@acrsn well put! since no gods browse the www, it is up to ourselves.. who am i, or anyone else for that matter, to decide what is good for people just trying to communicate, using a mere tool for the purpose, regardless of whether this tool happens to be a phone, a pc. or whatever?. the essential thing is that they can communicate.. and that is what must be kept intact...
i have my doubts about that, Gorski. in my experience govt officials can just walk into any providers` place, and check whatever they like. they can, and they do. and no-one says them nay. this has been happening for years, and they don`t need extra legislation for that; it has been going on for years. i am speaking from personal experience, as a security officer. if they don`t get the job done, it is because of lack of manpower/expertise ONLY..
http://www.jutarnji.hr/multimedia/archive/00444/cp110126en_444881a.pdf As you said: we can and ought to act on such principles...
yes, my dear friend Gorski, i feel there is no disagreement here.. i guess we all have got a commitment with acting with integrity.. it is just how hard you look at it all.. the wicked things that the www also supports.. for sure there is a lot of garbage around. but i for one refuse absolutely to let that get the better of me.. all i originally tried to do here, was to stop some thickheaded hollywood guys from shoving some non-sensensical legislation up my ****, regards, nodnar.
As far as I'm concerned they can go right ahead and push SOPA or POOPER or whatever else they want to push. As long as it only affects the US and not the whole bloody world. If the US wants to be police let them stay in their own country and do what they want there. When you are trying to push your BS legislation down everyone throats that is where I draw the line. If the US population is too spineless to stand up to their government and put them to their place then I don't see why the rest of the World has to deal with the consequences.
Not possible. We all affect each other. US businesses will be affected by EU's "right to be forgotten", if it passes all the hurdles... Indeed, all of this interconnectedness is what we have to take into account, when we debate complex issues, like this... Look, Hollys**tewood is culturally domineering the rest of us, sadly. It is forcing EU to be a feudal, territorially divided market, when it comes to buying rights to show their products, which goes against the very spirit of EU. They (Hollys**te) had a head-start in all of this, a large market of their own, lots of people with money to spend on this stuff and therefore they accumulated a helluva lot of money, started spreading around the world, "educating" audiences throughout the world in the process, as to what is a "good film" and now everything film-wise is largely measured by that, the "industry of dreams" and its values. I feel like vomiting, when it comes to it, this escapist garbage - but that is the case at the moment. However, this is changing! EU is finally fighting back and trying to establish the common market and market competition, even in the cultural sphere, so monopolies (like Mierdoch in the UK) will have to reposition themselves and compete with everybody else, throughout EU. And Hollys**te will have to sit up, shut up and listen, then change their tune. (This is from my other hobby, sat TV...) There are countries that legislate, in order to protect their cultural industries from this rather unfair competition with the US - like France, ordering their TV and radio stations to have a certain percentage of French content, to produce their own content etc. Moreover, they will subsidise their film industry. Ratified in their Parliament. (Btw, BBC has a budget that equals or is greater than many [poor] countries...) I agree with that. It is necessary to protect one's culture or any industry from monopolies. And US industry can go cry their eyes out, for all I care... But this really is necessary. Just like US is subsidising its food industry... They decided it's essential. So can we. In any sphere of life. As for the Freenet and its hidden depths and potential dangers, that have not been present before the advent of internet, I have to say that, when it comes to terrorism, sociopathy, child-abuse, arms dealers and so forth - I have to be worried. This is the reason: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment Reportedly, throughout the world (as the experiment was repeated around the globe), roughly speaking, 2/3 of Humanity have no spine, no real conscience to speak of... Humanity has a long journey ahead of itself before it can call itself "enlightened", I fear... Here, for good measure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment And then compare it all with this, written in 18th century, at the dawn of Modernity, by Immanuel Kant: http://philosophy.eserver.org/kant/what-is-enlightenment.txt That is why we ought to be careful with anything even fractionally as powerful and influential as internet. It can be a great tool for education and informing oneself, therefore for liberation of Humanity from any irrational "authorities". (But we are a long way away from it - still, sadly...) But also, given the Human condition at the moment - a great potential evil... So, I advise caution - a great caution, no rushing to conclusions... Careful, patient analysis of complex phenomena, not putting it all in the same sack, always carefully contextualising it all! Otherwise, we may defend our enemies and attack our friends...
