Slashdot Mirror
Life on The Net in 2004
NewtonsLaw writes "In recent years the Net has changed very quickly from a great place for geeks and nerds into a highly commercialized marketplace in which everyone is making a grab for your wallet. If it's not wave after wave of spam in your mailbox, it's excessively intrusive ad banners and popups, or demands by websites that you pay a subscription for access.
The DMCA and other pending legislation could soon mean that companies such as Microsoft and the recording labels will cement their total ownership of your online rights -- leaving you with nothing but a hefty bill to pay whenever you want to use their software or services.
Today's Aardvark Daily carries an interesting editorial that speculates on just what life could be like in the very near future. Sobering -- but perhaps not too far from reality?"
Hint: disable javascript, edit your /etc/hosts file to map various interesting domain names to 127.0.0.1, and don't use an idiotic mail client that eagerly executes scripted content.
Crispin
----
Crispin Cowan, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist, WireX Communications, Inc.
Immunix: Security Hardened Linux Distribution
Available for purchase
You may not like it, but I think some people are in for a reality check. This world is not like, say, RMS's ideal utopia -- share and share alike. The world thrives on commerce and, well, if you've got business practices that will get you the extra mile (whether you agree with them or not), that will be the company that will ultimately succeed. Can anyone say Microsoft?
[An advertisement airs on broadcast television during 2004....]
Narrator: Deep in the shadows and during late night hours, terrorists construct computers so they may prevent Americans the opportunity to enjoy music, film, and software.
(Display a family enjoying a movie and children listening to music)
Narrator: These terrorists are responsible for up to 30% of unemployment in our nation due to reductions in revenue for American businesses.
(Display an unemployment line and a line of Russians waiting to receive bread during the Soviet-era)
Narrator: Moreover, parts (primarily manufactured in the non-American and ugly capitalistic and piggish democractic nation of Russia) are purchased via the computer blackmarket and finance drug sales to children at schools.
(Display computers alongside dead children)
Narrator: Why would a person wish to build a computer?
(Display an individual covered by a black and dark shadow)
Narrator: Only an anti-societal and evil intention lurks in these terrorists to undermine our common courage: "one nation under god, indivisible, and united we stand."
(Display the flag of the United States of America)
Narrator: These terrorists must be reported to the Civilian Protection Team immediately! Now is the time to defend our nation! Do your part... today!
(Display a telephone and Citizen Protection Member (CPM) dressed in uniform and receiving a request from a female citizen in the foreground with the flag in the background)
Narrator 2: This message brought to you by the Council for an Evil Free America.
(Display Evil Buster Logo (TM) )
"There ought to be limits to freedom"
This pie in the sky analogy is only if everyone gives up the battle. The battle is far from over, and the RIAA, I suspect, will find a fate similar to RAMBUS. Sooner or later, the consumer will rebel en masse.
Feed the need: Digitaladdiction.net
There is this fear of government 'ruining' your life by passing laws about software and copy rights and such.
Some of it is warranted but not this kind of horrid future.
There is a very good alternative to it all. Just walk away from it. I know I don't have to have email in my personal life. I don't have to have the web either. I certainly don't need the music produced by the big record companies, or the movies and t.v. shows produced by the big entertainment conglomerates.
If enough people opt out of these things- and put their energy into developing alternatives, those alternatives will thrive.
The only government that can stop that is one that does away with the very basic liberties of movement and ownership. I know- a lot of people think that is already happening but I would say not.
I'm not saying don't be concerned or take action. I just think that this dark vision of the future is a bit much.
Not to mention it completely leaves out the advances that will be made in the circumvention of these laws.
Imagine before cable t.v. someone writing a story where the draconian cable company sends you a bill- or they'll turn your t.v. off!
Some people pay and don't think anything of it.
A lot of people just steal cable.
Me- I just go without and save a lot of time that would have been wasted watching what is for the most part drivel.
.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
... I will just switch to Linux, *BSD, or any other number of free operating systems, and I suspect others will too.
I'm a coder, but I don't like having to configure all my hardware and deal with endless conf files and what-not (read: software person, not hardware). BUT, if I start getting charged everytime I reboot, I will configure whatever the hell I have to. I will not tolerate my rights being trampled by charge happy corporations.
I currently use OS X, and I think it's great, but if Apple started charging a monthly fee for it's use, I would drop it like a hot potato. I think many people would do the same. Think if Ford charged you every time you started your car. A lot of people would take the bus...
*everything* is Orwellian to cats.
Compare it to McDonald's, which is really in the real estate business, NOT necessarily profiting from fast food. The same is coming true for Microsoft - Windows is simply a vehicle to intellectual property rights.
1) Exactly what this article states. Although I find this the least likely outcome.
2) The internet turns into tv + shopping. Lots of ads you can't get past
3) The internet gets so bad, that the geeks create decentralised, efficient, free-floating network partially on top of the existing network, partially outside of it, and it all begins again
4) It goes on exactly like it is now. the (x)AAs of the world keep trying to hold us down, the advertisers keep trying to make us look, MS keeps trying to make us pay (again), and we keep trying to stay one step ahead of them all. This is IMHO the most likely situation.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
http://www.thelinuxshow.com/otc.htm
The open technology movement.
Go to that site and donate, your donation will be used to help create a lobbying group to congress,
If you dont have money to donate, if you are on a campus, host a rally, make posters, find ways to raise money and then donate.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
why do we need to sell an endless supply?
Its like selling air, water, etc
We'll never run out, instead of sharing we sell it
Its called greed, not capitalism, greed.
Capitalism works when you have a limited supply of something and need a way to decide who gets what, when everyone can have everything, whats the point of capitalism? Greed & Selfishness
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
I'd figure I would write an accound of how I would live then.
