Yes. There is a well understood technique for turning a democracy into a fascist state. You could think of it as a checklist. We in America are going right down the list, textbook style.
This is absolutely ridiculous - it obviously not serious, and I am sure there was more to the story.
THere had to be some osrt of politics behind this - he may have been tyring to make a statement about how corrupt our election systems and processes (and system in general) are....that might be a reason...
If they are going to prosecute him for this, what about all of the people who admitted to crossover voting disingenuously to alter the outcome of primaries? (not that I am saying they should be charged, but the actually did something).
Additionally, if he took he auction down, I can't see how they could even charge him because it didn't even happen.
It seems like with some software products this happens. They start out lean and altruistic - and end up bloated and self-serving - with a "new and improved" feature with every release eventually ending up being something you want to uninstall.
(Not that I am saying this is happening or will happen with Grisoft - but I do agree that "Safesearch" is crap)
AVG needs to remember the thing that got there where they are today: A free, non-bloated product that worked better than retail competitors that was championed and spread by those who work in IT support.
I think they should keep the integrated anti spyware in version 8 - but either dump (or as you suggested) default deny the "safesearch" crap.
I've used all sorts of personal and enterprise anti-virus. AVG is the least slimy of all of the Antivirus companies I have dealt with in 13 years of working in IT.
After reading rave reviews I tried a switch to ESET NOD32 once, but it used more system resources than AVG.
I have used AVG pro; free, and network edition (I am IT Director for a mid sized medical technology co) which I switched our company to from Symantec and everyone has been happy ever since.
I think the feature they are discussing is one of the newer features in AVG 8, which I disable anyway.
I wouldn;t be surprised if other AV companies are behind this sort of article, because AVG has never bee known as "Slimy."
I will say, in response to the parent post, that I see the irony you're referring to- but in general I don't think it undermines the fight - I think mabe you are thinking that once people get more used to this sort of thing then they won't care so much about privacy, and I see your point - but my thinking is that privacy is about choice.
Meaning, you should be able to share your information when you want to - and not have others (particularly the government and corporations) deciding to use your personal information in ways you wouldn't approve of or give a green light to, or sharing it witout your permission.
And you certainly shouldn't have either of these groups secretly digging up info on you to use against you.
If draconian bullshit like this makes it into law, I predict the following:
People increasingly refusing and resisting their methods and circumventing the recording industry (as is already happening, but much more so - on a massive scale eventually) - they will fall under their own bloated weight eventually.
Challenges in court, most of which should succeed unless it is a purchased or kangaroo court.
Increased piracy; piracy becoming sexier and a form of resistance against tyranny.
No, Government understands the questions perfectly. They understand that the questions are the means by which they can propose their "solutions" which are almost without fail more laws and less freedom.
This is the last straw - the company is entirely unethical and I wish to no longer support them, or take chances that their unethical bullshit will one day burn me.
The reason I originally chose GoDaddy (which was quite a while ago when they were smaller) was because they had good prices and seemed reputable enough. If anyone has any auggestions on where the best place to move my domains to would be I woluld love to hear it.
I would like to avoid Network Solutions and their ilk, between their pricing, alphabet agency ties (and other things) it does not appeal to me - I would also like to avoid small fly-by-night "register your domain for 69 cents" places that may disappear or be purchased by other companies. Basically I am hoping to find a reputable, ethical registrar.....Any suggestions?
I liked Gravel and Paul both...I thought they were the only candidates who really understood what America, liberty and the constitution were about. They both had minor things I didn;t like, but compared to other politicians they were light years ahead, and compared to their own pro freedom platform the minor things I disliked about each of them didn't even register (comparitively).
If Obama votes to pass this, you know he is compromised.
If he skips the vote, you know he will not stand up for what is right in the face of intimidation by big business etc - which is almost as bad as the first choice.
If he votes the bill down, then he'll really be showing something...
Unfortunately I don't expect him to show much of anything when it really comes down to taking a risk.
He sounds great, and certainly is better than the other candidate(s), but anyone can get up and talk about freedom and healing, etc. It is an entirely diferent thing to stand up in front of the machine and refuse to play ball or roll over. If he cannot do this, then we're in for more of the same.
