You cannot take away the fundraising drives, donations, or term limits.
The money people are already firmly entrenched in Washington. The corporations have infected both political parties and not a single person will ever get nominated without selling their soul to the lobbyists.
Voting someone into office is like trying to lose weight by choosing between KFC and McDonalds. You can't go on an effective diet if the menu only has lousy fatty greasy food.
And anyone decent who DOES get into office is going to be having a few hundred representatives at the ready to impeach him at the behest of the corporations.
Public media is owned lock stock and barrel by the corporations. They can and do make sure that nobody they don't like gets face-time for campaigns. Not to mention that corporations have massive war chests that they are happy to use to dangle a carrot in front of which ever side will support them, and brandish a stick at anyone who doesn't by threatening to fund their opposition.
The only people with any real power to change anything have every incentive in the world to keep things the way they are.
Soap box? Already belongs to corporate media. Ballot box? Kodos vs. Kang. Jury box? Requires a court case to come the way of the people. Most companies are smart enough to settle before letting that happen.
Looks like our only option is the ammo box, because nothing short of an armed revolution is ever going to change anything.
Not to mention countries that are rather unfriendly to the US and could really not give two shits if one of their citizens is masterminding a botnet that damages the americans.
For example, there was a Dateline investigation into online scammers. One of the crooknets that got busted moved to Iran. "Hey, we can move to a server in Iran! They can't touch us there!"
Not to mention that letting survival of the fittest fleece the fools from their money has a nasty side effect of enriching the bad guys in the process.
If it was really a Stupid "Tax" then it should go into the hands of the government, preferably to invest in cyber education.
Giving the vendor an opportunity to apply a fix is all good and dandy, but any researcher must remember this:
Real blackhats don't wait around for a patch before they go on the prowl for systems to exploit. And they don't announce their discoveries in public.
Vendors are not only racing the "egotistic researcher" looking to score points by pulling their pants down, but also against the crackers looking to not only pull their pants down, but rape them in the ass.
No matter who is on what side of the security debate, the clock is always ticking.
Slashdot Mirror
It surprises me more that they even hired the guy in the first place if he had a felony rap sheet.
*whoosh*
I fancy though that if he DID turn the passwords over to an unauthorized person they'd have turned around and nailed him for that anyway.
What Terry Childs should have done was *mailed* the password to the mayor.
Did said contract ever make it into evidence during his trial?
Bad move.
What if there was a blackout?
The first amendment doesn't apply on private property/wires.
Roads are public property.
Wires are not.
A true religion has no fallacies, and God does not fear scrutiny from the very same brilliant minds he himself created.
Thankfully, since it's under GPLv2, there won't be any estate lawyers to fight with if he passes on.
I predict that the FSF will take up the role to be honest. He suggested as much in a message to the list.
Which is another thing.
What good is it going to do for one country to take up the space mop if other countries keep using it as a dump?
You cannot take away the fundraising drives, donations, or term limits.
The money people are already firmly entrenched in Washington. The corporations have infected both political parties and not a single person will ever get nominated without selling their soul to the lobbyists.
Voting someone into office is like trying to lose weight by choosing between KFC and McDonalds. You can't go on an effective diet if the menu only has lousy fatty greasy food.
And anyone decent who DOES get into office is going to be having a few hundred representatives at the ready to impeach him at the behest of the corporations.
Public media is owned lock stock and barrel by the corporations. They can and do make sure that nobody they don't like gets face-time for campaigns. Not to mention that corporations have massive war chests that they are happy to use to dangle a carrot in front of which ever side will support them, and brandish a stick at anyone who doesn't by threatening to fund their opposition.
The only people with any real power to change anything have every incentive in the world to keep things the way they are.
Soap box? Already belongs to corporate media. Ballot box? Kodos vs. Kang. Jury box? Requires a court case to come the way of the people. Most companies are smart enough to settle before letting that happen.
Looks like our only option is the ammo box, because nothing short of an armed revolution is ever going to change anything.
Not to mention countries that are rather unfriendly to the US and could really not give two shits if one of their citizens is masterminding a botnet that damages the americans.
For example, there was a Dateline investigation into online scammers. One of the crooknets that got busted moved to Iran. "Hey, we can move to a server in Iran! They can't touch us there!"
What we really need to do is secure the fricking holey code that let them hijack the damned machines in the first place.
Fix the software once, let it be installed/patched onto the 12 million machines.
RTFM: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138233
1) Bans cannot EVER be appealed.
2) Getting hacked is not a defense.
The only reason Valve took action at all in this case was because being iron-fisted and letting the bans stand would have been a PR catastrophe.
If you need it, is it really a waste?
Considering that this information was already in the hands of a company whose CEO doesn't give two shits about privacy anyway I say no harm done.
Not to mention that letting survival of the fittest fleece the fools from their money has a nasty side effect of enriching the bad guys in the process.
If it was really a Stupid "Tax" then it should go into the hands of the government, preferably to invest in cyber education.
Maybe for powerless serfs that USE the machines, but surely not sysadmins?
Getting into a fight with a group of people with the power to impeach you isn't exactly a smart move.
If he pissed off Congress badly enough they can always impeach him.
Oh wait...
GIGO
Running out of pills is one thing.
Having your pace-maker shut down due to non-compliance with an EULA is quite another.
Sure, corporations can make a killing...but it will come with a murder conviction.
I seriously doubt it would EVER be legal to remotely disable a pace-maker.
Giving the vendor an opportunity to apply a fix is all good and dandy, but any researcher must remember this:
Real blackhats don't wait around for a patch before they go on the prowl for systems to exploit. And they don't announce their discoveries in public.
Vendors are not only racing the "egotistic researcher" looking to score points by pulling their pants down, but also against the crackers looking to not only pull their pants down, but rape them in the ass.
No matter who is on what side of the security debate, the clock is always ticking.
Considering how many people have died from scurvy I'm not sure that inability to produce vitamin C was an evolutionarily sound decision.
What worries me more is the possibility that this charge will actually stick and simply be pled down on grounds of cruel and unusual punishment.