Scary Devil Monastery 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: DirecTV Finally Dumps OAN, Limiting The Conspiracy And Propaganda Channel's Reach

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 24 Jan, 2022 @ 12:57am

    Re:

    True enough. The US is the land of Facebook and Taco Bell. They never run out of conspiracy stories and sick self-burns.

  • On the post: DirecTV Finally Dumps OAN, Limiting The Conspiracy And Propaganda Channel's Reach

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 24 Jan, 2022 @ 12:49am

    Re: Re:

    "It also has the philosophy that everything wrong with the world would be magically fixed if only they were allowed to return to the fantasy version of the 1950s they saw on TV as kids." What I find ironic is that what existed of that time when they considered america "great" (for some, at least) relied almost exclusively on FDR's decidedly socialist platform of unionization, heavy industrial and banking regulations, extreme taxation of the rich, etc. In short every red hat wearer has a banner on their head proclaiming they want to be socialist again. "The fact that it never existed to begin with, and that if it did it would be hell for anyone not a straight white middle-aged Christian male, is not to be discussed openly." Well, it sort of did exist. A single breadwinner could afford a house, a family, a car and setting money aside for their pensions. Conditions were indeed hellish for black people - but context matters. Today the baseline has been lowered for white lower and middle class to the point where although racism is very much still a thing the gap between the living standards of black and white people have been drastically reduced. The hitherto privileged reacted predictably. The occupy movement followed by a surge of socialist ideals (to the predictable response from both sides of the aisle) by increasing proportions of the population...and a large and very loud minority squawking in outraged disbelief that the system treats them almost as bad as if they weren't white. "Also, never mention what the tax rates were for the rich in the real timescale." Interestingly aside from AOC, Salazar and Bernie I haven't seen too many democrats all that interested in meaningfully closing the tax loopholes exploited by the extremely wealthy. I could be charitable and say Biden's got enough on his plate - but unless a lot of democrats come out right now and start talking about "eating the rich" I'm not seeing the midterms looking all that good for them in many contested states.

  • On the post: Add The United Nations To The List Of Entities Helping The Chinese Government Oppress Its Minority Uighur Population

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 24 Jan, 2022 @ 02:01am

    "The Chinese government claims to have no national religion. This may be true. But it will only tolerate so many, and Islam isn't one of them."

    Interestingly this is a very late development. China has tolerated a plethora of religions in the past, Islam among them - and notably Christianity as well, which historically has been far more under fire given its role during the "century of humiliation".

    The Uyghur and Tibetans stand out as being a people being persecuted as well as over their religious reasons, but in all cases it's inaccurate to call this an "anti-islamic" sentiment by the chinese government.

    I'd say that starting with the crackdown on Falun Gong we are simply in one of those regularly recurring periods where the Chinese government comes down heavily on any spiritual value not aligned directly with Chinese culture and government doctrine.

    As they've done in the past, plenty of times.

    The Uyghur and Tibetans would have gotten hit no matter which given their cultures explicitly states they aren't chinese, but the broader current crackdowns on Islam, Christianity and Judaism has the same explanation as when China went to war against Buddhism back in the day - foreign ideologies have no place in Hua Xia.

    So please, Tim, separate those issues. China is persecuting the Uyghur and the Tibetans. This is ethnic cleansing performed to make sure chinese territory only has "chinese" people in it.

    There is also a broader persecution of, well, every spiritual philosophy which is either foreign or acknowledges authority over that of the party. This is objectively speaking equally bad.

    But although they overlap this is about two different things.

  • On the post: States' 3rd Amended Antitrust Complaint Against Google Looks A Lot More Damning

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 20 Jan, 2022 @ 12:58am

    Re: Re:

    "But that particular AC has a strawman Mike that he insists is the real Mike, no matter how many times it gets knocked down." Baghdad Bob's own little world doesn't just contain a strawman Mike. What was it again? "There are motherfuckers, stupid motherfuckers..."

