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Former BSA VP Confirmed as Tech Undersecretary
RedOregon writes "The Senate has confirmed Robert Cresanti as the Commerce Department's new undersecretary for technology.
Who's that, you ask?
He was the former vice president of public policy at the Business Software Alliance.
Does this give anyone else the Heebie Jeebies??"
You're getting the heebie jeebies from an undersecretary? The position means very little, be glad he wasn't given a real job like a spot on the Supreme Court.
if you say so shure.. else it is just the government in action again
Nothing to see here please move along..... oh and PAY US..
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
Why is it that when you believe something it's an opinion, but when I believe something it's a manifesto?
Now the government might start using bad data to justify ridiculous copyright laws and restriction of users' rights! But wait, surely no-one would let them get away with that?
The BSA was pretty impotent. They achieved only a tiny bit of what they could have, had they had half a clue. Personally I hope they hire more people from the BSA.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I would have thought they would have went with some script kiddie or long-haired open source zealot, but instead they went with an industry man. Still scratching my head over this one.
Here's a guy who ran a market-leading motorcycle company into the ground in the days of carburettors, coil ignition and chain drive. Now he's in charge of technology for the good old US of A.
I loved those BSA motorcycles.
-Kurt
"We can categorically state we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - UK military spokesman, July 2007
And with the same spelling age.
Sounds like par for the course to me.
About the same as a Doubleclick hack (Nuala O'Connor Kelly, Chief "Privacy" Officer of Doubleclick) advising HomeSec on privacy.
Or the Gator/Claria hack (D. Reed Freeman, former Gator/Claria Chief "Privacy" Officer) sitting on HomeSec's Data "Privacy" and "Integrity" Advisory Committee.
Maybe we should be thankful. Based on precedent, the BSA guy should be put in charge of the Copyright office, or perhaps hired by NSA to... adjust its priorities when it comes to what sort of traffic is worthy of further investigation.
Anyone taking bets on when Jeff Bezos gets picked to head USPTO?
If this administration was to make an appointment that didn't favor business interests over the needs of the populace, THEN I'd be worried. I'd be expecting a time-space continuum breach or the earth spinning off its axis or something.
From a ZDNet Aug.1, 2005 Declan McCullagh article titled , Copyright lobbyists strike again
The Central American nations participating in CAFTA must also:
- Permit software patents
- Extend copyright protection to "70 years after the author's death"
- Ban the "manufacture" or "export" of any hardware or software that could decode encrypted satellite TV signals
- Offer "online public access to a reliable and accurate" WhoIs database of domain name registration details
It's true that these may be ideas beloved by the Bush administration and business lobbyists, but they have far more to do with special-interest lobbying than traditional notions of free trade.
In reality, they're simply the latest in a string of victories that copyright lobbyists have managed to accumulate in the last decade--under both Democratic and Republican presidents--through adept work at influencing the arcane process of treaty drafting.
Negotiating below the radar "We push for that in trade agreements and treaties and bilateral" agreements, Robert Cresanti, vice president for public policy at the Business Software Alliance, told me last week. Members of his group include Adobe Systems, Cisco Systems, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel and Microsoft.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
You're getting the heebie jeebies from an undersecretary?
That is fine and dandy, but one has to wonder if this goes on all the time.
Sure one undersecretary isn't that bad, but what if all positions like this were dealt in the same way.
Boil a frog, anyone?
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
...it sure makes me want to switch every computer I can to Linux in a hurry.
Finding God in a Dog
I first interpreted "BSA" in your title as Boy Scouts of America... ... and given the nature of Bush Administration appointments, it would have been about as likely.
In addition to his role at the BSA, Cresanti is a former senior vice president and general counsel for the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), as well as a former staff director of the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem, FCW reports.
01/20/09
Generic "robotic" hardware, computer-controlled devices that do useful work for their owners, seems to be a required next step to convert centralized mass production into distributed mass production. Still the stuff of sci fi, though.
AT&T/NSA domestic spying, junk faxers unleashed, BSA entrenching in gov't, lawsuits galore, fibonacci poetry...
/. anymore.
I need half a bottle of Valium just to read
Standing up from my chair to get some coffee, that is.
The best public policy is found and served by understanding the public. The public is a group of individuals who make individual decisions that best serve their lives now rather than later. This is true as we see that people would rather spend today rather than save for tomorrow, and they know they can live tomorrow by passing on the costs of retirement to the next generation rather than their offspring.