@r29k, it aint as simple as that,alas. i am no us citizen. so what would be easier for me than to say; let those guys do what they like, so long as they do it it in their own country..not so. the hollywood copyright boys want to make money everywhere.. here in europe they are inventing acta, for the purpose. the deplorable thing is, that we are unable to free ourselves from the hollywood culture;there are millions of indian people, with their own bollywood, but here in europe, the competition for hollywood is marginal. we think we are so barbarious, that we must like their garbage, somehow.. and so long as we accept that, they will keep on storming our trenches, and we will only have ourselves to blame..
Common market forces within EU are stronger than Hollyweirds, indeed... Btw, 1/3 of Humanity with a spine/conscience is much better than nada... Actually, I am sure it is much better than what it used to be in times long gone... Which present reality is not a completely bad place to be in, to try something, with a good chance of succeeding... eventually...
I hope my next job location in 2016 isn't in the US, it would be shameful living there right now tbh. And I don't agree with all Gorski says, business and laws are two different things. Businesses are interconnected for various reasons, common market etc. However laws are separate and should be dictated by commonsense. There is a lot of backwardness going on behind the scenes when we see laws popping up like SOPA etc, how much bribery took place, why do they pop up and get pushed through so quickly ? The people need to make the government answerable for everything they do, all I see in the US and EU is a fiefdom ! I agree with Gorski that Hollywood are culturally domineering, but why are they that way ? They can only be that way if you let them influence you or should I say if you are stupid enough to let them influence you. I have seen people who got hooked on smoking simply because they saw some actors smoking in the movies and it looked cool. But that isn't Hollywood's fault. It is your fault, people are too gullible, lazy and stupid that is why the government and big media can do as they like. As the saying goes, "You reap what you sow".
Excuse me sir but the buying power is with the EU and the US and Canada. Most of Asia, Africa, South America and Latin America will have massive piracy of Hollywood products. The amount of money going back to Hollywood from these countries is minuscule. It is the people in North America and Europe that are primarily responsible for funding Hollywood. Right now in the country that I work/live in , I could download the latest Hollywood films and burn it to dvds and go sell it on the street and it will get purchased by everyone including police and even government officials. There is no law for piracy. You cannot get original movies in local stores to buy unless you import them, which will cost you quite a lot due to import duties. You can however get the pirated copies for next to nothing. The movie/game/music sector of the economy is based on the sale of pirated media, it is a legitimate source of income for thousands of people and not 1 cent goes to Hollywood. I'm sorry but only North America and Europe can kill the pest that you have created. Have you ever asked yourself why so much rubbish for movies are released by Hollywood ? Look at the amount of time wasting crap that comes out, hell even Adam Sandler makes money. The primary reason is that there is a general demand for it, as long as it has lots of cursing, violence, boobs and no coherent story whatsoever then there is a good chance it will be a hit in the US. I get the impression that the general IQ of the average movie watcher has dropped significantly. There are so few good movies every year and yet Hollywood still has decent earnings. However the people with commonsense don't go out and buy this junk, nope they will download it and watch it for free or just check it out and delete it. Yet the box office is still doing well, could you please tell me who is helping Hollywood at the box office ? It certainly isn't the poor dude down in Africa/India/China/Brazil trying to get another meal on the table, is it ?
Acrsn,I do agree. We have a lot of good people here. Many are still at the malls,while some are so engaged with their "games" that they don't even know about reality. I'm beginning to believe that our "lawmakers" are nothing but egotistical nitwits who think they are above all,including their laws.(Lawyers are the root of evil) In other words, "Don't do as I do,do as I say.If you know what's good for you.We know what's good for you.". So, we are peons/peasants to the kings and rulers. Whatever you and us do, don't bow down to these criminals. I still say "Keep reloading.We may have to use it.". I am a firm believer in the Constitution, and the 2nd Amendment,as it protects the 1st Amendment. Plus,I am an Oath Keeper. I'm serious about it.
Link This is what you call clueless, I would love to put my foot up his backside so he can understand how out of tune with reality he is right now.
My freedom of expression is is more visible than I'd like http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/01/randall-long-microsoft_n_1315198.html?ref=technology
I thought America was stupid to even propose SOPA but what do you say about people who actually implement it ? Article here
Can you believe this? After the largest online protest in history, the Obama administration is still voicing support for SOPA. Tell Obama to promise: "I will never advance legislation that blocks websites or disconnects Americans' internet access." Just the other day, the administration sent a letter to Congress to demonstrate their support for new internet censorship legislation. Victoria Espinel, Obama's so-called "copyright czar" just said: "We still need legislation for blocking foreign websites." You can read the full statement here. Our goal? Get more signatures than the top petition on whitehouse.gov. Right now that's about 151,000 signatures. Source