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 swhx7Premium
join:2006-07-23
Elbonia | reply to KrK
Re: Piracy will kill the internet said by ninjatutle:Piracy will kill the internet as we know it... said by KrK:No. Corporate greed will.
Well I try not to be so pessimistic, but it's threatening to.
If anyone doubts the parent post, look at the press release (again) and instead of the bits about piracy, notice the language. The whole concept of the internet assumed there is a totally commercial one. Citizens are called "consumers" and expected to pay for all the "content" they "consume", buying it from profit-oriented vendors. There is no room in this vision for any non-commercial communication, public interest, or non-exploitive human relationships.
Free market capitalism can produce good outcomes, but the for-profit corporation with legal status of a person and power to influence government is a toxin to society just as HIV or asbestos is to the body. They are sociopaths, and their press releases are always deceptive advertisements. A pretence of civic-minded motives on the part of a business is a sure sign of lying for profit. | | |
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 KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
1 edit | said by swhx7:If anyone doubts the parent post, look at the press release (again) and instead of the bits about piracy, notice the language. The whole concept of the internet assumed there is a totally commercial one. Citizens are called "consumers" and expected to pay for all the "content" they "consume", buying it from profit-oriented vendors. There is no room in this vision for any non-commercial communication, public interest, or non-exploitive human relationships. They are very very careful in their choice of language. Notice, they can't call it "Information" or "Data" because then they would be saying "We need to filter and block information" which is 100% what they are actually TRYING to do, but it sounds very, VERY bad (and well it would be) so they refer to it as "content". The Internet was never about "consumers" being spoon-fed the content they WANT you to see. That's what TV, radio, etc is for. The Internet has always been about networking and sharing. THE VERY ESSENCE OF A NETWORK IS TO SHARE DATA, FILES, INFORMATION. Sure, it can be used to provide entertainment, but that's only a secondary concern.
However, for some people, everything is always about money, and how much more of it they can get, by any means. If the Internet is becoming a medium in which content can be distributed and sold for profit, then they want not a share, but control over all... they want to be able to block competition, and ensure all such content comes through them. They wish to be the gatekeepers, holding all the keys to the Internet, controlling all access, and only allow people to proceed if they approve of, and can charge a suitable fee for, said access.
Free market capitalism can produce good outcomes, but the for-profit corporation with legal status of a person and power to influence government is a toxin to society just as HIV or asbestos is to the body. They are sociopaths, and their press releases are always deceptive advertisements. A pretence of civic-minded motives on the part of a business is a sure sign of lying for profit.
It's sure heading that way... and it appears they want to "upgrade" the toxicity to the level of oh, say ingesting Cyanide.
This brings up an interesting related issue; That of Metered billing or overage charges. Once such a model is in place, their goals will have been greatly advanced, as "Consumers" will now be paying for information.... no matter who created it. In effect they will be able to profit off the works of everyone out there, without having to compensate anyone. They will make money by forcing you to pay for access to information. Even information you don't want. Man, what a cash cow that could be. The Toll-boothes on the Internet. | |
 jester121Premium
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL | Pretty funny stuff krk. For someone railing on about semantics you certainly chose your words carefully. "Filtering information" certainly sounds ominous, but a game or DVD or song isn't "information".
And part of your "essence of a network" is CONTROLLED access to those data, files, and information. For as long as computers have been hooked together there have been passwords and security restrictions. Anarchy doesn't end up being much fun for anyone. | |
KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
1 edit | That doesn't change anything I said, however. The very purpose of a network is to share files, data, and information quickly and efficiently. I'm not calling for anarchy, but neither am I for a Quasi-Government/Corporation match made in hell vetting and deciding what citizens can or cannot access, post, read, download, or whatever.
We already have sweeping, far reaching, extremely punitive laws on the books about Copyright. We don't need a new public/private agency to "protect" their business interests by quashing us.
It's a very small step from "Piracy filters" to "Illegal Information" filters.
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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