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US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

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Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#111

Post by nitrogen »

sliverstorm wrote: post #72
kunai wrote: post #11

I'm sick and tired of being in such a lazy-ass, apathetic society that possesses zero regard to freedom. Stallman may be a nut, but when you think long and hard about what he says, and think about SOPA, PIPA, and this lobby, in horror, your face twists in fear and you watch, helplessly, as your fellow citizens bend over backwards and let the government have their way. I don't even know what to do anymore. Nobody will…

I'm not sure we need be this terrified. Gear-heads made similar claims about freedom as cars became more complicated and less user-serviceable. But you know what? While cars have their issues, and are indeed now more difficult to service, they have continued to get better- a lot better. The last totally user-serviceable cars were made in the 60's and early 70's. Many of the improvements come from improvements to manu…

This analogy only holds if there's a corresponding improvement in engineering to come from giving up freedom on the Internet, which there is not.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#113

Post by jlgreco »

EliRivers wrote: post #32
obviouslygreen wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And your answer is Stallman ? Yes, he is a nut. In the sense of "no one will ever take him seriously, especially anyone involved in mainstream decision-making, who has ever read anything he has written," which is in this case the most relevant metric. Stallman is never going to be any help here, nor is anyone like him, because any "normal" person -- that is, one that other people won't ignore out of hand -- will igno…

We need Stallman because he's our extreme figure. He sets the bar for crazy-level. He makes you look like Jimmy McReasonable and your demands look sane.

Exactly, without a Stallman the overton window is narrowed in a non-beneficial way.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#114

Post by dkuntz2 »

mtowle wrote: post #71
kunai wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really think that Aaron Swartz, Larry Lessig and the masses of people protesting Capitol Hill last year when SOPA came around didn't make a difference? They were activists. Do you really think we'd have so much free/open source software today without the contribution of Eric S. Raymond, Stallman, et al.? They're activists. Do you really think that we'd be here today if Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Jame…

The flow of human events isn't bound to individuals. Names merely get played up in the remembering, and the events downplayed. E.g., America was going to revolt regardless of whether T.J., et al had ever been born. Really amazing that a war is misremembered as activism....pass the K-Y.

Not actually true. The colonies could have received the things they wanted had they actually attempted to fight for them (and by 'things they wanted', I mean the things we wrote about England (and specifically a king with little political power at that time (it was all parliament's by that point)) not giving us).

The American Revolutionary War was started because of political activism. They saw a chance to start a new country in whatever manner they pleased, and leapt at the opportunity. Even just a little effort put to really trying to get a voice in parliament would have worked fine, but instead we went and write the bloody Declaration in an attempt to rally support of other nations not really pleased with England (I'm looking at you France), and filled it with rhetoric, half-truths, and blatant lies. Okay, maybe not blatant, but they're there.

Really amazing that a war is mistaught to most American students. Okay, it isn't that amazing, I mean, you're going to teach your country's history in the most favorable light possible, but, still...

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#115

Post by [deleted] »

noonespecial wrote: post #101

If "they" are both the planters of the rootkit (taking over the computer) and the ones claiming to be wronged, looking for recompense, doesn't this create an unreconcilable conflict of interest as well as a worthless chain of custody for evidence of any wrongdoing? What would stop them from simply taking over computers, planting evidence and profitting (extorting) hugely? I would think that once my computer spends an…

[deleted]

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#116

Post by tantalor »

noonespecial wrote: post #101

If "they" are both the planters of the rootkit (taking over the computer) and the ones claiming to be wronged, looking for recompense, doesn't this create an unreconcilable conflict of interest as well as a worthless chain of custody for evidence of any wrongdoing? What would stop them from simply taking over computers, planting evidence and profitting (extorting) hugely? I would think that once my computer spends an…

Aye, that's why real law enforcement have an oath of honor and are held to the standard of the constitution.

Here they are asking to authorize vigilantism.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#117

Post by SoftwareMaven »

fatjokes wrote: post #91
ericcumbee wrote: post #2

Because every country strives to be more like Syria. "MPAA told Congress that they wanted SOPA and knew it would work because it was the same tactic used by governments in "China, Iran, the UAE, Armenia, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain, Burma, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam."

So what's worse? When it's driven by people thirsty for power, or people thirsty for money?

Is there a difference? Isn't money just a means to power?

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#118

Post by dkuntz2 »

ISL wrote: post #57
[deleted] wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

Since there are few corporations that have a corporate interest in "freedom," then the money and resources have to come from individuals. I'd disagree. The majority of corporations have a financial interest in freedom. Getting them to commit resources to any lobbying effort is the challenge.

Basic economic theory says you're wrong. Corporations don't have incentives to be good outside if their bottom line long-term, the only reason they occasionally do good is due to social or regulatory pressure. For the most part, corporations are going to do what's good for their bottom line without carrying about the long-term effects.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#120

Post by obstacle1 »

seandhi wrote: post #52
kunai wrote: post #11

I'm sick and tired of being in such a lazy-ass, apathetic society that possesses zero regard to freedom. Stallman may be a nut, but when you think long and hard about what he says, and think about SOPA, PIPA, and this lobby, in horror, your face twists in fear and you watch, helplessly, as your fellow citizens bend over backwards and let the government have their way. I don't even know what to do anymore. Nobody will…

This paper barely even mentions music or movies, and its proposals are for going after foreign entities who steal intellectual property, such as R&D, to develop counterfeit goods. This is less about going after little Timmy for downloading a movie and more to do with a Chinese firm stealing biotechnology secrets from a U.S. company to produce its own products.

>and its proposals are for going after foreign entities who steal intellectual property

No it isn't. The proposals are for going after anyone who attacks American corporate/government systems, including Americans themselves. The report spends much time waxing philosophical on int'l contributions to IP 'theft' -- specifically China -- but nowhere does it restrict jurisdiction to foreign entities.

As laid out the commission seems to want broad application here that plausibly could allow use by consumer entertainment companies. The problem there is that while you don't think consumer entertainment seems important enough for companies to bother protecting, consumer entertainment companies do. So it while you'd only bother securing Important Research Co. with genius solutions like rootkit-as-a-feature, Big Music Corp. is going to do it to little Timmy's copy of a Biebz single.

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