This week, both our winners on the insightful side come in response to the protestor who is charged with destroying property for giving CBP agents the “duress mode” password to wipe his phone. In first place, it’s an anonymous comment extending our characterization of what the DOJ is doing here:

While simultaneously pushing to institute secret courts with secret evidence for immigration-related “terrorism.”

In second place, it’s That One Guy with a comment about the bigger problems with these border searches:

The mere existence of ‘you have no constititional rights’ zones is a legal abomination

I would like to think that the judge involved will see through the government’s farce of a case and realize that they and the legal system they represent are being weaponized against the citizenry here but far too many(read: more than zero) judges buy the ‘it’s not a fifth amendment violation to force people to unlock their devices despite the entire point of forcing someone to do that is to provide evidence to incriminate them’ argument so who knows?

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we’ve got an anonymous comment about Trump’s cuts to national security staff:

Every US adversary is aware of this, of course

As a result, they know that — for the moment — all they need to do is sit on their hands. There’s no need to spend any money, incur any risk, or make any effort: all they have to do is nothing.

And wait. Chances are they won’t have to wait long: Trump is not only an absolute moron with rapidly advancing dementia, he’s impulsive and chaotic, and at some point he will do something well beyond merely stupid in Iran. And that will be the right moment to take action, i.e.., for China to seize Taiwan or Russia to deploy tactical nukes in Ukraine. The US will be unable to respond because there will be nobody left with the capability of grasping the situation and constructing an actionable plan.

Next, it’s Thad with a comment about the persuasive abilities of AI chatbots:

I remember reading a story about an in-development game show where children would listen to two people discussing a particular specialist subject and guess which one was a real subject matter expert and which was an actor.

The show never made it past development because it didn’t work: the children would consistently find the actors more believable than the real subject matter experts.

The thing is, knowing stuff is an entirely different skillset than persuading people of stuff. And AI is very good at making statements that read, to human psychology, as confident and convincing. But it doesn’t know anything except statistical probabilities and repeating patterns within its training data.

Over on the funny side, both winning comments are again about the CBP duress mode story, and the first place winner is another anonymous response:

“What are you in for?”

“I killed eight people. You?”

“I got a TSA agent to wipe my phone.”

“Shit, they’ll put anyone in here now, huh?”

In second place, it’s Thad again, this time with a suggestion for everyone thinking about installing GrapheneOS:

And set the duress passcode to “1-9-8-4”

For editor’s choice on the funny side, we’ve got a pair of comments about the bizarre news that RFK Jr. is going to host a cooking show. First, it’s Bloof pointing out what a great on-air personality he’ll be:

With his soothing Krang from TMNT voice, the man is a natural host of Podcasts and television shows. I’m sure Bari Weiss had him on the shortlist of hosts for 60 minutes too, but he was so in demand because of his velvet voice, she had to settle for the young, handsome, charismatic Ross Douchehat.

Finally, it’s one more anonymous commenter with a pitch for the show:

101 Ways To Get The Tire Tracks Out Of Your Raccoon Ragú.

That’s all for this week, folks!

This Week in 2016

• Whether Or Not Russians Hacked DNC Means Nothing Concerning How Newsworthy The Details Are
• Verizon Buys Yahoo In $4.8 Billion Attempt To Bore The Internet To Death
• Declaring Cyberwar On Russia Because Of The DNC Hack Is A Bad Idea
• IP Lawyers Tell Copyright Office To Stop Screwing The Public By Opposing Cable Box Reform
• Intellectual Property Fun: Is Comedy Central Claiming It Owns The Character Stephen Colbert?
• The Selfie-Taking Monkey Who Has No Idea He Has Lawyers Has Appealed His Copyright Lawsuit

This Week in 2011

• The Absurdity Of Comparing Copying To Stealing
• New Study: Piracy Increases The Quality Of Content
• Getting Past The Myth That Copyright Is Needed To Produce Content
• Writer Explains How Copyright Has Prevented Her From Ever Seeing TV Shows She Wrote
• UK Appeals Court Agrees That Clicking A Link And Opening A Website… Is Infringing
• Why People Pay More For Access To Infringing Content

