Monday, August 25, 2008

Joe Biden

Hmmmmm http://gizmodo.com/5041044/vp-candidate-biden-is-no-friend-to-file-sharing-net-neutrality-protection-or-online-privacy
Pretty much speaks for itself.

I think this election is degenerating into a vote grabbing farce of “dumb choice” and “dumber”


Cheers,
Dean

3 comments:

  1. Dean- quick question from someone who is outside the tech industry, and this comes strictly from a lay perspective.
    Ok, not such a quick question- now that I am forming it up, but here goes;
    I get the net privacy issues, I get the net neutrality issues, I get the spying on citizens issues (encryption), I understand, (though disagree)with the net taxation issues that are being raised (I am in bricks and mortar retail) The part that is giving me a hard time is the blatant ripping off intellectual property. While I understand (and even like) the shift in power from centralized studios and "creative" business interests towards the artists being able to cut them out entirely- (It IS much more democratic. (Small d)) Yet, does anyone kid themselves as to the altruistic nature of this theft? Is it all justified under the cover of sticking it to the man and yeah for the little guy- as if when the big guys are dead- they wont just seek to rip off the little guy as well?
    What protections then? We tend to get what we deserve, as we at least have the option of participating in the process- though so few do and even less educate themselves. If folks continue on the current path- it almost guarantees increased efforts to implement all of these controls and "safeguards" that the Gov. wants to implement. Self regulation is great, in theory- but it hasn't helped much in most businesses, (The market WILL eventually fix it- but at what cost?)and I have yet to see signs of it in individuals, when taken collectively. (Does that last sentence make any sense?
    So- What makes anyone sure that the tech industry (Yeah, I know thats a really broad description) will be any better at self governance than any other? One of the functions of Government is to protect its citizens. (I believe its one of the few they should actually have) - How does one balance the two things?
    My personal belief is that the majority of censorship should happen in the home- I control what my kids see and hear- as best I can- and try to teach them to deal with the rest. It may be all anyone can do. Most folks agree there should be limits- we just disagree as to where they should begin and end. No limits at all? Great- I have some great stuff to show your 6 year old...

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  2. I totally agree with you about intelectual property (read ripping off movies or music - I have way big enough dvd collection/cd collection I dont need to download content....just dont tell me it's illegal to rip them to my pc so I can listen to them while working on my pc or on my mp3 player ...mkay :)

    The part I think is dumb is the one where people think that $1b is actually going to be spent on ‘protecting the children’.

    I’m not going to let this degenerate into a slinging match so this will be my last post on this topic but if you think that the P2P monitoring campaign was for child porn you’re a bigger fool.

    It’s like Cuomo running around acting all machismo about convincing Time Warner etc to turn off NTTP Newsgroups (lol like they really needed an excuse – as a cost center ISP’s were happy to dump them), but when he was simply asked why he wasn’t banning all NTTP traffic and that was he aware everyone is still able to access the content as long as they paid $20 a month to a third party nttp provider he/his office acted all surprised.

    http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/when-boys-play-with-toys.html


    Idiots the lot of them. Like I wrote the other day...at the end of the day it's the public's fault... we always choose the candy instead of the rod so we end up with politicians chasing the largest voting block instead of whats good for us.


    Cheers,
    Dean

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  3. I had not read the earlier parts- I need to hit your blog more often! Very interesting, as well as scary. Its going to be a very long, uphill battle when the Pols and the ones they are supposed to be regulating collude. Like you said- terrorism or children- they act like magic cloaks. And you are right- we get what we deserve, But this and a lot of other issues take long, involved, complicated, nuanced answers, and I don't believe we will actually take the time to listen to them.-Just look at the terrorism issues- have you ever seen a country more willful in remaining culturally ignorant as the US? MCCain doesn't know the difference between a Persian and an Arab, a Sunni and a Shiite, and wouldn't care of it was explained to him.
    Thanks- I feel a little smarter already!
    Steve

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