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Irish Politician Calls For Crackdown On Open Source Internet Browsers

Posted by Soulskill on from the internet-is-a-series-of-tubes dept.

An anonymous reader writes "An Irish politician has called for tougher controls on the use of open source internet browsers. He said, 'An online black market is operating which protects the users’ anonymity and operates across borders through the use of open source internet browsers and payments systems which allow users to remain anonymous. This effectively operates as an online supermarket for illegal goods such as drugs, weapons and pornography, where it is extremely difficult to trace the identity of the buyers. We need a national and international response to clamp down on this illicit trade.' The politician added that the U.S. had 'taken action' to address this, but he seemed surprised that their solution was only 'temporary.'"

3 of 335 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I think I speak for us all... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    You mean they haven't yet?

    See United States v. $124,700 in U.S. Currency.

  2. Re:Good luck with that, King Canute by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 5, Informative

    You sometimes need to keep old people away from the keyboard.

    Patrick O'Donovan, the politician in question, is 36 years old. My father is a 70-year-old web developer. Sure, in general younger people probably understand the internet better than older people, but there are so many exceptions to this in both directions that any generalization based on age is pretty well meaningless.

    --
    The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
  3. W3C + HTML5 + DRM by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'll tell you what this is all about:

    http://boingboing.net/2013/10/11/w3cs-drm-for-html5-sets-the.html

    Soon, all compliant browsers will have to be opaque, in order to have DRM that will protect Netflix and other streaming services. Independent browsers will disappear. Open source browsers will be a big hole in the plan to completely lock down the internet once and for all and cannot be allowed to exist. Irish politicians have learned their globalization lessons well and know on which side their bread is buttered. He may not be the most eloquent advocate, but he knows what the agenda is.

    We are very close to the end of the internet as we know it. I've long said that the internet is turning into cable television. Now the transformation is almost complete.

    http://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/post/72759474218/we-are-huxleying-ourselves-into-the-full-orwell

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.