasy.

• On the post: Brendan Carr Launches Baseless ‘Investigation’ Into PBS, NPR, And BBC To Try And Silence Criticism Of His Weird, Unpopular Boss

  

  Ben ( profile ), 20 Nov, 2025 @ 04:08pm

  BBC reporting

  There is now a BBC News article on the subject of the letter which they have now received.

• On the post: Furloughed Employees Sue Administration For Adding Partisan Wording To Their Out-Of-Office Messages

  

  Ben ( profile ), 13 Nov, 2025 @ 12:21pm

  What's next? Email signatures, government websites, OOO messages just in time for the midterms? Or if trumpbaby doesn't manage to invent an emergency in time for the next presidential election... the next presidential election. Nothing is off limits to this bunch of Nazis.

• On the post: YouTube TV Customers Lose Access To ABC Channels, DVR Recordings Due To Annoying, Avoidable Disney Contract Dispute

  

  Ben ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2025 @ 06:40am

  Poor memory?

  I have a dim recollection of a time and a technology that meant that I owned an actual copy of the media I wanted to... and could put said physical media in a device and display it on a screen with no internet connection. What was that archaic media? Oh yeah, DVD. On demand sports and news-comedy shows? Who cares, there'll be another one along in a week, just the same as the last one.

• On the post: ‘Stop Killing Games’ Finds More Allies From MPs In The UK

  

  Ben ( profile ), 09 Nov, 2025 @ 03:35am

  No, I'm not in the UK either... but both the cited MPs are. If any here are constituents of those MPs, they should be writing to the MPs to suggest it. And, quite frankly, I'm surprised that Sewards (who's on the relevant parliamentary group) hasn't already thought of it and done it.

• On the post: ‘Stop Killing Games’ Finds More Allies From MPs In The UK

  

  Ben ( profile ), 08 Nov, 2025 @ 05:58am

  And here's the link I would have added if there was an edit button.

• On the post: ‘Stop Killing Games’ Finds More Allies From MPs In The UK

  

  Ben ( profile ), 08 Nov, 2025 @ 05:55am

  We’ve got a long road to travel and millions in lobbying dollars to breakthrough before any real progress is made.

  Or we (and the MPs) could suggest that the UK Trading Standards office (part of the government) takes a test case to court over some major title that has fallen foul of the existing legislation. No lobbying needed.

• On the post: CyberGhost DMCAs Our Story About Their Bogus DMCA (Yes, Really)

  

  Ben ( profile ), 08 Nov, 2025 @ 05:49am

  Let me find them a ladder to get out of the hole they've just dug!

• On the post: 60 Minutes Edits Donald Trump Telling Them 60 Minutes Should Edit Donald Trump Talking About How 60 Minutes Paid Him For Editing Kamala Harris

  

  Ben ( profile ), 04 Nov, 2025 @ 04:09am

  No shit, sherlock.

• On the post: UK Woman Threatens Trademark Legal Action Against Cookbook Over ‘Sabzi’

  

  Ben ( profile ), 30 Oct, 2025 @ 08:54am

  It's funny

  It's funny how people's own knowledge of a language (or at least a West-Atlantic derivative of one) means they're an expert on what 'everyone knows'. I've been speaking English for over 50 years and never heard the 'well known' term 'Pho' before. Which puts it on a par with 'Sabzi' as far as I'm concerned.

• On the post: Sequoia’s Choice

  

  Ben ( profile ), 24 Oct, 2025 @ 12:39pm

  Susquehanna?

  Who?

• On the post: DC Comics Goes After Another European Org For Using ‘Wonder’ And ‘Mum’ Together Over Trademark

  

  Ben ( profile ), 24 Oct, 2025 @ 12:36pm

  Legal Eagle (Devin Stone) might have something to say about that choice of catchphrase!

• On the post: RFK Jr. Is Very Interested In, And Likely Wrong About, Your Teenager’s Sperm Count

  

  Ben ( profile ), 22 Oct, 2025 @ 09:17am

  GOP = genital observation perverts?

  Why are the GOP and, it seems, the broader right-wing of American politics so clearly OBSESSED with people's genitals?

• On the post: Musk Exploits AWS Outage To Unfairly Slam Signal, Promote His Shittier Chat Software

  

  Ben ( profile ), 22 Oct, 2025 @ 09:16am

  SpaceX & Tesla

  like cozying up to talented engineers and taking singular credit for their work

  There's the reason very few people know the actual engineers and day-to-day managers of SpaceX and Tesla are. Musk is NOT a rocket scientist or electrical or mechanical engineer. He's a meme artist; and a piss-poor one at that.

• On the post: Another Trump Official Carelessly Talks War Plans While Hanging Around With Civilians

  

  Ben ( profile ), 07 Oct, 2025 @ 07:30am

  MSM problem?

  In this world of milquetoast mainstream media in the US, you criticise TechDirt for saying something that happens to end up under the fold? OMG have you got bigger fish to fry!

• On the post: We’re Walling Off The Open Internet To Stop AI—And It May End Up Breaking Everything Else

  

  Ben ( profile ), 09 Sep, 2025 @ 05:07am

  Mostly agreeably incoherent.

  I can't tell whether they're agreeable or not as I cannot read their word salad & capitalisation nightmare-fuel comments.

• On the post: Trump Administration Approves New COVID Vaccines… For Barely Anyone At All

  

  Ben ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2025 @ 05:10am

  Funny

  I wanted to click Funny, until I realized it is 2025 and the orange baboon and his coterie of apes is in charge.

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