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Stop the E-Parasite Act

wwws.whitehouse.gov

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Re: Stop the E-Parasite Act

#31

Post by pnathan »

_delirium wrote: post #26
jterce wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. It's the same as the "occupy" movement saying that corporations shouldn't influence government. It's true, but it's the politicians who are the problem. Everyone, the content providers included, should be representing their best interests to politicians. The burden is on the politicians to remain uncorrupted and to represent the best interests of their constituents to the fullest degree possible under law.

If, after several hundred years of trying, we haven't yet found the mythical race of "uncorruptible politician", it might be time for a plan B, like systemic changes to reduce the effects of corruption on the very-human politicians we do have (and are likely to continue having). That's essentially the campaign-finance-reform argument, that the problem isn't going to be solved by hoping that the next crop of politicia…

This is the solution; a system level design that assumes a level of corruption and general stupidity, then feeds incentives to help the broad spectrum of society.

Re: Stop the E-Parasite Act

#32

Post by waqf »

altrego99 wrote: post #25

This whole thing is very screwed up. For once I am glad that I don't live in US.

Where do you live that is safe from the content industries?

Not that such places don't exist, but the problem is much wider than the US, partly but not entirely because of the US's ability to strongarm other countries into passing their own legislation, e.g. ACTA. You wouldn't be safe in Canada, or Australia, or the UK, or France, or ... .

Re: Stop the E-Parasite Act

#34

Post by Gormo »

_delirium wrote: post #26
jterce wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. It's the same as the "occupy" movement saying that corporations shouldn't influence government. It's true, but it's the politicians who are the problem. Everyone, the content providers included, should be representing their best interests to politicians. The burden is on the politicians to remain uncorrupted and to represent the best interests of their constituents to the fullest degree possible under law.

If, after several hundred years of trying, we haven't yet found the mythical race of "uncorruptible politician", it might be time for a plan B, like systemic changes to reduce the effects of corruption on the very-human politicians we do have (and are likely to continue having). That's essentially the campaign-finance-reform argument, that the problem isn't going to be solved by hoping that the next crop of politicia…

What makes it any more reasonable to suggest that it's possible to change the incentives than to suggest we can find uncorruptible politicians?

I don't think that this systemic view aligns with the campaign-finance-reform argument argument at all; the people who want money out of politics regard money itself as the root cause of the problem, but neglects to address the real underlying incentives that money - merely an abstraction of value - actually represents. If you take money out of the picture, those incentives will still exist, and still convey political advantage. Who dominates politics then, if not the wealthiest? The most well-connected? The most ruthless?

The real, underlying systemic problem is the centralized concentration of de jure power in a small set of political institutions. This will always be susceptible to concentrated influence, whether via money or otherwise.

Re: Stop the E-Parasite Act

#35

Post by javek »

cheez wrote: post #16
slowpoke wrote: post #8

While I definitely support the notion of this petition, it's time that people realize that things like these won't do shit, to put it bluntly. To stop this madness, we have to attack and bring down the people who cause this retardation - the content industries. They won't somehow come to their senses and stop pushing for insane laws and regulations. It's a very dangerous illusion that petty petitions will change anyt…

The real solution might be to strip government of most of its power rather than try and change it.

If you were to take away power from the government, who would be left to defend the interests of the powerless? While it's true that government usually turns out to be an instrument used by the powerful to control the powerless, it is undeniable that the rule of law has occasionally functioned well enough to protect a minority from a majority. It offers a framework with at least the possibility of protecting the powerless. Take away that framework, and the faction with the biggest guns will win. People forget that even in the US, in the early 20th century large corporations used lethal force wielded by their own private mercenaries to keep an oppressed worker population under control. If government had no power, these gatekeepers could do whatever they wanted without the hassle of approval and public debate.

Re: Stop the E-Parasite Act

#36

Post by T-hawk »

ugh wrote: post #27
lukejduncan wrote: post #23

Is anyone talking about the concerns of having people store a password with the whitehouse? Most people use the same password everywhere. IANL but this could easily be a huge phishing scam...

Because … the White House is interested in phishing? What?

The grandparent has a point, but didn't state it very well.

The NSA and CIA and other three-letter federal agencies do have a reputation for grabbing any telecommunications data they can get. One could think that they might be monitoring and capturing activity on the White House site, to correlate with persons of interest, or even just collecting everything for future use. (And it's not necessarily evil either; we'd cheer if they intercepted a source of terrorist funding by using account credentials that matched something carelessly entered into this site.)

The scenario is somewhat far-fetched, but not entirely out of the question for secretive unaccountable US government agencies.

Re: Stop the E-Parasite Act

#37

Post by thomaslangston »

The following link will take you to an EFF page. You can enter your address and get the contact info for your Congress members. It also lets you email them automatically about the other version of this bill, Protect IP, which is just as bad.

https://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?...

Re: Stop the E-Parasite Act

#38

Post by gregw100 »

TruthElixirX wrote: post #3

This will get ignored like the "Remove "under God" from the pledge" petition and the "tax Marijuana like alcohol and tobacco" petition.

Not necessarily. I think this petition holds more water than the other two given that the bill is specifically about the internet. If the internet reacts it only makes sense to listen. Then again, making sense is not one of the government's strong points.

Re: Stop the E-Parasite Act

#39

Post by yuhong »

_delirium wrote: post #26
jterce wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. It's the same as the "occupy" movement saying that corporations shouldn't influence government. It's true, but it's the politicians who are the problem. Everyone, the content providers included, should be representing their best interests to politicians. The burden is on the politicians to remain uncorrupted and to represent the best interests of their constituents to the fullest degree possible under law.

If, after several hundred years of trying, we haven't yet found the mythical race of "uncorruptible politician", it might be time for a plan B, like systemic changes to reduce the effects of corruption on the very-human politicians we do have (and are likely to continue having). That's essentially the campaign-finance-reform argument, that the problem isn't going to be solved by hoping that the next crop of politicia…

I remember posting this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3161455

Re: Stop the E-Parasite Act

#40

Post by poppysan »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #13
slowpoke wrote: post #8

While I definitely support the notion of this petition, it's time that people realize that things like these won't do shit, to put it bluntly. To stop this madness, we have to attack and bring down the people who cause this retardation - the content industries. They won't somehow come to their senses and stop pushing for insane laws and regulations. It's a very dangerous illusion that petty petitions will change anyt…

To stop this madness, we have to attack and bring down the people who cause this retardation - the content industries. The content industries don't cause this. They go to politicians and say "pretty please take away people's freedom to protect our profits". That's the only thing they have the power to do. Politicians are not helpless babies who have no choice but to give big content what it wants. They are intelligen…

How does Obama/Biden side with "big content"? Everyone has their preference to repub or dems, but this seems unfounded to me...
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