To put a crony into this chief position is not news, it is status quo. The public is never served by the politicians, especially those who are not voted into office directly (which can have even worse consequences). The public is served by letting people make billions of decisions separately, and letting businesses and individuals find ways to serve those decisions, instantaneously adapting the market to what the public wants at that moment.
By the time government is ready to react, it is usually too late and unnecessary. Even worse, many of government's reactions are to previous reactions that were too late, making the situation even worse for the millions of individuals making billions of decisions, sometimes unable to get what they truly want because that decision has been judged criminal by previous generations of politicians who never appreciated that the individual's need is best served by the individual's decisions.
Read F.A. Hayek's many books for more details.
What? You were expecting Cowboy Neal to be appointed?
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
Them I forgive; they're senators, not technologists. But note this well:
As Cresanti pushes to expand the scope and scale of software patents, he knows full well that the term "intellectual property" is problematic at best and outright deceitful at worst. As rms said, when people use this term they are either confused or attempting-to-confuse-you.
The senators are confused. Cresanti is a propagandist
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
So you let people shit through you as well?
Does this give anyone else the Heebie Jeebies?
No, I'm used to this sorta news by now.
Developers: We can use your help.
Shouldn't that be government inaction?
So what? Who cares? Why is the BSA such a bad thing, unless you're into stealing software?
"Sometimes the truth is stupid." - Lawrence, creator of Prime Intellect
Fortunately Ebay did in fact reinstate my auctions but I was pretty unhappy about the disgusting way I had been treated. I can only hope that the shoot first, ask questions later attitude will be moderated now that this guy has a government job.
"The White House is not an intelligence-gathering agency," -- Scott McClellan, Whitehouse spokesman.
That is fine and dandy, but one has to wonder if this goes on all the time.
You have to wonder if cronyism and giving government positions to connected corporate interests occurs all the time?
Let me help you out: Yes, it goes on all the time.
In this sense, the OP was right that a mere undersecretary position isn't anything special.
The enemies of Democracy are
The National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Technical Information Service and the Office of Technology Policy all fall under the oversight of the Technology Administration
So there's one big no vote on making any free file formats or programs standard issue for government offices. That's a big deal.
People from the BSA have no place in government service in any case. The BSA is an organization that sued public schools systems for copying a text editor. People who do things like that should be shunned.
Ugh, he even looks like a bit character from the Sopranos.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Ernie Ball has something to tell you. Not sure that's the best account of that story. Then there are the school districts that have been attacked. They tend to pick targets and make examples of them. Sure, lots of places have "casual" violations, but the BSA comes in and asks you for affirmative proof of license for every piece of software on every computer you have - or else.
Apparently (IANAL) most people screw up by letting these folks in the door - they aren't the law after all. Some say the only thing you should show them is your middle finger.
No.
"Me fail English? That's unpossible." - Ralph
I work in the government and this is a serious problem for me. It is just too hard to get things done when your project manager is using words like doohicky and thingamagig. When they do try to BS their way through a presentation with fellow policymakers and managers, it is all you can do to keep from crying at the blatant misunderstanding of technology.
CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
Republicans are suits. It's what's in their soul. They're suspicious of anyone who's not a player "in business" in one way or another, and they really feel least threatened around PHB types, whom they see as "normal" and "regular" people (i.e. fellow white bread borgeouis suits).
It's no wonder, therefore, given the current American political climate and composition at the federal level, that the suits are taking over. When the powers that be select a head for anything, they don't begin with a long line of people that have expertise in that area. They begin with "let's gather up all our fellow suits in the private sector" and then, from those mindless, leeching suits, they select whomever has operated, in his/her suit capacity, in the nearest field, at the highest level on the corporate ladder.
It's a dream market for PHBs, they can all move into the public sector, pad their resumes, gain undreamed of policy power, and enjoy cushy federal retirements.
The rest of us, of course, get fucked, but then I'm sure the suits would say that if we're the types of people who "get fucked" just becuase the suits are in charge, then we're probably not suits, therefore not "normal" and "American," and therefore deserve to get fucked anyway. They'll be sympathetic to us once we get a job as a middleman in the "service economy," buy an Eddie Bauer hummer, and start holding "power barbecues" at the office as we manage our outsourced Indian underlings. Until then, we're just lazy, or worse, terrorists.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Oh wait, you haven't got to Civics 101. That's right, you're still in the basement of your parent's house.