  • On the post: US Court To Gruyere Cheese People: No, You Can't Ban People From Calling Their Cheese Gruyere If They Aren't Your Neighbors

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 19 Jan, 2022 @ 01:49am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    "But is champagne a trade mark, or should that be reserved to the actual makers..." The way the french - now EU - AOC works is comparable to trademark law more than anything else. It's just that the owner of the trademark is a geographic region (or in some cases a tradition) rather than an individual. Like most things IP you can sometimes make a case where it makes sense but any closer scrutiny at all will reveal issues ranging from ridiculous all the way to dysfunctionally crippling. Trademark and branding sort of works, most of the time. The drawbacks are usually outweighed by actual and reasonable benefits. That gives this sort of thing legitimacy. And regional classifications do sort of make sense. Out of all things IP naming is the only thing which really does make a case for itself. Patent law has a whole lot more issues. Particularly so when in most areas what is patented manifestly isn't original or new. Or in case of medicine, actually paid for mainly by the public purse. Copyright is the blistering abomination of old heresy law and censorship put in private hands to prevent people from passing on what they found interesting. For the effective enforcement of which we've discovered that reversing burden of proof and abolishing vital parts of legal principle is necessary. champagne, gruyer, Ford, etc...these are all brand names. Identities. That californian vintner making a sparkling wine of his own should just push it on the market and try to make the Monterey as big a name as the Champagne. Much of the reason for this lies with the consumer. Connoisseurs who are enough to spend big money on the Good Stuff care about the name on the label. Fanbois will fanboi and that's how the market rolls.

  • On the post: Why U.S. Robocall Hell Seemingly Never Ends

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 19 Jan, 2022 @ 01:03am

    Re:

    "If you're drowning in robocalls, use Google Voice." Depending on your phone OEM you may already have the option of activating the spam blocklist. Alternatively download a call handler with such a list. On a good day that will deal with 9 out of 10 calls. Just be sure to give back to the community by flagging spam which gets through the filter as such.

  • On the post: Pennsylvania Says Legal Medical Marijuana Means Cops Can't Just Sniff Their Way Into Warrantless Searches

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 19 Jan, 2022 @ 12:45am

    "This will only last until a cop perks up and says they suspect the person was under the influence, had consumed marijuana before operating a vehicle."

    It still keeps bugging me how this shit keeps happening in the US...because it's not like we don't have cops in europe yet the stuff I keep hearing about from the US is right out of anecdotal tales of "That time I went to some third-world hellhole and got shaken down by the local corrupt cops".

    It's as if the US is permanently stuck in a Stephen King novel. And not one of the good ones either.

  • On the post: US Court To Gruyere Cheese People: No, You Can't Ban People From Calling Their Cheese Gruyere If They Aren't Your Neighbors

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 18 Jan, 2022 @ 12:34am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    "Those poor people in Champagne, Switzerland... not even able to use their own name." Well, not for sparkling wine at least, though it'd be an interesting case to bring to court if they could show they had a longer history of making wine than the district of Champagne, France. Of course, they could put that label on another local speciality. "And how much money should everyone else in the world have to pay Florida for violating their Florida Man trademark by also producing stupid people of the male persuasion?" On the one hand the fact that everyone can use a trademark in a meme or for private use is why I give the TM validity I'll never extend to Copyright or many abuses of patent law. On the other I'm happy to report that thus far morons aren't a goods marketable enough to attract many trolls. I'm sure we'd have seen some by now if that were the case. Gripping hand though? I'd really love for floridas governor to try to trademark that concept. Self-awareness doesn't seem to be a thing among the GOP these days...

  • On the post: Appeals Court Says It's Entirely Possible For Cops To Pinpoint Marijuana Odors In Moving Cars

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 18 Jan, 2022 @ 12:23am

    Re: Unconstitutional searches for all!

    Once again one of those only in america things. In every other country police officers may act on hunches and such - and without a miles long litany of abuse and overreach history they tend to have the credibility to make their cases. The US, otoh, has a police community made infamous by unworthies like Chauvin and with police unions which rather than trying to fight a police gang mentality have embraced it.

