Whether or not you agree, you've totally missed the point.
We don't like artificial scarities imposed on activities which ought to be the norm. Duplication for a networked computer is about as natural to that medium as breathing for a person, insofar as it is technically impossible to watch a movie on your computer without duplicating the data, even with only a single machine. Regardless of whether you agree with the "Geek" conclusions, a person who does not understand that is simply not qualified to make policy decisions.
We *really* hate it when people who don't understand basic realities about a given technology or situation take it upon themselves to throw people in jail and ruin their lives rather than put in the time and effort it would take to develop a reasonable solution. We'd prefer they just butt out and allow the people who have the problem work through it until we can find something that works, which is how most of us Geeks actually spend our lives.
This becomes even more true when you see one story after another about some broke but talented college kid being put on the chopping block to protect the bank account of a multimillionaire whose only contribution to society was to "discover" some other broke but talented artist and take him for everything he had. The one area where we have real room for disagreement is whether or not the artist would have been better off at the "mercy" of the college kid, and even that's been shaping up with actual data to favor the Geek perspective. Which makes sense, when you consider that most of us build our entire careers on a willingness to change our opinion as soon as the data proves us wrong.
"Intangible property" is not property. That's not a philosophical claim, that's an engineering reality. We're not arguing about that because we desperately want to watch a shitty handy-cam remix of Guardians of The Galaxy (or whatever) for free. We're arguing about that because we're tired of seeing real people's lives destroyed by legal fiction and non-reality-based government (management) intrusion.
In my former hometown of Philly, there's a saying "you can vote for whatever you want, but you can't against Comcast." For all practical purposes they have a monopoly on wired Internet access in the city.
Not even close to the reality of what's happening. If you want a close car analogy: you stuck a bumper sticker with your social security number on the back of your car. Google happened to be photographing the street, and now you want to accuse them of trying to steal your identity.
As a black person I'm not particularly offended by the word "jiggaboo." That doesn't mean I'm fool enough to trust anyone who would consider it a perfectly valid mascot, or a government that would accept it as a trademark.
Seems reasonable that declaring it a mental disability has the added bonus of letting us to require the obvious solution. You need to follow your treatment plan and keep up with any medications.
So, about that diet and exercise...
I think one of the problems of trying to sort out sexism is that male culture in the US is inherently based on self-reliance and violent self-protection. On the one hand, I feel you on being singled out for extra loads of BS just because you happen to be a woman. I get that this happens more than we'd like to admit.
A real part of challenge you face, though, is that male power and privilege, at least as we experience it, isn't based on Dad teaching us that when we're treated poorly we should expect to get backup from the boys. It's based on Dad saying "heres' how you throw a punch. Don't come crying to me again until you've set him straight."
The facts, as you’ve pointed out, speak to a globally sexist culture, but it is a really tough sell to claim that nerds are specifically the problem, or in a particularly good position to do anything about it. It’s worth remembering that if you’re the kind of man who got called “nerd” growing up (self-identifying later is *not* the same thing), you probably learned that standing up for anyone, even yourself, usually got you hurt in ways that required counseling later. For those of us who didn’t have that problem, it’s hard to know how to be helpful given that the ticket to respect in the boy’s room has always been about appealing to reason *after* you’ve loosened a few of the other guys’ teeth.
Slashdot Mirror
Whether or not you agree, you've totally missed the point.
We don't like artificial scarities imposed on activities which ought to be the norm. Duplication for a networked computer is about as natural to that medium as breathing for a person, insofar as it is technically impossible to watch a movie on your computer without duplicating the data, even with only a single machine. Regardless of whether you agree with the "Geek" conclusions, a person who does not understand that is simply not qualified to make policy decisions.
We *really* hate it when people who don't understand basic realities about a given technology or situation take it upon themselves to throw people in jail and ruin their lives rather than put in the time and effort it would take to develop a reasonable solution. We'd prefer they just butt out and allow the people who have the problem work through it until we can find something that works, which is how most of us Geeks actually spend our lives.
This becomes even more true when you see one story after another about some broke but talented college kid being put on the chopping block to protect the bank account of a multimillionaire whose only contribution to society was to "discover" some other broke but talented artist and take him for everything he had. The one area where we have real room for disagreement is whether or not the artist would have been better off at the "mercy" of the college kid, and even that's been shaping up with actual data to favor the Geek perspective. Which makes sense, when you consider that most of us build our entire careers on a willingness to change our opinion as soon as the data proves us wrong.
"Intangible property" is not property. That's not a philosophical claim, that's an engineering reality. We're not arguing about that because we desperately want to watch a shitty handy-cam remix of Guardians of The Galaxy (or whatever) for free. We're arguing about that because we're tired of seeing real people's lives destroyed by legal fiction and non-reality-based government (management) intrusion.
... because if you can't fix everything, you'd better not try to fix anything? Guess we'll find out what really happens.
In my former hometown of Philly, there's a saying "you can vote for whatever you want, but you can't against Comcast." For all practical purposes they have a monopoly on wired Internet access in the city.
Not even close to the reality of what's happening. If you want a close car analogy: you stuck a bumper sticker with your social security number on the back of your car. Google happened to be photographing the street, and now you want to accuse them of trying to steal your identity.
The cat won't even be a cat until somebody looks at it.
As a black person I'm not particularly offended by the word "jiggaboo." That doesn't mean I'm fool enough to trust anyone who would consider it a perfectly valid mascot, or a government that would accept it as a trademark.
Seems reasonable that declaring it a mental disability has the added bonus of letting us to require the obvious solution. You need to follow your treatment plan and keep up with any medications. So, about that diet and exercise...
I think one of the problems of trying to sort out sexism is that male culture in the US is inherently based on self-reliance and violent self-protection. On the one hand, I feel you on being singled out for extra loads of BS just because you happen to be a woman. I get that this happens more than we'd like to admit.
A real part of challenge you face, though, is that male power and privilege, at least as we experience it, isn't based on Dad teaching us that when we're treated poorly we should expect to get backup from the boys. It's based on Dad saying "heres' how you throw a punch. Don't come crying to me again until you've set him straight."
The facts, as you’ve pointed out, speak to a globally sexist culture, but it is a really tough sell to claim that nerds are specifically the problem, or in a particularly good position to do anything about it. It’s worth remembering that if you’re the kind of man who got called “nerd” growing up (self-identifying later is *not* the same thing), you probably learned that standing up for anyone, even yourself, usually got you hurt in ways that required counseling later. For those of us who didn’t have that problem, it’s hard to know how to be helpful given that the ticket to respect in the boy’s room has always been about appealing to reason *after* you’ve loosened a few of the other guys’ teeth.