Big Brother

The paranoid American government is now looking to formalise the internet surveillance by forcing software companies to build a backdoor through which government agencies can get information. This backdoor should be used to decrypt information, I assume it will be used on the same vague premises as the rest of the war on terror package.

The internet is already being controlled in many ways all over the world, often without laws regulating the control systems. This law is however something new, as it is forcing software to decrypt information. So, how will this be done? Are the software companies forced to send keys to their encryption?

I will assume a lot of individuals and companies will oppose this. From a corporate prespective this would increase risks of industrial espionage and leaks of sensitive information. From an individual prespective it will impose even more threats on personal integrity. 

As I see it, the problem with the internet and law is largely based on a generation gap. The generation controlling the laws do not understand the internet, whereas the generation understanding the internet is not making the laws.

[USA] [Big Brother] [Internet] [Surveillance] Share on Facebook

Downloading is not Stealing

If you follow the debate about filesharing in the news, you will inevitably hear: Downloading music/movies is stealing.

This argument is wrong in several ways. Firstly, if you are charged for downloading, the crime is copyright violation, not theft. This is merely a definition but still valid. Furthermore, if you download a song the original file will still be there. Hence, you have copied it, not stolen it.

This should be easy to understand, but apparently it is not. Maybe this is because of the general generation gap between the younger pro-downloading side and the older anti-piracy side. I guess the older side just has a lack of understanding of the technology used.

[Downloading] [Copyright] [Internet] [Mp3] [Stealing]

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