Not quite sure what to make of this, but the comment that was voted most insightful this week came on the post about CISPA passing (and the amendment that was added, changing the nature of the bill, which in many ways expanded the scope of the bill). The comment was a rather simple comment from hfbs that summed up many people’s thinking on the subject:

Well, shit.

I don’t know if that’s all that insightful, but it sure seemed to capture the general mood.

The second most insightful comment, per the votes, came on the same post (actually, the third highest ranking comment was also on that post). The second place comment came from breadgod, and was a response to the news that this “cybersecurity” bill now also covered “protecting the children” as well:

Protect the children is the most convenient excuse ever created.

For editor’s choice, we’ve got an Anonymous Coward commenting on the story about the press frenzy around Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik admitting to playing World of Warcraft — and why that means nothing:

More accurate headline. Over 10 million World of Warcraft players didn’t do anything violent last year. Doesn’t leave much to talk about in an article though.

For the final editor’s choice on the insightful side, we have Baldaur Regis perfectly summing up the debate between Jonathan Taplin and Alexis Ohanian over copyright law:

The guy on the left: entertainment industry = entitlement.

The guy on the right: tech industry = enhancement.

Does the entertainment industry have anybody who doesn’t come off as a whiny old man?

Moving on to the funny comments. The winner this week on public votes was an Anonymous Coward on that same post about CISPA passing. The AC was responding to a comment from Leigh about how, after watching much of the debate on C-SPAN, he had “very little patience left for circumlocution and tortured phrasing…” The AC corrected Leigh:

Uh, that’s circumlocution and enhanced interrogation phrasing.

We’ll have to fix our filters.

Coming in second was another Anonymous Coward, responding to us mocking Jonathan Taplin appearing to claim that “pirates” are making Google rich by buying ads on Google (they’re not). This AC suggests we’re confused:

Hey you laugh but I spend thousands a month buying ad space from google to tell people where they can download things for free because thats how I make money. Its simple really:

1) Spend thousands on ad space
2) Give people things for free
3)
4) Profit!

For editor’s choice, we’ve got Baldaur Regis yet again, with a response to CISPA co-sponsor Ruppersberger claiming that CISPA was just supposed to be about sharing code, but describing what could be shared rather awkwardly: “formulas, Xs and Os, the virus code.” Regis pointed out the obvious:

Xs and Os. Yeah, this is exactly the guy I would hire to protect computer systems.

And, finally, we’ve got Dison Steele’s response to a regular Techdirt critic arguing that supporters of the viewpoint here have a problem: “you see everything like a 1950’s Western. Good guys in white, bad guys in black.” That was on the post about the author using a hackneyed sci-fi trope trying to sue Ubisoft, because the game Assassin’s Creed has a few tiny scenes that kinda, maybe looked vaguely similar. Steele pointed out the commenter who referred to “good guys” and “bad guys” might want to be careful:

Better be careful. The lawsuit claims one of the infringed ideas is “A recurring theme [of a] battle between good and evil” (par. 35). You don’t want to get added to the suit.

Indeed. From here on out, there shall be no battle between “good” and “evil” on this site… though I’m sure some might reasonably consider our comment section to be exactly that at times.

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