Yes, and if you and those students who "got ahead of you by cheating" live in western society then in a certain fashion maybe they deserved to get ahead of you - because these days gaming the system is what it is all about. They will be better prepared for the buniess world - especially if they plan on entering corporate America. America is not a meritocracy, no matter how much some people would like to pretend.
It's unfortunate, but it is true. 99% of our politicians lie, act unethically, cheat, give their friends undeserved and unearned positions and promotions. Many of our business "leaders" do the same, exploiting every loophole, acting unethically and doing things that are anti-humanistic all in persuit of the dollar.
I wish it wasn't this way - but pretending like it is and suggesting that an 18 year old kid who changed some grades deserves 38 YEARS is prison is ridiculous.
The people who looted Enron and destroyed many, many lives and created economic hardship for countless people - I doubt they got anywhere near that.
This presidential administration who has acted as an enemy of America and her constitution by lying us into a way of conquest, undermined the bill of rights, directly violated the civil liberties illegally of likely all Americans, have undermined the Geneva Convention and done many other things should be in jail - instead they act and are treated like royalty.
Seriously...Put it in perspective. I think a year of jail time is too long for what this kid did - but that would seem more in line with what he actually did. 38 years is an extremely unjust punishment for this kid's crime.
As far as you not cheating in school, at least you know you did the right thing - if it were me thaty would be enough for me..Because if you really want to start worrying about who is getting over on you (and the rest of us) by cheating the list is a mile long - and until the majority of the country wakes up and realizes how badly we're all being sodomized and decides to stop it by whatever means are necessary, refusing to stop or take no for an answer - nothing is going to change.
How can people not see what is really happening in the US? Most of these people in charge of homeland security and who are constantly pumping fear into the populace - they do not care about the people at all - most of them would WELCOME another attack as their power would increase (obviously I am not talking about the people at the lower or mid levels of such organizations, I am sure most of them have their hearts in the right places)...basically the people are being manipulated to feel like they only way they will be "safe" is if the country turns into a gigantic jail.
Even if you think this sort of crap has any value you have to know (if you have any technical expertise at all) that any terrorst or criminal would use encryption or some other method to conceal their sensitive data.....So really the only people this affects is the general populace.
America is becoming a textbook fascist state, I don't say that as an exaggeration or for shock value - it is a fact - we meet all 14 points of fascism that Dr. Laurence Britt, a political scientist identified after studying the fascist regimes of: Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile). I am sure that these 14 points have been posted here before so I won't repeat it - if you are interested you can google "14 points of fascism" or go to a site like:
Almost a year ago I had a chance conversation with a couple who lived in Germany during the thirties through the forties - the are terrified and cannot believe what is happening here - they came to America in the 50s convinced that what happened in Germany could never happen here, and both of them say they see the exact same incremental processes happening here.
I wish I had recorded what they told me, but it was a spur of the moment sort of thing. I came across the paragraphs below on a website today and it reminded me very much of what they had to say (although coming from them it was so much more powerful and straightfoward):
"What no one seemed to notice. . . was the ever widening gap. ..between the government and the people. . . And it became always wider. . . the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting, it provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway . . . (it) gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about . ..and kept us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated . . . by the machinations of the 'national enemies,' without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. ..
Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted,' that unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these 'little measures'. . . must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. . ..Each act. . . is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow.
You don't want to act, or even talk, alone. . . you don't want to 'go out of your way to make trouble.' . ..But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That's the difficulty. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves,
Yeah...
I guess being able to sit in a chair and fly a UAV into battle wasn't helping the chAir Force get rid of that unflattering pseudonym that was perfected so many years ago...
"companies literally being the government" (from your post)...
Unfortunately this is kind of what we have. Our system has been incrementally twisted to the point where now we have:
Corporations using (manipulating) government to get what they want, establish protected markets, etc...
Government using corporations to get around regulations and laws, so they can get what they want (generally more control/intelligence).
When you have these two powers working together synergistically to overcome or game the structures society has put in place to keep them in check - you have Mussolini's dream: "Corporatism" (aka fascism).
It's actually an disgustingly ingenious manipulative system.
Maybe I am lazy today, but I haven't seen anyone attacking the rationale of trying to stop child porn.
