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CFP 2000 Wrapup

Posted by michael on from the computers-freedom-and-privacy dept.

Roger Clarke, a computer scientist at Australian National University, was lucky enough to attend the Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference this year, and has placed his notes online. CFP covered nearly every topic we address in the YRO section of Slashdot, so this is recommended reading for anyone interested in freedom of speech, privacy, encryption, domain names, or a host of other issues. It sounds like Neal Stephenson's address alone was worth the cost of attendance...

2 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. Like YRO? by Signal+11 · · Score: 4
    They addressed the same topics as slashdot did?

    Flash forward to the future YRO Slashdot Summit...

    Malda gets up on stage for the keynote and thanks his readers for attending the conference and promises that the schedule will be released to everyone real soon. "Don't ask me about it again though or I'll delay it another day!" he said. Then the stage is turned over to a random journalist who comments about how little privacy they have. Suddenly, 20 hooded trolls jump forward and shoot him with their petrification raygun. Natalie portman is caught in the crossfire and coincidentally was streaking across stage when this happened. The random journalist continues talking about the paradigm shift linux is going through and how it'll revolutionize the industry. Several people nod their head in agreement, except for a short guy in red with a tail who mutters something about heretical literature.

    While Malda and Hemos are busy shooting their SuperMod guns at the trolls, the rest of slashdot is busy arguing whether ninja taco burritos are heated more efficiently with dual celerons or an overclocked Athlon processor. Eric Raymond and Richard Stallman sit quietly in a corner glaring at each other. The reporter finally finishes and is then promptly zapped into the -1 regions of the conference as a trapdoor opens, dropping him into the FUD Chasm.

    Jon Katz gets up to say how this is all because the troll outcasts were neglected during their high school career and are seeking retribution. Halfway through his speech, in a desperate attempt to save humanity his major intestine leaps up to strangle him to death. The trolls start cheering and Malda begins throwing perl scripts at them. At this point, the room lights go out and we hear thousands of tacos raining down on the audience.

    And so here I was sucking down my 32nd can of mountain dew having been awake for about 60 hours staring at my laptop's screen which now had nothing but 30 pointers pointing to structures of pointers which in turn were calls to pure virtual functions.. and that's when the conference really got wierd. So I hit submit and posted my notes to slashdot.

  2. Freedom without responsibility? by chazR · · Score: 5
    --BEGIN RANT MODE
    Sometimes I get angry. I have read the 'notes'. And I can find *no* reference to responsibility anywhere. This is worrying. I am concerned that a growing number of people have no idea what freedom means.

    A lot of people rant on about 'freedom' and 'privacy'. Why do none of these people talk about responsibility?

    Freedom is an abstract concept that only a minority of the human population currently enjoy. When you talk about freedom, what do you mean? Let's start with Roosevelt's four:

    Freedom of speech and expression

    Freedom to worship in your own way

    Freedom from want

    Freedom from fear

    A *lot* of people don't have these. And many of them would be grateful for any one of them. Try living in Burma, Somalia, Serbia or China if you find it hard to believe.

    I get tired of hearing skript kiddies on this forum saying things like 'Information wants to be free' as they deprive an artist of money by using closed-source Napster to rip of another mp3. What about the artist's right to 'freedom from want'?

    I get tired of seeing the 'troll' posts about a certain young lady. Does the troll's 'freedom of expression' outweigh her freedom from fear?

    I am increasingly irritated by the same hormonally-challenged kiddies burbling on about 'information wants to be free' insisting that they have a right to strong encryption for *their* information.

    Here is my point: Freedom brings responsibility. If you can't handle the responsibility, don't abuse the freedom

    -- END RANT MODE

    Do to others as you would be done by. Trite, but true.