Look, who really, who cares about overturning the DMCA? We'll just get hit immediately with the DMCB. While waiting for/that/ latest abortion to be declared unconstitutional, we'll all have to follow whatever/it/ says. There are only two solutions:
1) Make voting for patently unconstitutional laws an impeachable offense. After all, the first thing a politician elected to office is required to do is to swear to defend the constitution.
2) Get private money out of electoral politics. Period. The system is so dirty right now it is positively gruesome. There is _no_ issue other than real campaign finance reform. Until that occurs, our govenment -- and hence our laws -- will remain totally insane.
It's basically that simple. Apple has a fine business making great systems for people with smarts and taste. Period. Want one? Buy one! $1799 for an iMac w/G4/flat screen/OS X/DVD-R etc etc. Great deal.
Why would Apple screw this up and take on the headache of needing 45,000 hardware drivers for the mish-mash of cards and peripherals on the PC side? What for? I think that PC users are starting to get the envy bad now. PCs are boring and ugly, and only getting more so. They suck, and they suck harder every day.
Let's face it. Macs (with OS X) are just a blast to use and are freakin' gorgeous. PC users are looking for any reason not to have to admit defeat and abandon their Big Beige Barf-Boxes and just go Mac. Too f'in bad. Move up or continue to stew in your beige vomit. There's no shame in ditching a Hyundai for a Boxster, but your quality of life makes no think difference to me. I'm having too much fun to give a shit about your misery! Beep fuckin' beep, buddy. Get outta my way!
P7-VROOOOOOOM.....
The Alienation is Intentional
on
Browsing Alone
·
· Score: 1
"The ideal is to create a completely fragmented atomized society where everybody is totally alone, doing nothing but trying to pursue created wants, and the wants are created" - Noam Chomsky on the Aim of the Corporate State
As an experiment, try splashing a few drops of methanol on your hand and enjoy as you kiss your eyesight goodbye. And you thought gas with MBTE was bad!
Methanol sux - don't ever forget that. It's a scam by gas producers to keep sucking money out of your wallet while continuing to fuck up the environment.
We want hydrogen god-damnit (yes, harvested from water via wind, solar, geothermal etc)! Cut the bullshit!
Exposing the oppressive power relations that drive desperate people subordinate to the might of America's international might to lash out like this, at this moment, would be much too depressing. Also, if we really wanted to prevent this sort of thing, we wouldn't have built a world demarcated by cash and guns. We basically like it like this. An "enemy", a "cause", a reason to live and avoid those truly horrible things we dread above all else: peace, love and understanding. It's all great sport. The coming carnage ought to be covered on ESPN - appropriately a property of Disney.
Of course, the terrorists are no better. They knew all along that nothing was going to change by this and that all they've really accomplished is the establishment of a new baseline for the ambient level of violence. It's all a big game of tag to gratify the egos of hate-filled fools. War? Terror? I'm afraid we ain't seen nothin' yet. My suggestion? Since you've got no real choice, kick back, man the clicker and have a good ol' time. Just remember that everybody already knows how this particular game ends: with the last two humans dying with their hands around one another's throats.
Proteus7
"An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth leaves the whole world blind and toothless." - Gandhi
"It... creates new federal felonies, punishable by five years in prison and fines of up to $500,000. Anyone... has a network-attached computer that disables copy protection is covered."
The 'computer industry' does not serve your interests, only a set of narrow corporate interests. Most manufacturers are already in bed with Hollywood (ie Apple via Pixar, IBM is always trying to cook up some security scheme to curry favor with the glitterati, Microsoft via X-Box and Hollywood game developers etc).
The basic issue is that corporate money has buried the interests of ordinary people. Until we have campaign finance reform (unlikley), we are going to see an unending tide of outrageous legislation pass that serves narrow corporate interests and binds you, as an individual, into a tighter and tighter web of control.
The U.S. government has spun out of the control of its people. Americans are now living in the world's first rogue corporate state. This new state has only one aim:
Profit
Ask any CEO how to maximize profit and they will tell you to find a way to keep your customers "captive".
You can expect the government to now do everyrthing to assure that you remain a "captive", consumer. Even if you are boiling with rage you'll have nowhere to turn but back to the couch.
So back to the couch, assholes! There you may await instructions as to exactly what you want and what you may lawfully do with your day.
Since Disney and Hollywood so obviously and fervently want us all to drop dead, why is Slashdot still hyping 'Tron' and publishing Jon Katz's reviews of Holly wood movies?
"Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to the end of the twentieth century and the arrival of
friendly fascism.
