Shannon Vanshoon 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (40)

• On the post: DHS Demands Media, Politicians Stop Being So Mean To ICE

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 25 Sep, 2025 @ 03:31pm

  Interesting point

  That's something I've idly wondered, even though I'm not normally one to speculate on matters like this with little evidence. In this case, though, if the shooter's goal was, in fact, to take out 'ICE agents', then they either are an incredibly terrible shot... or that wasn't their goal at all. And miss me with this 'Anti-ICE' nonsense; we already went through this with Robinson and Kirk's assassination, and we know how that turned out.

• On the post: The RFK Jr. Congressional Hearing Was An Unmitigated Disaster

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 05 Sep, 2025 @ 04:27pm

  Awww

  So, yeah, I'd say on one hand that it's nice Senator Cassidy is railing against Kennedy like this for all the unmitigated and horrifically dangerous decisions he's making. But hey, you know what would've been even better? Not being the deciding vote in the first place, jackass. Rail all you like, Cassidy; what's happening, and the resulting blood, is still on you. So you're free to go fuck yourself, champ.

• On the post: HBO Max To Get Even More Obnoxious About Password Sharing

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 13 Aug, 2025 @ 05:57am

  Timely Reminder

  It's kind of sad, since I still remember years and years ago, shortly after Netflix started the streaming side of its service, there were news reports about piracy going down, since what Netflix offered was arguably so much more convenient. But, then of course, everyone had to start their own streaming service, gatekeep their stuff behind it, and then Netflix got greedy and enshittified, and here we are.

• On the post: Financial Censorship and the Love Affair Between Payment Processors and Anti-Porn Campaigners

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 29 Jul, 2025 @ 07:16am

  Good for them.

  Golly, it's almost as if if they didn't want a bunch of people calling in complaining about this, they SHOULDN'T HAVE PUSHED STEAM AND ITCH AROUND. Which reminds me; I need to call in myself, and their 'auto-response' can bite me.

• On the post: ICE Boss Thinks Journalists Shouldn’t Be Asking About Masked Officers Disappearing People

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 21 May, 2025 @ 10:26am

  In that case, please let us know any specific examples of said 'plainclothes ICE agents' arresting these so-called gang-bangers, since everything reported so far has been completely innocent citizens, like Rumeysa Ozturk. Or, maybe, you can shut your Nazi-dick-sucking mouth.

• On the post: WotC DMCAs ‘Stardew Valley’ BG3 Mod, Despite Larian’s Endorsement

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2025 @ 01:45pm

  Yes, and WotC, a company already known for especially terrible decisions regarding 'IP protection', rescinding the DMCA request totally goes back in time and stops it from happening in the first place. And as Geigner also said, I'm sure 'now that this is all going public' didn't affect things either.

• On the post: Twitter Briefly Blocked The NY Post, Elon Cried Foul. Now He’s Doing Far Worse

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 06 Jan, 2025 @ 10:44am

  Yeah, I was personally thinking going down to the comments, 'So, wonder how many comments down it'll take for someone to bleat out "ELON DERANGEMENT SYNDROME!"'. And here we are. Especially sad when you consider the original concept was pretty pathetic from the beginning.

• On the post: Federal Court Says Dismantling A Phone To Install Firmware Isn’t A ‘Search,’ Even If Was Done To Facilitate A Search

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2024 @ 01:44pm

  Ah...

  I can't help but wonder: if they had 52 total devices they seized from the defendant, what could possibly be on the phone and tablet that would further add to what they already had? This more feels like the usual nonsense of police going completely insane because they know they can get away with it.

• On the post: School District Pulls 425 Books From Its Libraries In Response To Tennessee’s Shitty Book Ban Law

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2024 @ 09:43am

  To quote the esteemed Zach de la Roca, 'They don't gotta burn a book they just remove 'em', yes.

• On the post: ExTwitter Makes It Official: Blocks Are No Longer Blocks

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2024 @ 09:44am

  Between This and the Automatic Grok Enrollment...

  This definitely isn't going help to keep anyone on Twitter, especially in terms of the 'automatic scraping' for Grok; I can't imagine any artist still (somehow) on there wanting to stay. For which I'm thankful; I'm tired of artists I like to follow seeming to primarily post there. I'm also rather curious to see how this new 'block' change works with both Google Play and the Apple Appstore; I'd assume that it still follows the rules, but maybe not.

