Personally, I think that the only people that need to be monitored are those who are worried about the government monitoring them. By expressing worries, they've expressed that they are probably doing something illegal or extralegal.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, the FBI's pattern of behavior indicates that it is indeed a threat to law-abiding citizens. For an FBI official to propose to install some black box into the Internet takes as much cheek as a repeatedly-convicted embezzler applying for the position of chief accountant. /.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the move to compel release of "all records" on Carnivore. The American Civil Liberties has also filed a FOIA request for details on Carnivore, including the software code.
Interesting -- the key question is whether DOJ will be able to snow the committee with security-through-obscurity FUD. /.
Re:Katz writes about things without having 2 clues
on
Selfish Society
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· Score: 1
That's because techno-culture isn't the normal world - you're not in Kansas anymore
...so now you're allowed to evolve into an intelligent life form. /.
Re:This isn't just tech culture.
on
Selfish Society
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· Score: 2
American culture has always held this ideology, this is nothing new or exclusive to the "selfish society" of the computer elite. And it's nothing new that those in power want to keep and hold the power and look down upon those who don't have power.
And it's nothing new that those in power smear those who resist their dictates as "selfish", "unpatriotic", "unmutual", or whatever buzzword seems most likely to be effective.
One of the all-time great scams was the discovery by some tribal chief that he could invent a bunch of arbitrary "obligations" (kill who I tell you to kill, give me a portion of your food, pray the same way I do, etc) and equate them to one's natural obligations (honestly support oneself and one's family, keep one's given word, etc). Thus, the former were draped in the moral authority of the latter, and so government was invented. /.
It is noteworthy that review neatly shoots down the assertion from which the screed draws its title:
In fact, even the "data" Borsook cites don't support her contention. She notes that the regional United Way goal in Silicon Valley has not increased during the '90s and that, although San Jose has double the average U.S. per capita income, local charities do not receive twice the national average in donations. (She doesn't say how much they do receive and doesn't cite any sources for the data.)
Additionally, she notes a survey by the Community Foundation Silicon Valley (CFSV) of area residents across all income lines that indicates they give to charities at a level similar to the national giving rate (about 2 percent of annual income). What's more, in Silicon Valley, "the percentages of those giving in each income bracket are somewhat above national averages."
Such data are her main evidence for the oft-bruited assertion that the high-tech world is uniquely stingy. Borsook simply assumes that Silicon Valley can be equated with the entire high-tech sector and that United Way is a reasonable proxy for all charity. And if you look at the CFSV report that she mentions, you find that 83 percent of Silicon Valley households donate to charity, compared to 69 percent nationally, and that Silicon Valley adults volunteer at a rate exactly equal to the national average (49 percent). But 40 percent of Silicon Valley charitable giving goes outside the immediate area, which might help explain the local United Way situation.
Haha! The "small amount" is what makes me laughing. That is typical. Again he is declaring some kind of freedom at someone else's cost. Musicians pay the same rents, the same price for a car and the same price for a lunch. So why should they get "small amounts" of money?
Do the math. Even if 100% of the price of a CD went to the artist, the payment of one consumer for one song is a small amount of money (definition: below what a credit card company wants to deal with -- several $US). If you're charging enough to make it worthwhile to take credit cards, then the system is already in place. /.
taxes on blank audio cassettes and cds Source, please.
Since KaiShin's posted e-mail address ends in.ca, I presume he's referring to the Canadian blank media tax (they call it a levy, but that's just standard political language). /.
Re:this sums up the slashdot journalistic ethos
on
NYT On DeCSS Case
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· Score: 1
Michael lauds the writer for not researching one side of the story too closely
Oh, puh-leez. It's obvious that "because she didn't spend too much time talking to the plaintiff's lawyers" means precisely what it says -- she didn't give the plaintiff's side too much (i.e. more than their fair share) time. /.
Email taps will be helpful for leos, and public watchdogs will continue to act against excesses of all kinds by leos.
If the people responsible for some of these "excesses" (or, to put it in plain English, these crimes) routinely spent time in prison (real don't-bend-over-for-the-soap prison, not Club Fed), this argument would carry some weight. As long as the the "public watchdogs" have no real teeth to sink into abusive LEOs, they provide a mere illusion of protection.