Can slashdot at least check for the AGE of the moderators before giving out points. I thought you had to be older than 13 to be here.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
No. I've had jobs I wasn't thrilled about either, but they paid well and gave me valuable experience. I refuse to judge this man, his impact on public policy, or any other aspect of this based on Slashdot groupthink about the BSA.
"I have never won a debate with an ignorant person." -Ali ibn Abi Talib
Don't copy that floppy!
Google Video Linky
The goal of free software is global liberation. The point of free software is to give the user control of their hardware. They must own their software to have that. The list of people who would strip that control includes government as well as private agencies. Everyone should understand exactly what they are giving up when they push the "I agree" button and everyone should know that free alternatives exist. If they don't, your and my options can vanish as bad laws make it impossible for people to share information required to make hardware work. You should not take encroachment lying down. The BSA is morally wrong and should not be allowed to influence the law.
You can't force people to be free but can spread the word and you don't have to help enslave others. You can avoid the use of non free programs and formats. You can tell people why those things are wrong. You can also complain when forced by others to make a choice between your software freedom and co-operating with them. Yes, you can do all of the above without looking of feeling like an ass. When it's your government that does the forcing, as FEMA did in the wake of Katrina and Rita, they are doing it with your money and this is much worse.
You can't get around the government. A store that does not support my free browser won't get my money, someone else will. My wife will write them a letter telling them how she would like to give them her money, but can't. They do listen and respond. If your government decides to make a non free program their "standard" for doing business, you are stuck. That kind of lock in is the last hope for non free software makers. Everyone else, including state governments, are turning away.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
With Bush's record of 'qualified employees', we can hope that he at least attended 1 year of community college.
A BSA guy will fit right in with the rest of the sleazy bunch in the white house and their enron-like supporters. Is there even ONE senior guy in the Bush administration who puts the good of the country ahead of private agendas and interests?
Um, no thanks. At least, not without a good dash of cajun spices, or perhaps some good curry or chinese chilis. Otherwise, the boiled frog won't sit in your stomach and digest very well.
Similar to the upcoming US election results
"the poor teachers copied a text editor and they got sued by the evil BSA" hardly helps your cause.
You are entitled to your belief, but most people would dissagree.
This is the heart and soul of how non free software is evil and how out of whack "IP" laws are. Most people think of schools as worthy of public support and money. The BSA thinks of them as a source of money and thinks that money is more important than the school's mission. These suits were carried out in the most disruptive way possible. People understand that's wrong. They should also know the intimidation effect of those suits and the massive amounts of public money wasted keeping track of licenses and all that, to avoid more of the same. The case also nicely illustrates why it's wrong to use a non free file format as a communications standard, which is something the public also understands very well now.
If the BSA wanted to look good, they would leave schools of all types alone. Unlike "piracy", this would not have cost them a thing but a few lost sales. I'm glad they were so stupid because it shows them for what they are and encourages the use of free software. No one likes being threatened. Threatening public education is about the dumbest thing a private company can do.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Heebie Jeebies is an anti-semitic phrase. Please discontinue using it or you're just contributing to spreading hate.
. . .what if all positions like this were dealt in the same way.
We'd have things as they are. You haven't been paying attention.
KFG
There seems to be some confusion over what, exactly, the position entails. I know this is /., and I know people like to jump to conclusions, but get the facts! Look at how the office of Technology Administration fits into the overall Commerce org chart. You see what he's not? (Undersecretary for Intellectual Property) Then read the list of offices controlled by the Technology Undersecretary.
This post expresses my opinion, not that of my employer. And yes, IAAL.
Which demonstrably, and directly contribute, year after year, to higher overall tax revenue and the economic activity that continues to produce more jobs. Please post your theory on how raising taxes contributes to employment, other than in government programs.
I've got a set of questions for you and any other supply siders out there. I'm going to avoid being acrimonious; I honestly want a good explanation from believers in the theory about a few things.
1) Where does government money go that doesn't create jobs in America?
2) Why do you expect investors to invest as much money in America as the American government as opposed to investing in overseas and multinational companies?
To me, it seems that having the government spend the money here would create more jobs here than giving the money to a large company that is offshoring all its labor. Please explain why I'm wrong in your view.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
*snort* :-\
Oh, man, I'm sorry, I just couldn't keep a straight face through that one.
