Everyone just has to refer back to the instantiation of the term "cyberspace." Gibson's Neuromancer had so much more to do with the philosophical implications of mankind creating an intelligence than with the political state of the world it was set in. Snow Crash, by comparison, is extraordinarily political and pertains directly to the question of whether a federal government is something that should (or can) exist. How can one reference Gibson and ignore the reduction of the federal government to just another franchise that Stephenson presents?
I'm so tired of this. Napster _is_ a useful tool for exchanging legal data... It reminds me of other things: FTP, the world wide web, the internet... Oh, wait, "sex" is the most searched for word on the internet, right? The only reason the internet exists must be to transport smut.
Granted, nobody is arguing that Napster would have very little money and not much attention would be paid to it if people didn't use it to trade things illegally. The real question is whether Napster is responsible for how people use their service. I doubt many people would argue so fiercly against an ISP with a user who distributed questionable content. Should they be sued? Perhaps Metallica should file suit against the internet. They could start by suing every major network service provider and work their way down to local ISPs. After all, all of these must be responsible for the data they carry, correct?
People need to think about what kind of a precedent will be set by these Napster dealings. Would we rather set a standard of freedom of information, or hold everyone who provides modes of communication responsible for all of the information they carry?
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.summize.com/topic/sony/ebook/vs/amazon/kindle
Everyone just has to refer back to the instantiation of the term "cyberspace." Gibson's Neuromancer had so much more to do with the philosophical implications of mankind creating an intelligence than with the political state of the world it was set in. Snow Crash, by comparison, is extraordinarily political and pertains directly to the question of whether a federal government is something that should (or can) exist. How can one reference Gibson and ignore the reduction of the federal government to just another franchise that Stephenson presents?
I'm so tired of this. Napster _is_ a useful tool for exchanging legal data... It reminds me of other things: FTP, the world wide web, the internet... Oh, wait, "sex" is the most searched for word on the internet, right? The only reason the internet exists must be to transport smut.
Granted, nobody is arguing that Napster would have very little money and not much attention would be paid to it if people didn't use it to trade things illegally. The real question is whether Napster is responsible for how people use their service. I doubt many people would argue so fiercly against an ISP with a user who distributed questionable content. Should they be sued? Perhaps Metallica should file suit against the internet. They could start by suing every major network service provider and work their way down to local ISPs. After all, all of these must be responsible for the data they carry, correct?
People need to think about what kind of a precedent will be set by these Napster dealings. Would we rather set a standard of freedom of information, or hold everyone who provides modes of communication responsible for all of the information they carry?