I'm not willing to demand progress, but I DEMAND MY CORY DOCTOROW! RIGHT NOW! PLEASE?
An Open Letter to HN from EFF, Demand Progress, and Cory Doctorow
101–106 of 106 posts
Re: An Open Letter to HN from EFF, Demand Progress, and Cory Doctorow
#102As a long time EFF supporter in spirit and dollars I have to say this is a strange way of coalition building. Since ycombinator previously supported a similar effort it seems like they would be thought of as allies. Whenever I have been involved in a project like this allies and previous supporters were contacted privately. This sort of "open letter" is the kind of thing you do to pressure (read shame) someone into doing something that they have expressed reservations about doing.
I still support the cause but this is not how you treat friends or conduct a political activism campaign.
Addendum:
It is possible that the folks at ycombinator were previously contacted. If that is the case this letter should say so, if only to let current allies know that they do not need to worry about being bullied into continued support.
Re: An Open Letter to HN from EFF, Demand Progress, and Cory Doctorow
#103Did this letter get a penalty? With 581 points, it's now off the front page.
EDIT: Interestingly enough, "Female Founders" plea to the public by PG is at 360 points, whooping 402 comments, and the 2nd place. Clearly, "sexism" drama is a lot more popular with the tech crowd :)
Re: An Open Letter to HN from EFF, Demand Progress, and Cory Doctorow
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those larger tech companies you mention are on the other side of the fence when it comes to surveillance and privacy. And I'm not even talking about the accusations of complicity (or have we forgotten that was the opening salvo in the NSA revelations, followed by a boilerplate non-denial and an eery silence?), but the fact that these companies regularly violate privacy laws (at least outside the US) and lobby against…
Put yourself in the shoes of a hypothetical progressive tech company. You receive a letter from the government asking you to copy all your network traffic to the NSA for analysis. Threatening serious jail time if you resist or reveal the existence of the letter. Your lawyers say all that appears to be legal and legitimate, and informal discussions with other tech executives reveal that everybody in your industry does…
I can not accept a "I had to follow orders" rationalization, especially from the giants like Google. It was routinely used by the Nazi officers at the Nuremberg Trials. They had orders, were "afraid of reprimand", and so they went along.
There's a moral conduct that is above paper orders. Each one of us decides how to act when we face a contradiction. Aaron, Snowden - they did one thing. Google, Facebook - did another.
Re: An Open Letter to HN from EFF, Demand Progress, and Cory Doctorow
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Might sound lame, but as a foreigner, I deliberately avoid posting my opinions on the subject by fear of repercussion for the day I'll cross the US border and they'll have decided unilaterally that my opinions are suspicious. From my perspective, it's like they read everything, look at your Facebook posts, your emails and what not, trying to profile you as a threat. And when they do so, you'll get on some listed that…
This is a real concern. I held the same view for awhile. In the end, however, I decide the small risk was outweighed by the importance of the issue. The more people that voice their opinions, the more impossible it becomes to punish that group (i.e. safety in numbers). Join in!
A person who would post those comments and articles on Facebook and use a false name there... could already be considered as using a fake ID AND be contrary to US interests and therefore, is probably not allowed to enter the US or fly over it.
Re: An Open Letter to HN from EFF, Demand Progress, and Cory Doctorow
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't know Aaron Swartz, but my understanding is that surveillance and whistleblowing were important issues for him. For instance, he developed software for anonymous whistleblowing for those like Edward Snowden: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/aaron-swartz-inbox-for-whis...
"surveillance and whistleblowing were important issues for him" There you've conflated them again, and then provided another point about Swartz being in favor of access to information. You specifically did not address the grandparent's question about why Swartz would be against access to information for some cases and for access to information in other cases. I'm not suggesting that he wouldn't (I don't know offhand,…
I wish you were kidding. Very few people who care about these issues are confused about the difference between access and control over published cultural and scientific information and other inherently public things versus private unpublished personal things. The Free Culture movement is totally aligned with valuing privacy. It doesn't say everything should be public, it says that the public must have freedom regarding things that are in fact public, i.e. things that are published and otherwise necessary for democratic transparency and such.