.
_ __
_____________________________________________
It's 6:30am some day in 2004.
The alarm goes and you rise from your bed to face the day's challenges.
After a quick shower and breakfast you wander over to your PC and check to see if any email has arrived overnight.
Hmm... 231 new emails but procmail say that 217 of those are likely to be spam. Even though they've cp'ed dropped into another folder you'll still have to wade through them to make sure that you don't miss an important message that might have been accidentally sidetracked by the less-than-perfect software. But, you still rm -rf them...
Damn, it looks as if you've also received 5 new virus/trojan attachments as well and one of them was 20MB in size -- that's another $4 on your DSL bill.
Suddenly a pop-up dialog box, through emulation by Wine, appears advising you that there are 2 new Windows Security updates that should be downloaded, totalling some 60MB in size (another $12 worth of traffic). You block the server in HOSTS, as so your Windows emulation doesn't tattle on you.
Within seconds, the PC's desktop comes alive with pop-up flashing, animated advertising banners -- you proceed to kill Mozilla you hacked to use with the newer, propeirty html'like protocol. You start up lynx.
Another dialog box pops up, this time warning you that the license for your copy of Windows XP2004 is due to expire in 10 days. You run the registry crack within linux so the emulation dll's will still work.
Fond memories of the days when there were alternatives to Microsoft's OS pass through your mind -- but that was before the government realised that software was like petrol -- a totally essential commodity in the lives of most businesses and individuals. Legislation was passed in 2003 that required all software developers and vendors to be licensed and a 45% tax added to all sales. However, in China, they realised that everything revolved around freely accessible software. China has changed in all thier practices, as to make thier ideal commuinist regime a very livable place for free people. Of course, much to Microsoft's glee, this killed the Open Source from being supported by companies in the US. You howver, bought a black marked copy of DRM linux. This software exploits bugs within the hardware. Of course, having the PCI64 (bought in Korea) anti-drm card has made this much easier
You type in "cnn.com" then enter the ID and password associated with your monthly subscription. Remember when there were hundreds of sites offering the latest news for free? Not any more. Sure, there still a few, but they're regularly hit with law suits by the big names who allege breach of copyright. Although such suits are inevitably dismissed -- the cost of defending them means that the independent news sites usually only last a few months at most. SO you hop onto freenet and use the strange lists of characters that somehow, somewhere lead you to slashdot.
Flicking the remote beside you kicks your digital music player into action and you marvel that 5% of its computing power is dedicated to the sophisticated digital rights management system it contains. You inwardly cheer, as your newly bought anti-drm card with DRM linux does work.
Following an unsuccessful attempt to copy-protect CDs, the recording industry forced everyone to a new mini-CD format that has yet to be cracked (although there are rumours that some Russians have succeeded). You just can't buy music on CDs anymore and the old CDR/RW media now costs $10 a disk, thanks to the $9 anti-piracy levy that was introduced in 2003. Since, the US put levies on anti-'capitalism' countries, you carry removable drives with your required software and movies on them.
Another warning appears -- "Your license for this recording has expired, unable to play." Damn -- another $49 if you want to listen to that music for another year. You then erase them, as you have all your music backed up on steel tape. You wonder, if as they claim, these new measures significantly reduce piracy, why music is now so much more expensive? "It's because of people libe me", you say under your breath.
You type up a quick email to a friend, inviting them to meet you for lunch. As to attract governmental idiots, so they use thier time on a nobody like yourself, you post as your signature the following words:
I will Bomb aeroplane shit damn nuke EMP fire death murder poison buy pirate warez mp3 ogg gpg
After all, every single bit that enters and leaves your PC is now scanned by the authorities -- under the premise that it is in the interests of (inter)national security and crime reduction. I'll make sure to be here at 4 am tomorrow, as they'll make YET another raid. They won't find a thing.
It's funny how they can supposedly detect even an unfriendly tone in an email but they can't (or won't) stop the endless tide of spam isn't it?
Suddenly your PC's screen clears and the image of a naked woman in a seductive pose appears. Oh no, more of those shlopenglaurs whatsits. You see wht pid it's running, and kill it with -9
For a moment a smile crosses your face -- you're thinking of the "good old days" when the Internet was a much simpler, saner, safer place. Instead, you live on the edge of piracy, illegitimacy. You are a hacker.
Then you return to reality with the realisation that it's just 7:05am and the sucker's accound you hacked already spent $264.
_______________________________________________
As a last note, I used this article without permission (I see this differently than normal slashdot cut/paste jobs). So I give full permission to aardvark.co.nz to use my article (even if it makes money (heh, like thats going to happen, but still...)
CARRIER LOST....
Well, the great thing about the Internet is that everyone -- anyone -- can have their place, their nook, their niche.
But let's be honest here... if 50% of America has Internet access -- a good 140 some million people -- it's a safe bet that a minority of those 140,000,000 are "geeks" or "nerds." The net reflects what people online demand. If 90% of surfers were "nerds," I'm sure we'd see it slanted the other way.
I'm not much into programming anymore and I'm done with Linux. I'm a non-programming OS X user now but I come to Slashdot every day (more than once a day) because I love this community... but I also have demands for CNN.com, Macintouch.com, Apple.com, guitar websites, TheOnion.com, Yahoo Finance, Google, and so on... and none of those are "geek locations."
I think the net is just how I like it. In fact, it's close to how anyone likes it! The net's very adaptive because it's distributed. Like democracy, it shifts to what the majority want and allows space for the minority, too (though sometimes slowly).
The next comment I write will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
This is the most ridiculous article I've read in a while.
Yes a lot of sites are going to subscriptions for premium content, but there are, and always will be, THOUSANDS of sites out there that offer free content, or at least some free content with premiums for those who subscribe.