• On the post: Congress Poised To Bring Back Unfettered Patent Trolling

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 19 Sep, 2024 @ 06:00am

  Honestly, I came to Techdirt this morning to see if there was any mention of Nintendo's intensely dumb lawsuit against Pocketpal for 'patent infringement', though this article feels intensely timely in regards to that.

• On the post: Second Circuit Says Libraries Disincentivize Authors To Write Books By Lending Them For Free

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 05 Sep, 2024 @ 12:30pm

  ... I'm starting to think that we seriously need a thorough political scouring of our entire court-system if we're ever going to seriously rebuild this country. I mean, how many judges are just completely out of step with... everything?

• On the post: CA Governor Newsom And AG Bonta Pretend Court Agreed With Them On Kids Code

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 23 Aug, 2024 @ 12:13pm

  Ugh.

  Honestly, my first thought reading the headline was 'Why in the endless fucks did anyone suggest Newsom as a replacement for Biden again?' Thank Gilgamesh that whole thing got gloriously sidestepped and then some...

• On the post: Breton Wields DSA As Censorship Tool, Musk Tells Him To ‘Go Fuck His Own Face’

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 13 Aug, 2024 @ 11:43am

  That's just it, though: it's not just 'unwanted privacy concerns', but as Mike has mentioned in the past, how do you specify 'bad actors' in a way that doesn't allow for that label to be applied to otherwise innocent groups?

• On the post: Warning: Believing The Surgeon General’s Social Media Warning May Be Hazardous To Teens’ Health

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2024 @ 01:47pm

  That's honestly how I've felt for a while myself, to be honest, since my childhood was... less than pleasant in that regard, due to my 'less-than-normal' personality. And interestingly enough, it was when the Internet took off and I was able to engage with people more on my wavelength that I started to feel a lot more comfortable in my own skin and gain some self-confidence. So when Mike mentions the downsides to restricting access to social-media for teenagers, I can definitely relate.

• On the post: Warning: Believing The Surgeon General’s Social Media Warning May Be Hazardous To Teens’ Health

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2024 @ 10:15am

  Wow, right out of the gate!

  And to think on Bluesky, I mentioned that we may need to start a pool on how long it takes for this sort of story to come up before someone comes up with a 'no, you're wrong!' response... and, well, here we are. At any rate, yes, champ, your response is based on total reality, and isn't at all completely inaccurate. Good job. I especially like all the expertly-presented research to the contrary regarding Masnick's point; it should truly make us all think.

• On the post: Cops Battered A Man Suffering A Seizure, Cooked Up Criminal Charges To Cover Up Their Actions

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 12 Apr, 2024 @ 12:00pm

  Tell me, is there a major difference in taste when it comes to shoe-polish, or is it all kind of the same? I'd assume you'd have a distinguished palette at this point with all the boot-licking and all.

• On the post: Elon Musk’s Lawyer Faces Sanctions After Deposition Meltdown, While Engaging In Unauthorized Practice Of Law

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 11 Apr, 2024 @ 11:36am

  Yes, it's amazing how much people will deny the existence of something that's not happening... unless you have any kind of evidence to back up your claim. But you may as well say the medical professionals in question are in the pocket of the Unicorn Mafia.

• On the post: Elon Finally Finds A Government He’s Willing To Stand Up To: When The Censorship Demands Target His Political Allies

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2024 @ 12:08pm

  Here We Go Again?

  but I DO know that the situation reminds me of the paradox of tolerance…

  Ah, to save Mike a bit of stress having to deal with this again: use of Karl Popper's 'paradox' should be done carefully, since it's so easily misunderstood. (Which I admittedly have done myself in the past, including a certain famous picture/comic that is usually the source of the confusion.) As for the Brazilian court's decision, as Mike mentioned, disregarding Bolsonaro being a [i]complete bellend[/i], this isn't the right way to go, so you could say that Musk is right to do this... insofar as he's potentially 'required' to do anything. Not that it changes the main point that Musk is a massive hypocrite, of course, which he definitely is.

• On the post: Court Tells FBI It Can’t Just Take A US Private Vault Customer’s Money Without Explaining Its Actions

  

  Shannon Vanshoon ( profile ), 20 Mar, 2024 @ 11:46am

  (Facepalm Emote)

  One would think an otherwise upstanding law-enforcement unit would do something wacky, like, say, get a warranty for the SPECIFIC deposit-box that their target owns, rather than do a broad 'smash and grab' like this, but that would presumably involve actual investigative work. This was essentially the equivalent of saying 'We think the killer's on this block' and then breaking into everyone's houses there hoping to find them. Also, I can't help but ask why the hell civil asset-forfeiture is still a thing, but we all know why.