I'm so bothered by TechDirt's response that I'm posting about it a second time.
In setting up the We-the-People petitions site, the White House inferred that it was a effective way for citizens to connect to their government. Techdirt recently (and excellently) pointed out that the White House doesn't respond to petitions in a way that translate into meaningful change.
The petition site is a betrayal. It's a PR tool with a facade of government concern. The word that best describes it is fraud.
I cheered when Techdirt recounted their concerns with it.
In response to being outed, a talented WH staffer picks a substanceless petition and fills it with memes designed to placate the only community that challenged the site's credibility.
That community ate it up and took a turn at being the the White House's PR tool.
Today we have petitions on the table that mean something.
One is for the firing of the DA that profoundly abused her authority in prosecuting Aaron Swartz. It amassed 25k signatures in about 2 days.
A related and much more important petition demands the WH take the lead in reforming the often misused 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
It's signature uptake is slower and the petition may have difficulty finding folks who get what it does.
So if we heap praise on the White House for being clever when nothing is at stake, we risk reaffirming the thinking that Americans really aren't all that interested in changing what desperately needs to be changed.
And that is a terribly self-destructive thing for us to do.
I appreciate Mike's compassionate position on user ad blocking. I wanted to add that ads don't just add nuisance to a site, they're also a threat vector to the user.
Malware delivery happens in waves. One type delivers malicious payloads to users via infected ad servers. I block ads to reduce the risk of infection.
This applies to my customers as well. Every network I service has a local proxy server; it's primary purpose is to strip ad-laden content before it can load in a users browser. This reduces infection rates everywhere it's deployed, sometimes to zero.
With respect to the advertising industry:
Your cries that adblocking is selfish would have more credibility - if your industry were equally vocal about the real-world damages consumers suffer from the crap served to us by your industry.
"if the whole thing isn't being "leaked" on purpose to get cybersecurity stories back into the press to push for the exec order or for a revival of the bill."
So who at Kurtis Prod. decided a balanced view of copyright was intolerable?
Maybe the folks who put this thing together would be honest about it.
They are an investigative show after all. I would think they know the difference between a candid answer and an evasive one.
In the study, the authors pointed out that the monitors they were tracking all resided within six AS#'d subnets.
AS23504 AS174 AS209 AS558 AS27699 AS1213
If someone compiled all the IPs in those subnets into a single block list it would contain 3128 CIDRs.
One could just block torrent traffic to those addresses until a more precise option was developed.
Another factor is a media that compulsively feasts on insignificant flaws (Joe Biden excepting).
We're left with a pool of candidates who are milquetoasty free of character.
On the post: Official White House Position: We're Not Building A Death Star
I'm doing it again.
In setting up the We-the-People petitions site, the White House inferred that it was a effective way for citizens to connect to their government. Techdirt recently (and excellently) pointed out that the White House doesn't respond to petitions in a way that translate into meaningful change.
The petition site is a betrayal. It's a PR tool with a facade of government concern. The word that best describes it is fraud.
I cheered when Techdirt recounted their concerns with it.
In response to being outed, a talented WH staffer picks a substanceless petition and fills it with memes designed to placate the only community that challenged the site's credibility.
That community ate it up and took a turn at being the the White House's PR tool.
Today we have petitions on the table that mean something.
One is for the firing of the DA that profoundly abused her authority in prosecuting Aaron Swartz. It amassed 25k signatures in about 2 days.
A related and much more important petition demands the WH take the lead in reforming the often misused 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
It's signature uptake is slower and the petition may have difficulty finding folks who get what it does.
So if we heap praise on the White House for being clever when nothing is at stake, we risk reaffirming the thinking that Americans really aren't all that interested in changing what desperately needs to be changed.
And that is a terribly self-destructive thing for us to do.
On the post: Court Blocks Controversial California Bill That Takes Away All Anonymity For Any Sex Offenders
I'm so posting that I have to say
On the post: Official White House Position: We're Not Building A Death Star
But when it comes to petitions of substance...
On the post: Fight Over French ISP Blocking Ads Really Just A New Perspective On Net Neutrality Debate
Ad Blocking = User Safety
Malware delivery happens in waves. One type delivers malicious payloads to users via infected ad servers. I block ads to reduce the risk of infection.
This applies to my customers as well. Every network I service has a local proxy server; it's primary purpose is to strip ad-laden content before it can load in a users browser. This reduces infection rates everywhere it's deployed, sometimes to zero.
With respect to the advertising industry:
Your cries that adblocking is selfish would have more credibility - if your industry were equally vocal about the real-world damages consumers suffer from the crap served to us by your industry.
On the post: The Philippines' New 'Cybercrime' Law Aims To 'Protect' Citizens By Going After Filesharing, Online Libel
Foreign Exchange Rate
On the post: DOJ Lawyer Explores 'Copyright Freeconomics'; Suggests Copyright Needs To Change
Not long now
On the post: White House Conveniently Confirms 'Cyberattack' Story Just As Its Pushing Cybersecurity Exec Order
Story Nailed It
Survey says: DING
On the post: Crime Inc. Inc., The Business Of Hyping The Piracy Threat
Re: Contact Info for Crime Inc Production team?
Maybe the folks who put this thing together would be honest about it.
They are an investigative show after all. I would think they know the difference between a candid answer and an evasive one.
I came across some contact info for the show.
IMDB page for the episode.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2404302/fullcredits
Editor: Ryan Koscielniak
ryan[at]clydemedia[dot]com
Supervising Producer: Carmen Jones
cjones[at]kurtis[dot]com
Executive Producer:
mwest[at]kurtis[dot]com
They can be also contacted by facebook and linkedin pages.
Did Daniel Freed work on this as well?
On the post: Crime Inc. Inc., The Business Of Hyping The Piracy Threat
Contact Info for Crime Inc Production team?
Here's a youtube url for the show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtxkrcCPp38
On the post: Unconstitutional Fishing Expeditions: The Massive Abuse Of Administrative Subpoenas By The Government
It's BeCause
Cause #2) The press ignores it's entrustment to cover issues like this each and every day.
Cause #3) Most of our federally elected officials are chosen through marketing agencies.
Cause #4) The purchase of Federal Law through campaign contributions continues unabated.
On the post: New Research Sets The Stage For Next Round Of Cat-And-Mouse Between BitTorrent Users & Snoopers
The Study Authors gave some helpful info
AS23504 AS174 AS209 AS558 AS27699 AS1213
If someone compiled all the IPs in those subnets into a single block list it would contain 3128 CIDRs.
One could just block torrent traffic to those addresses until a more precise option was developed.
I'm just sayin.
On the post: 2012 Democrats: Remember That Civil Liberties Thing From 2008? Um, Nevermind
Then there's the press
We're left with a pool of candidates who are milquetoasty free of character.
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