Yes popup ads are annoying. But who among us is so dumb as to not know how to disable these things?
And yes, MS has gotten a lot of people into a chokehold and continues to offer inferior products at outrageous prices. But damnit people, we have ALTERNATIVES.
As bleak as this future is, it's the future for those who are uneducated and unsophisticated enough to fall for the idiocy that these businesses push. Those of us with two brain cells to rub together will always be able to find alternative sources of news/information/software.
And in my final rant of the hour, the DMCA is a US law. Believe it or not, it doesn't apply to the entire world, and one would hope that the rest of the free world can grasp the fact that some of us do indeed have a seperate legal system.
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo - H. G. Wells
Greed is evil, Selfishness is evil, If i want you to die, I can kill you because you consume my oxygen and drink my water.
Hell if i want all your stuff why dont i just take it, i mean who cares about you, I mean I'm selfish, only I matter right?
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
... the flow of digital information
The next generation peer networks are going to make all of this a moot point. Large, fully decentralized open source peer networks have no point of centralized vulnerability to law suits or attack. They have no corporate owner to go after. They are written by the people, for the people, and nothing will be able to stifle their use to share and distribute digital information.
The RIAA/MPAA and other content industries know this, and are pushing for the only possible way to thwart this inevitable digital bazaar by using extreme legislation (SSSCA and co) to restrict general purpose computing and networking devices.
They will fail. The coming years will bring ever more resilient, secure, efficient, and useable peer networking software to accomplish everything from file sharing to colloborative development, distributed processing & storage, etc.
This is one of the few situations where the individual has the capability to fight back and win against the vested interests of the powers that be to restrict freedoms and profit from it.
... actually promoted an essay writing competition to encourage how people approved of the the way IP laws helped them. (http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/alert/2001/ma03r ev.htm)
A bunch of legal scholars spearheaded a counter-essay competition to reflect less sanguine views (http://www.wipout.net/essays.html)
It will be interesting to compare the results.
If it's not wave after wave of spam in your mailbox, it's excessively intrusive ad banners and popups, or demands by websites that you pay a subscription for access.
Kind of like Slashdot is doing?
Tools > Internet Options... > Security tab > Internet Zone / Custom Settings... keep hitting disable / prompt until the cows come home. Problem solved. If you *really* need to activate some feature or other for a site, you can always add it to the trusted sites.
And $12 for 60MB of traffic? Puhleeeeeeze. 60MB on cheap DSL (512k) represents about 17 minutes of download time. If it was say 10 GB I might believe $12. And bandwidth usage charges tend to be on the upload side, rather than the download side. Moreover, despite the overdramatic exagerration of the current afflictions of online activity it misses almost completely the true dangers possible with new trends in computing and networking. Spam, pop-ups, viruses, and costly operating system releases are a circus side show, nothing more.
Actually, it's a thinly veiled version of this website.
Everything is cyclical. The 2004 article may in fact happen. If life on the net somehow gets that bad, there will be an equal and opposite force that limits the damage.
Without a doubt, the legal aspects of this will be every bit as bad as the article suggests. However, there is a big difference between having laws and enforcing them. In the 2004 scenario, practically everyone who owns a computer will be violating somebody's license or patent. The legal system may very well drown in it's own filth.
Considering how Napster was launched by a few low-budget geeks, imagine what might happen with serious opposition. I have often heard about the open source movement being the "Viet Cong" of the software world. Using laws to control a guerilla force is not going to be effective. If gun control doesn't stop criminals from using guns, I don't see how SSSCA is going to fare any better with computers. Surely, some people will be intimidated, but the Internet will simply become more encrypted and private. Historically, the Russians have been among the world leaders in dealing with repressive regimes. They are especially well suited for the Microsoft-Disney-Hollings world. Dimitry Sklyarov may very well have the last laugh after all.
The 2004 article presumes that the bad guys have achieved a total victory. The same mentality would have predicted a British victory in the American revolution, and a US victory in the Vietnam war. Goliath doesn't always win.
On the surface, it looks like Microsoft, RIAA, and Disney are a dominant force because they have money. We can assume that money will buy custom-crafted legislation (DMCA, SSSCA, and whatever Hollings is told to produce). But the advantage ends there. If you think about the brainpower aspect of this battle, a finite number of software professionals will have to outsmart an almost limitless number of guerilla hackers -- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Every time the hackers get lucky, the "axis of evil" loses millions of dollars. The reason why Micrsoft is being hacked and embarrassed on a daily basis is not because they are dumb, it's because they are outnumbered.
We can't afford to be complacent, but this battle is by no means over.
I just upgraded my DVD-rom just to find out that its RPC-2. They moved the Region code from the OS (RPC-1) to the firmware on the drive. You can only switch it 5 times, then it locks in firmware. No where on the box did it say it was RPC-2, nor is there any requirements for them to do so.
/bin/freedom
Maybe DRM is closer than you think.
-
chmod +a rwx
The article, despite some interesting theorizations, basically supposes the internet and technology already exists in a vaccum that only a few people can affect, and that they're all on the same side. So this future will come about.
.
The internet does not exist in a vaccum, it is used by millions of people.
Technology is not just a monolithic product, and attempts to make it so will doubtlessly backfire. If the US government mandated ridiculous standards, what that did in the US would NOT necessarily affect the rest of the world. One could also kiss some exports goodbye.
The various 800-lb Gorillas in technology are NOT on the same side, and they've got other factions nipping at their heels as well. Take a look at the new Gateway commericals that emphasize CD ripping for just one example . .
