Slashdot Mirror
Top Web Businesses Oppose Utah Spyware Law
theodp writes "According to MediaPost.com: 'Some of the Web's leading content and technology providers have taken action to lobby against Utah's controversial Spyware Control Act, which is awaiting the governor's signature. Web publishers and businesses including AOL, Amazon, Cnet, eBay, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! signed a letter to the bill's sponsors arguing that the bill could create serious repercussions for the entire online community. The parties to the letter warned that the bill could interfere with computer security and would also impair the delivery of local, targeted ads'."
Let's say you're sitting at a Starbucks, drinking some coffee. You hear a song over the speakers you happen to like. All you have to do is call out: "Could I get this on a CD, please?"
You, sir, have just written the most succinct analogy of the Slashdot mentality I have ever read.
They should all download and intsall STFU 1.0 from our buddy Mike Anderer.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing. Emo Philips
You articulate the argument well, but I think it's a flawed argument. How often does artillery come into play in a coup? There are lots of reasons a government might hesitate to shell its own towns.
By the time there is a serious enough divide to cause an uprising, the government and military will also be somewhat divided.
Look at the Vietnam war. Weren't normal rifles more useful to the Vietnamese than artillery?
If the citizens need parity with the military, it's not in artillery but in c3i - encrypted radios, mapping and map-sharing systems, etc. But these systems would need a complete rethink to become more peer-to-peer and less dependant on centralized command.
As for your point about training, I think it applies even more strongly to ordinary military rifles. I think a small group of trained soldiers can win over a large group of untrained people with the same equipment. That was probably equally true in 1776.