Dear Word Detective: At a recent party, I had occasion to use the phrase "Heebee Jeebees" to refer to something that gave me a "creepy" feeling. I was flummoxed when half the crowd was nonplussed! (See, you do have an effect!) Actually, I was even more surprised when someone suggested that she thought the phrase was not in good taste because it was anti-Semitic! I am doubtful, but I'm PC enough to worry. -- Chris Kuhn, via the Internet.
Of course I have an effect; many effects, in fact, some of them rather alarming. Most people find me easiest to take with meals (you can always play with your peas and pretend not to know me), and it's generally wise not to go swimming within a half-hour after reading this column. If dizziness or skepticism develops, go ask William Safire.
I, too, am surprised that half the folks at that party didn't know what "heebie-jeebies" (the usual spelling) are. What are they teaching in school these days, anyway? Nothing useful, apparently. To quote the Oxford English Dictionary, the "heebie-jeebies" are "a feeling of discomfort, apprehension, or depression; the 'jitters'; delirium tremens; also, formerly, a type of dance." Just like the "wim-wams," I'd say, except the dancing part.
As to your worries about "heebie-jeebies" possibly being an anti-Semitic slur, the answer is a somewhat qualified "no." The phrase "heebie-jeebies" was invented by Billy De Beck, a famous American comic strip artist of the 1920's, in his popular "Barney Google" strip in 1923. De Beck, by the way, also invented "hotsy-totsy" (a term of approval) and the wonderful "horsefeathers" (meaning "utter nonsense") in his strip. "Heebie-jeebies" must have caught the popular imagination immediately, since the dance of that name appeared a scant three years later, in 1926.
The invention of "heebie-jeebies" by De Beck was, without doubt, innocent of any racial or ethnic animosity. The only possible anti-Semitic interpretation of "heebie-jeebies" comes from its unfortunate resemblance to the slang term "hebe" (a cropping of "Hebrew"), which is indeed an anti-Jewish epithet. Whether you want to risk possible misunderstandings when you use "heebie-jeebies" is up to you, of course, but the truth of its innocent origin is its best defense.
FC Closer
Fromm 2003 : The BSA, Microsoft and the definition of Extortion.
I'm glad that it's someone that at minimum has experience in the industry, it may not be the experience that people want/desire (esp here at /.) but at least it's not someone who has no clue what tech is. i've seen that far too often in the front office of various orgs and it weighs on their tech operations/direction. At least there is some level of clue in the field, now the true test is does someone in this role pick the correct path.
All administrations.
...
Industry loves watchdog agencies: they ALWAYS take them over and use them to limit competition.
Slashdot is supposed to have a technically-literate audience, but nobody seems to have much systems-level understanding, or at least they don't apply it outside of their technical interests.
It is NOT an accident that most government programs achieve the opposite of what they are intended to do:
The FDA kills us by the 100s of 1000s per year. Medicines are safe, but they are too few developed and too expensive.
NASA is achieving space, but slowly, expensively, cautiously, unsafely,
I recommend "The Systems Bible" if you want to understand all of this. Add "Living Systems" and some of the more modern treatments of the life-like emergent properties of various entities, e.g. government bureaucracies.
Ideology is surely the worst intellectual tool ever invented.
Engineering is knowing what can be done at what costs, what the limitations of our tools are, etc.
I see a lot more ideology displayed in slashdot discussions than I see engineering-level analysis applied to problems such as this one.
Apparently clear thinkers in the field of engineering continually propose regulations (read 'no testing programming') for an open environment, using emergent-properties bureaucracies to implement their never-tested programs, with the goal of guiding an extremely diverse set of people toward some enlightened state with which they generally don't agree.
Right, that has a big chance of producing a net improvement in our socio-economic-governmental system !!!
As a trivial exercise, derive the US Constitution (original limited gov version) from the fundamentals of chaos theory, computational complexity and complex evolving systems. For extra credit, what additions would you have added to this High Level Design document to have made limited gov last longer?
Lew
I think you are underrating the level of change that really large mass protests brought about. We got rid of both lbj and nixon, and got the draft ended back then. This is significant. And previous to that we at least got a modicum of civil rights to folks of color and other than male gender, at least up to the level that existed, which is at best half assed rights which we "enjoy" now.
The trick is, it has to be humongous, really really large and they have to *know* that there will be no more "business as ususal" until things change.
