The concept of “enshittification” has helped illuminate why companies and their products so often get worse over time, but the causes of this process are complex and multifaceted. In his new book Incorruptible, author Eric Ries presents a related but contrasting take on how good companies go bad, and how to build companies that resist the process. This week, Eric joins the podcast to talk all about the book and what we might be able to do to solve this problem.

You can also download this episode directly in MP3 format.

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This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is an anonymous comment offering a theory about ICE’s addiction to masks:

Let me suggest a different reason…

Let’s say that all of those J6 dumbfucks who livestreamed their crimes, and who now have received pardons for acting like trailer trash are looking to start rebuilding their pathetic lives.

Let’s also say that they feel burned by the Trump administration for letting them hang out to dry for 4 years instead of pardoning them in 2020. I’m assuming he thought of them as ‘contractors.’

I’m suggesting that ICE has a hardon for masks because that’s the reward for the J6’ers who got fucked for 4 years – ICE just let them apply, and blam! You have an ICE agency chock full of the garbage of America who have a boner for revenge, but if anyone compares them to J6 footage, they’d be fucked 6 ways to Sunday.

It’s not like security clearances make any difference to this clown car of fuckups.

Unmask those pieces of shit and let’s start comparing faces. I’ll bet once you dig a little, you’ll start to smell the white trash like the Proud Boys, OathKeepers, and all those other MAGAs with ‘small dick syndrome.’

In second place, it’s Stephen T. Stone hammering home the most important point about the Bricks and Minifigs saga:

Dear everyone involved with this story:

This could have been a few emails between lawyers.

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with a reply from dfbomb to the first place winning comment above:

This lines up with my observations that ICE’s behaviors with license plates, car stealing and general fuckery matches the patterns of the Boogaloo and Proud Boys that came to Minneapolis during George Floyd to start a race war.

They even target the same neighborhoods.

Next, it’s Nathan F with a comment about the Supreme Court’s transparently racist double standard on voting rights:

And Roberts still wonders why no one likes the SCOTUS or believes they make good, resonable, well thought out decisions?

Over on the funny side, our first place winner is j with a reaction to our piece on the LEGO dispute:

Wowsers…. There needs to be a length of story warning at the beginning.
I’m used to the normal two to five paragraphs on here. But eighteen page down presses later… just a heads up would be nice.

In second place, it’s Thad raising an eyebrow about one word in a line we wrote about Lindsey Halligan:

Lindsey Halligan — managed to set fire to pretty much everything she touched before deciding to exit to the DOJ.

“deciding”

For editor’s choice on the funny side, we start out with an anonymous reply to a commenter who spotted a “Luigi” bumper sticker:

Glad that Mario’s brother is finally getting some recognition for helping to take down the evil boss in the mushroom kingdom.

Finally, it’s an anonymous comment about Greg Bovino’s not-so-subtle Nazi salute:

I think there is an innocent explanation for that gesture: Bovino was trying to make himself look taller.

That’s all for this week, folks!

This Week in 2016

• Independent Musician Sues Justin Bieber & Skrillex For Copyright Infringement… Over A Sample They Didn’t Use
• Oracle’s Lead Lawyer Against Google Vents That The Ruling ‘Killed’ The GPL
• Top Internet Companies Agree To Vague Notice & Takedown Rules For ‘Hate Speech’ In The EU
• This Is Bad: Court Says Remastered Old Songs Get A Brand New Copyright
• Investigation Shows GCHQ Using US Companies, NSA To Route Around Domestic Surveillance Restrictions
• Another Court Says Law Enforcement Officers Don’t Really Need To Know The Laws They’re Enforcing

This Week in 2011

• NBC News Produces Propaganda Video Highlighting NBC’s Views On Domain Seizures
• Hacking Egypt For Better Democracy
• Senators Want To Put People In Jail For Embedding YouTube Videos
• Talking About Why The PROTECT IP Act Is Bad News…
• RIAA Wants To Put People In Jail For Sharing Their Music Subscription Login With Friends
• Entertainment Industry Lawyer: The Public Domain Goes Against Free Market Capitalism

This Week in 2006

• War Propaganda Is Fun On Your Xbox 360
• How The Entertainment Industry Plans To Kill DVDs
• Can The Internet Destroy The Two Party Political System?
• Forget Astroturf, Fake Net Neutrality Commenters Popping Up Like Weeds
• Regulation For Regulation’s Sake
• DOJ Can’t Get Net Firms To Agree On Data Retention; Expect Legislation

We’ve got a double-winner this week, but also a very very slow week overall on the funny side, so this will be a somewhat truncated post. On the insightful side, both top comments are similar thoughts in response to the judge dismissing charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, starting with this first-place winning comment from Huntly:

Fastest way to shut down Trump’s 1776 fund will be for Kilmer, Letitia James, James Comey and others who have been targeted by Government weaponization to start applying.