This Week in 2006

• ‘Pirates’ Thriving, In Spite Of Pirates
• Add Amazon To The Long Long Long List Of Video Download Providers
• Mobile Phones’ Impact On Sexual Relations
• User Generated Content Goes To War
• Metallica Finally Realizes That Some People Like To Get Music Online
• The Big Karaoke Crackdown

This week, both top comments on the insightful side come in response to our post about the attempted murder charges that were dropped after bystander recordings exposed the lies of ICE officers. First, it’s Citizen with a reminder that the word of law enforcement officers shouldn’t be trusted:

I wish I could take law enforcement at their word, but…

The following is the initial official press release regarding the murder of George Floyd. If not for a bystander filming the crime, Chauvin would have gotten away with it.

MAY 25, 2020 (MINNEAPOLIS) On Monday evening, shortly after 8:00pm, officers from the Minneapolis Police Department responded to the 3700 block of Chicago Avenue South on a report of a forgery in progress. Officers were advised that the suspect was sitting on top of a blue car and appeared to be under the influence.

Two officers arrived and located the suspect, a male believed to be in his 40s, in his car. He was ordered to step from the car. After he got out, he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress. Officers called for an ambulance. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance where he died a short time later.

At no time were weapons of any type used by anyone involved in this incident.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has been called in to investigate this incident at the request of the Minneapolis Police Department.

No officers were injured in the incident.

Body worn cameras were on and activated during this incident.

The GO number associated with this case is 20-140629.

Film law enforcement. It both helps protect innocent people from false charges and helps ensure criminals in uniform are held accountable.

In second place, it’s Pixelation with a thought about all the effort spent pursuing false charges:

If only our government would put this much effort into arresting actual criminals. You know, like the ones that hung out with Epstein.

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with an anonymous reply to a commenter who told people to read UK legal decisions and have more respect for J. K. Rowling’s transphobia:

Americans should read the absurd UK legal proceedings, but only as a warning of the kind of stupidity we’re careening toward and evidence of the importance of anti-SLAPP and trans-inclusive bigotry-exclusive anti-discrimination laws.

Next, it’s an anonymous addendum to our cross-posted article on the evolving understanding of screentime limits for kids:

The obsession with screen time limits has also had a negative effect on kids media itself. Short dopamine hits like Cocomelon are easier to sell to parents because you can fit more into the same amount of screen time.

Over on the funny side, our first place winner is Strawb with a comment about government lawyers twisting the law in knots to let the Trump admin use TikTok:

Damn, US is really living in that gig economy. Sony’s lawyers seem to be moonlighting as government lawyers.

In second place, it’s TheResidentSkeptic with another comment about kids and screentime:

Not how I remember it

… I thought it was all that time spent reading comic books that was going to ruin our brains. Or reading dime novels hidden in the corn crib. Or watching cartoons. or . Just another damn “we didn’t have that when we were kids, so it must be bad for them” excuse.

For editor’s choice on the funny side, we start out with another comment from Pixelation, this time on our post about the return of blockbuster movies that don’t cost $200 million to make:

Yeah, but it looks like you need $200 million to have a blue reflecting pool.

Finally, it’s n00bdragon with a comment about the DOJ’s excuses for ignoring the rules about subpoenaing reporters:

“Your honor we didn’t realize the story in the New York Times was written by reporters.” is certainly… a take.

That’s all for this week, folks!

This Week in 2016

• Cy Vance Still Arguing For Mandated Encryption Backdoors; Believes Third Party Doctrine Supports His Theory
• Sen. McCain Unhappy Apple Turned Down His Invitation To Be Encryption Hearing Punching Bag
• Cable Industry’s False Copyright Claims Are Killing Cable Box Reform Efforts
• Prenda (Mostly) Loses Again; Court Says ‘We Warned You To Stop Digging, But You Still Did’
• Paris Court Says Search Engines Don’t Need To Block Torrent Searches
• Kickass Torrents Gets The Megaupload Treatment: Site Seized, Owner Arrested And Charged With Criminal Infringement

