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Clay Shirky: RIAA Succeeds Where Cypherpunks Fail

scubacuda writes "Clay Shirky has an interesting take on encryption: 'The RIAA is succeeding where the Cypherpunks failed, convincing users to trade a broad but penetrable privacy for unbreakable anonymity under their personal control. In contrast to the Cypherpunks "eat your peas" approach, touting encryption as a first-order service users should work to embrace, encryption is now becoming a background feature of collaborative workspaces. Because encryption is becoming something that must run in the background, there is now an incentive to make its adoption as easy and transparent to the user as possible. It's too early to say how widely casual encryption use will spread, but it isn't too early to see that the shift is both profound and irreversible.'"

8 of 342 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Most poorly written slashdot comment...ever. by archen · · Score: 4, Funny

    It was unintelligible unless you read it three or four times.

    Wait for about three days and Slashdot should have a sufficent ammount of dupes to make it much more clear =P

  2. Re:Cypherpunk is a stupid name by swb · · Score: 4, Funny

    You can say the same about cars, knives, guns and just about anything else.

    Especially dihydrogen monoxide.

  3. Re:Here's a link to the article... by kj0rn · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's gunna make it real interesting for future historians to figure out how to decrypt and read those old data formats.

  4. Re:Cypherpunk is a stupid name by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    When people use encryption to hurt other people

    You mean like when I throw my copy of Applied Cryptography at people's heads?

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  5. Re:Cypherpunk is a stupid name by Squideye · · Score: 5, Funny

    dihydrogen monoxide

    We've gotta ban that stuff, all the kids are gonna start using it, and then we'll never get them to stop. It's addictive... I've had like 5 doses today...

  6. Re:Cypherpunk is a stupid name by FooAtWFU · · Score: 5, Funny

    We've gotta ban that stuff, all the kids are gonna start using it, and then we'll never get them to stop. It's addictive... I've had like 5 doses today... Man, be careful! It can be fatal if inhaled! It causes erosion, and is a primary component in acid rain! It's been found in the tumors of terminal cancer patients! It contributes to global warming! It's one of the world's top industrial chemicals... and it regularly works its way into our water supplies!

    --
    The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
  7. Re:Cypherpunk is a stupid name by plover · · Score: 4, Funny
    Am I the only one thinking "Spaceballs" here?

    "Now you see that Evil will always triumph, because Good is dumb."

    --
    John
  8. Re:Cypherpunk is a stupid name by salzbrot · · Score: 3, Funny

    That is why I drink only Smirnoff 100 proof. 50 % less dihydrogen monoxide than tap water!