Its not really that big a change if the taps are held to pre-existing standards of survielance.
The problem is that the de facto "pre-existing standards" are far too loose -- even if somebody gets caught stepping over the wide-ranging line, it doesn't much matter. /.
How many years, months, or days will it take a group or an individual to find out how these boxes work and post information about them?
That's precisely why "security through obscurity" is a Bad Idea. If the basic system is published openly (while keeping individual keys secret, of course), flaws will be found and published. If the basic system is kept secret, it will be harder to find flaws, but the people who do find them are more likely to be criminal crackers who will quietly exploit them and reveal them only to their equally criminal associates. /.
For those ISPs that do not cooperate, the RIAA will have to apply a little more force (such as a federal law requiring ISPs to monitor customers). Don't be so naive to think the government is the only fucking thing you gotta be worried about.
The rule of law is exactly what I'm defending here.
The rule of law, as that concept is understood in Western Civilization, is a limitation upon the government, not carte blanche for the people in power to do whatever pops into their heads under color of "law".
Your concept of "rule of law" reminds me of this quote:
"What is your definition of justice?"
"Justice, Elijah, is that which exists when all the laws are enforced." Fastolfe nodded. "A good definition, Mr. Baley, for a robot.... A human being can recognize the fact that, on the basis of an abstract moral code, some laws may be bad ones and their enforcement unjust. What do you say, R. Daneel?" "An unjust law," said R. Daneel evenly, "is a contradiction in terms."
While they may have wanted to do the right thing, the only end result of their actions was the undermining of the people's respect for the government. This respect is absolutely crucial to maintaining any kind of non-dysfunctional state.
If you believe that respect for the government is a good thing in and of itself, then your only legitimate avenue toward that end is to encourage the government to conduct itself in a manner which earns respect. /.
It's really easy to say that when you've got a full belly and a roof over your head for the foreseeable future, isn't it?
That is the result of the prosperity generated by a free society. If you want to maintain a high standard of living, you must on no account permit the government to gain too much power. Even if one dismisses civil liberties issues entirely, politicians given too much power generally become kleptocrats who suck the life out of the national economy like so many vampires.
The state had better be engaged in a damn good deal of wrongdoing before you start acting up
Of course, responses should be kept in proportion and not exceed what is required to deal with the problem. (There is a saying, "Freedom comes in four boxes: soap, ballot, jury, and cartridge. Use in that order.")
sacrifices need to me made to keep the nation from sliding down a slippery spiral into chaos and lawlessness
The way to keep a nation from sliding down a slippery spiral into chaos and lawlessness is to make the government obey the law. Your cavalier attitude toward one of the cornerstones of Western Civilization truly astounds me.
that you're rich and content enough to not have to worry about whether rebel (or government) militia leaders
See -- you already know the truth of what I've said above, but some bizarre disconnect has kept it from influencing your conclusions. /.
That said, perhaps this should get people to chill out a little bit about carnivore, given that it at least opperates under warrent.
This is not at all "given", in view of the FBI's disgraceful record and its refusal to disclose what's actually inside the little black boxes. With the security-through-obscurity baloney they offer as an excuse for the latter, I can only assume that they're trying to pull another fast shuffle. /.
Slashdot has been slow to report their own downtimes; in many cases not reporting them at all.
Somebody moderate this up as "Funny" -- reminds me of the story about Marketing wanting Engineering to add a light that would come on if the battery died. /.
I thought it was illegal to do fully-automated (i.e. no option to speak to an acutal human) telemarketing calls. The Junkbusters summary of telemarketing law seems to bear this out:
The TCPA also prohibits artificial or prerecorded voice message calls to residences made without prior express consent, unless it is an emergency call or specifically exempted by the Commission.
Presumably, these people found a loophole (or, I hope, incorrectly think that they've found a loophole, and are about to receive a clue-by-four message to the contrary). /.
The problem is that the distribution of movies to theaters isn't instantaneous. North America gets the first run at first run movies followed by Europe and other venues. The DVD might be available in North America before the movie is even available overseas.
