I'm not one to wear a tinfoil hat but SOPA in the US, Bill C-30 in Canada, and the various laws in the EU can make one think there is some sort of conspiracy going on. It's simply intriguing how all these laws seem so similar.
That's not controversial. The US uses its economic and (indirectly) its military power to persuade or coerce other nations into enacting laws similar to its own. To some extent this is desirable: it makes life simpler in a global economy. Like everything government does, it gets taken too far.
The US federal government does the same thing to the states:
Under the Federal Aid Highway Act, a state with a minimum drinking age below 21 would be subjected to a ten percent decrease in its annual federal highway apportionment.
It was bound to happen that the internet would be regulated, just like all other innovations and media before it. Once a technology becomes mainstream it is regulated, that's like a law.
We are going to miss the open internet, but there will always be "ham radios" like Tor or other technologies in the future.
to me all this stuff seems a bit overcoincidental, but i am tired of talking about. few months ago i joined the freedombox-project (http://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox) - now i vote by coding.
Tired of talking about it. Terrible, but I know exactly what you mean. Its like being under siege. And I suppose that is the point. Those who oppose all these vile attacks on our basic freedoms will eventually be worn down and defeated.
Unless a good majority of people get radical and stamp this out properly, and for every one world wide, this will creep and creep until the internet becomes nothing more than a sales portal.
I like that. I been saying to hippy mates of mine for a while that while they have been trying to change the world through the application of drum circles and yurt building classes, the geeks have quietly been building in the open source movement, the only successful communist (with a very small c) system to successfully compete with capital on its own terms, and many are now setting their sights on using it for actual manufacture.
If you don't like the world you see around you, at this point in history one of your best chances for empowerment is to learn some form of engineering and then apply it.
fully agreed.
sorry to correct you, but it's the "free software movement" or "FOSS" and it's not a communist system. not even with a small "c", because communist systems force you to share, FS allows you to share.
If you produce software within the framework of the free software movement then you are sharing it. What free software licence allows you not to share your source?
The word communism can also describe systems that are mutual with consent, and most of the states that claim to be communist appear to be run by totalitarians who use the word and associated dogma to seize and hold power under the promise of equity in the future, so I am not sure there has ever been an actual communist state, by the terms of the philosophy.
Personally, I'm a Groucho Marxist, so my main tenet is that I wouldn't want to join a club that would have someone like me as a member. ;)
no no, i will not enter this discussion, because time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana;)
(btw. you can always take a FS, modify it and keep it completly to yourself, so all FS licenses allow you not to share)
Yep, but then you would from then not be participating in the free software movement for that particular project. If you then later shared your modifications you would be again.
Look, a four year old child could understand this. Quick, someone fetch me a four year old child. I can't make head nor tail of any of it.
[edit] I wonder how it would go if I tried to work Groucho Marx quotes into all of my posts. Something tells me it might not go too well.