  • On the post: US Court To Gruyere Cheese People: No, You Can't Ban People From Calling Their Cheese Gruyere If They Aren't Your Neighbors

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2022 @ 07:33am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Oh god, I'm going to (unintentionally) be a trol

    "But, champagne identifies a region, or style of wine, and not a producer." All true. What do you want me to tell you, that it doesn't really make sense? This...is marketing. I offer an example of when on my first job I once visited one of the plant where they made our products. The supervisor asked me if I could see the two tanks in the yard to which led exactly one pipe, splitting off in two ends. "You see the one on the right? That's product X. High performance, high quality, high price. The one on the right? Cheap shit, we only toss it in as an extra or for customers looking to serve quantity rather than quality".
    "But.." Said I, "...both those tanks are filled from the same pipe...?"
    "Wonders of branding, kid." he replied. It's pretty much cookie-cutter template that branding is central. A generic medication may be identical to the same product made by Merck. But one package will cost ten times more. An office chair from a reputable manufacturer will cost much more than the same chair made by some no-name company. People pay for the name. That's always been the case.
    From one point of view I see it as the madness that it is.
    From the other point of view I realize that yeah, but people also want to be able to make the choice of whom they give their money. And branding serves the market well in that regard by - in the case of the Champagne example, identifying *that particular bottle as coming from the district of Champagne. Branding is driven by two main factors; Identification and Cultural snobbery insisting the first must be supplied. Common sense doesn't come into this. People demanding something exclusive at which to accurately hurl greenbacks, does. Thus a market is served.

  • On the post: US Court To Gruyere Cheese People: No, You Can't Ban People From Calling Their Cheese Gruyere If They Aren't Your Neighbors

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2022 @ 07:19am

    Re: Re: Re:

    "Would you rather it be the way that only people in a region in Thailand or a city in the US could call it that way? Because that's what it's like in Europe…" Oh I know it's that way in Europe. I wonder how much anti-EU sentiment was fed by the fact that people all over woke up one day and found their favorite foodstuffs had been rebranded as "apple drink resembling cider" or their breakfast sausage renamed as something completely different;

    Bernard Woolley: "They cannot stop us eating the British sausage, can they?"
    Jim Hacker: "They can stop us calling it a sausage though. Apparently it has got to be called the Emulsified High-Fat Offal Tube."
    Bernard Woolley: "And you swallowed it?"
    • Yes Minister, "Party Games" christmas special.
    The US certainly does have branding in similar or even far more draconian manner. It's just that the brand name is rarely that of the local county. I invite here the comparison to a shoemaker making running shoes and trying to sell them as "Nike's". It will not end well.

  • On the post: US Court To Gruyere Cheese People: No, You Can't Ban People From Calling Their Cheese Gruyere If They Aren't Your Neighbors

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2022 @ 02:56am

    Re:

    Not a problem. Just...remember to offer a courtesy gift when they come calling. A few pounds of ilchester usually greases the wheels. Or palms as the case might be...

  • On the post: US Court To Gruyere Cheese People: No, You Can't Ban People From Calling Their Cheese Gruyere If They Aren't Your Neighbors

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2022 @ 02:47am

    Re:

    "Used to be when someone else was horning in on your schtick, you didn't really care. You made a better product & advertised that fact." Well, yeah, but brand protection is as old as dirt. If you give your particular cheeze a weird name then you defend that one, because you don't want the shoddy asshat next door to sell his curdled milk under your name and giving you a bad rep over it. I mean if you've put in the work to make your "Slickpoo fudge" a success in the candystores then the last thing you need is for some shitwit out of Mud Butte to sell his offers under the slickpoo label. Both of which, I have to add, are actual US city names. ????