This argument might be legitimate if region coding were time-limited (and not applied at all to DVD releases of past movies); however, this is obviously not the case.
It's a market-cartelization scheme; nothing else. /.
The first amendment prohibits CONGRESS from censorship, nobody else.
The 14th Amendment has been held to extend the same prohibition to the states.
Notwithstanding the whinging from some "conservatives" (the bogus types who are skeptical of government except when it does something they like, as opposed to the genuine article who maintain this skepticism consistently), it is clear that this is the original intent of the 14th Amendment's writers. /.
Warner Bros. spent $250 million on Batman and Robin, and only made about half of that back. A couple of years later they spent $220 million filming Wild Wild West and only made $100 million back.
They already have the ultimate anti-theft protection: they aren't worth stealing. /.
But do they have my best interest in mind? I doubt it...
Well, duh; most people look out for their own interests first. The trick is finding enough common ground to work with.
For instance, I don't think that software companies lobbied against Clipper, crypto export regs, etc because they care about my privacy. They did it because the government's policies interfered with their ability to make money. That doesn't change the fact that the lobbying work was beneficial.
There isn't all that much common ground here (Earthlink's objection is stated to be technical, not political), but it does have the beneficial effect of making things a bit more difficult for the government. /.
On a day to day basis, I think most of us forget that the internet evolved out of a government program
Relevance?
And yes, the FBI also has the right to be able to intercept both your phone calls and your emails if you are under suspicion. No, they can not block you from sending or receiving, but they can look if they have substantial evidence.
Legitimate search warrants are limited to some specific item of suspicion -- open-ended fishing expeditions are illegal.
Carnivore circumvents this limitation by sweeping all traffic. With the ISP and other parties "out of the loop" of data gathering, there is no way to limit the FBI's surveillance to the scope of the warrant.
And yes, there are laws to make sure that they aren't looking unless they have substantial reason to be looking.
Many of them have broken those laws (COINTELPRO, etc). How many of the perps did time at Club Fed (much less the don't-bend-over-for-the-soap real prisons where they belong)? /.
Slashdot Mirror
Meanwhile, back in the real world, the FBI's pattern of behavior indicates that it is indeed a threat to law-abiding citizens. For an FBI official to propose to install some black box into the Internet takes as much cheek as a repeatedly-convicted embezzler applying for the position of chief accountant.
/.
/.
/.
And it's nothing new that those in power smear those who resist their dictates as "selfish", "unpatriotic", "unmutual", or whatever buzzword seems most likely to be effective.
One of the all-time great scams was the discovery by some tribal chief that he could invent a bunch of arbitrary "obligations" (kill who I tell you to kill, give me a portion of your food, pray the same way I do, etc) and equate them to one's natural obligations (honestly support oneself and one's family, keep one's given word, etc). Thus, the former were draped in the moral authority of the latter, and so government was invented.
/.
/.
Do the math. Even if 100% of the price of a CD went to the artist, the payment of one consumer for one song is a small amount of money (definition: below what a credit card company wants to deal with -- several $US). If you're charging enough to make it worthwhile to take credit cards, then the system is already in place.
/.
Source, please.
Since KaiShin's posted e-mail address ends in .ca, I presume he's referring to the Canadian blank media tax (they call it a levy, but that's just standard political language).
/.
Oh, puh-leez. It's obvious that "because she didn't spend too much time talking to the plaintiff's lawyers" means precisely what it says -- she didn't give the plaintiff's side too much (i.e. more than their fair share) time.
/.
If the people responsible for some of these "excesses" (or, to put it in plain English, these crimes) routinely spent time in prison (real don't-bend-over-for-the-soap prison, not Club Fed), this argument would carry some weight. As long as the the "public watchdogs" have no real teeth to sink into abusive LEOs, they provide a mere illusion of protection.
Its not really that big a change if the taps are held to pre-existing standards of survielance.
The problem is that the de facto "pre-existing standards" are far too loose -- even if somebody gets caught stepping over the wide-ranging line, it doesn't much matter.
/.
That's precisely why "security through obscurity" is a Bad Idea. If the basic system is published openly (while keeping individual keys secret, of course), flaws will be found and published. If the basic system is kept secret, it will be harder to find flaws, but the people who do find them are more likely to be criminal crackers who will quietly exploit them and reveal them only to their equally criminal associates.
