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SOPA, PIPA, ACTA... And now this


WaywardSon
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204792404577229074023195322.html

tl;dr

Reading even a partial list of proposals that could be codified into international law next December at a conference in Dubai is chilling:

• Subject cyber security and data privacy to international control;

• Allow foreign phone companies to charge fees for "international" Internet traffic, perhaps even on a "per-click" basis for certain Web destinations, with the goal of generating revenue for state-owned phone companies and government treasuries;

• Impose unprecedented economic regulations such as mandates for rates, terms and conditions for currently unregulated traffic-swapping agreements known as "peering."

• Establish for the first time ITU dominion over important functions of multi-stakeholder Internet governance entities such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the nonprofit entity that coordinates the .com and .org Web addresses of the world;

• Subsume under intergovernmental control many functions of the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Society and other multi-stakeholder groups that establish the engineering and technical standards that allow the Internet to work;

• Regulate international mobile roaming rates and practices.

Who the hell comes up with this nonsense? <_< That bolded part is like a bad version of that bash.org convo.

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We stop three insane internet killers, only to be faced with something even worse. I think we are only delaying the inevitable, it's only a matter of time before one of these things passes.

This is mostly what they're hoping for, that we give up before they die of old age. Keep fighting.

Two internet killers - to my knowledge, ACTA has already been pushed through and continues to spearhead into the international community.

It's not totally enshrined just yet, and a number of countries have started refusing to participate, putting ACTA's future in jeopardy.

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Now THIS is a problem worth debating - not much of a debate though, it's pretty clear and cut horrible all the way you slice it.

Let us now quote for emphasis:

They'll just keep going with no end in sight as long as you let these people remain in office.

And yes, next time election time comes up - put these fucks out of office.

EDIT: Took out a paragraph because I forgot midway what we were talking about. I do that sometimes.

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Time for a second internet.

seconded.

hell, if this is what we're being faced with, we might as well need to create a new internet. First off, we could start with using some other form of web format, getting rid of the HTTP(S) protocol and use something completely different as an encryption.

Hell, I don't know what I'm talking about. But someone needs to do something.

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My mind is quite literally blown. I'm no internet wizard, but could this be done?

Yes. But it'd have to be pretty ingenious to avoid any regulation that affects the current internet. And its adoption would be even slower than the original.

Making a second internet was bandied about when telecoms were talking about setting up toll booths for websites to access us broadband subscribers. In that case, a second differently run internet is all that would be needed. But a law that regulates wide-area networks of computers (the internet) would affect EVERY internet.

The bold part of the OP just goes to show, once again, they're trying to regulate technology without knowing how it functions... *sigh*

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But surely the natural implications of such things would eventually build up until it has nowhere to go but everywhere in an explosion of incompetence and precedent. I mean, I know people in the higher ups are stupid, but they can't possibly be that stupid.

You don't look at much of what politicians say these days, do you?

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Unbiased, I must rely on the thought that if politicians (and humanity at large by that extension) were genuinely as stupid as people made them out to be, there wouldn't even be a country here anymore. I don't subscribe to our generation's idea that people are stupid until proven otherwise.

Which puts me in a rather awkward position vis-a-vis the link in the OP.

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Time for a second internet.
My mind is quite literally blown. I'm no internet wizard, but could this be done?

We have the technology. We can rebuild it.[/bionicman]

But surely the natural implications of such things would eventually build up until it has nowhere to go but everywhere in an explosion of incompetence and precedent. I mean, I know people in the higher ups are stupid, but they can't possibly be that stupid.

I had the same doubts, but after seeing this, I really have no doubts anymore. How in blue blazes do they expect this to work? What about sites like Google, IMDB, Amazon etc? It's not like they're going to go local for every single country out there. Or services like OnLive or PS / XBox marketplaces. Or Youtube. Or this, or that. And what about sending emails? What, now there's going to be a digital equivalent of stamps? Not to mention that any and all anonimity would pretty much go out the window.

In any case, I'm not really sure that all of this is (just) about the money. Because

And let's face it, strong-arm regimes are threatened by popular outcries for political freedom that are empowered by unfettered Internet connectivity. They have formed impressive coalitions, and their efforts have progressed significantly.
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I can't argue in the face of cold reality. You'd think after 20 years or more, SOMEONE in a position of power and influence would understand how the internet works. Why is it so easy for us and the younger generation to understand while people 50 and up, or, hell, younger than that, people who have mastered political science, international business, finance management worth billions of dollars - all this shit that takes serious talent and brainpower to obtain - and they still can't figure out how the internet works?

That's what bothers me the most. You CAN'T be an idiot and hold any form of public office at the same time. It is clearly motivated by greed and pressure from outside forces.

Oh well, Anonymous will take care of these idiots for us.

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A big part of why older people can have a harder time understanding the internet:

  1. They trivialize it in their mind, making it out to be a fairly insignificant part of society and business. (less likely)
  2. Computers take a very different form of logic than what they probably learned to use, and they can't simply change the way they think. At that age, you're usually pretty firmly set in the manner in which you reason, unless you've trained yourself to be flexible.

Either way, though, DUE to the fact they don't understand how it works and what it is used for, they are bound to be misinformed by others on what its 'needs' are and what 'must' be done with it.

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Nah, they can use email, can't they? They can read news sites. can't they? It's not that they can't, it's that they don't live there.

I'd say it's more a case of it being a mere communication and information tool for the older generation. Not in the sense that they use it more than we do for those purposes. It's just that to them, it's a telegraph and a library rolled into one, and nothing more.

To us, it's a free theatre, and we can be both on stage and in the audience. To us, it's a town square, with market booths for everyone with something to sell. To us, it's watching tv and playing outdoors at the same time. To us, it's a club where you can meet strangers and a community where you meet friends. To us, it's a new frontier to explore, right in our own back yard. To us, it's a world. To them, it's a means they could do without.

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I certainly didn't mean to go an ageist route there, but it's a huge curiosity to me as I see it with politicians, clients of ours, and the guy who did our home inspection yesterday.

I started to wonder if maybe these wacky-ass politicos and entertainment business suits are actually threatened by the power of the internet. Like they're well aware they their strangehold over the people is slipping away from them with nothing they can do but react childishly with their tails between their legs - to me that best explains why people with multiple college degrees from top schools in top positions act so mind-bogglingly ignorant.

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