I have seen some posts regarding whether trying to block such sites/groups does any good. (I don't think it truly does).
Someone argued that blocking said sites may cause pedophiles to make their own child porn, I don't know about that, but that seems as reasonable of an assumption as any other assumptions being made about the effectiveness of such tactics.
I have seen many discussing what a clusterfuck this would be because it would lead to censorship, violations of freedom of speech, etc (because sites not involved with such contraband and newsgroups not devoted to such things could easily be blocked as part of such a campaign - additionally, as someone else pointed out someone who wanted to get a group or site blocked could simply flood said group or site with child porn and cause that to happen); I believe these are real dangers which outweigh any potential (and likely non existent)real world benefits of blocking this stuff.
As others have pointed out every time a discussion about censorship on the web comes up - if something is blocked or hindered in one area or via one method - usually a better method will come along (EG the pedophiles would just use encryption). Basically, if you really break it down, blocking a few groups or sites is ineffective.
Unfortunately I think that this is simply about politicians and people who want to look like they are doing something about child porn(which I am sure everyone agrees is horrible), or want to feel good about themselves...
Kind of like TSA making you put your shampoo in a 2oz bottle. I am sure that shit has averted terrorist attacks on a daily basis...
Suicide isn't murder, and words don't cause people to commit suicide - case closed. YOu are equating words with a violent act and trying to insinuate that they are the same, they arent.
People seem to have a visceral overly emotional reaction to this story because of how disgusting what that woman did is - but the fact is that this child who killed herself was suffering from mnetal illness - depression. Had she not been, then she may not have reacted the way she did.
Can you imagine such a law? Here are two scenarios:
You get in a fight with your girlfriend or boyfriend or whatever and tell them that they are fucked and you wish they were dead. They then go out and kill themself. You get charged with manslaughter.
Your friend has undiagnosed mental illness and tends to read into things people say and is always taking things the wrong way. You send her a letter as a joke, purporting to be from someone else, she misunderstands it and either kills herself or someone else...Should you be charged? NO!
These are just what I could think of without even really thinking about it, I am sure if someone took the time they could come up with much more apt analogies.
There are always going to be people who are assholes, period. There will always be bullies, period. If the bullying is physical it should be chargable under a criminal statute if it rises to the level of criminality; or, there may be certain situations where verbal abuse MAY rise to that level, maybe institutionalized verbal abuse under color of authority (like a cop or a techer verbally abusing someone - but that seems more like a civil matter).
-But calling names? Pretending to be someone else to be an asshole to someone on the internet? Give me a fucking break.
This is an awful idea and anybody who supports it has not thought it through.
What happened with Mega Meier is extremely sad and disturbing, but as disgustingly sickening as the woman who did this was, she is not responsible for Meier's suicide.
Regardless of how awful someone is to someone else on a verbal level, the cannot force them to hurt themselves.
This girl was depressed and made the choice to take her own life. It's ver sad, but it happens every day. Had it not been this situation it likely would have been something else, and the next time she really got hurt the results would have been the same.
The charges filed against this woman in LA are ridiculous - they act as though violating Myspace's TOS is breaking the law.
You cannot legislate something like this because where do you draw the line? What is free speech and what is harrassment? What is a joke and what isn't a joke? Even if this sort of legislation passed can you image trying to enforce it and the people who would abuse such a law?
To break it down:
As sad as this case is, you cannot legislate something like this away. You cannot legislate cyberbullying away any more than you can legislate schoolyard bullying away. Bullies are a fact of life - and the only thing that can be done to to teach children how to handle this sort of thing - how to handle bullies and to really look out for your kids when they are at this sensitive age - and if they cannot deal with these sort of things do what you need to to get them help.
Well, I guess this is one way to do DRM - Just release a shitty new standard every year and watch it fail. After aother year headly anyone will be able to play the stuff, let alone take the time to track down tools to decode it.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes. There is a well understood technique for turning a democracy into a fascist state. You could think of it as a checklist. We in America are going right down the list, textbook style.
This is absolutely ridiculous - it obviously not serious, and I am sure there was more to the story.
THere had to be some osrt of politics behind this - he may have been tyring to make a statement about how corrupt our election systems and processes (and system in general) are....that might be a reason...