Regrettably, millions will die as before. But just think of the tremendous
selection amd savings you'll gain. Of course the loss of freedom and democracy are
tragedies, I know, but consider the entertainment value contained within and to remind
you, it is you, the people, who have mandated this course of our fate so please come
with me...
Look at the new face of power in America. This is your future you can never
leave. Who said tyranny can't be fun? Friendly fascism having so much fun, what else do
you need?
You'll learn to like what you must do. If you resist you are suppressed. You
are told who to fight and when by Bush the Nazi Fascist Friend. Alienating technology
wipes out our sense of community.
Millions will die just like before. We disconnect and
start the war. We make life a commodity. We turn animals into machines. Kinder and
gentler slaughter house. Big business and big government distract us with entertainment.
They manufacture our consent while we destroy the environment."
DMCA-like laws and worse are on the fast track in all industrialized nations (courtesy of supra-governmental organizations). Global corporate capitalism is running wild now and is an ever-accelerating force for worldwide repression of every human interest that does not serve the bottom line.
Within ten years there will not be one place left to stand on earth that is not in the grip of trans-national capital.
Within fifteen years people like Richard Stallman will be "taken out" in "active defense" of corporate interests. Go ahead, laugh. It won't be so funny in 2016 when you're on the hit list for being dumb enough to shoot your mouth off.
Where do we go from there? Slavery or revolution. With revolution the only alternative to perpetual servitude left to ordinary people, and corporations holding the media, the military, the police and the weaponry -- well, it's going to be the biggest, most disgusting bloodbath in human history. Think space-based weaponry being used against streets full of rioting protesters - aka your kids.
Want a sneak preview of your children's future? Take a look at the the way the Palestinians are living tonight.
Your lust for, and deference to, money is creating a bullet for the head of every child in America not born into corporate royalty.
The purpose of formal, drill-and-kill education is to strip children of creativity, stunt their imaginations, damage their self-esteem and instill in them a knowledge that they must conform and shut up or face punishment. This is why both Democrats and Republicans are so fervently united in support of "education". They require your ignorance, and the continued ignorance of your children, to maintain power. School is designed to turn naturally creative, curious, questioning children into docile, subservient cogs in an industrial machine.
Don't be another sucker. School is a scam. Lowering the age that children are sent to school is a scam. Mandatory testing is a scam. All of this stuff is about taking control of the minds of your children as early and as thoroughly as possible with a frosting of pork for corporations and educational bureaucracies that make a buck selling books, construction, clothes, supplies, computers and on and on to the government.
The RIAA don't "think they represent all of music". That is a far too generous statement. The RIAA know that they represent only a small sliver of inane corporate pap, but they also know that they control radio, music television and just about all other means of mainstream distribution. The only form of media distribution they don't control (yet) is peer-to-peer. That is why it has to be destroyed and anyone who stands up and defends it also has to be destroyed.
The clear subtext to all of these attacks on free communication between individuals is:
Shut your mouths. If we ever need your ideas or input we'll beat it out of you. Get your asses back on the couch and get back to celebrating our fabulousness.
1. The Bush administration has no problem with energy cartels fixing prices, as only one example. They are also against anti-trust laws.
2. Republicans screw artists every chance they get. They hate artists because artists generally ask inconvenient questions and make them look like the uptight squares they are. Ask the National Endowment for the Arts if you don't believe me.
3. Republicans hate taxes and use every loophole they can to avoid paying them while busily trying to create new ones for themselves and their friends.
4. Both major political parties are comprised of thugs.
5. Actually, captains of the entertainment industry are neo-liberals who support the same fascist corporate agenda as the Republicans, with the one caveat that they believe the best way to present fascism to the public is with a friendly smile instead of an explicit jackboot to the groin.
Noam Chomsky has stated that, "we're living in a system of massive public subsidy for private tyrannies that are moving toward oligopoly." This seems to be an extremely accurate picture of the current social and economic climate that got Sklyarov thrown in jail.
Beyond simply freeing this guy, we need -- as technically-skilled individuals in favor of open expression -- to re-double efforts to use free and open source, content and philosophy as a basis to provide an alternative to the cultural abyss we seem to be heading towards.
What we need to provide is an ever more powerful "system of massive private subsidy for public anarchies moving toward freedom."
It is deemed "un-newsworthy for Joe Public" because it doesn't flatter America's image of benevolent impartiality. Can you imagine a truly accurate headline about this ever being published in mainstream media? "Entertainment Industry Lobby Puts Constitution on Ropes", or maybe "Corporate Power Flexes Muscles: New Laws to Box Citizens In Begin to Bite", or why not, "Life Under Corporate Rule: What Can Ordinary People Expect?"
