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File Sharing — Harmful to Children and a Threat to National Security
jkrobin writes to mention that a recent report from the US Patent office calls peer-to-peer file sharing harmful to children and a threat to national security. "Interestingly, the report makes numerous references to RIAA and MPAA legal actions against file actions, as well as cites a 2005 Department of Homeland Security report that government workers had installed file-sharing programs that accessed classified information without their knowledge."
Stop the INSANITY!
This is getting just stupid.
We live in a MEDIA driven State of Fear.
It's good to know that RIAA and MPAA are willing to expend so much energy and money to educate our public officials. After all, we wouldn't want any extra freedoms to slip under the door.
The ordinary pencil is, in our modern America, a flagrant excess that cannot be tolerated. Pencils can be used to copy national secrets from one piece of paper to another, and leave no identifying marks of any kind on the documents that have been copied. Their sharp ends can be used to gouge; children can inflict grevious rubber burns upon one another using the rubber end. Perhaps most shocking of all, the pencil graphite is conductive and could be used in any number of explosive devices where conductive elements are required.
The Pencil manufacturing concerns of America, however, are resolved to work with the U.S. government to mitigate this crisis. Henceforth, all pencil purchases are tracked with a unique REAL ID-coordinated identifier. Authorized use of pencils will require a tiny microchip implanted under the skin of the right hand. A left-handed version of the chip is expected to be available before 2020--until then, pencil-using left-handed Americans will have to make the sacrifice of writing less legibly until the chip is available.
Wow, I'm really bored today.
[snip]
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
It's two-- two-- two scare tactics in one!
"Oh boy! Are we going to try something dangerous?"
It sounds like the network administrators in said "governmental offices" should take the precautions neccessary to police the bandwidth. Furthermore, any environment in which said p2p applications are capable of leaking any private information need to be under closer scrutiny.
Don't blame the p2p networks for the actions and negligence of those in control of their own computer infrastructure.
A decade ago, the idea that copyright infringement could become a threat to national security would have seemed implausible. Now, it is a sad reality.Since when is copyright infringement, and not massively-propagating worms and keyloggers, the problem for national security. The latter causes FAR more breeches of personal identity information and credentials.
for sale
I'm a self-modifying sig virus
The threat to national security is not the file sharing software it's the asshats who have access to classifed documents,who are installing Kazaa on their government owned work computers. You could just as likely leave a few thumbdrives with trojans sitting around where these guys have lunch.
We are all just people.
> Wow, I'm really bored today.
;-)
If you produce that level of satire as a result, please be bored more often
We are.
Next up,
Websites, email, and ftp are also bad for children, and a threat to national security.
emt 377 emt 4
Which is to say that, of course, music and movies depicting or narrating gangbangers pimping hoes, killing rivals/cops/etc, and committing various other crimes are not harmful to children.
Hmmm... well at least their glass houses get a lot of light.
> Software merely takes a generalized machine and turns it
> into a specialized machine. Clearly a unique specialized
> machine should be patentable.
No the general purpose machine is the patentable invention. Specific information (ie: software) should be protected by copyright. Pure software is not patentable and all software is pure software.
This is reminding me of what they were saying about rock'n roll and comic books in the 50's.. they had huge hearings on it, it was the bane of culture, it promoted sexual deviance, it threatened the foundations of society itself!!!!!11one!1
first, they ignore you
then, they laugh at you
then they fight you
then you win.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
The Patent Office is either way off its rocker and/or it is not a far stretch to understand that a company that controls your computer, the content, the OS and that of 90% of the rest of the world, would make it also a threat to National Security and the security of every other nation on the planet. Microsoft with Vista can turn off your ability to use the computer. Through tools like WGA and WGN it can monitor your computer and your use. Since there is no competition out there to give consumers and government a choice then we are all bound to something that is unprecedented in the history of the world. The OS. No other time in the history of the world has one company held such influence on the lives of virtually everyone in the world in the same way.
To say that file sharing allows for children to have access to this or that harmful content, and be subject to other bad things, and to say that files can be put at risk and therefore risk the national security, it would not be a far stretch to understand that to allow one company to essentially enter every computer (as the computer is an extension of your home/business) as they are able to enter your home and business to search, inventory, and accuse (and ultimately with Vista shut down your home/business) then that company and it's product could be considered a threat to national security. P2P is not used solely by children and since it can be useful in business and government it is a lesser threat than that posed by one company having control of the computers of the world. You have unprecedented control and access which creates a major possibility of security threats, if not primarily by Microsoft then by some enterprising vicious terrorist hoping to exploit Microsoft's buggy OSes and buggy spy tools.