This Week in 2011

• Who Do You Trust On Whether Or Not PROTECT IP Will Break The Internet? The Guys Who Built It… Or The MPAA?
• How The Monkeys & Copyright Debate Explains Why Congress Shouldn’t Rush To Approve PROTECT IP
• Feds Charge Aaron Swartz With Felony Hacking… For Downloading A Ton Of Academic Research
• You Know What’s Missing From The Aaron Swartz Indictment? Any Mention Of Copyright
• The Lack Of A Legal Or Moral Basis For The Aaron Swartz Indictment Is Quite Troubling
• Copyright Alliance Takes On The Aaron Swartz Case With A Post Full Of Bad Analogies

This Week in 2006

• No, Mobile Phone Antenna Booster Stickers Don’t Work
• And Here Come The YouTube Copyright Lawsuits
• Even Friendster Looks Good Next To Wal-Mart Social-Networking Site
• Finally, A Telco Gets Blamed For Its Own Data Leaks
• PC Guy Helps Explain Net Neutrality
• MPAA Betting On Its Next Silver Bullet

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Thad with a simple comment about the judicial smackdown of Trump’s IRS settlement:

Bar referrals. Finally.

In second place, it’s Stephen T. Stone with a comment about J. K. Rowling threatening to sue Amnesty International:

Transphoba destroys an otherwise normal person from the inside out. It is a brainrot that rips apart someone’s soul and replaces it with a hatred so unyielding and all-consuming that it damn near becomes that person’s entire personality. God, imagine actually hating trans people because they’re brave enough to take charge of their fucking body and live in it the way they want to live in it. Imagine being that much of a motherfucking coward.

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with an anonymous reply to the question of why China wouldn’t want to support Trump:

Because even China understands that Trumps instability and unpredictability is bad for the entire world and it affects them even if it enables them to step up and become a leader on the global stage.

Next, it’s an anonymous commenter passing on a relevant quote after the law firms that cut deals to dodge a fight with Trump ending up in a fight with him over the deals:

‘You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war.’ – Winston Churchill to Neville Chamberlain

Over on the funny side, things are a little slow again this week, so we’ll forego the editor’s choice and just look at the top two winners. In first place, it’s Thad again with a comment about Trump’s election fraud claims:

Yeah, but even Fox is nervous about repeating Trump’s election fraud claims, for some reason.

Or for 787.5 million reasons, as the case may be.

In second place, it’s another anonymous quip about Trump fighting with law firms:

MAGA: Making Attorneys Get Attorneys.

That’s all for this week, folks!

This Week in 2016

• As UK Piracy Falls To Record Lows, Government Still Wants To Put Pirates In Jail For 10 Years
• Questionable DMCA Takedown Notice Filed Over Post Calling Lawyer Out For Copyright Infringement
• Facebook Sued Again For ‘Material Support’ Of Terrorism, Because Hamas Uses Facebook
• American Medical Association Claims False Copyright Over President Obama’s Journal Article
• Google Issues Its Latest ‘Stop Blaming Us For Piracy’ Report
• Bill Introduced To Create Copyright Small Claims Court… Which Copyright Trolls Are Going To Love

This Week in 2011

• Why PROTECT IP Will Fail: Cultural Acceptance, Not Fear Of Punishment, Makes People Abide By Laws
• ISP’s Five Strikes Plan: Railroading, MPAA/RIAA-Style
• How Copyright Lobbyists Are Making The Child Porn Problem Worse
• Lobbyists Ramp Up Pressure To Get PROTECT IP Passed
• YouTube Kills Lady Gaga’s YouTube Channel For Copyright Violations
• The Confusing Case Of Lovecraft’s Copyrights

This Week in 2006

• Patent Hoarder Says Only Bad Guys Are Those Who Don’t Pay Up
• Recording Industry Asks ISPs To Shut Down Accounts Of File Sharers
• Hollywood’s Own Paper Says Congress Shouldn’t Protect Hollywood
• Congress Now Blaming MySpace For Troubled Children
• How Long Does The RIAA Get To Abuse The Legal System?
• Newspapers’ New Internet Strategy Just More Of The Same

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Bloof with a comment about Wikipedia banning its co-founder:

Guy was one of many people involved in the start of Wikipedia, left in a snit to start rival project after rival project more in line with his personal vision, each dying a death because his vision doesn’t make for a useful website with a thriving community. After these sites rotted on the vine, he decided to do return, contribute nothing worthwhile for years and right wing media tours to help signal boost right wing attempts to attack the site because they won’t let them hijack the site the way they have everything else.