It is possible, but people have to set their priorities. When bread and circuses dominate, or "flipping" real estate to get richer, or other sorts of bogusness like loony tunes magic beans "stock" investing, no, you won't see any significant change. As long as iPods are more important than blackbox voting-no change. As long as hollywood movies and popular music and weird obscure cable TV shows are more important-no change. As long as nascar and bassboats are more important-no change. As long as online reality games are more important-no change in "real" reality. As long as football and eXtreme sports are more important-no change.
"Fill in the blank" for anyone's favorite past-time to avoid making the hard political decisions or taking action-no change.
That's the diff between now and the 60's. It wasn't perfect, but we did get a few things done in between amusements. Now, amusements and money grubbing r00l all the time. No (to be fair, very little, some but not much) boat rocking, no "risk" taken.
Netcraft comfirms it, BSA is dying...
Someone had to say it...
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
-go to some random oinking judge and get a warrant and a flock of armed oinkers to accompany them and go on a little raid over to a "closed-source large software company of choice" and get the source code and inspect the internal hardrives looking for illegally borrowed open source code and evidence of ongoing criminal behavior along those lines??
No, they can't, and you know it, they'd be laughed at by the pig judge and the pigs, because those folks primary jobs are to protect the already rich and powerful, in ANY manner they are ordered to, and anything else they do is far away secondary or below and more along the lines of being a hobby or something.
Protect the priveleged established status quo at all costs. That's job#1 of the legal system now, it's an expensive protection racket.
Until that little bit of political and legal uber-hypocristy changes where it comes to "IP" and there is a level playing field, as far as I am concerned, closed source-the creators, leasers, and distributors, are all highly suspect of stealing open source code without honoring the licenses at all, profitting from it, engaging in RICO level crimes to keep it covered up, and using such entities as the BSA to insure they maintain that illegal and criminal advantage in the public political and economic sphere. I would class the BSA even below the **AA monopoly media thieves in that regard.
The closest analogy is they are mafia enforcer goons protecting their turf, and "enforcing" illegally bribed and blackmailed for so called "law" changes.
With that said, I encourage people to not even LOOK at stuff that would fall under the "protection" of the various BSA gang members umbrella, yet alone use it or install it "illegally".
There IS such a thing as cooties!
It's just like asking the Fox to guard the hen house. Look forward to the legalization of spam.
One of the enduring, but rarely discussed, relationships in economics is that the rate of economic growth is inversely related to total government burden (taxes and regulations).
There have been 100s of studies of this over the last 50 years, all reaching the same conclusion. The "Asian Tigers", which had 12 - 20% growth for 10 - 20 years, all declined when their govs started raising taxes and trying to help the economy or society.
In my youth, a boom was 12% growth. Now, a boom is 2.5% growth. The economy, consequently, is NOT producing enough jobs: look at the trends in price/performance of prostitutes on craigslist, or the fact that hotels now provide hand-written "welcome" and "thank you" cards with a piece of chocolate when they turn down your bed, or that fact that so many street corners in California have people waving signs. Huge wastes of people, all driven by a lousy economy.
Lew
There were four stories today on Slashdot about U.S. government corruption, and one about the government functioning as it should:
IRS Leaves Taxpayer Data Largely Unprotected. If the IRS is denied the computer equipment it needs, there is more money for the government corrupters to steal.
This story: Former BSA VP Confirmed as Tech Undersecretary. Another unqualified person is appointed to influence U.S. technology.
FCC Opens Flood Gates for Junk Faxes. "Under the new rules, a junk faxer could visit your website and call that an existing business relationship."
AT&T Forwarding All Internet Traffic to NSA?. The U.S. government conducts more surveillance world-wide and domestically than any agency, ever, in the history of the world.
Today's news from Slashdot about the U.S. government is not all negative:
FTC Levies Fine Against Big-league Spammers.
--
Violence does not promote democracy. It promotes more violence.
That is fine and dandy, but one has to wonder if this goes on all the time.
One doesn't have to wonder, because it has been quite obvious over the last six years that the Republican party has some interesting priorities. FEMA, TIA, The Delay corruption, secret prisons, torture, An unjustifiably elevated level of secrecy, laws that clearly favor big corporate interests over the public at large, and A president who feels he is above the law- this appointment appears to be along the same lines as what we've already seen.
"Karloff did not deserve to smell my shit!"
Try government in general, regardless of who appears to be in charge at the time.
Oh wait, you just had to get in a quick jab at Bush.. nevermind.
---- Booth was a patriot ----