Ben 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (455)

• 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.

• On the post: RFK Jr. Vowed To Find The Environmental Causes Of Autism. Then He Shut Down Research Trying To Do Just That.

  

  Ben ( profile ), 27 Aug, 2025 @ 06:15am

  Yes, it's in the article

  Their third study, published in 2023, took the link between solvent exposure and autism as a starting point. Using blood samples to examine the genetic makeup of the parents of children with autism, McCanlies and Hertz-Picciotto found that when exposed to solvents on the job, people with specific variants of 31 genes had an especially elevated risk of having a child with autism. Their genetic makeup appeared to increase the risk that solvents by themselves posed. Some of those 31 genes help cells connect with one another; others play a role in helping cells migrate to different areas so they can grow into the various parts of the brain; still others ensure that cells clear away toxic substances.

  You are one of those who had the genetic factors, that didn't need the additional tweak provided by the chemical pollution stimulating. I, on the other hand, am a son of an autist born in the 1940s, and the father of another born in the 1990s. We've all always lived in small town environments. I'd not be the least surprised to see some element of solvent or other chemical factor in our (mothers') lives.

• On the post: Politico Management Insists “AI” Shouldn’t Be Held To Any Sort Of Human Editorial Standards Because It’s Built By Coders, Not Journalists

  

  Ben ( profile ), 26 Aug, 2025 @ 05:18am

  From Google's AI mode

  you should not use AI due to its risks and limitations. Common reasons include concerns about reliability and accuracy, inherent biases, the potential for unethical use, and a negative impact on human skills and relationships. A critical understanding of these drawbacks is crucial for deciding when and how to appropriately use AI.

  Need I say more?

• On the post: UK Backs Down On Apple Encryption Backdoor—But The Secret Deal Raises New Questions

  

  Ben ( profile ), 22 Aug, 2025 @ 12:54am

  4chan (in a polite mood): "You can fine us as much as you like, how're you going to collect?" Ofcom: erm, the UK High Court will say bad things about you? 4chan: . Of course, this conversation works both ways - US law doesn't apply in the UK, nor does your insane 2nd amendment. (by the way, there's a hint in the name: it's an amendment - you could, you know, amend it away too)

• On the post: Privacy‑Preserving Age Verification Falls Apart On Contact With Reality

  

  Ben ( profile ), 20 Aug, 2025 @ 03:26am

  Bug?

  That’s not child protection; it’s infrastructure for control.

  "That's not a bug, it's a feature," said every congress-critter.

• On the post: UK Court Ruling Leaves Wikipedia Facing Years Of Uncertainty Under Online Safety Act

  

  Ben ( profile ), 14 Aug, 2025 @ 05:07am

  it's worse, it's a massive specification failure

  How much of a page needs to be touched by an unverified editor before it becomes 'unsafe'? One word? One paragraph? A section? It would become a "fun" target for DDOS perpetrators to use unverified accounts to just touch random pages (or 1000s of them) and get those tainted pages taken out of circulation. Do the users have to be verified 'today'. What happens if they weren't verified when they made the edit, but are now? What happens if an editor is now dead, but their verification status was not in doubt by the Wikipedia community at large (because they were a known reliable expert)? What about pages on niche subjects in low popularity languages that have been stable for a decade, but were written before verification became A Thing?

• On the post: Australia Completely Loses The Plot, Plans To Ban Kids From Watching YouTube

  

  Ben ( profile ), 07 Aug, 2025 @ 04:44am

  client side validation

  What you're suggesting is that sites will have to take the word of the connecting device that it is a 'child device'. This is a known anti-pattern - web developers have long known that it is stupid in the extreme to trust validation on the client side. One should always validate on the server side. And once you believe the device that's connected, you'll believe anything... fancy this bridge I've got for sale?

• On the post: Australia Completely Loses The Plot, Plans To Ban Kids From Watching YouTube

  

  Ben ( profile ), 07 Aug, 2025 @ 04:38am

  PBS on YouTube

  PBS publishes a lot of very good content on YouTube: Monstrum, Otherwords and Be Smart (used to be "It's okay to be smart") are my favourites, but there are plenty of others.

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