Really, yours is the most subtly deceptive reasoning because it infers that a "conspiracy" is required to silence dissident voices. In actuality, the people who write for these publications are only there because they have kissed the right asses. If they were any threat to write something rational or honest they would have been sniffed out long ago and had their access to power stripped from them.
Think you're hard enough to handle the truth? Try here. WARNING: You're not gonna like it.
Proteus7
"Go to any elite university and you are usually speaking to very disciplined people, people who have been selected for obedience. And that makes sense. If you've resisted the temptation to tell the teacher, "You're an asshole," which maybe he or she is, and if you don't say, "That's idiotic," when you get a stupid assignment, you will gradually pass through the required filters. You will end up at a good college and eventually with a good job." - Noam Chomsky
"Why aren't the media covering this?" Is this a rhetorical question? If not, and you really want to know why, read this.
Is there anything you can do about it? Yes. Stop buying books, magazines, tickets to movies and the products of advertisers that buy space from Big Media. Read alternative media. Create your own books, music, movies and distribute them via independent media outlets. Freeze Big Media out of your life -- they are propagandists and don't merit your time, attention or respect. Eventually, the layoffs will start and you'll have more foot soldiers ready to jump to your side.
Proteus7
"People in power are going to try to maintain their power. That's not a very profound thought. But there's no way for them to [maintain] it, except by obedience. And obedience isn't necessary. So there's no limits to the extent to which freedom and justice can not only be defended, but expanded." - Noam Chomsky
Always remember that Tron is a Disney product. Disney is a major force behind the DMCA and the MPAA. Don't arm your enemies with your cash! Want freedom and respect? You can start by refusing to patronize the products and services of those that want nothing more than to strip you of both.
Proteus7
"Go to any elite university and you are usually speaking to very disciplined people, people who have been selected for obedience. And that makes sense. If you've resisted the temptation to tell the teacher, "You're an asshole," which maybe he or she is, and if you don't say, "That's idiotic," when you get a stupid assignment, you will gradually pass through the required filters. You will end up at a good college and eventually with a good job." - Noam Chomsky
Slashdot Mirror
Look, who really, who cares about overturning the DMCA? We'll just get hit immediately with the DMCB. While waiting for /that/ latest abortion to be declared unconstitutional, we'll all have to follow whatever /it/ says. There are only two solutions:
1) Make voting for patently unconstitutional laws an impeachable offense. After all, the first thing a politician elected to office is required to do is to swear to defend the constitution.
2) Get private money out of electoral politics. Period. The system is so dirty right now it is positively gruesome. There is _no_ issue other than real campaign finance reform. Until that occurs, our govenment -- and hence our laws -- will remain totally insane.
Proteus7
It's basically that simple. Apple has a fine business making great systems for people with smarts and taste. Period. Want one? Buy one! $1799 for an iMac w/G4/flat screen/OS X/DVD-R etc etc. Great deal.
Why would Apple screw this up and take on the headache of needing 45,000 hardware drivers for the mish-mash of cards and peripherals on the PC side? What for? I think that PC users are starting to get the envy bad now. PCs are boring and ugly, and only getting more so. They suck, and they suck harder every day.
Let's face it. Macs (with OS X) are just a blast to use and are freakin' gorgeous. PC users are looking for any reason not to have to admit defeat and abandon their Big Beige Barf-Boxes and just go Mac. Too f'in bad. Move up or continue to stew in your beige vomit. There's no shame in ditching a Hyundai for a Boxster, but your quality of life makes no think difference to me. I'm having too much fun to give a shit about your misery! Beep fuckin' beep, buddy. Get outta my way!
P7-VROOOOOOOM.....
"The ideal is to create a completely fragmented atomized society where everybody is totally alone, doing nothing but trying to pursue created wants, and the wants are created" - Noam Chomsky on the Aim of the Corporate State
As an experiment, try splashing a few drops of methanol on your hand and enjoy as you kiss your eyesight goodbye. And you thought gas with MBTE was bad!
Methanol sux - don't ever forget that. It's a scam by gas producers to keep sucking money out of your wallet while continuing to fuck up the environment.
We want hydrogen god-damnit (yes, harvested from water via wind, solar, geothermal etc)! Cut the bullshit!
Proteus
Exposing the oppressive power relations that drive desperate people subordinate to the might of America's international might to lash out like this, at this moment, would be much too depressing. Also, if we really wanted to prevent this sort of thing, we wouldn't have built a world demarcated by cash and guns. We basically like it like this. An "enemy", a "cause", a reason to live and avoid those truly horrible things we dread above all else: peace, love and understanding. It's all great sport. The coming carnage ought to be covered on ESPN - appropriately a property of Disney.
