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RMS, Aaron Swartz Among 2013 Internet Hall of Fame Inductees

Posted by Soulskill on from the barry-bonds-given-the-cold-shoulder-again dept.

gnujoshua writes "The Internet Hall of Fame inducted 32 new members, today. This years class had a number of 'policy innovators' and activists including Aaron Swartz (posthumous), John Perry Barlow, Jimmy Wales, and Richard M. Stallman. Stallman had this to say upon his induction: 'Now that we have made the Internet work, the next task is to stop it from being a platform for massive surveillance, and make it work in a way that respects human rights, including privacy.'"

17 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. RMS named by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think the world is actually finally reaching a more dire version of the 2010 panel of this xkcd: https://xkcd.com/743/

    1. Re:RMS named by kthreadd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How to you know that Microsoft Word doesn't spy on you? Do you have the source code?

    2. Re:RMS named by TeknoHog · · Score: 2

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    3. Re:RMS named by readingaccount · · Score: 2

      How to you know that Microsoft Word doesn't spy on you?

      Let me ask you this: how do you know that God doesn't exist? It's a stupid question because it's very difficult to proof the lack of an existence of something. Rather, the appropriate way to phrase the question is simply: how do you know that God exists? You have to prove your case, not get others to disprove it.

      Likewise: how do you know that Microsoft Word is spying on you? The burden of proof is on you to show this is happening. You make the point that the source code is not available, but there are many other ways to analyze the behavior of software, even when closed. Off the top of my head would be Wireshark.

      Do you really think, out of the millions (billions?) of Word users, including no doubt some very, very smart security researchers, that someone wouldn't have thought of this very issue and perhaps did some forensics to check to see if Word is somehow spying? If it could be shown that something nefarious was happening, it would be all over the net. But given this hasn't happened, it's more logical (and we geeks pride ourselves on thinking logically and rationally, right?) to assume that it's just a fucking word processor and nothing more.

  2. RMS and unintended outcomes by hazeii · · Score: 4, Interesting

    >Stallman had this to say upon his induction: 'Now that we have made the Internet work, the next task is to stop it from being a platform for massive surveillance, and make it work in a way that respects human rights, including privacy.'"

    In retrospect, it would have been neat to have written that kind of thing into the GPL (the spooks would have run Windows servers instead, and our privacy would be safe if we used anything more complex than ROT13).

    --
    All your ghosts are just false positives.
    1. Re:RMS and unintended outcomes by LordLimecat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      and our privacy would be safe if we used anything more complex than ROT13)

      I like the naieve implication that the NSA is somehow incompetent. Recall that the original AES spec was amended with a recommendation from the NSA which was determined, around 10 years later, to have substantially strengthened it against just-now-being-discovered cryptographic attacks. Recall that the NSA is largely responsible for SELinux.

      Im sure there are other examples of their competence which escape it, but needless to say they arent exactly bumbling; theres every indication that some of the best security folks in the industry work @ the NSA.

  3. Listen here. by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 2

    "the next task is to stop it from being a platform for massive surveillance, and make it work in a way that respects human rights, including privacy"

    Good. Is everybody now aware of the difference between warrantless, untracked government surveillance, and Amazon putting you into a list of potential Depends buyers?

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    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  4. RMS is a hero in my eyes (again) by hojo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In my idealistic youth, I thought of him as a programming God.

    As I grew older, I began regarding him as more of a cranky old, "get off my lawn", impractical hard liner.

    Now, with the whole NSA/Snowden revelations, I realize I was wrong to be complacent. He has reverted to deity status for me.

    1. Re:RMS is a hero in my eyes (again) by tnk1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm not sure what you think has changed. Unless you didn't already realize the NSA was doing this unlike the other 95% of the population did.

      We knew it already and still ignored him, because in the end, no one cares. They *say* they care, but they don't.

      In fact, at this point, I'd put even money on the assertion that the only reason anyone is even talking about this is because the media is telling us to care about it. You know, it's sort of like Jim Carrey figuring out he didn't like violence AFTER Newtown, but somehow having amnesia about Columbine, Virginia Tech, and well... just about every other act of violence before that.

      Were you wrong to be complacent? Maybe. Did *this* make you wrong? I don't see why it would. As far as can be told, other than finding out some details, you're still living in the same world you were complacent about a couple of months ago.

      I'm already working to figure out how many weeks it will be after Snowden is either caught, or safely in Ecuador, before everyone stops caring again.

    2. Re:RMS is a hero in my eyes (again) by Karl+Cocknozzle · · Score: 5, Interesting

      In fact, at this point, I'd put even money on the assertion that the only reason anyone is even talking about this is because the media is telling us to care about it.

      Really? The coverage I have seen is focused almost exclusively on "the hunt for Eric Snowden" and takes very little time to discuss the substantive issues raised by his revelations--chiefly that most of our privacy has been a facade for the better part of a decade. I was never that cynical before this, so congratulations for being the first ones to believe something was amiss.

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      Who did what now?
    3. Re:RMS is a hero in my eyes (again) by grumpy_old_grandpa · · Score: 2

      > He's still living in his own little world where all software should be [GPL'ed]

      Reach for the stars - hit the moon

  5. Re:A Plead from Jimmy Wales by TWiTfan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Expect a crazy video to soon follow from John McAfee, detailing how the Illuminati stopped him from getting in.

    --
    The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
  6. Why Aaron Swartz? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I hate to do this, but I have to question the inclusion of Aaron Swartz.

    Yes, what happened to the young man is a tragedy. But a 'Hall of Fame' should be for people with actual accomplishments. All Swartz did was get himself into trouble, and instead of enduring his legal difficulties he decided to commit suicide. That's a symbol of cowardice, not heroism.

    Should naive activists who are cowardly in the face of oppression be considered for any Hall of Fame?

    1. Re:Why Aaron Swartz? by UltraZelda64 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      1. The guy had depression. You don't fuck with depression. The government did, until he could finally take no more. If you knew fucking *anything* about depression, then you might have even the slightest clue of how he must have felt. Hint: It's not a happy feeling.
      2. Yes, he got into trouble with a ridiculous federal law, and was made an example of by people in power who were had more greed than anything, wanting to utterly destroy his life just for a bit of fame and fortune on their end. In the end, their plan backfired--and deservedly so.
      3. Enduring his legal difficulties? I'm pretty sure just before his suicide *ALL* hope for a reduced prison sentence was thrown out the window in Ortiz's infinite wisdom, meaning "enduring his legal difficulties" would be "stuck behind bars for 35 years or so." He hung in there for a couple years until the U.S. removed all hope.
      4. The whole treatment the government gave him opened the eyes of a lot of people on the corrupt joke of the U.S. "justice" system, and in the end he has done the world a service on that alone. Changes are still likely to come, thanks to him.

    2. Re:Why Aaron Swartz? by TeknoHog · · Score: 3, Informative
      Wikipedia:

      Swartz was involved in the development of the web feed format RSS, the organization Creative Commons, the website framework web.py and the social news site Reddit

      This is just from the summary that doesn't fully capture the range of his contributions, so you might want to read some more.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  7. Re:A Plead from Jimmy Wales by kthreadd · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://xkcd.com/978/

    The problem is that they want everything to be backed up by a verifiable source, and fails to enforce it. You either allow everyone to edit, or you follow established scientific procedures. Wikipedia does something in between, leaving both sides unhappy with it.

  8. Re:Internet Hall of Fame? by mapsjanhere · · Score: 2

    How can it be serious? They added RMS.

    --
    I'm aging rapidly, I bought a new game and had no idea if my machine was good for it.