no third solution

Blogging about liberty, anarchy, economics and politics

Category Archives: Rants

Yes, Virginia, You Really Are Transmitting Data

May 6th, 2009

cNet reports that a new P2P bill would regulate web browsers and FTP clients, by forcing them to obtain “informed consent” every time a user transmits or attempts to transmit data. Is this the slippery-slope to regulating/destroying teh interwebs?   I think this is how it begins.

The proposed legislation essentially criminalizes software applications that work (defined as: doing what the user requests of it) unless said application obtains informed consent.

Imagine a pop-up every time you upload a picture to facebook, or a video to youtube, or send a set of vacation photos via gmail: Are you sure you want to transmit these files? This is not a feature, it’s a bug.  And this bill would force developers to insert this bug into just about every application you regularly use.

According to the bill, P2P applications are defined thusly:

software that lets files be marked for transfer, transferred, and received. (The exact wording: ‘to designate files available for transmission to another computer; to transmit files directly to another computer; and to request the transmission of files from another computer.’)

…Web browsers could also be regulated and subject to Federal Trade Commission enforcement action unless “informed consent” is obtained each time the desktop icon is double-clicked.

Or for more emphasis, “[e]very copy of Windows, GNU/Linux, and Mac OS X sold in recent memory” because they include “a command-line FTP client fitting that definition,” and every web browser, which allows users to upload files to teh interwebs.

And your iPhone probably isn’t exempt, either.

Setting aside malware which by definition does things without the user’s consent, nobody accidentally uses P2P software. Nobody accidentally uses a command-line FTP client, and nobody accidentally posts pictures or distributes files among their friends or an online network. The very act of using the software/application constitutes, in my opinion, a sufficient level of consent. To think that every time we ask to transmit data through the series of tubes, we need to be reminded that in-fact we are attempting to transmit data through the series of tubes, is the absolute zenith of paternalistic ridiculousity.

I am reasonably certain that this bill/law, by itself, is pretty much pointless. For starters, not everyone is as retarded as our Legislators would have us believe. This piece of legislation assumes that knowledgeable people using open-source browsers and applications won’t be able to override* such craptastic “features.”

They will. And they’ll distribute these rogue software patches to everyone who grows tired of clicking “OK” whenever they try to upload a picture.

Unfortunately, this fact doesn’t assuage my fears that this law is merely a minor annoyance which can ultimately be overridden.  It’s more like the tip of the proverbial iceberg, it’s the backdoor breach of what’s largely an unregulated arena that works pretty damn well, nearly all of the time.  It is the first step towards wholesale regulation of software applications and teh interwebs, which provides the necessary smokescreen for suppression of free speech.

+++

* I taught myself VBA for Windows with nothing but Google and a handful of scripts that someone else had created. I could probably do the same with an open-source web browser or FTP client. I just haven’t needed to. If this bill becomes law, I will figure out how to disable it, or I’ll just bootstrap off someone else who figured it out before I did.


Should Government Fix NCAA Football Cartel?

May 1st, 2009

I should have a category called “Ass-hat politicians” because I really don’t know how else to classify this.

Fresh from the government-has-solved-all-the-serious-problems wire, the NYT is reporting that a lawmaker intent on eliminating NCAA Football’s Bowl Championship Series in favor of a playoff compared the BCS to Communism. (As an aside: I’m curious what Barton thought of the de facto nationalization of banks like AIG and automakers like Chrysler?) Oh, the hilarity.

Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas said Friday that efforts to tinker with the BCS are bound to fail. He told a House hearing that the BCS is like communism and can’t be fixed. — Lawmaker Compares Football’s BCS to Communism (5-1-2009)

My first reaction is: it’s pretty clear that Barton has no fucking clue what communism is, because the NCAA BCS series is not communism.  Barton invoked the “red scare” under the assumption that most people believe that, “Communism is bad” and will therefore conclude that “The NCAA BCS is bad, too, I should support Barton’s laws.”

Barton correctly described the BCS system as “more about cartels and revenue sharing” than it is about athletic performance, but then followed that gem with fucking nonsense about how “It’s big money… We’re going to start looking into where the money goes.”

And then presumably controlling, directing, and redistributing it. Which is pretty much State socialism.

Although the athletic departments at these universities are often (always?) required to be internally funded, there are plenty of contributing factors to the NCAA’s cartel/monopoly including but not limited to network TV, broadcast rights/privileges, the NFL, the NFL’s labor practices, the NCAA’s privilege as licensed institutions of higher learning, etc. But of one thing, we can be absolutely certain: this sort of abomination does not persist in any market with even a modicum of freedom. How’s about you start looking into where the money comes from — the sources of these economic rents?

Behind every powerful cartel or monpoly is an even more powerful government.

Cowardice Does Not Sink to Such a Depth

March 31st, 2009

An appalling story from the U.K. is making its way around the blogosphere this morning. In a nutshell: a housefire in South Yorkshire (h/t: samizdata) claimed the lives of a young (and expecting) couple, and their three year old son. Their 5 year old daughter is in critical condition at a local hospital and may not survive.

While awaiting the arrival of the fire department, the South Yorkshire police actively thwarted every effort by concerned neighbors to rescue the family trapped inside their burning home. A police spokeswoman indicated that the officers “handled this incident as professionally as possible.”

You be the judge.

Davey Davis, 38, a friend of the family, said: “It was the most harrowing thing I have ever witnessed. Michelle was at the bedroom window yelling, ‘Please save my kids’ and we wanted to help but the police were pushing us back and not allowing us near. We were willing to risk our lives to save those kiddies but the police wouldn’t let us.

I am utterly at a loss for words—not for want of emotion, the feeling I have is very real. It’s just that there are no words low enough or vile enough to accurately describe the actions of these first responders. None.

The presumption that the State owns you, and can therefore decide for you, whether you can aid your friends and neighbors even as they are dying, is absolutely inexcusable. May they be tormented by unabsolvable guilt, for the rest of their days.

Cowardice is understandable, even excusable, in the face of a very real and very serious threat. I’d like to think that I would, but I can’t promise that I’d charge headfirst into the flames to save complete strangers. I will not fault the officers for their unwillingness to risk their own lives in order to try and save that family, even as their house was burning down.

But when several “lads” are willing to put it all on the line, when they has the stones that you do not, and they are willing to risk death in order to save those in immediate danger, it is criminal to impede them.

Do you hear me? It is absolutely criminal to do anything but get the fuck out of their way.

no third solution

Blogging about liberty, anarchy, economics and politics