You can't go from P2P and the concept of access without going to Windows and WGA/WGN. Whatever applies to the concept of access over the Internet via P2P also extends to any product that could be used to yield the same type of invasive behavior that leads to stealing trade/national secrets be it by a controlling monopoly previously convicted in numerous nations of the world or by someone attempting to exploit the fact that exploits to tools like WGA/WGN could present unprecedented access to terrorists and the governments of other rogue nations.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" - Plato
Just think about how ballistic some politicians would go if a simple demonstration were shown to them about the sites you can find with Google by searching for the words "tits" or "wide snatch". They'd be pushing for the internet to be closed down immediately if not sooner. I predict just such a demonstration will be forthcoming in the very near future. Just as soon as there's some new US scandal they want to divert attention away from. It will be the mother of all diversions and has the potential to really crimp the usefulness of the internet in the US.
Okay okay if I'm reading this correctly, file sharing is a threat to national security because it's getting installed on government computers that hold sensitive information ? Does that mean that photocopiers, faxes, mailing envelopes and even cameras are all threats to national security because they have the potential to be misused by dumb government employees ?
#1 - File sharing is only as dangerous as the person running the software. If the user's a twit, don't blame the software, just replace them with a better user.
#2 - File sharing's risk can be controlled at the firewall, either keep an eye on it or shut it out completely. We're talking about offices here, places that have no legitimate reason to be using Limewire et al. in the first place.
#3 - Gov't employees have always had ways to leak information. Sometimes they toss stuff in the garbage without properly shredding confidential documents. Sometimes they get their notebook stolen. Sometimes they leave their passwords written on post-it notes stuck to their monitor. And sometimes they're just would-be spies taking bribes.
#4 - The more stuff gets legislated "out of existence", the more ways people will find to get around the law. They shut down Napster, so people started using decentralized networks. They could try to shut down P2P, we'll find a sneakier way to do it (already happening with encrypted VPN tunnels). How's the saying go ? If [thing] is outlawed, only outlaws will do [thing].
#5 - This is our goddamned government. This ain't a dictatorship or monarchy, it's a democracy. If these officials aren't acting in accordance with the people's needs, we need to fire the bastards!
-Billco, Fnarg.com
The spread of information by means of communication is a threat to national security.
Its raining men!
Information drives actions, and information drives what resources we need; thus, information is quite useful when you have no resources: it helps you get them. Mostly the idea of "no resources" is artificial, because it comes from a model of scarcity. In all places where humans live there are resources, by definition. Without food and water, all the people die or leave in about 2 weeks. Read up on Maslow.
As for wars, information is a critical part of what people fight over. Ever hear of all the "intelligence" failures that lead to Iraq? The whole case for war and all the reasons the US attacked were based within information.
I agree, tyranny and ignorance exist along a continuum. There is a huge middle ground that we can rest in where people will be happy. There is no need to chose one to avoid the other. Copyright, in principle is sound as an idea, the way it was initially framed. But in practice today, (c) is completely out of control. To lose access to information for a time period of (life of the author + 70 or 95 years), given a median human lifespan of about 70 years... this is effectively information tyranny. The information is never available for use in your lifespan. Your assertions that statements I write are "rhetoric" seem childish and transparent - they do not help your case.
I never asserted that all information is equal. It is clearly not. You put relative value of information in one class that you defined as lower than other categories. There is not one axis of value, but even if there were, each person would get to assign value to information, as they want. Who defined what information is in what category? You? RIAA? ISP filtering software? I don't accept your categorization of "entertainment" and you shouldn't accept my categories or values. As such, I reject your relative value scheme. Each individual has their own values.
Most movies are both art and business: very big $ business, and a remarkable art form. I don't judge what information private individuals want to exchange with each other. Who said anything about any of this being noble?
File sharing isn't a threat to national security, stupid government employees that install file sharing programs on work computers and then make the shared folder one that contains important documents are a threat to national security.
Should we just go ahead and abolish the free interchange of ideas while we're at it, so we can stop the sharing of such harmful ideas as "I think we should go home and beat our children" or "I think we should get together and resist our Tyrannical Opressors (TM)" and then just silently curse this minority that 'ruined free speech' for the rest of us?
Or should we recognize that govenment regulation of the exchange of information or ideas which, (although not being a lawyer) I could have SWORN was for forbidden by the first amendment, is the action of the corrupting influence of large amounts of what was originally, (ironically) OUR money which we gave to the RIAA/MPAA etc., when we purchased music and movies "legitimately" in the first place?
RIAA and MPAA are like DRUG ADDICTS, we gave them the drug, cash, we want to stop supplying them, but they are strung out and need more of the drug. Always they need more, and I think, if they could, they would be willing to kill (you or me) to get it. However, killing is generally still illegal, so they can't.
Seeing them pull the strings of our lawmakers telling us ultimately, that it is illegal for us to talk to one another is disenhartening to say the least.
~Hal