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A Tech Lover's Call to Arms
PrinceofThieves writes "CNET technology columnist Don Reisinger has issued a call to arms for all journalists and tech junkies to join him in his crusade against the forces that attempt to ruin the sanctity of tech. 'Now, a new group of people has emerged to confront the tech lovers all over the world and stop them from being able to do what they want with the technology they own. And while many have tried to confront them on an individual basis, it has not worked. And it's for that reason that we must all come together and fight the ridiculous impositions brought upon us.'"
What kind of idiot actually thinks there is some sort of "sanctity" to tech, or anything tech-related?
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
You will keep hearing all these things until your "experts" go on TV and intelligently explain your position to a media interested in death, sex, and scandal.
You will keep hearing all these things until your lobbyist "educates" misguided lawmakers.
I could keep going in that vein for quite some time, but what it fundamentally boils down to is either changing the structure of the debate or co-opting it for your own message. But honestly, who's going to pay for a 30 second TV ad with a montage of straight-A students saying "I play violent video games and I've never killed anybody"
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Yes, we all have our hit list of hated Luddites and money grubbers, but this article is so much standing on on a soap box in a pouring rain screaming to passers by, (most of whom regard the screamer as a kook).
There is no rational plan of action, no believable tragedy for attack, and no suggestion for doing anything but throwing open the windows and screaming into the night.
Until we either change the laws we are pretty much stuck with the current situation of constant turf wars, suits and counter suits until the absurdness of it all starts to sink in.
There are signs that it IS starting to sink in. But not due to whining of the masses, but rather people suing ISPs, counter-suing the RIAA, etc.
Real actions. Pony up for the lawyers and go to court. The soapbox gets you nowhere.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
"Who, exactly?"
Everyone who doesn't agree with him, of course. That's the way rants work,
Seriously man.
Sanctity of technology? I'm a software engineer. I help created technology but I don't worship it. I love when my code is nice and elegant but I also make trade-offs when needed because what I make has to work in the real world. Sanctity? What is this guy trying to sell? Only fanboys and snake oil salesman talk about technology as some Platonic ideal or traded as an object of worship.
Where has this guy been? Did he JUST now noticed the RIAA, MPAA, and corrupt lawmakers trying to subvert the spirit of intellectual rights and freedom? This didn't just happen over night. The DMCA was passed when Clinton was president.
Lastly, at the end of the rant, he has a call to action. What does he want us to do? Give us a plan. A rant without a plan is just a rant. Unite and rise up? Seriously man. We're not some Bolsheviks trying to overthrow the tzar. Get a sense of reality. The entire "article" is a bunch of hyperbole, obvious statements, and a total lack of any actionable items.
Give me a break. It's an insult to our intelligence.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
technology is such an old and abused term I say we stop using it right now. The word is a total buzz kill. Computers and circuitry are already ubiquitous enough that we can just factor this "technology" reference out.
If in 20 years we still refer to our "toys" as "technology" I would be damned.
To quote a favorite movie of mine..."And Jack Left Town!"
At the end of the day...what it boils down to is the societal slant to defer consequences and responsibility on others, in this case...the minorities.
RIAA: Our system is dying, the consequence should be to invent a new system. But we will slough it off and punish the innovators so the old bags of shit still running the cartels can stuff their pockets and keep paying for the whores and crack.
MPAA: We are similar in situation to the RIAA except we produce MegaTons of shit and expect people to overpay for it. We should screen the shit we decide to produce more but instead, we will punish those we should be embracing so we can also keep paying for our whores and crack.
Pro-Familly and Anti-VideoGame Violence: Holy shit, where do I begin? We refuse to admit that the reason the youth of today is in a downward spiral of self-destruction is because we pamper our children to the point where they believe they are more righteous than we, the parents and teachers are. We refuse to expose them to the realities of life because it may damage them but when they lack the psychological tools to deal with life once it hits them in the face, we blam everyone except for ourselves because frankly...we are not to blame. Video Games and Movies and Music teach our children to do drugs, shoot guns and kill people. I mean...sure Grand Theft Auto is rated M for Mature and 17+ but I will buy it for him/her anyways. I mean...it's just a video game...but I will blame the development companies when my 12 year old swears like a sailor and tells me to frack off because...well...he saw it in the video game they made....It's not my fault...
The Gov't (In this, I include the Canadian and US Governments because they are just as bad as the other in this...): All of the above can pad my pocket for millions of dollars so they must know what is right for everyone...right? I mean, what harm can passing a bill that a Lobbyist proposed do? Net Neutrality? The Internets? All those tubes? Sure! Let the ISPs control them freely! After all, China had it right, except for all that killing. We just need to figure out a way to do it without everyone noticing....and anyone that refuses? I hear Guantanamo Bay still has a few empty cells.....
That Jack Thomson guy seems so nice! He really has the people in mind and he does think of the children!
I think I covered most of them....putting myself in their frame of mind actually hurt....alot. Where's that bottle of whiskey?
So Jesus, Mohammed and Abraham walk into a Bar....
> Why is no one buying CDs? ... I don't know. But there is one, inescapable truth - Internet piracy is mostly to blame.
You just admitted you don't know, but you're sure it piracy. Does that make sense?
Maybe they're not coming to your store because they don't like the hypocrisy of some Jesus Freek pulling a Dirty Harry on teenage kids.
> fought the War on Drugs with skill.
Either you're Nancy Reagan, still with the blinders on, but after a real heavy binge, or you're a shill for the *AA.
Regardless, if you can't see that your business is doomed - or you _do_ see that it's doomed, but you persist - then you deserve whatever untoward fate befalls you.
Truth, Justice. Or the American Way.
Be careful what you wish for. There are far too many ill conceived laws on our books already and they do plenty more harm than good. There is no inherent right not to be offended. If we start passing laws against practices which some people find offensive then it will be the first step towards the end of freedom. This is what separates us in the civilized Western world from those in the east who live under religious law defining what is and is not offensive both in practice and speech with punishments such as cutting off hands and death. I don't know about you, but that is not how I want to live.
Always remember that the law is the application of violence or threat of violence and should be reserved for those cases where it is necessary to prevent and deter violence to others. The over application of the law, forcing people to live a certain way or not say certain things or the like, is a far greater evil than anything currently done by the corporations which you so detest.
Not really.
If everyone in Darfur died tomorrow would your life change as much as when 3000 folks died in the 9/11 attacks? How about if just your immediate family died?
The cold hard truth is that not every life is equal to most people.
I'm just saying...
There is a problem, but the article managed to barely graze it on it's way to somewhere else (I'm not sure where).
The part about ripping was there and made sense but that's about it. The real problem is things like media companies driving efforts to force manufacturers to design hardware primarily to make sure it doesn't do what the owner wants.
In turn, that makes open hardware a real problem to obtain. Not that I think we would otherwise get firmware source with a new DVR, but I'll bet manufacturers would make a lot less effort to hinder hacking if they weren't forced into it.
There is a nasty trend towards more expensive, lower performance, and less versatile standards just to please a 3rd party (HDMI cables anyone?).
Part of Vista's problem is that so much of it is designed to prevent the user from (God forbid) copying a movie. Meanwhile, all the electronic "tilt switches" will surely drive up the cost and lower the performance of video cards with no benefit to the buyer whatsoever. An estimated 10% of the nice new CPU you paid for is dedicated to making sure you haven't modified the video card you bought.
In truth, the lot of it is interferance with ownership.
In my day, people were smart enough not to waste their time responding to stuff like this. Darn kids nowadays...
People had the same idea years ago. They founded the EFF. You can help them finance their crusade, it has been an ongoing effort.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.