Of course, the terrorists are no better. They knew all along that nothing was going to change by this and that all they've really accomplished is the establishment of a new baseline for the ambient level of violence. It's all a big game of tag to gratify the egos of hate-filled fools. War? Terror? I'm afraid we ain't seen nothin' yet. My suggestion? Since you've got no real choice, kick back, man the clicker and have a good ol' time. Just remember that everybody already knows how this particular game ends: with the last two humans dying with their hands around one another's throats.
Proteus7
"An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth leaves the whole world blind and toothless." - Gandhi
From Wired report:
... creates new federal felonies, punishable by five years in prison and fines of up to $500,000. Anyone ... has a network-attached computer that disables copy protection is covered."
"It
Proteus7
The 'computer industry' does not serve your interests, only a set of narrow corporate interests. Most manufacturers are already in bed with Hollywood (ie Apple via Pixar, IBM is always trying to cook up some security scheme to curry favor with the glitterati, Microsoft via X-Box and Hollywood game developers etc).
The basic issue is that corporate money has buried the interests of ordinary people. Until we have campaign finance reform (unlikley), we are going to see an unending tide of outrageous legislation pass that serves narrow corporate interests and binds you, as an individual, into a tighter and tighter web of control.
The U.S. government has spun out of the control of its people. Americans are now living in the world's first rogue corporate state. This new state has only one aim:
Profit
Ask any CEO how to maximize profit and they will tell you to find a way to keep your customers "captive".
You can expect the government to now do everyrthing to assure that you remain a "captive", consumer. Even if you are boiling with rage you'll have nowhere to turn but back to the couch.
So back to the couch, assholes! There you may await instructions as to exactly what you want and what you may lawfully do with your day.
Good night, America!
Proteus7
Since Disney and Hollywood so obviously and fervently want us all to drop dead, why is Slashdot still hyping 'Tron' and publishing Jon Katz's reviews of Holly wood movies?
Proteus7
Glad someone finally spoke up about this. I can't even read the tech press anymore because it's become such a corporate circle jerk.
Proteus7
"Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to the end of the twentieth century and the arrival of friendly fascism.
Regrettably, millions will die as before. But just think of the tremendous selection amd savings you'll gain. Of course the loss of freedom and democracy are tragedies, I know, but consider the entertainment value contained within and to remind you, it is you, the people, who have mandated this course of our fate so please come with me...
Look at the new face of power in America. This is your future you can never leave. Who said tyranny can't be fun? Friendly fascism having so much fun, what else do you need?
You'll learn to like what you must do. If you resist you are suppressed. You are told who to fight and when by Bush the Nazi Fascist Friend. Alienating technology wipes out our sense of community.
Millions will die just like before. We disconnect and start the war. We make life a commodity. We turn animals into machines. Kinder and gentler slaughter house. Big business and big government distract us with entertainment. They manufacture our consent while we destroy the environment."
Consolidated
DMCA-like laws and worse are on the fast track in all industrialized nations (courtesy of supra-governmental organizations). Global corporate capitalism is running wild now and is an ever-accelerating force for worldwide repression of every human interest that does not serve the bottom line.
Within ten years there will not be one place left to stand on earth that is not in the grip of trans-national capital.
Within fifteen years people like Richard Stallman will be "taken out" in "active defense" of corporate interests. Go ahead, laugh. It won't be so funny in 2016 when you're on the hit list for being dumb enough to shoot your mouth off.
Where do we go from there? Slavery or revolution. With revolution the only alternative to perpetual servitude left to ordinary people, and corporations holding the media, the military, the police and the weaponry -- well, it's going to be the biggest, most disgusting bloodbath in human history. Think space-based weaponry being used against streets full of rioting protesters - aka your kids.
Want a sneak preview of your children's future? Take a look at the the way the Palestinians are living tonight.
Your lust for, and deference to, money is creating a bullet for the head of every child in America not born into corporate royalty.
Remember this.
Proteus7
The purpose of formal, drill-and-kill education is to strip children of creativity, stunt their imaginations, damage their self-esteem and instill in them a knowledge that they must conform and shut up or face punishment. This is why both Democrats and Republicans are so fervently united in support of "education". They require your ignorance, and the continued ignorance of your children, to maintain power. School is designed to turn naturally creative, curious, questioning children into docile, subservient cogs in an industrial machine.
Want more info? Read this.