  • On the post: US Court To Gruyere Cheese People: No, You Can't Ban People From Calling Their Cheese Gruyere If They Aren't Your Neighbors

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2022 @ 02:37am

    Re: Re: A bit late

    "You enforce it, you're a troll. You don't, and you lose it. " That's...not really how it works. There has to be a reasonable similarity between the products If you sell the beer Podunk Yokel Dong and some other asswit decides to send a potable under that same name then you have a case to defend. If the local adult store - the one next to "Four Seasons Total Landscaping" for instance - sells a product under the same name you probably neither have nor want a case to defend.

  • On the post: US Court To Gruyere Cheese People: No, You Can't Ban People From Calling Their Cheese Gruyere If They Aren't Your Neighbors

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2022 @ 02:02am

    Re: Re: Re: Well...

    I have many words for the EU but fluffy and light have never been part of them.

  • On the post: US Court To Gruyere Cheese People: No, You Can't Ban People From Calling Their Cheese Gruyere If They Aren't Your Neighbors

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2022 @ 02:01am

    Re: Re: Oh god, I'm going to (unintentionally) be a troll....

    "So what is the consumer protection interest in claiming that identical sparkling wine made from champagne grapes isn’t champagne?" I don't know. What consumer interests are protected if I claim my nickname is "Bergman"? Or if GM claims their newest Fiesta is a Toyota? Brand is an identity thing. The thing to do if you want your local vintner to have a catchy name for their sparkling wine isn't to nick the name of another, identical product, but to use their own.

  • On the post: US Court To Gruyere Cheese People: No, You Can't Ban People From Calling Their Cheese Gruyere If They Aren't Your Neighbors

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2022 @ 01:53am

    Re: Re: One way to find out...

    Don't dither like a big girl's blouse...just go the distance and call it something like; Champagne Gruyere Sonic Monster Mario Cheeze drink...

  • On the post: US Court To Gruyere Cheese People: No, You Can't Ban People From Calling Their Cheese Gruyere If They Aren't Your Neighbors

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2022 @ 01:50am

    Re:

    "Not that I would want to restrict Belgian ale to beers brewed in Belgium." Looking at how Belgians brew ale the word "restrictions" wasn't the first word which came to my mind. I think belgians have their own version of rule 34. I don't know for sure that there's a belgian ale brewed in a geyser on iceland using liquorice, dragonfruit seeds and swedish surströmming...but I'll bet good money that in writing this some Belgian brewer, compelled by instincts s/he couldn't name, is already packing their kettle for a long trip...

  • On the post: US Court To Gruyere Cheese People: No, You Can't Ban People From Calling Their Cheese Gruyere If They Aren't Your Neighbors

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2022 @ 01:43am

    Re: Re:

    "...wine made from the same variety of grapes, produced with identical recipes, every ingredient identical, from grapes grown in a place with identical climate and soil chemistry?" No more than the difference between a person born in sowetoland, South Africa and, say, you. Why have two different names for what is essentially the exact same product? The real thing where trademark makes sense is that it's essentially an identifier. A wine which wasn't made in the district of Champagne, France...isn't made in Champagne, France. Selling it as if it was means falsely placing a label on a bottle which implies centuries of traditional vintners stand as guarantee for the product. "And what word would you use to distinguish that wine from other types of sparkling wine?" Whatever name you see fit to associate with wine produced from that region? Honestly I wish more people did exactly that - can't wait to browse shelves to spring Strumpfhosen Schnaps or a stiff glass of Podunk on unsuspecting guests...

  • On the post: US Court To Gruyere Cheese People: No, You Can't Ban People From Calling Their Cheese Gruyere If They Aren't Your Neighbors

    Scary Devil Monastery ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2022 @ 01:35am

    Re:

    "...every time some idiot goes, "well, actually, what you're drinking isn't champagne, it's sparking wine,"..." It was always like that though - brand protection just wasn't as global in those old days when we first learned words.
    That said, sure, I grok why the residents of Champagne, Cognac, Cologne, etc would want to make sure variants of their regional specialty manufactured elsewhere isn't just riding their coattails.

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