White House Realizes That Outlawing P2P No Excuse For Gov't Employee Stupidity

from the phew dept

Over the summer, we saw Congress mistarget its anger over stupid government employees misusing P2P software to reveal government secrets by blaming the P2P software. It didn't take long for them to propose a law to deal with the problem. Thankfully, the White House is actually pointing out how unnecessary this is and how silly it is to target a single type of technology, when the issue is about how people use the technology, not the technology itself.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: government employees, p2p


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    You never know, 15 Feb 2008 @ 2:24pm

    Whoa!!!!!!! Some one in the Whitehouse is actually paying attention?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Maybe, 15 Feb 2008 @ 2:31pm

    Re:

    Bush on vacation?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Xeno, 15 Feb 2008 @ 2:31pm

    I think hell just got a little colder

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Stute, 15 Feb 2008 @ 2:34pm

    This is clearly unpossible.

    I mean... How can the government say something like that! It's so out of character.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Tipu, 15 Feb 2008 @ 2:35pm

    More likely the WH realized that ...

    More likely the White House realized that RIAA is paying more money to Democrats than Republicans, so out of spite it is opposing banning P2P. Otherwise I doubt that the current white house will miss an opportunity to not dance to Big Businesse's tune.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Tipu, 15 Feb 2008 @ 2:35pm

    More likely the WH realized that ...

    More likely the White House realized that RIAA is paying more money to Democrats than Republicans, so out of spite it is opposing banning P2P. Otherwise I doubt that the current white house will miss an opportunity to not dance to Big Business's tune.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Danny, 15 Feb 2008 @ 2:51pm

    I know!!

    You see since this law was shot down the RIAA/MPAA now have incentive to further "motivate" legislators the next time this comes up. And no doubt it will be tacked on to some law two years from now that has nothing to do with file sharing.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Poet N. Didntnoeit, 15 Feb 2008 @ 3:23pm

    There once was a poster named Tipu
    His postings were full of dudu
    Ignoance is bliss they say
    He must be mightly happy today
    People like him drive me cucu.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Poet N. Didntnoeit, 15 Feb 2008 @ 3:23pm

    There once was a poster named Tipu
    His postings were full of dudu
    Ignoance is bliss they say
    He must be mightly happy today
    People like him drive me cucu.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    BigEd, 15 Feb 2008 @ 4:51pm

    Now What do we Do...

    We were all so convinced that the white house so so full of idiots and jerks that someone there had to go and do something smart. What's this world coming to...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    BigEd, 15 Feb 2008 @ 4:52pm

    Now What do we Do...

    We were all so convinced that the white house was so full of idiots and jerks that someone there had to go and do something smart. What's this world coming to...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Feb 2008 @ 6:37pm

    @Danny

    Haven't you heard? After exploiting the ability to do that, the Bush administration is going to put the kabosh on that as they leave.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.