He’s the intellectual equivalent of a J6er, he openly tried to do a coup, got punished because the rules should be applied equally regardless of political beliefs, and expects sympathy, only there’s no Trump to wave the get out of consequences free card for him.

In second place, it’s That One Guy with a simple response to ICE rebutting Nazi allegations by going full Gestapo:

Someone doth protest too much

If not nazi, why nazi shaped?

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with a comment from Whoever about how speech laws designed to protect the powerless get abused by the powerful:

Another example

In the UK, the wealthy and powerful are able to get “Superinjunctions” to prevent speech, and, significantly, even the existence of the injunction cannot be disclosed.

Combined with strict libel laws (even truth is not an absolute case in the UK — the case of George Galloway against the Daily Telegraph showed this), the powerful in the UK can be used to restrict speech that criticizes them.

Next, it’s Stephen T. Stone with a comment about the FCC claiming the First Amendment allows it to ban porn:

Porn is, was, and always will be the canary in the censorship coal mine. Censors count on people being too embarassed about defending porn to stop censorship. If they take even the most innocuous pornography away from you⁠—I’m talking Playboy pinups here⁠—and you do nothing about it because “who wants to defend smut”, every other kind of speech is on the table. This really is a “first they came for” situation, so if you’re not willing to openly defend porn as protected speech, the least you can do is not openly support the censors when they use your triggers against you.

“Remember, pornographers have always been on our side. Brave, ready to fight for our rights. Smut is our friend.” — John Waters

Over on the funny side, our first place winner is Bloof with a comment about Trump taking out his anger over the reflecting pool on a US olympic canoeist:

If he’s mad about the Olympian, wait until he hears about that idiot who drove a motorcade of heavy, armoured vehicles across it before they filled it back up. That guy will be in sooo much trouble.

In second place, it’s Zeus with another joke about the whole debacle:

LMFAO

A narcissist obsessed with a reflecting pool?

Not again. Sheesh.

For editor’s choice on the funny side, we start out with an anonymous comment about time travel:

You don’t reseaerch time travel: you just make a decision to research time travel and if your future self doesn’t promptly show up to say hi then you know that your research would have failed.

Finally, it’s MrWilson responding to the FCC General Counsel’s complaint about porn being widely available and cheap or free:

Well something needs to be affordable in our society if it’s not going to be food, housing, education, energy, and other basic human needs.

That’s all for this week, folks!

This Week in 2016

• ‘Most Transparent’ President Signs Into Law FOIA Reform Bill That Won’t Affect His Administration
• Documentary About Freeing Happy Birthday From Copyfraud Comes Out The Day After Happy Birthday Officially Declared Public Domain
• Why The Latest Supreme Court Ruling In Kirtsaeng May Have A Much Bigger Impact On Copyright & Fair Use
• Appeals Court Says That Sharing Passwords Can Violate Criminal Anti-Hacking Laws
• FBI Vacuums Up Local Law Enforcement Documents To Block Open Records Requests About Orlando Shooting
• Facebook Experiments With End To End Encryption In Messenger

This Week in 2011

• Smear Campaign Ramps Up Against Those Who Believe Free Speech Is More Important Than Hollywood’s Obsolete Business Model
• Homeland Security Working Hard To Make Sure No One Wants To Use .com Or .net Domains
• Video Gamers Realizing Streaming Criminalization Bill Might Make A Lot Of Them Into Criminals
• Senator Jerry Moran Removes Himself As A PROTECT IP Co-Sponsor
• RIAA Accounting: How To Sell 1 Million Albums And Still Owe $500,000
• Did The Entertainment Industry Backdoor In Forcing ISPs To Kick People Offline, While Claiming It Did Not?

This Week in 2006

• Throwing Away Privacy In The Blink Of An Eye
• New Casino Business Model: Any Time Someone Wins, Blame The Software
• Australia Wants To Regulate YouTube As Well
• Attention English Teachers: Google Is Officially A Verb
• Will The MPAA Now Lobby For A Ban On The Print Screen Button?
• Is The Navy Trying To Patent The Firewall?

