Centerfield

Congress on The Internet: This Is Leadership?

In the last few days, Congress has shown its mettle and leadership in dealing with the Internet.

Let's take a look at these thoughtful new initiatives. Senate Majority Leader Reid introduced yet another plan sponsored by media companies to try and repeal technology by legislation. They want to require universities to install technology to stop illegal downloads. Never mind that no such thing has been developed. Some people are trying to sell products that claim to stop media downloads, but the open nature of the Internet makes it pretty easy to get around such things. I could implement a workaround in an hour using standard and trivial tools. Similarly, there is no software that can even vaguely accurately figure out how many illegal downloads have happened, so you have be pretty skeptical about any figures you see on that subject.

The other initiative is yet another attempt to Protect The Children From the Evil Internet (attempt #3, I think). The Senators tell us yet again that the Internet Is Dangerous, and that the Children Must Be Protected. At least they've finally noticed out that the courts were so annoyingly fastidious about that 1st Amendment thing on their previous tries. This time, they're just handing out money to find out stuff that's already been found out about filtering tech for parents.

I suppose when I'm old, Congress will repeatedly be trying to pass legislation to save the computer industry from the ravages of nanotech (who's gonna want a PC when the direct brain-connected machine is smaller, more convenient, almost as powerful, and has much better communication?), and come up with some fear angle to try and scare up votes.

Both links courtesy of slashdot.