In second place for insightful, it’s an anonymous comment along similar lines, which also racked up the votes to be the first place winner on the funny side too:

Does Kilmar get a cut of the anti-weaponization fund?

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we’ve got a pair of comments about the legislative effort in California to stop companies from killing off old games. First, it’s JoeDetroit with a response to the comments from the Electronic Software Association:

“The eventual shutdown of outdated or obsolete games is “a natural feature of modern software,” the group added, especially when that software requires online infrastructure maintenance.”

Natural feature of “modern software”?! A big FU right there. Perfectly good software out there gets a new version that fucks everything up, harder to use, & has no real improvement is what we often get. As long as their is no security holes, I’ll run the older version, thanks.

As to “software requires online infrastructure maintenance” we’ve seen fan based wildcat servers that work very well many times. They use copyright to shut them down. It boggles my mind that they waste resources chasing down their best customers to stop them from enjoying their older products. Why do they care? It’s not costing them any money.

Next, it’s n00bdragon emphasizing our point that measures like this bill aren’t really the true fight:

I agree completely. All this other stuff feels like people pretending trying to do something even if that something is entirely useless and ineffective. Real copyright reform is needed and it should be targeted directly rather than these little culturally downstream problems.

Over on the funny side, we’ve already had the first place winner above, and beyond that there’s really just a lot of not-particularly-funny comments that received a tiny smattering of votes here and there (and none with enough to receive a badge). So we’ll just wrap things up with a single hybrid of second place and editor’s choice, from Thad responding to our headline about Trump Mobile’s “struggle” to ship any phones:

I don’t know about “struggled”. That would seem to imply that they’ve tried.

That’s all for this week, folks!

This Week in 2016

• You’re Entitled To Your Own Opinions, But Not Your Own Facts About Copyright, NY Times Edition
• Shameful: House Panel Votes Down Plan To Make Public Domain Congressional Research Public
• Sony Thinks It Can Charge An ‘Administrative Fee’ For Fair Use
• Federal Judge Catches DOJ Lying, Sanctions Lawyers With Mandatory Ethics Classes
• Yes, A Billionaire Looking To Destroy A Media Organization Through Lawsuits Is A Big Deal Even If You Don’t Like The Media Organization
• Apple, Arbiters Of Art, Say Game About Surviving The Gaza Strip Isn’t A Game, Even Though It Is

This Week in 2011

• Universal Music: We Need PROTECT IP Because Musicians Are Dying!
• Why Operation In Our Sites Is Illegal And Needs To Be Fixed ASAP
• Why We Haven’t Seen Any Lawsuits Filed Against The Government Over Domain Seizures: Justice Department Stalling
• US Copyright Group Breaks Its Own Record; Sues 24,583 For Allegedly Sharing Hurt Locker
• Judge Tells John Steele To Stop Mass Suing Anonymous People For File Sharing
• Ron Wyden: Puts Hold On PROTECT IP, Temporarily Withdraws Amendment On The PATRIOT Act

This Week in 2006

• Shocker — Cell Phone Driving Bans Don’t Really Make Roads Safer
• Life And Times Of A 419 Scammer
• Scammers Scamming Scammers
• FCC Could, But Probably Won’t, Do Anything About Net Neutrality
• Yet Another Camera Company Ponders Dropping Film
• People Powered Buzzword Du Jour: Crowdsourcing

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Thad pushing back on some of our criticism about John Oliver’s AI chatbot segment and his call for regulation:

Isn’t the logical conclusion of this argument that we shouldn’t have government regulations on vaccines or antidepressants?

Like, you’re arguing that we shouldn’t put this particular thing under the control of HHS because it’s currently run by a lunatic, but…couldn’t you apply that argument to literally everything?