If they are going to prosecute him for this, what about all of the people who admitted to crossover voting disingenuously to alter the outcome of primaries? (not that I am saying they should be charged, but the actually did something).
Additionally, if he took he auction down, I can't see how they could even charge him because it didn't even happen.
Le fuck you France!
I would totally agree.
It seems like with some software products this happens. They start out lean and altruistic - and end up bloated and self-serving - with a "new and improved" feature with every release eventually ending up being something you want to uninstall.
(Not that I am saying this is happening or will happen with Grisoft - but I do agree that "Safesearch" is crap)
AVG needs to remember the thing that got there where they are today: A free, non-bloated product that worked better than retail competitors that was championed and spread by those who work in IT support.
I think they should keep the integrated anti spyware in version 8 - but either dump (or as you suggested) default deny the "safesearch" crap.
I've used all sorts of personal and enterprise anti-virus. AVG is the least slimy of all of the Antivirus companies I have dealt with in 13 years of working in IT.
After reading rave reviews I tried a switch to ESET NOD32 once, but it used more system resources than AVG.
I have used AVG pro; free, and network edition (I am IT Director for a mid sized medical technology co) which I switched our company to from Symantec and everyone has been happy ever since.
I think the feature they are discussing is one of the newer features in AVG 8, which I disable anyway.
I wouldn;t be surprised if other AV companies are behind this sort of article, because AVG has never bee known as "Slimy."
Who modded parent off-topic?
Because it isn't really.
I will say, in response to the parent post, that I see the irony you're referring to- but in general I don't think it undermines the fight - I think mabe you are thinking that once people get more used to this sort of thing then they won't care so much about privacy, and I see your point - but my thinking is that privacy is about choice.
Meaning, you should be able to share your information when you want to - and not have others (particularly the government and corporations) deciding to use your personal information in ways you wouldn't approve of or give a green light to, or sharing it witout your permission.
And you certainly shouldn't have either of these groups secretly digging up info on you to use against you.
If draconian bullshit like this makes it into law, I predict the following:
People increasingly refusing and resisting their methods and circumventing the recording industry (as is already happening, but much more so - on a massive scale eventually) - they will fall under their own bloated weight eventually.
Challenges in court, most of which should succeed unless it is a purchased or kangaroo court.
Increased piracy; piracy becoming sexier and a form of resistance against tyranny.
No, Government understands the questions perfectly. They understand that the questions are the means by which they can propose their "solutions" which are almost without fail more laws and less freedom.
Can these be installed in politicians?
I'm telling MIT to get right on this.
I have about a hundred domains with GoDaddy.
This is the last straw - the company is entirely unethical and I wish to no longer support them, or take chances that their unethical bullshit will one day burn me.
The reason I originally chose GoDaddy (which was quite a while ago when they were smaller) was because they had good prices and seemed reputable enough. If anyone has any auggestions on where the best place to move my domains to would be I woluld love to hear it.
I would like to avoid Network Solutions and their ilk, between their pricing, alphabet agency ties (and other things) it does not appeal to me - I would also like to avoid small fly-by-night "register your domain for 69 cents" places that may disappear or be purchased by other companies. Basically I am hoping to find a reputable, ethical registrar.....Any suggestions?
I totally agree.
I liked Gravel and Paul both...I thought they were the only candidates who really understood what America, liberty and the constitution were about. They both had minor things I didn;t like, but compared to other politicians they were light years ahead, and compared to their own pro freedom platform the minor things I disliked about each of them didn't even register (comparitively).
If Obama votes to pass this, you know he is compromised.
If he skips the vote, you know he will not stand up for what is right in the face of intimidation by big business etc - which is almost as bad as the first choice.
If he votes the bill down, then he'll really be showing something...
Unfortunately I don't expect him to show much of anything when it really comes down to taking a risk.
He sounds great, and certainly is better than the other candidate(s), but anyone can get up and talk about freedom and healing, etc. It is an entirely diferent thing to stand up in front of the machine and refuse to play ball or roll over. If he cannot do this, then we're in for more of the same.
Yes, and if you and those students who "got ahead of you by cheating" live in western society then in a certain fashion maybe they deserved to get ahead of you - because these days gaming the system is what it is all about. They will be better prepared for the buniess world - especially if they plan on entering corporate America. America is not a meritocracy, no matter how much some people would like to pretend.
