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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.'"
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.
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
Get the hell back to 4chan you moron. Hey, it works for the editors.
Does taking up arms require me to get off my couch? That would really be a deal-breaker.
And of you want me to go outside at all, forget it.
Anybody want my mod points?
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....
The internet provides the means by which the majority can regain control over politics and laws. The internet redefines how the public mind scape is formed and shaped. The mass media, greed is every thing message is dying, along with celebrity worship and the mindless messages that celebrities sell.
So a campaign of re-regulation, a campaign of corporate executive culpability and liability, a campaign of not only protecting what we have but also taking back what has already by stolen via corporate corruption of the political system.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
> 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.
I wonder if geeks could form some sort of voting block/interest group. We could stand up to tyranny. Seriously though, I'm not sure the extent to which this is feasible. First of all, people don't generally expect politicians to have a clue about tech. In Canada, it is a non-issue. These kinds of issues can simply be sidestepped by politicians. I guess the question is: how many people (not just /.) would actually change their vote based on a candidate's tech policy? Personally, Obama's tech credentials put him just over McCain (if I could vote there), but ALL OF PARLIMENT/CONGRESS needs to understand these issues in order to enact sound policy and not be easily persuaded by lobbyists.
But let's be honest. Many/most of these issues have little tangible effect on typical people. It's hard to persuade people that tech issues are up there with Heath Care and the Economy.
You know what? "Sanctity" may be an overdramatic word for it, but if you don't get what it's ostensibly supposed to mean here, I don't think you really appreciate the spirit of the tinkerer.
Yes. Saving human life in Darfur is more important. Political expression in Tibet is more important. Economic recovery in the USA is more important.
But here we are at Slashdot, where the subject is our own lives. To probe, inspect, disassemble, analyze, and modify the technology we use is what we do. We are curious, we are inventive, and we are resourceful.
There are many who openly wish we were none of those and seek to prevent us from doing these things. They fear what they do not understand, even as their bogeymen are less often nefarious and duplicitous, and more often simply curious, inventive, and resourceful.
This message, that tinkering is not to be feared and that understanding is key, is important. It's not on the front page of the papers. It's not life or death. But it is its own little message of freedom. And that's something worth taking a stand for.
Your mind is clear / The things that you fear / Will fade with how much you / Believe what you hear
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.
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.
Are you saying that you spend so much time worrying about your family that you don't have time for anything else? Your argument is meaningless, and only serves to diminish the importance of technology rather than elevate the importance of "true things".
But let's look at this from the perspective of children, sure. Do you want them to grow up into a world in which the vendors control everything they can do with their devices? A world in which learning is impossible unless you're the best cracker who ever lived, and the economy is in the gutter because industries aren't adapting to new technologies? No, you probably don't.
And what if we replace the word technology with the word freedom? Are you going to continue being so cavalier about fighting one losing battle after another, small as they may seem?
As aimless as that article may seem to us who already know about all the abuse, maybe it'll actually reach someone who doesn't read slashdot.
My Sig: SEGV
I agree with you, but I think there's a flaw in your argument. Sure, life in Darfur is way more important, but it has been the allowing of people like the RIAA run rampant in one area that has set the example for others. If you can, say, screw over everyone because you're a record company, why can't I as something else do the same? Why can't I, as a doctor, screw people over, since I see lawyers getting away with it all the time? I don't know who said "rot from the core spreads outward" but he missed the mark; rot doesn't have to be at the core to spread.
Or maybe this only makes sense with a lot of beer.
I dream of a better world... one in which chickens can cross roads without their motives being questioned.