It is also assumed people are sheep. The problem being of course everyone assumes OTHER people are sheep while they of course are independent and free-spirited. Take a look at the spambusting, the popupkillers, DCSS, etc. People have been rebelling against this crap for some time.
Would some people like the 'net this way? Definitely. Will it happen? The fact we already have stories like this tells me probably not.
"The Sage treasures Unity and measures all things by it" - Lao Tzu
Is that anything like this? Announcing Slashdot Subscriptions http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/03/01/135220 0&mode=thread :-)
Cave, wreck, and deep diver.
Well, if this guy is so scared about what the 'net will be like in 2004, then let's revisit this story in two years and see how much is true.
My guess is that there will still be free news sites, and that DSL bandwidth will still be unmetered, and that there will still be free software.
But that doesn't make for much of a story, does it?
Anything a geek can create, a politician can legislate against.
A political problem doesn't cry out for a technological solution... but we're not politicians. We're geeks.
-Eldurbarn
The internet is a distributed system that is entirely decentralized. As such, there is no real way to say that the "net is this." The net is simply the nodes you connect to.
/., Google, SatireWire, SourceForge, Freshmeat, and various personal web sites.
:)
What nodes do I connect to? I connect to
For me, the net is better than it was in the past. Free Software is taking off and SourceForge provides an incredibly service in hosting so much of it. As far as I'm concerned, things are just fine. BTW, I use Mozilla and run Linux so the only time I hear of Email Virii are when the people at work start bitching. At least it gives me a chance to recommend Linux to people
Really though, what sites do people find all this crap on? If I went to site that pop-up'd an automated d/l, I simply would stop going to it. If it offends you so much, why to you continue to go to it?
int func(int a);
func((b += 3, b));
It does nothing but make things look insane. You think people would stand for this? Where is all the income going to come from this? Someone is going to pay $12 to download 60MB of stuff? Come on. $149 for a software license YEARLY? Please.
What are they going to do, format your hard drive if you connect with an older version of windows? of Linux?
Oh yeah, and of course IBM, Sun, HP, and all those vendors with other OSes besides MS are going to let them get a state mandated desktop OS.
The government would NEVER pass a low outlawing development of software. That would be struck down for anti-free speech rules easy.
Oh yeah, European Union? Canada? They're gonna stand for it? Right. People emigrating from the US so they can use a computer. Whee.
plus, every self respecting geek on the planet would quit working on computers, and the whole frickin internet would collpase in a day.
Paper MCSE's can't run the internet.
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
no industry has ever quickly and successfully changed formats...
And how many vinyl LPs do you have? The change from vinyl to CD was astonishingly fast.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
People who support micropayments usually claim that they'll be so small that you won't notice them, much less care about them. Nice dream, but it doesn't take into account the motivations of the people involved.
When people set their mandatory micropayment prices, they'll do it to maximize profit. The prices will find and sit at the awareness threshold of users, so you'll look up and see you've spent $5 over the course of a few minutes without really noticing it. People will respond to this by thinking of internet use as an expensive activity, and keeping it to a minimum. The reduced demand will drive prices up higher.
That's a natural consequence of each entity setting the prices of what their selling. Information doesn't compete on price very well. I forget who said it... "Information wants to be free, because it's so easy to distribute, yet information wants to be expensive, because it's so useful." When the people owning the information set the price, they can make it expensive, because it takes a fairly high price before it's better than not having the information.
However, voluntary micropayments don't have this tendency, being set by the users. Ultimately, I think voluntary payments will win out in any area with a sufficiently clued-in audience to make it work. The competitive advantages of free information are obviously huge, so wherever they can make enough profit to develop a comparable product to the restricted information, they'll win. Also, voluntary micropayments are much simpler and cheaper to implement.
I've written a bit on the kind of systems that would be needed (and can fairly easily be developed) to replace intellectual property restrictions, and I've done some work developing parts of them (see my sig).
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
Both republicans and democrats are playing the same game. We, the people, are actually the poor guy in the middle while the Democrats and Republicans take our hat and throw it back and forth so we can naver get it...like the playground prank.
If you're not a Liberal in your 20's, then you have no heart.If you're still a Liberal in your 30's you have no brain.
I have YET so see source for that program. In the meantime, I've created a Banner Killer for Windows (as all my friends unfortunately use Windows.)
It's on my website..get the UPDATED version. It uses a Key Stroke Combination that you choose to disable popups. Hit F1, popups ggo away, F1 again, they appear.
Have fun
If you're not a Liberal in your 20's, then you have no heart.If you're still a Liberal in your 30's you have no brain.
It worked once against anti-piracy measures in software (I saw more -2 week pirated software when it was protected than unprotected -- doesn't mean I downloaded it, though), it can work again against media companies.
The truth is that piracy is an effective control measure. In the case of price, as price goes up the incentive to pirate increases expoentially. So you have to charge a "reasonable" rate the market will bear or you go out of business because you can't sell product.
Just think about it, if each PS/2 game (for example) cost $5000 instead of $50, would you buy it? No. Would you pirate it?
You don't even have to answer that one, because either way (pirated or not) you've defeated the corps.
BTW: At $264 a day, that's $96,360 per year. Considering how unlikely it would be that you'd be caught for copyright infringement, you'd be better paying the $250k fine every three years than paying for any media at all.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
I wish people would address and discuss the real issue at stake here. What I believe too many of these posters have failed to neglect in their responses is that they do NOT live in the scenario this article poses - one in which corporations and government become less distinguishable from one another. And in this scenario they simply might not have the option of using anything free, or turning on a spam filter in the first place.
A free economy does not suppose a free people. Even an economy in which one thinks he is free may not be free. A government is supposed to serve it's people and corporations are supposed to serve their customers.
