Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
This week, the New Zealand government stepped in to stop the US from seizing all of Kim Dotcom's assets, prompting a lot of reactions from every corner. Both our top comments on the insightful side come in response to that story, the first from PRMan with a simple but distressing observation:
Hmmm
It seems that New Zealand follows our constitution more than we do...
In second place we've got jupiterkansas with a response to the old argument that Dotcom's behaviour warrants this treatment:
Does not matter what Kim Dotcom did - it's no excuse for the U.S. government to break the law and resort to stealing just to to stop him or any other criminal, and seizing his assets is closer to piracy than anything Dotcom has done.
For editor's choice, we'll start it with one more comment along those lines that also questions the supposed magnitude of his "crimes":
Again your understanding of the facts leaves much to be desired. He didn't "produce nothing", he created a platform. He made money by selling access to that platform. He hosted content others uploaded to his platform. He didn't use any products others made in any infringement. The people who posted the material are at fault.
I want the US government to abide by due process. And not horsetrade with Dotcoms rights and legal avenues. Playing games with his ability to mount a defense is not exactly going well for the US Government, if you hadn't noticed.
Of course, it's hard to see Dotcom as a hero - but the same is not true of another one of the government's overseas targets, Edward Snowden. Our second editor's choice comes from David in response to yet another government comment about his serious crimes, and the need for him to face them:
Would that be before or after Clapper faces lying under oath to Congress about commandeering the dismantling of the U.S. Constitution by criminally reinterpreting his mandate?
As long as none of the criminals uncovered by Snowden's actions faces the music and instead stays in office without retribution, it is entirely silly to go gungho on the person uncovering the crimes.
Oh by the way: who is going to get prosecuted for the CIA torturing people to death for fun (as it has been clearly established that at the point of the killing no information was to be gained any more)? Obama has stated emphatically that those "heroes" and "patriots" would not be facing the music. Including the armchair psychologists directing the torture "experiments" and receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars for their "expertise".
I'm all for a punishment proportionate to the crime. If we take the punishment of those criminals as guidance, the punishment of Snowden would probably be a daily banquet in the Washington D.C. market place for the rest of his life.
Which is more or less what Sokrates pleaded as punishment for his "crimes" when dragged before a court about equally likely to deliver justice as a U.S. court.
Hopefully Snowden will spare the American people at least the shame of a mock trial and will refrain from returning while the current criminals are in office.
But, more so than any one statement about Snowden this week, we were shocked by the sheer number of them that referred to him as "Eric". Our first place comment for funny comes from Chris Brand and suggests a possible explanation:
Could be a printing error
in the script they're all reading from.
Speaking of scripts, we also got two strange, identical comments whining about something to do with the New York Times this week, prompting one anonymous commenter to to deliver our second-place winner for funny:
Hint: When shilling, try not to post identical comments twice in two minutes with different IPs.
For editor's choice on the funny side, we return to the story of "Eric" Snowden, where Baron Von Robber put on his best government-official voice:
Erik Snowden! A name that will live in infamy with the likes of Jody Stalin, Adam Hitler, Charlene Manson and The Rock Obama!
But of course, he missed one - and for that we go to our final (anonymous) editor's choice:
Erik Snowden is a regular Bernard Arnold.
That's all for this week, folks!
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