It's unfortunate, but it is true. 99% of our politicians lie, act unethically, cheat, give their friends undeserved and unearned positions and promotions. Many of our business "leaders" do the same, exploiting every loophole, acting unethically and doing things that are anti-humanistic all in persuit of the dollar.
I wish it wasn't this way - but pretending like it is and suggesting that an 18 year old kid who changed some grades deserves 38 YEARS is prison is ridiculous.
The people who looted Enron and destroyed many, many lives and created economic hardship for countless people - I doubt they got anywhere near that.
This presidential administration who has acted as an enemy of America and her constitution by lying us into a way of conquest, undermined the bill of rights, directly violated the civil liberties illegally of likely all Americans, have undermined the Geneva Convention and done many other things should be in jail - instead they act and are treated like royalty.
Seriously...Put it in perspective. I think a year of jail time is too long for what this kid did - but that would seem more in line with what he actually did. 38 years is an extremely unjust punishment for this kid's crime.
As far as you not cheating in school, at least you know you did the right thing - if it were me thaty would be enough for me..Because if you really want to start worrying about who is getting over on you (and the rest of us) by cheating the list is a mile long - and until the majority of the country wakes up and realizes how badly we're all being sodomized and decides to stop it by whatever means are necessary, refusing to stop or take no for an answer - nothing is going to change.
"Packet sniffing..." Is that what they're calling it in those German videos these days?
WHat does that say about this crowd that you don't even HAVE to explain the tube sock comment!
But don't they leally rike pilacy over there? Isn't pilacy rike their poricy (de facto officirry)?
At least the EFF is taking this on.
.between the government and the people. . . And it became always wider. . . the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting, it provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway . . . (it) gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about . . .and kept us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated . . . by the machinations of the 'national enemies,' without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. . .
.Each act. . . is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow.
.But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That's the difficulty. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves,
How can people not see what is really happening in the US? Most of these people in charge of homeland security and who are constantly pumping fear into the populace - they do not care about the people at all - most of them would WELCOME another attack as their power would increase (obviously I am not talking about the people at the lower or mid levels of such organizations, I am sure most of them have their hearts in the right places)...basically the people are being manipulated to feel like they only way they will be "safe" is if the country turns into a gigantic jail.
Even if you think this sort of crap has any value you have to know (if you have any technical expertise at all) that any terrorst or criminal would use encryption or some other method to conceal their sensitive data.....So really the only people this affects is the general populace.
America is becoming a textbook fascist state, I don't say that as an exaggeration or for shock value - it is a fact - we meet all 14 points of fascism that Dr. Laurence Britt, a political scientist identified after studying the fascist regimes of: Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile). I am sure that these 14 points have been posted here before so I won't repeat it - if you are interested you can google "14 points of fascism" or go to a site like:
http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/britt_23_2.htm
Almost a year ago I had a chance conversation with a couple who lived in Germany during the thirties through the forties - the are terrified and cannot believe what is happening here - they came to America in the 50s convinced that what happened in Germany could never happen here, and both of them say they see the exact same incremental processes happening here.
I wish I had recorded what they told me, but it was a spur of the moment sort of thing. I came across the paragraphs below on a website today and it reminded me very much of what they had to say (although coming from them it was so much more powerful and straightfoward):
"What no one seemed to notice. . . was the ever widening gap. .
Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted,' that unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these 'little measures'. . . must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. . .
You don't want to act, or even talk, alone. . . you don't want to 'go out of your way to make trouble.' . .
Yeah... I guess being able to sit in a chair and fly a UAV into battle wasn't helping the chAir Force get rid of that unflattering pseudonym that was perfected so many years ago...
Even if there were no cell phones on that plane, the story would have been the same....It's what the script called for.
"companies literally being the government" (from your post)...
Unfortunately this is kind of what we have. Our system has been incrementally twisted to the point where now we have:
Corporations using (manipulating) government to get what they want, establish protected markets, etc...
Government using corporations to get around regulations and laws, so they can get what they want (generally more control/intelligence).