Please indulge my imagination for a moment. Pretend that corporations have been merging for long enough that only two remain, the civil service provider and the corporate service provider. *eerie music* The Final Merger. Now turn both concepts into one and you have Service Commerce. You are provided everything. The opportunity to spend money, the opportunity to have your garbage collected. The opportunity to get higher education so you can be an engineer or an art major.
What you are not provided is the ability to choose who provides you these services. You don't get to choose the popups you see, they just popup. You don't have the option to get free information, you must subscribe. Since the advent of Service Commerce the head CEO's and execs now own roughly 80% of the world's money while the rest of us all get paid the same regardless of duties.
Then consider that instead of being fired, bad workers are just put into the correctional work force where they no longer even choose whether they will watch a particular commercial or speak a certain way. Those on the outside may still opt out but are none the less hurded through the Service Commerce machine.
My point is that all the common intrusive examples - spam, popups, subscriptions - posed by this article are no more the root problem of this orwellian prophesy than run down housing tenaments and squalid living conditions are the root problem of inner city violence. They merely reflect the state of the organization.
So what can we do? Simple, we can know. We can get educated. We can know our rights. We can vote not because it's just one vote but because we are allowed to. We can realize that we are consumers and we DO vote EVERY DAY. For all those who have already expressed their vote for linux and the Open Source community, wonderful, you've already started to make a difference and you know it and you are proud.
If you use linux for any of the same reasons as I do I can bet you are a perfectionist of sorts, perhaps a rebel, iconoclastic even and desire complete and full knowlege and control of your computer. Now realize that you have the same power to control your government, the people that put arsenic in your drinking water, BHG in your food and carbon monoxide in your air. Go vote at the next school board election, go rant at the next city buget proposal, write your congress people, write an editorial, join a peace rally, join a hate rally. Let your own voice be not heard, but affective (yes affective, not effective). Get mad. Go vote.
I'm too lame for sigs
When Spam and tke town criers shilling their crap is all that can be found, that's when the interneyt will have been led out to a small balcony, had a rope tied to its neck and it will have willingly jumped off.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
I can't stand most of the crap out there, so I don't buy it. I don't buy CDs or DVDs anymore, I don't go out to movies or rent them, I don't buy pay-per-view or subscribe to premium cable channels, etc. (and I don't download any of this stuff either). Instead of producing something I would want to buy, the companies that produce this junk complain about piracy, as if I would even take their crap for free. Unfortunately, they have the money and power to make it more difficult to avoid their products (and avoid paying for them).
Despite all of this, I'm not too worried about the future described in the article. It's not that I don't see it as being likely, I just don't see it being impossible to avoid. If I don't pay today's prices for music, I won't pay high subscription fees. If web sites start charging more than they're worth, I'll go elsewhere or just go without. I base my purchasing decisions on quality, and that won't change with electronic services.
Of course, I have one secret weapon to fall back on if I have to abandon all else. Over the past few years, I have accumulated hundreds of books, at an average price of about 5 cents each. When all else fails, I'll just sit down and read (well, read more actually). And yes, Fahrenheit 451 is in there...
We (the Nerd community in general) could easily take it back if the majority of us didn't have such damn argumentative and subservient natures. :(
/. ) believe that the reducing the time to program something is more important then reducing the SIZE of that which is being programmed? Seriously, does anybody here even realize anymore that a fully featured word processing suite need not take up over 100megabytes? Or even over 2 megabytes? Or hell even over ONE megabyte?
I mean hell, an ORGANIZED security attack upon the infostructure of the commercial entities operating on the net, not to mention various companies that have chosen to foolishly put all of (or the majority of) their assets (employee records and such) online or on to internet routable machines would ensure a quick and swift victory over the forces of commercialism.
Of course too many potential Nerds have been taken in by the false dreams of big business and their promises to middle manage everything to perfection. The fact that VBscript is considered a 'language on the way up' is evidenced of this.
The darned thing is that an organized attack from both the inside and the outside of companies could easily either take them down or dehabilitate them for a long enough period of time to allow for open source alternatives to take a foothold. Even complete system backups would be a bit hard to retrieve if all of a companies assets had just been invested, say, Russian plutonium mines.
It is not that hard to get an agent on the inside of even a company like Microsoft either. Once access to the internal network has been gained a good deal of the security is gone, granted while I am sure that MS has good security inside of their compound itself, the fact is that a dedicated agent COULD and CAN gain complete or near complete control over their systems.
Hell Microsoft takes on numerous interns every year, often times in tech support or repair roles. Even an office lackey would have significant freedom of movement over a designated area.
Surely one or two just out of highschool Nerds can be found who have social engineering skills of some sort and reside nearby an Microsoft compound? It is not like MS has just one (though the largest goal of Redmond should of course be kept in mind.)
The the main issue at heart is really the lack of consensus amongst internet Nerds in general. Far too many have been brainwashed by the propaganda put out by the big businesses. Hell look at how many people (even on
Until we gain regain our consensus over such simple and in the past considered trivial issues, we will not be able to unite against the forces of those that oppose us, and in fact it could be said that those that oppose us are indeed the ones who have fragmented our groupings to begin with.
In a day in age where code can be measured in millions of lines, is it no wonder that the great society of Nerds that had been built up is so quickly falling?
We had taken (have taken, past or present. . . . and hopefully not into the future) too much pride in our creations, we tried to show them to the world, but then when they would not look we committed one of the ultimate mistakes, we tried to appeal to their greed.
We said not how computers could make life easier for all, but rather how they could 'increase worker productivity'. We said not how cancer could be cured, but rather how upgrade cycles could be created so that an industry could spring up designed soley to leech off of the artificially created need of the very market of which it had created.
