I'm going to agree with Kaa, for the most part. Kaa writes:
Err.. does this mean the freedom to own intellectual property, or the freedom to ignore intellectual property? Both are freedoms, you know.
Here I dissent. (Or perhaps I would at least ask Kaa to clarify.) I have no more "freedom to ignore intellectual property" than I have freedom to ignore the locks on my neighbors doors. These are not "freedoms." My "freedom" cannot impose on the rights of others. (Like the right to sell my ideas, or the right to mymaintain possessions.)
But if techno-idealists really believe in freedom (and I mean freedom to sell my work and ideas to the highest bidder, and the freedom to live my own life), then Katz (along with those in Seattle) seems to have it all backwards. He (they) write(s):
"The WTO is Satan," e-mailed a Seattle protestor yesterday. "Not only because it threatens freedom by trying to help corporations damage human and labor rights, control property, tax the Net, corporatize technology, control intellectual content and ruin the environment, but because it's a stand in."
What freedom does the WTO threaten? The freedom to make my own decisions? Centainly not. If fact, the WTO seems to be working for this freedom, by lowering trade restrictions. Government regulation and personal freedom stand opposed.
If the government ruled that cell-phones were illegal because they cause brain cancer, how is it protecting my freedom? I was never forced to buy a cell-phone. But now if I disagree with the study that asserts the dangers of cell phones, I have lost the freedom to buy them. If the government says that I can't buy brand A because it says that brand A is made in a country with poor working conditions, I've lost the ability to disagree.
I propose that individual freedom (really the only kind of freedom) is not the goal of the Seattle protestors. Kaa's law is becoming all too true because people would rather have the government make decisions like these for them. But I believe that people are intelligent enough to make their own decisions without having someone else do it for them. The only freedom that the WTO (or the removal of any restrictive government regulations) threaten is the freedom to hide- to freedom of ignorance, and the freedom to play dumb.
Slashdot Mirror
Err.. does this mean the freedom to own intellectual property, or the freedom to ignore intellectual property? Both are freedoms, you know.
Here I dissent. (Or perhaps I would at least ask Kaa to clarify.) I have no more "freedom to ignore intellectual property" than I have freedom to ignore the locks on my neighbors doors. These are not "freedoms." My "freedom" cannot impose on the rights of others. (Like the right to sell my ideas, or the right to mymaintain possessions.)
But if techno-idealists really believe in freedom (and I mean freedom to sell my work and ideas to the highest bidder, and the freedom to live my own life), then Katz (along with those in Seattle) seems to have it all backwards. He (they) write(s):
"The WTO is Satan," e-mailed a Seattle protestor yesterday. "Not only because it threatens freedom by trying to help corporations damage human and labor rights, control property, tax the Net, corporatize technology, control intellectual content and ruin the environment, but because it's a stand in."
What freedom does the WTO threaten? The freedom to make my own decisions? Centainly not. If fact, the WTO seems to be working for this freedom, by lowering trade restrictions. Government regulation and personal freedom stand opposed.
If the government ruled that cell-phones were illegal because they cause brain cancer, how is it protecting my freedom? I was never forced to buy a cell-phone. But now if I disagree with the study that asserts the dangers of cell phones, I have lost the freedom to buy them. If the government says that I can't buy brand A because it says that brand A is made in a country with poor working conditions, I've lost the ability to disagree.
I propose that individual freedom (really the only kind of freedom) is not the goal of the Seattle protestors. Kaa's law is becoming all too true because people would rather have the government make decisions like these for them. But I believe that people are intelligent enough to make their own decisions without having someone else do it for them. The only freedom that the WTO (or the removal of any restrictive government regulations) threaten is the freedom to hide- to freedom of ignorance, and the freedom to play dumb.
--capitalist