This week, both our winners on the insightful side come in response to the German court ruling that Google is liable for false claims in its AI overviews. In first place, it’s an anonymous comment about Bruce Schneier’s reaction to the ruling:

“There’s nothing in the law that requires us to accommodate AI systems if they are fundamentally untrustworthy, just as we don’t need to accommodate untrustworthy human systems.”

Schneier’s spot-on here. The greedy-but-lazy thugs at the AI/LLM companies want it both ways: they don’t want to invest the time, effort, and clue required to build reliable systems, but they don’t want to be held accountable for the massively unreliable systems they’ve already built.

By the way: the opinion itself is extremely well-written. The court did its homework. Full marks.

In second place, it’s A Guy with the first comment on the post:

Seems like common sense. AIs that constantly lie and AI agents that break things are defective products.

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with a comment from Arianity about NCOSE lawyers repeatedly citing fake cases:

When this first started happening publicly ~2 years ago, I shook my head. Whatever, it’s embarrassing, but new technology takes time, most lawyers are old and not particularly tech savvy.

How the fuck are we still doing this (on seemingly like a weekly basis) 2 years later??

Next, it’s n00bdragon with a comment about JD Vance bragging about being able to do lots of Watergates:

He’s right in another sense as well. Watergate wouldn’t even last 12 hours today because the Trump administration does that every day before breakfast. Say what you want about Nixon, at least he still had the vestigial thread of shame to resign. He didn’t try to pull a coup or have his own vice president murdered.

I think Vance knows Trump would (quite literally) stab him in the back if it came down to it, but is making a calculated gamble that someone will succeed in taking down Tangerine Jesus and leave him with the presidency if only he can belch forth the required amount of nonsense until that day. I think he’s an idiot who does a disservice to his country and the human race in general with that idea but there it is.

Over on the funny side, our first place winner is Doug with a comment on our post about CBS ratings continuing to nosedive:

The Lawnmower

Don’t make the mistake of anthropomorphizing Larry Ellison.

In second place, it’s glenn with another comment about the NCOSE lawyers:

You say “legal briefs.” I say “fan fiction.”

For editor’s choice on the funny side, we start out with a comment from Rocky about the settlement for the man who was arrested for playing Star Wars music at National Guard troops:

After this win, O’Hara can follow them around again playing the Imperial March on a very tiny violin.

Finally, it’s Pixelation with a quick reaction to the title of the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech:

Bad that pun. It’s ban.

That’s all for this week, folks!

This Week in 2016

• Copyright Office Pushing Dangerous And Ridiculous Plan To Strip Websites Of DMCA Safe Harbors
• Judge Calls Out Malibu Media For Its Attempt To Cut And Run When Faced With Challenge To Its Infringement Claims
• Hillary Clinton’s Tech Policy Plan Includes Some Empty Broadband Promises And A Continued War On Encryption
• Malibu Media Sues Its Former Lawyer Over Missing Funds, Breach Of Bar Rules
• Michael Bloomberg Comes Down On The Wrong Side Of The Crypto Wars: Supports Backdooring Encryption
• Ford Dealership Swipes Game Image For Ad, Thinks It’s Kosher Because It Came From A DMCA Compliant Site

This Week in 2011

• Supreme Court Says Anti-Violent Video Game Law Violates The First Amendment
• Righthaven Charged With Racketeering In Somewhat Epic Filing
• Petition To South Carolina Supreme Court Charges Righthaven With Unauthorized Practice Of Law
• Want To Give Righthaven’s Backers A Taste Of Their Own Medicine?
• California Politician Who Wrote Unconstitutional Anti-Video Game Law Plans To Try Again With New Law
• Righthaven: Blame Our Clueless Lawyer, But Don’t Sanction Us, For Failing To Name Stephens Media As An Interested Party

This Week in 2006

• Nathan Myhrvold’s Bait And Switch Plan On Patent Hoarding
• Why Is The Canadian Government Paying The Copyright Lobby?
• Sony BMG Rootkit Virus Writers Arrested
• RIAA’s Latest Legal Strategy: Sue Globally; Promote Locally
• Freeloaders Are Not The Issue
• Grokster’s Impact On File Sharing? Uh… Not Much