And when they did not listen, nay, when they did not understand that which we had created was none less then a work of art, we instead lowered not but itself, but ourselves along with it, down to the levels of mere machinations by selling our creations off as thus. We have created our own end, and if that end is to be adverted we must create our own new beginning.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
Not to mention it completely leaves out the advances that will be made in the circumvention of these laws.
DCMA, circumvention is illegal. Do it and go to jail.
What's wrong with this picture? I don't listen to radio, watch TV much less have cable, and hardly go to the movies. The advertising/content ratio passed my threshold years ago. 4 of 5 calls to my house are by agressive salespeople. I'd like to chop my land line, but I know the same people will find my cell phone. My snail mail is composed entirely of junk mail and bills. I can't do so much as walk down the street without being assaulted by a 30 foot tall pop star billboard. Oh, that's right, people are making all means of communications useless with comercial agression. Oh yes, I pay handsomly for all of it. The phone bill is outrageous, the cable modem bill is a joke for a "service" with blocked ports and a ToS that is essentially, browse at our descresion, and we all pay for those billboards and those adverts on TV and Radio in the price of basic living needs. Even the electric company puts adverts on TV, what a waste of public money!
Have you used a Microsoft platform lately? It's just like the article describes, less some of the cost. You will, of course, provide a credit card for for your unilaterally modifiable license to browse, to subscribe to your favorite news site, etc ad nauseum. If Hollings has his way and kills free software, we will all suffer this. Remember paying money to the cable company for advert free entertainment? Here we are now! The lowest of the publishers are trying to set the rules for all future publication including what you type on your computer.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
When did i say capitalism sucks? I said it wasnt perfect.
I dont really care about capitalism, i care about technology being open.
Capitalism has nothing to do with technology, the russians had more technology than with did with their communism, and plenty of socialist countries in europe have plenty of technology, as does socialist canada.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
I have konqueror do that. I don't have to hunt down the damn popup and close it.
Every time a topic like this comes up, I am inclined to remind everyone that our online culture originated in the world of BBS's. That's where the real communities are. I've been running UNCENSORED! BBS (click to log in) for the last 14 years, and lemme tellya, I've seen it all. From the heyday of dialup to the commercialization of the Internet, from the utopian vision of a level playing field to the inevitable commercialization of the mainstream Web... guess what, folks? Through all that time, us old-school BBS geeks have been enjoying each other's company for years, in relative peace and quiet.
A friend of mine once put it this way: if places like Disneyopolis, MSN, and America Online compose the roar of the information highway, then your favorite friendly BBS could be likened to the corner pub where the locals gather.
Therefore I challenge each and every one of you to quit whining about what a commercial cesspool the mainstream Web has become, and go find your niche. Locate a BBS you like (I'd be thrilled if you chose mine, but there are lots of good ones out there) and log in daily. Become a part of the community. Meet people. Chat about whatever's on your mind: media, politics, sports, weather, relationships, technology, pets... it's all out there, and the sites operated by hobbyists are completely below the radar of corporate greed.
It's up to you. Don't like Disney's version of the 'net? Neither do I. Come join us in a place where they won't bother you.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
Sorry to sound so cynical, but this just reads like a bad piece of half-baked sci-fi. $264 in net charges by the end of morning.
<count floyd 3d-glasses="on">
Ooh... the future is sooooo scary.
</count floyd>
It would be easy to tear this article apart piece-by-piece but it would be a further waste of time and little more than opinions clashing. Keep this in mind when reading these kinds of doom-and-gloom pieces: if the Internet has proven anything, it is that it is flexible and bends in unexpected ways that are usually dictated by the demands of the majority of its users. How successful have corporations been in harnessing the Internet so far? A few pop-up ads? Spam? Really, is that a threat to our freedoms? Thus far, major industries throwing millions of dollars at lobbying and technology development have hardly put a dent in the ability to download music. It's been, what, two years now since the recording industry has attempted to kill off Napster and its P2P spawn? How successful have they been? Let's project their success two years into the future... hmm....
Not quite $264 worth of scary, is it?
The Internet is too unpredictable and too young to be tamed, in my humble opinion, by corporate interests that require stability and predictability to achieve anything. Spouting doomsday theories at this point is ludicruous, plays into the silliest fears of the most gullible geeks out there, and runs counter to everything we've seen thus far.
--Rick
--Rick "If it isn't broken, take it apart and find out why."
Eventually blocking ads will be illegal; either under copyright laws (as a circumvention technique to get around paying attention), or under "attention rights" legislation enshrining the practice of content providers' rights to consumers' attention in law.
Would it not be possible to come up with a second net? I know it would probably be a lot of work, resources, cash, etc but may well be worth it in order to let them own the old net and have a new free net.
I only need the Preview button when I haven't used the Preview button.
The DMCA is merely an implementation of the last WIPO treaty. Europe has its own DMCA-like law (the European Directive on Copyright), which member nations are obliged to implement in laws. Australia has a similar law. Only "rogue nations" (i.e., the ones that Mozilla tells you it's illegal to export it to) are likely to not have WIPO-based laws.
Commercialization -- this is the hell of the modern world, but it needn't overtake the entirety of the internet. My own site has a single ad on it, but it's not mine(free hosting has it's price).
:)
The best way to avoid commercialism is to avoid places which attract lots of "customers". Find a website out of the way, find a good niche, and you can even get out of the way of commercialism altogether.
In 2004, I hope to have my game finished, but I doubt it.
finally, remember that commercialism is enevitable when the common man enters any arena. These are the sheep which make the spice girls and britany spears moneymakers.It's probably best to find another haven; once the masses enter, the leeches follow.
It's been a long time.
The reality for Internet users in Australia is that traffic costs a minimum of $0.13/Mb.