/.
"Well, I've fallen from the hundredth floor to the tenth floor and I feel fine so far...."
When crooks get hold of the power establishment of a nation, it's a race between ruin and reform.
/.
Don't be so naive to think the government is the only fucking thing you gotta be worried about.
You lost me at that last 180-degree turn.
/.
The rule of law, as that concept is understood in Western Civilization, is a limitation upon the government, not carte blanche for the people in power to do whatever pops into their heads under color of "law".
Your concept of "rule of law" reminds me of this quote:
-- Isaac Asimov (The Caves Of Steel)/.
Thanks for proving my point about the cause-and-effect relationship between excessive government power and kleptocratic corruption.
/.
If you believe that respect for the government is a good thing in and of itself, then your only legitimate avenue toward that end is to encourage the government to conduct itself in a manner which earns respect.
/.
That is the result of the prosperity generated by a free society. If you want to maintain a high standard of living, you must on no account permit the government to gain too much power. Even if one dismisses civil liberties issues entirely, politicians given too much power generally become kleptocrats who suck the life out of the national economy like so many vampires.
The state had better be engaged in a damn good deal of wrongdoing before you start acting up
Of course, responses should be kept in proportion and not exceed what is required to deal with the problem. (There is a saying, "Freedom comes in four boxes: soap, ballot, jury, and cartridge. Use in that order.")
sacrifices need to me made to keep the nation from sliding down a slippery spiral into chaos and lawlessness
The way to keep a nation from sliding down a slippery spiral into chaos and lawlessness is to make the government obey the law. Your cavalier attitude toward one of the cornerstones of Western Civilization truly astounds me.
that you're rich and content enough to not have to worry about whether rebel (or government) militia leaders
See -- you already know the truth of what I've said above, but some bizarre disconnect has kept it from influencing your conclusions.
/.
This is not at all "given", in view of the FBI's disgraceful record and its refusal to disclose what's actually inside the little black boxes. With the security-through-obscurity baloney they offer as an excuse for the latter, I can only assume that they're trying to pull another fast shuffle.
/.
Somebody moderate this up as "Funny" -- reminds me of the story about Marketing wanting Engineering to add a light that would come on if the battery died.
/.
/.
This argument might be legitimate if region coding were time-limited (and not applied at all to DVD releases of past movies); however, this is obviously not the case.
It's a market-cartelization scheme; nothing else.
/.
Why 4? It would seem that the logical number is the typical number of tracks on a CD (a dozen or so).
/.
The 14th Amendment has been held to extend the same prohibition to the states.
Notwithstanding the whinging from some "conservatives" (the bogus types who are skeptical of government except when it does something they like, as opposed to the genuine article who maintain this skepticism consistently), it is clear that this is the original intent of the 14th Amendment's writers.
/.
They already have the ultimate anti-theft protection: they aren't worth stealing.
/.
Well, duh; most people look out for their own interests first. The trick is finding enough common ground to work with.
For instance, I don't think that software companies lobbied against Clipper, crypto export regs, etc because they care about my privacy. They did it because the government's policies interfered with their ability to make money. That doesn't change the fact that the lobbying work was beneficial.
There isn't all that much common ground here (Earthlink's objection is stated to be technical, not political), but it does have the beneficial effect of making things a bit more difficult for the government.
/.
Relevance?
And yes, the FBI also has the right to be able to intercept both your phone calls and your emails if you are under suspicion. No, they can not block you from sending or receiving, but they can look if they have substantial evidence.
Legitimate search warrants are limited to some specific item of suspicion -- open-ended fishing expeditions are illegal.
Carnivore circumvents this limitation by sweeping all traffic. With the ISP and other parties "out of the loop" of data gathering, there is no way to limit the FBI's surveillance to the scope of the warrant.
And yes, there are laws to make sure that they aren't looking unless they have substantial reason to be looking.
Many of them have broken those laws (COINTELPRO, etc). How many of the perps did time at Club Fed (much less the don't-bend-over-for-the-soap real prisons where they belong)?
/.