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SOPA Hearing is Streaming Live

judiciary.house.gov

241–250 of 269 posts

Re: SOPA Hearing is Streaming Live

#241

Chair: "I came to this meeting undecided on this bill, and hoping to make up my mind during this discussion, but this discussion is bringing up concerns (e.g. interference with DNSSec) that seem highly problematic. Can the panelists comment on whether this bill would dis-incentivize adoption of more secure standards like DNSSec?" "We disagree." - big content shill Chair: "If you believe these concerns are unfounded,…

To quote tptateck as he has recently enlightened me:

[quote] I just don't think "it breaks DNSSEC" is the most compelling or intellectually honest argument. I think the honest argument is, "because we don't think any one authority will be an adequate steward of the Internet".[/quote]

I think that point is just as salient for SOPA as it is for PROTECT-IP. Don't setup that argument for them to knock down. Keep the focus on holding the copyright infringers accountable, not the service providers in-between.

Re: SOPA Hearing is Streaming Live

#242
post #59

Please just stop. The people/bands I download are not ones I'd pay for right out of the gate. For example: Pink Floyd. I hear a lot about them, but don't know if I'd like them. So I downloaded some of their popular albums for free and gave them a listen. After recovering from the awesomeness, I've since bought two of those albums on iTunes, and yesterday 3 friends and I each dropped $78 on tickets for a concert with…

Honestly, I don't think the biggest threat to the music industry is pirates. I think it's bands leaving to start their own label or move to great indie labels like Vangard. iTunes has truly lowered the barrier of entry for a band.

I'm not going to say any other bands are like this, but a couple years ago I was at a Carbon Leaf concert and the lead singer said "Here's what we want everyone to do: go buy our new CD outside after the concert, then go home and burn a few copies for your friends...just don't tell our record company." Well I did as I was told and I now have several friends who have bought many of their other albums , attended a few concerts, and bought some T-shirts and whatnot all because I shared that one CD with them. I'm sure at least a few hundred other fans were gained with this method. Oh, and I was turned on to the band because my father shared with me a CD his brother burned for him.

The band has since switched to their own private label. I've noticed a few semi-big bands producing their own records lately. By the time piracy gets "stopped" (never) the record companies will have died from natural causes.

Re: SOPA Hearing is Streaming Live

#243

This seems like an appropriate place to write this. I'm a self taught programmer. If it wasn't for the internets I would be a pretty poor guy. Spolsky gave a nice answer on SO about teaching a newcomer how to program. He listed SICP, k&R and Code. I read SICP online and I downloaded a version of K&R. Both books had a fundamentally awesome impact on me and I just decided I should buy them along with Code. All the tech…

SICP is full text online by the publisher, you didn't "steal" it. You didn't need to "steal" K&R. It's a classic, but there are a whole lot of successful programmers who've never read it. I don't know where you are, but everywhere I've lived in the US there's at least one very cheap book on C in every used book sale or public library. Today of course, we have more information about programming and Computer Science fr…

No, I didn't need to steal K&R, but it's better than online tutorials. If there's one thing that you should be allowed to steal, it's education.

Re: SOPA Hearing is Streaming Live

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of DNScurve is not to bother attempting to create a cryptographic chain of custody for all DNS records (which is what DNSSEC does), at least not until after we've set it up so that a browser can make a request of a server that cannot be tampered with. It is a vastly simpler, tactical solution to the DNS "security problem" (I'm a skeptic about the long term importance of this problem too).

So why would a kernel-level rootkit like TDSS start dropping the DNSChanger trojan on 600K to 1M machines? Just another pay-per-install malware module? Hard for AV to detect the settings are wrong? http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Researchers-Discover-Link-...

I can't see any connection between what a kernel-level rootkit does and how we should secure DNS. If you lose your kernel, you're done, full stop.