Don't be another sucker. School is a scam. Lowering the age that children are sent to school is a scam. Mandatory testing is a scam. All of this stuff is about taking control of the minds of your children as early and as thoroughly as possible with a frosting of pork for corporations and educational bureaucracies that make a buck selling books, construction, clothes, supplies, computers and on and on to the government.
Homeschool your children and break the cycle.
Proteus7
The RIAA don't "think they represent all of music". That is a far too generous statement. The RIAA know that they represent only a small sliver of inane corporate pap, but they also know that they control radio, music television and just about all other means of mainstream distribution. The only form of media distribution they don't control (yet) is peer-to-peer. That is why it has to be destroyed and anyone who stands up and defends it also has to be destroyed.
The clear subtext to all of these attacks on free communication between individuals is:
Shut your mouths. If we ever need your ideas or input we'll beat it out of you. Get your asses back on the couch and get back to celebrating our fabulousness.
Proteus7
1. The Bush administration has no problem with energy cartels fixing prices, as only one example. They are also against anti-trust laws.
2. Republicans screw artists every chance they get. They hate artists because artists generally ask inconvenient questions and make them look like the uptight squares they are. Ask the National Endowment for the Arts if you don't believe me.
3. Republicans hate taxes and use every loophole they can to avoid paying them while busily trying to create new ones for themselves and their friends.
4. Both major political parties are comprised of thugs.
5. Actually, captains of the entertainment industry are neo-liberals who support the same fascist corporate agenda as the Republicans, with the one caveat that they believe the best way to present fascism to the public is with a friendly smile instead of an explicit jackboot to the groin.
Proteus7
Noam Chomsky has stated that, "we're living in a system of massive public subsidy for private tyrannies that are moving toward oligopoly." This seems to be an extremely accurate picture of the current social and economic climate that got Sklyarov thrown in jail.
Beyond simply freeing this guy, we need -- as technically-skilled individuals in favor of open expression -- to re-double efforts to use free and open source, content and philosophy as a basis to provide an alternative to the cultural abyss we seem to be heading towards.
What we need to provide is an ever more powerful "system of massive private subsidy for public anarchies moving toward freedom."
Proteus7
It is deemed "un-newsworthy for Joe Public" because it doesn't flatter America's image of benevolent impartiality. Can you imagine a truly accurate headline about this ever being published in mainstream media? "Entertainment Industry Lobby Puts Constitution on Ropes", or maybe "Corporate Power Flexes Muscles: New Laws to Box Citizens In Begin to Bite", or why not, "Life Under Corporate Rule: What Can Ordinary People Expect?"
Really, yours is the most subtly deceptive reasoning because it infers that a "conspiracy" is required to silence dissident voices. In actuality, the people who write for these publications are only there because they have kissed the right asses. If they were any threat to write something rational or honest they would have been sniffed out long ago and had their access to power stripped from them.
Think you're hard enough to handle the truth? Try here.
WARNING: You're not gonna like it.
Proteus7
"Go to any elite university and you are usually speaking to very disciplined people, people who have been selected for obedience. And that makes sense. If you've resisted the temptation to tell the teacher, "You're an asshole," which maybe he or she is, and if you don't say, "That's idiotic," when you get a stupid assignment, you will gradually pass through the required filters. You will end up at a good college and eventually with a good job." - Noam Chomsky
"Why aren't the media covering this?" Is this a rhetorical question? If not, and you really want to know why, read this.
Is there anything you can do about it? Yes. Stop buying books, magazines, tickets to movies and the products of advertisers that buy space from Big Media. Read alternative media. Create your own books, music, movies and distribute them via independent media outlets. Freeze Big Media out of your life -- they are propagandists and don't merit your time, attention or respect. Eventually, the layoffs will start and you'll have more foot soldiers ready to jump to your side.
Proteus7
"People in power are going to try to maintain their power. That's not a very profound thought. But there's no way for them to [maintain] it, except by obedience. And obedience isn't necessary. So there's no limits to the extent to which freedom and justice can not only be defended, but expanded." - Noam Chomsky
Always remember that Tron is a Disney product. Disney is a major force behind the DMCA and the MPAA. Don't arm your enemies with your cash! Want freedom and respect? You can start by refusing to patronize the products and services of those that want nothing more than to strip you of both.
Proteus7
"Go to any elite university and you are usually speaking to very disciplined people, people who have been selected for obedience. And that makes sense. If you've resisted the temptation to tell the teacher, "You're an asshole," which maybe he or she is, and if you don't say, "That's idiotic," when you get a stupid assignment, you will gradually pass through the required filters. You will end up at a good college and eventually with a good job." - Noam Chomsky