When you have these two powers working together synergistically to overcome or game the structures society has put in place to keep them in check - you have Mussolini's dream: "Corporatism" (aka fascism).
It's actually an disgustingly ingenious manipulative system.
Maybe I am lazy today, but I haven't seen anyone attacking the rationale of trying to stop child porn.
I have seen some posts regarding whether trying to block such sites/groups does any good. (I don't think it truly does).
Someone argued that blocking said sites may cause pedophiles to make their own child porn, I don't know about that, but that seems as reasonable of an assumption as any other assumptions being made about the effectiveness of such tactics.
I have seen many discussing what a clusterfuck this would be because it would lead to censorship, violations of freedom of speech, etc (because sites not involved with such contraband and newsgroups not devoted to such things could easily be blocked as part of such a campaign - additionally, as someone else pointed out someone who wanted to get a group or site blocked could simply flood said group or site with child porn and cause that to happen); I believe these are real dangers which outweigh any potential (and likely non existent)real world benefits of blocking this stuff.
As others have pointed out every time a discussion about censorship on the web comes up - if something is blocked or hindered in one area or via one method - usually a better method will come along (EG the pedophiles would just use encryption). Basically, if you really break it down, blocking a few groups or sites is ineffective.
Unfortunately I think that this is simply about politicians and people who want to look like they are doing something about child porn(which I am sure everyone agrees is horrible), or want to feel good about themselves...
Kind of like TSA making you put your shampoo in a 2oz bottle. I am sure that shit has averted terrorist attacks on a daily basis...
Apples and oranges.
Suicide isn't murder, and words don't cause people to commit suicide - case closed. YOu are equating words with a violent act and trying to insinuate that they are the same, they arent.
People seem to have a visceral overly emotional reaction to this story because of how disgusting what that woman did is - but the fact is that this child who killed herself was suffering from mnetal illness - depression. Had she not been, then she may not have reacted the way she did.
Can you imagine such a law? Here are two scenarios:
You get in a fight with your girlfriend or boyfriend or whatever and tell them that they are fucked and you wish they were dead. They then go out and kill themself. You get charged with manslaughter.
Your friend has undiagnosed mental illness and tends to read into things people say and is always taking things the wrong way. You send her a letter as a joke, purporting to be from someone else, she misunderstands it and either kills herself or someone else...Should you be charged? NO!
These are just what I could think of without even really thinking about it, I am sure if someone took the time they could come up with much more apt analogies.
There are always going to be people who are assholes, period. There will always be bullies, period. If the bullying is physical it should be chargable under a criminal statute if it rises to the level of criminality; or, there may be certain situations where verbal abuse MAY rise to that level, maybe institutionalized verbal abuse under color of authority (like a cop or a techer verbally abusing someone - but that seems more like a civil matter).
-But calling names? Pretending to be someone else to be an asshole to someone on the internet? Give me a fucking break.
Eh,
I'm not your "guy," Buddy....
This is an awful idea and anybody who supports it has not thought it through.
What happened with Mega Meier is extremely sad and disturbing, but as disgustingly sickening as the woman who did this was, she is not responsible for Meier's suicide.
Regardless of how awful someone is to someone else on a verbal level, the cannot force them to hurt themselves.
This girl was depressed and made the choice to take her own life. It's ver sad, but it happens every day. Had it not been this situation it likely would have been something else, and the next time she really got hurt the results would have been the same.
The charges filed against this woman in LA are ridiculous - they act as though violating Myspace's TOS is breaking the law.
You cannot legislate something like this because where do you draw the line? What is free speech and what is harrassment? What is a joke and what isn't a joke? Even if this sort of legislation passed can you image trying to enforce it and the people who would abuse such a law?
To break it down:
As sad as this case is, you cannot legislate something like this away. You cannot legislate cyberbullying away any more than you can legislate schoolyard bullying away. Bullies are a fact of life - and the only thing that can be done to to teach children how to handle this sort of thing - how to handle bullies and to really look out for your kids when they are at this sensitive age - and if they cannot deal with these sort of things do what you need to to get them help.
Well, I guess this is one way to do DRM - Just release a shitty new standard every year and watch it fail. After aother year headly anyone will be able to play the stuff, let alone take the time to track down tools to decode it.