The ACCC is fighting to make Region Encoding of DVDs illegal in Australia - claiming that it's an anti-competitive trade practice.
I browse with images off as often as possible, because images cost ten times as much as the article they're obscuring. Spam costs me money. Running "apt-get upgrade" on my Debian box will cost me about $3-$10, depending on how much "woody" has changed in the last fortnight.
Opening Internet Explorer costs me money because it insists on redirecting me to the Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 home page and claiming that I really, really should download this new version of IE.
Thanks to spam, "postcards", NTP, scheduled IMAP checks and other non-interactive traffic, I can easily spend $1/hour when I'm sleeping. I don't even have to check my mail in the morning to start racking up the bills.
You people in the USA are living in a market-share-broadening dreamland, where providers are tripping over each other in an attempt to get you signed up to their networks. They all realise that once you've been using their service for 6 months "for free", they can start charging for traffic, and you'll just roll over and accept it like the good consumer-sheep you are.
In any Capitalist economy, you have to keep repeating this holy mantra - "The money has to come from somewhere. There is no such thing as a free lunch."
In the article, the author proposes a future where "open/free software" has been made illegal. The only software you're allowed to run is what Microsoft provides you. There are no features to disable JavaScript. You are a slave to the media and they to Microsoft. You have no ability to change settings like /etc/hosts. You cannot install JunkBuster or Jesred. You have no power.
After all, if you had the ability to control your computer, you'd also have the ability to create or alter data ("content"). If you have the ability to create or alter content, you also have the ability to steal content. That's what SSSCA and DRM is all about - preventing "theft" of "intellectual property" by removing your ability to make the choice to not steal.
Quite simple really.
About 250 vinyl LPs, a score of cassettes, a dozen 8-track tapes, and 9 CDs.
:)
Boy am I strange
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
There are a large number of people who for some reason think that they are entitled, or that they have "paid enough to justify the illegal copy", but that is simply not true. Content makers have the right to make money off of what they produce, but not to the extent of stepping on legitimate fair-use.
Also, a disturbing trend recently has been that the software and entertainment industries are enjoying the use of a new toy *CONGRESS*. Now they literally have the power to legislate certain competing practices (like open source or free software) out of the market.
GJC
Gregory Casamento
## Chief Maintainer for GNUstep
Forget the promise of information everywhere, forget the concept of human knowledge being an open river to drink from, forget the community where you meet people you've never seen before.
Narrow.
The world is always trying to get into your head. Always selling. Always yelling. Always turning the lights on. Cower in your hole, like the mushroom you are.
Hide.
The world's full of differences, what does it matter if I see them? Critical thinking is all about data. If the data's locked down, so are you. If your perspectives narrow, the blinders get thicker.
Balkanize.
I don't like it. Not one bit.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
The GPL never said you had to release anything. All it ever said was that if you do release anything, it has to be with source available.
If you keep the mods internal to your organization, the GPL remains unviolated.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
And you are advocating a move towards terrorism to achieve your goal (note that I say *your* goal. I doubt anyone agrees with your lovely nihilist "death is the martyr of beauty" stuff.) That's fucking brilliant.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
ISP's have safe harbor. The content industries can no sooner shutdown all ISP's than they can get the SSSCA passed.
Neither one is going to happen.
leaving you with nothing but a hefty bill to pay whenever you want to use their software or services.
Notice the word want. If they're trashing the internet, why would I want to use their software or services?
Crispin
----
Crispin Cowan, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist, WireX Communications, Inc.
Immunix: Security Hardened Linux Distribution
Available for purchase
Because they don't need you. In fact, you threaten them. They'd rather you sat and watch TV-plus ("iTV" or whatever) and just fished out your credit card and kept shopping on the online mall. If that's not what you want to do, you're more trouble than you're worth, and they'd rather you sit and stew.
Ah, yes! Before everyone else showed up, the Net was this fantastic Geek Heaven, where all things were possible. You could download naughty pictures from the Delft University sever. You could engage in endlessly stimulating MUDs with fellow dungeon-crawling geeks. You could send e-mail! Hell, you could even use Gopher to snag files. It was Heaven on Earth!
Snap out of it! There was no Slashdot (founded in 1997, decidedly after the invasion of "other people"). There was no Gnutella. No Everquest. No online newspapers. No online banking. No ordering that hard-to find computer game or book or whatever in the dead of night when you live miles from the nearest store that carries what you're looking for.
There was less of a connection between "geeks" and "normal people", meaning that people who liked to tinker with computers were shunned far more than they are today.
It wasn't Heaven, just as this predicted 2004 won't be Hell.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Fnord, man... Fnord.
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
This was actually considered by the UK government, because so many people have realized that juries won't send a person to jail for something like smoking cannabis. Thankfully, it was later dropped, but I'm sure it'll come back in some form.
"If it's not wave after wave of spam in your mailbox, it's excessively intrusive ad banners and popups, or Slashdot Articles "
The article is incorrect because it is just too america-centrered. There are already more european internet users online than americans, by 2004 although americans will still be an important part of the web they will be a small, albeit important, minority.
To assume that american laws will totally control the internet in the EU, Russia, Japan, Australia, Africa, China (which will probably use linux as their standard OS anyway) and anywhere else beyond your shores is the cultural arrogance of breathtaking proportions
The problem in the article is not that companies are charging for content, which they are free to do, but rather that they are forcing out of business others who try to give anything out for free via ridiculous copyright legislation.
Dyolf Knip
Just remember what the goal of the CBDTPA is: trusted hardware and software. The only way to accomplish that is to hermetically seal the hardware and disallow programming in any environment TPTB don't like (home, small business, etc). Hollings and co. have shown they don't care about the consequences of such an act and would try to run it through at full throttle.
