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Oppose the Earn IT Act

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Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#421

Post by Aeolun »

blintz wrote: post #3

I cannot believe that the one thing we have bipartisan consensus on is destroying strong encryption. I guess I’m biased since this is essentially my whole livelihood, but this is crazy, right?

It’s one of those things that people think is a grand idea, right up until it’s been in force for a few weeks and it turns out that China is reading all the internal US message traffic.

Then everyone will be like “Whoa?! Who would have thought something like this could happen!”. I feel like this is a tale as old as time.

Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#422

Post by JAlexoid »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #306
shay_ker wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the speeding analogy. "I have nothing to hide" "Have you ever sped on the highway?" "Well, yes" "Imagine if the government reveals it's been tracking everyone's speed, and has decided to write everyone tickets for speeding." "That's insane, the government can't do that!" "Exactly"

This is not a good analogy because if you speed on the highway you are putting other peoples lives at risk, and doing it in public. I think we probably should have a satellite tracking every car and issuing a ticket as soon as a car speeds.

That's complete BS. Speeds have not been updated to match the technical characteristics of modern cars. There's a reason why Germany doesn't even have a speed limit - the limit itself is pointless. They only fine you for dangerous driving.

Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#423

Post by tptacek »

SenoraRaton wrote: post #300
IggleSniggle wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost as if you didn't even imagine what a "no 'opposite side' per se" would even look like. I think there's a LOT more room for nuance than "this" or "that" even among the ignorant and/or unengaged. Just look at sports-team divides in the US for evidence.

Except there ARE two sides. Capital controlled means of production, and worker owned means of production. These two systems are diametrically opposed to each other. This just comes across as enlightened centrism. I am vehemently opposed to the economic system of capitalism, and I think that it stands in opposition to the very concept of democracy. How am I supposed to see the capitalist as "the same side"?

Workers owning the means of production is not in fact one of the major factions in US politics, regardless of how much Twitter leftists and Republicans would like you to believe that.

Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#424

Post by jay_kyburz »

kube-system wrote: post #401
jay_kyburz wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Killing yourself is still a cost to society. People have to come out and scrape you off the road, put all your bits in a box and bury you.

It is also worth noting that 'speeding' has only a very rough correlation with risky driving behavior. A road that meets MUTCD standards is usually guaranteed to have at least 15% of drivers speeding on it by design.

You got me interested in the subject so I did some searching. This document, while doesn't address speed as a factor of accidents directly, does seems to show that speed cameras do push down Australia's fatality rate on the roads. (I'm Australian)

https://www.bitre.gov.au/publications/2010/is_039

Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#425

Post by JAlexoid »

cgrealy wrote: post #257
apeace wrote: post #208

If you want to convince your friends they should support encryption, here's how I like to get past the "nothing to hide" argument. Imagine we're sitting at a bar, chatting. None of us have anything to hide. Then the government passes a law that all conversations must be streamed on Youtube Live, so an agent comes in, sets up a camera at our table, and starts streaming. We still don't "have anything to hide". We're ju…

If someone says they have nothing to hide, just say “cool, how much do you earn?” Or if you can do it with a straight face “when was the last time you masturbated?” :)

12 minutes ago, why do you ask? :P

But income is definitely something that people love to hide. There's a lot of things that all people would love to keep quiet, mostly because their friends or loved ones would find out and may disown them

Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#426

Post by JAlexoid »

spurgu wrote: post #296
ryandrake wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The two major American parties have more in common than not. They agree on most political issues, particularly defense and economics, and make a big show of arguing over a tiny corner of issues in order to desperately try to differentiate themselves. The two parties do not significantly differ on indefinite detention of American citizens on US soil. The two parties do not significantly differ on domestic spying, drag…

So what you're saying is that the US is doomed until a revolution happens?

Yes, comrade

Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#427

Post by pdonis »

lukifer wrote: post #190
godelski wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to push back against this, and specifically fair vote. - What they are referring to as RCV is called Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). IRV is a RCV, but RCV isn't IRV. Think "Rock and Roll is The Beatles" vs "The Beatles are a Rock and Roll group." - IRV isn't that great when it comes to Voter Satisfaction Efficiency (VSE)[0]. There's even other RCV methods like Ranked Pair[1] that are exactly the same for the vote…

Thanks for your post, I'll dig into your links. I hadn't heard of STAR in particular. Two counterpoints: - I'm aware of Arrow, but I file it under "perfect being the enemy of the good". :) Whatever the flaws of IRV, it still represents an order of magnitude improvement over FPTP at capturing political preferences. (We suffer so much status quo bias, it takes a lot of activation energy just to communicate to the avera…

> in a perfect world, a blank ballot would be counted as a meta-vote for "None of the Above"; and if it wins, a whole new election of all-new candidates must be held

I think this, all by itself, would be a great thing to have in elections. If this had existed in every election in which I have voted, I think I would have used it at least half the time, quite possibly more.

Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#428

Post by suchire »

tricolon wrote: post #322
cortic wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My nothing to hide argument is a little different; Nothing to hide is an incomplete sentence. Nothing to hide from who? Surly you want to hide your children from abusers and predators? Don't you want to hide your banking details from con artists and fraudsters? Your identity from identity thieves.. Your location from burglars, your car keys from car thieves or your blood type from some rich mobsters with kidney probl…

Wouldn't the counterargument be "but only the government would have access, and we can trust the government"?

Which government?

Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#429

Post by JAlexoid »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #181
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, nsa mass surveillance and legalized torture were never repelled by any side. In fact, the patriot act has been prolongued 5 times, no matter the administration, and is still in effect. As a european, I don't see any party that actually have american people's interest in mind. Fighting for either seems so futile from here. Of course, we have similar problems as well so I'm not going to pretend I have a solution.

As an American, I don’t see any country in the world that doesn’t have exactly the same problems. The EU has been considering similar anti-encryption legislation for years. Primarily supported by France, UK and Germany. The main opponents to it in the EU have been NGOs, which mirrors the American experience on this issue. The cynic in me speculates the reason the EU parliament hasn’t pushed the issue further is simpl…

EU doesn't have the authority to deal with things like encryption. American federal government is much more powerful and much less dependent on the states.

Also Germany is very, very, pro privacy. Germans would probably lynch any government official that suggested anything resembling Stazi surveillance programs.

Re: Oppose the Earn IT Act

#430

Post by JAlexoid »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #41
darkarmani wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the problem here? Having federal interference in tech is a terrible idea as any laws are usually overbroad and stifle large amounts of innovation that we haven't imagined yet as an unintended consequence. What multiuser system would survive a libel-law attack from a highly unfriendly jurisdiction? Email, forums, comments, and other forms of posting opinions would immediately cause any small operator to shutdo…

Then the platforms that host social media need to stop suppressing speech. The President wants to kill 230 because Twitter is censoring his tweets. His response was to suspend their protection from liability lawsuits under 230. It's politics; everything's always about politics. Whether this will be good for the industry and society is another question.

One thing should be clear - section 230 is just a preemption clause and Donald cannot modify laws unilaterally
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