Re: SOPA Hearing is Streaming Live

#246
post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that they're not seriously pushing for this is flawed. Yes, they've hired expensive lobbyists, but that's not all they're doing. They've put up their own campaigns ("Makers vs. Takers" I believe they called it) and are pushing their own employees into supporting it. Moreover, they have quite a bit of political support in this administration. They've got everyone from the RIAA lawyers now in top Justice Depar…

" The idea that they're not seriously pushing for this is flawed." Yes. Not everyone has to be 'in' on the scam. You seem to have some information that the WH will be for some such bill; that's more than I've known. Biden? Yes, he would get to make a tie breaking vote in the Senate.

There are several senior people in this administration who are in favor of Hollywood generally. They've really been pushing for this on all fronts. I'm not saying it can't be stopped, but I am saying that they have supporters in high places.

If you look at the subtext of the discussion held today, it was arranged to make it appear that this is Google vs. everyone else. Sure, that's because most other opposition was excluded. Some might think that's why the rest were excluded.

Politicians see this largely in economic terms. This would be a good time to point them to the economic studies which show that the costs already outweigh most of the public good and to drive home how this bill would kill our ability to create jobs by hitting startups with ridiculous legal burdens.

Re: SOPA Hearing is Streaming Live

#247
post #159

So... Tech companies, feel like moving your base of operations to Europe? We really need some investment right now ;)

I'm interested in which TLDs and server hosting locales would be best bets for protecting against gov sponsored asset seizures. I would like an EU country to step up to the plate as saying "If the U.S. wants a server taken down or a domain revoked, they have to go through our courts...We will provide fairness and due process to the accused". This may be boom times for migrating to non-.com domains.

Re: SOPA Hearing is Streaming Live

#249
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His response to her explanation about how they don't have the technology was "Google does have the technology". These people are all idiots.

I like to fantasize about transitioning to a technocratic government. Decisions are made by subject matter experts and those with intellectual capital, not political capital. The stupid - it hurts.

Whenever someone starts fantasizing about transitioning to a technocratic government, I start fantasizing about hoarding guns in preparation the coming civil war / revolution it would result in.

The very concept of a technocratic government assumes people know and agree what the goals should be and fully understand the consequences. If that was the case, the current political system would "work". Instead people disagree on what the goals should be, and will change their opinion on what the goals should be if the goals the initially chose causes changes they dislike.

E.g. if you present proof that legalizing cannabis would have only positive effects, don't expect most people who are against it to change their mind, expect them to change their argument for why it should remain illegal.

Any technocratic government would necessarily need to be dictatorial and heavily oppressive - one that wasn't wouldn't stay in power for any amount of time.

I keep seeing this idea prop up - especially over on Reddit. And it scares me. I've said there that I'd be first in line to take up arms against a government like that, and I'm serious, as I'd see it as a massive threat against my freedom.

Re: SOPA Hearing is Streaming Live

#250
post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like to fantasize about transitioning to a technocratic government. Decisions are made by subject matter experts and those with intellectual capital, not political capital. The stupid - it hurts.

Whenever someone starts fantasizing about transitioning to a technocratic government, I start fantasizing about hoarding guns in preparation the coming civil war / revolution it would result in. The very concept of a technocratic government assumes people know and agree what the goals should be and fully understand the consequences. If that was the case, the current political system would "work". Instead people disag…

Italy just installed a technocratic government. If they manage to save Italy from completely imploding (which is the course it's democratic government set it on), then you may have reconsider your stance on this.

That they needed to (begrudgingly) install a technocrat at the 11th hour simply to stave off total and utter destruction of their economy (and the wider EU economy) is, in my opinion, proof enough that Technocratic governments are the way to go.

Democracy is the tyranny of the majority. When the majority are idiots, you have a real problem that will always lead to catastrophic results.

I see idiots as a threat against my freedom. And considering their inability to think strategically or consider long term scenarios, I think the civil war war between the intellectuals and the morons you predict would be over very quickly.

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