Hell, why stop at HHS? RFK is hardly the only corrupt moron in Trump’s cabinet. Carr’s corrupt; I guess we shouldn’t have any regulations on the broadcast spectrum. Chavez-DeRemer resigned due to misconduct; I guess we should get rid of OSHA. Kristi Noem —

…okay, actually we should abolish DHS; I’ll give you that one.

In second place, it’s Nimrod with a comment about Border Patrol chief Michael Banks:

Anyone who brags about their sexual exploits clearly lacks the maturity to be put in charge of anything more serious that a lemonade stand. Even then, they should probably be supervised.

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we’ve got a pair of comments about the latest example of a judge smacking down the DOJ. First it’s Ninja asking the all-important question of whether it will matter at all:

So what exactly is preventing the DOJ and the people they represent from doing this again trying different paths? Any meaningful punishment? Threat of disbarring if it continues? Fines to the DOJ itself and those repeatedly doing this kind of persecution against trans people? Perhaps jail time? No?

It will keep happening.

Next, it’s Nathan F with thoughts about the future:

In two and a half years the DOJ is going to have an almost insurmountable hill to climb in redeeming themselves in the eyes of the court. I have no doubt the the current administration is going to continue to lie to the court and abuse their power.

Over on the funny side, our first place winner is Asst DA BA Baracus with a reply to a commenter complaining about “activist judges”:

Neat how 10,000 decisions are wrong on the law because they’re not YOUR preferred interpretation of the law. And amazing how, without further reasoning from you, you’re able to come to the obvious implication that these are 10,000 decisions by the “lots” of activist judges. How do we know they’re not fair jurists? Because you disagree with them.

The view from your own navel must be glorious.

In second place, it’s Bloof with another comment on the same subject:

Every judge is an activist judge, unless they were handpicked by the federalist society or have worked for Trump in some capacity, then they’re non partisan champions of justice.

For editor’s choice on the funny side, we start out with a comment from Stephen T. Stone, deploying a movie quote in response to Bill Cassidy’s primary loss:

Of all the movies I could quote, Ocean’s Thirteen has the most appropriate two lines I could think of for this:

You think this is funny?

Well … it sure as shit ain’t sad.

Finally, it’s one more comment from Nathan F, this time about Trump’s absurdly corrupt IRS shenanigans:

Soooo… Now that Trump is no longer and can no longer be audited by the IRS.. he is going to release his tax returns right? Right??

That’s all for this week, folks!

This Week in 2016

• CIA Inspector General Claims It Accidentally Deleted CIA Torture Report After Being Asked To Retain It
• French Student Group Sues Twitter (Again) For $50 Million (Again) Over Tweets It Doesn’t Like
• Dear Politicians: At Least Close Those Porn Tabs Before Sending Out Your Campaign Screenshots
• A Dozen Bad Ideas That Were Raised At The Copyright Office’s DMCA Roundtables
• Homeland Security Has Not Sent Us A Subpoena
• John McCain, Forgetting His Own Support Of Fair Use On YouTube, Tries To Use Copyright To Take Down His Own Ad

This Week in 2011

• The PROTECT IP Act Is About The Old Media Industry Going To War With The Internet
• Techdirt Files FOIA Requests Concerning ICE ‘Anti-Piracy’ Videos
• Congress Wants To Cut Funds To The TSA For Naked Scanners
• Well, That Was Fast: Sony’s New PSN System? Hacked!
• DHS’s ICE Group Accused Of Lying To Court About Expense Of Complying With FOI Request
• Being Concerned With Free Speech Implications Of PROTECT IP Does Not Mean You Think You’re Above The Law

This Week in 2006

• Are TV Downloads The New Music Downloads?
• Yes, Movie Download Sites Still Suck
• Advertisers Use DVR Data To Demand Lower Ad Prices
• Politician Reveals Lobbying Tactics Of The Recording Industry: All About Fear
• Educators Vilify Technology In Attempt To Preserve Outdated Model
• If You’re Not Doing Something Wrong, You Still Have Something To Worry About

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Whoever with a response to one particular line in our post about John Roberts decimating faith in the Supreme Court’s consistency:

Consistency?

“it’s the rationale being upheld by the decision that will ultimately amount to a more important gain for the vulnerable in the long term.”

In the past, I would have agreed with you on this point, but this court has shown quite clearly that it doesn’t even see its own decisions as holding precedential value.

In another case, this court might simply choose to ignore what it said before and grant the win to its preferred side.