Dyolf Knip
Sod Capitalism, it's only one political philosophy afterall. The idea that capitalism is something we should accept because it is such a huge force dominating every aspect of ourlives is at best defeatist and at worst blind idiocy. I believe in a free world, not one that charges you for what was there already. Remember when the internet was touted as a means for potentially open everything. Open government, open access to knowledge, open expression of ideas and opinion, open source (Ha Ha). The free availability of information is a noble idea. Many of us who remember innocently believing that the internet would be a 'force for good' and the ultimate tool for the true empowerment of the people have been sorely disappointed. It's not enough to hope that the masses will become skilled in the use of the internet and become geeks and gurus with the knowledge and skills needed to navigate the mess that is the internet with some success. You have to act. Teach those who do not know. Show them the light at the end of the tunnel. Be the finger that points to the moon. Make a difference to the sad gits who spend thousands on 'state of the art' hardware because some dick of a salesman said they needed all that power to get the most out of 'the net'. Capitalism is by definition exploitation. Don't sell your knowledge give it away. Change yourself and your surroundings first. Don't just sit about moaning and theorising . DO SOMETHING. Be positive a positive force for change not a whinging techy geek.
In the early ninites everyone, thought that the future lay in some kind of "interactive" TV system. A paradigm that still rears its ugly head from time to time (much like virtual reality, that most over hyped of technologies). With the killer app being "downloadable movies on demand". Basically, people in suits "get this" business modal, with installation done by some local company and subsriptions sold to punters. More or less what cable TV is today, or phone services etc. This has been the dream of failed tech like push and its kin.
It stands to reason that companies like to push this along, because, after all, it is all they understand and, over the years, have become very good at making money off this modal.
However, they forget the far greater power of the internet (as a medium). Is in its ablity to provide personal empowerment, I go online because I like to post stories on slashdot (despite getting trolled most of the time), to play interactive games, To download stuff just to see if it will compile, not to be some mindless consumer of some pathetically put together medium pathetic in comparison broadcast TV (which is still the better tech for delivering that kind of crap, for the time being).
To better illustrate my point, even if the perfect copyright scheme was introduced (very unlikly) or that most fascist (and unconsitutional) of laws introduced, The medium would still survive, things like linux and music underground would just become more popular, since the kiddies have to have something to download, and if band's become expensive, smaller for once.
The strength of the net is that it gives you access to some weirdos opinion of 911, and his freedom to post it, with out that the medium would just die. Ardvark fail to expain that, If "evil corps" had surceeded in bending ppp to their ends, then why the hell would the narrator even bother to use it? when all you got was overpriced access to MSN. He could have, just plugged into the local underground wireless LAN, which are sure to be everywhere by then.
Pianist : Some jerk whos taught themselves how to type in rhythm
...How many /. readers remember Robocop, and the all-encompassing OCP?
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
The proof being that the DMCA did get passed, and the CDTBPA or whatever will get passed too. They simply have more money. I've got a better solution: Violence. Instead of just marching on Washington, let's start a bloody riot in front of the Senate. Violence gets noticed. The most effective thing we could do create awareness is to turn over cars, smash windows, and loot businesses.
Problem is that all that will be noticed is the violence. If you do this you can simply be labeled "terrorists" and ignored.
Maybe something symbolic, like dumping a truck load of DVDs in the Potomac.
I say we should organise a "peaceful protest" on the Washington mall, but instead have something "happen" to turn it into a gigantic bloodfest.
Maybe you don't need to, it's quite likely that the RIAA/MPAA will do all they can to have a riot start anyway.
Lock up one guy? Sure. Ten? No problem. A hundred? It starts to get interesting. A thousand? Now they have a problem. Finding space is just the beginning. The benefits of selective prosecution fade when the evildoers switch to "bulk" mode. How many Sklyarov's do you really think they want? In the beginning, the prosecution of defendants serves as a deterrent, even if they're acquitted. After a while, the resentment and outrage will call the entire DRM concept into question.
"They" are not omnipotent; "we" are not powerless.
Just remember what the goal of the CBDTPA is: trusted hardware and software. The only way to accomplish that is to hermetically seal the hardware and disallow programming in any environment TPTB don't like (home, small business, etc).
You'd get the same enforcement problems with TV smart card hacking and illegal drugs. Either than or spend literally billions on comming up with a way to "hermetically seal" things which can be used on a production line, but cannot easily be circumvented.
Another environment you'd need to control would be universities.
A lot of people are confusing "Internet" with "Web". The Internet is the connections made between computers. This can happen on any port, any protocol. The Web is just data that comes from the Internet via HTTP. When you see a "pop-up" it is simply your web browser choosing to allow the web page to pop up a window.
So, the answers are (1) install a local firewall, don't allow odd connections (you may want to pay someone to administer your firewall), (2) Use a web browser that markets itself as a spam fighter (the closest now is a proxy such as WebWasher)
These two steps will make your internet use a far more enjoyable experience.
Travis
Every once in a while, I saw one of those <55 MPH people. Mostly retired folks with Florida plates, just visiting for the summer (or using an out-of-state residence for tax purposes). It was never so much a matter of road rage as it was the cluelessness with which they would make unsafe merges & lane changes. When cars are passing you left & right about twice per second, there is no such thing as a waiting for a gap in traffic to change lanes. At that point, there are no "gaps" at all -- the other drivers detect a slowpoke nearby and close-in formation like a bunch of B-17 bombers in a WWII movie. The irony here is that any "road rage" was mostly confined to the people who obeyed the speed limit; the process of leaving them in the dust was relatively trouble-free.
Pretty nice, but it's obvious some heavy-duty ASCIIShop work was done on it. She doesn't really look this good.