In second place, it’s Stephen T. Stone with another comment on that post, this time in response to a comment asking if we were being sarcastic:

No, they’re not. It’s the principle I tend to hold in re: free speech, in that protecting the rights of “the worst people” to express themselves without government interference makes protecting that right for all other people that much easier. Even though I dislike how 303 Creative ended up at SCOTUS, I do agree with the principle of SCOTUS’s decision in that case, which is that the government generally shouldn’t be able to coerce an individual into expressing speech with which that individual disagrees.

Imagine if the laws of the United States didn’t apply to non-citizens⁠—that the cops could arrest someone and jail that person for the rest of their life without that person being able to challenge their arrest or imprisonment. What would stop the cops from declaring you a non-citizen and putting you in jail forever? The whole point of defending the civil rights of people you don’t think deserve them is to ensure that those rights apply to you if, say, you piss off the government.

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with another comment from Whoever, this time about the DOJ facing possible contempt charges after admitting a DHS press release was false:

They don’t care

Until someone in the administration loses their freedom or law license, they don’t care. The so-called apology is performative bullshit, as evidenced by the fact that the false accusation is still live.

Next, it’s MrWilson with a comment about Kash Patel’s leadership:

As they say, “a liar won’t believe anyone else.” People who peddle lies for a living don’t want the truth. They just want to know who is disloyal.

Over on the funny side, our first place winner is an anonymous comment about Trump saying “I don’t think about anybody”:

::Proceeds to fire off 138 tweets about Obama and Biden that night::

In second place, it’s BernardoVera with a reply to a commenter ranting about trans people, antifa, and terrorism:

“I’ll take delusional bullshit for $200, Alex.”

For editor’s choice on the funny side, we start out with an anonymous comment on that same post, about the administration’s declaration that trans people, antifa, and drug dealers are indeed all terrorists:

Man, Trump REALLY seems to want to convince us that terrorists are awesome

Finally, it’s lorgskyegon with a comment about the drugs-for-votes scheme that prosecutors backed down from prosecuting under Trump:

Let’s be blunt: your vote matters.

The people just wanted voter turnout to be high and it takes a joint effort to get everyone to the polls.

That’s all for this week, folks!

This Week in 2016

• The Fight Over Copyrighting Klingon Heats Up, And Gets More Ridiculous
• Judge Says Copyright Case Against Star Trek Fan Film Can ‘Live Long’ And Possibly ‘Prosper’
• David Patraeus, Who Leaked Classified Info To His Mistress, Says Snowden Should Be Prosecuted
• ‘The Revolution Will Be Digitized’: Panama Papers Leaker Speaks Out
• HBO Abuses The DMCA Process In The Name Of Game Of Thrones Spoilers
• Stakes Are High In Oracle v. Google, But The Public Has Already Lost Big

This Week in 2011

• AC/DC Says Their Songs Will Never Be Available For Download; Rest Of Internet Laughs
• AP Apparently Less Concerned About Others’ Copyrights; Sued For Infringing By Courtroom Artist
• BMI Says A Single Person Listening To His Own Music Via The Cloud Is A Public Performance
• Son Of COICA: PROTECT IP Act Will Allow For Broad Censorship Powers, Even Granted To Copyright Holders
• Senator Schumer Wants To Censor Google & Apple; Displays Ignorance Of Law
• Could BitTorrent Be The Distributed Social Network People Have Been Clamoring For?

This Week in 2006

• What Should Be Allowed When It Comes To Mobile Phone Snooping?
• Utility Computing Still The Next Next Big Thing
• Network Neutrality Actually Benefits Telcos
• Hollywood’s DRM Obsession Continues To Hold It Back
• Doctors Addicted To Publishing Reports About Internet Addiction
• Law Introduced To Ban Social Networks And IM From Schools And Libraries

Recently, Mike joined Dave Hansen, Mark Graham and Kendra Albert on a panel for the Future Knowledge podcast, a joint production of the Internet Archive and the Authors Alliance. The discussion covers a wide variety of questions related to keeping the web (and especially the historical record of the web) alive amidst the upheaval caused by AI technology, and you can listen to the whole thing here on this week’s episode.

You can also download this episode directly in MP3 format.

Follow the Techdirt Podcast on Soundcloud, subscribe via Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or grab the RSS feed. You can also keep up with all the latest episodes right here on Techdirt.