House IP Leader Endorses P2P Blocking 178
Technical Writing Geek points out an Ars Technica report on comments from Representative Howard Coble (R-NC), who sits on the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property. In a recent editorial, Coble attempts to discourage P2P file sharing among young people, and praises Ohio University for its ban on P2P applications last year. Coble also suggests that identity theft is a great danger from file sharing. Public Knowledge is running a similar analysis, which argues against the main points from the editorial.
Re:ID Theft? (Score:2, Insightful)
just like guns (Score:5, Insightful)
We should outlaw cars too, look at all the people they kill.
I know this has nothing to do about murder, but they are blaming the technology for the crimes. If you get rid of P2P, something new will replace it.
Thats assuming you can get rid of P2P. P2P will not go away any time soon.
Re:ID Theft? (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, at least the kiddie-porn people would be stopped if there was no file sharing... right?
Well, at least Ms Spears would be able to pay her medical bills if there were no file sharing... there, we can all rest happy now.
WTF? This is just an attempt to make it seem ok to filter some things. Slowly but surely they will work on filtering everything for us so we won't have to worry about criminals - except those who work as legislators.
Re:ID Theft? (Score:3, Insightful)
Clueless legislators (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's see, that can apply to everything from raw sugar to automobiles. Quick, file legislation to make them all illegal!
Compromised Windows systems are being used to flood the internet with spam in violation of various state and federal laws. Outlaw Windows!
Why cant these congresscritters get it through their thick skulls that there are plenty of legitimate uses for P2P, even in a university environment. A university in Holland is using bittorrent to manage 6500 workstations [torrentfreak.com] and it's saving them time and money. The university I work at uses SystemImager [systemimager.org] on its high performance research cluster to manage the software on all the compute nodes. SystemImager supports the use of bittorrent as a transport mechanism. If these aren't legal, legitimate, and highly useful implementations of bittorrent then I don't know what is. These are just two working examples of P2P being used in university environments in responsible ways, but I'm sure those stuffed shirts in Washington could care less.
Re:ID Theft? (Score:2, Insightful)
e-mail (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:just like guns (Score:5, Insightful)
Your comparison of gun and cars is a bit flawed, IMO. Guns were invented to take lives; that is their purpose in the universe. Whereas cars are tools that countless uses and, Death Race 2000 fantasy aside, none of them are to kill people. I don't want to start a flame war here, just something I noticed....
Re:just like guns (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:ID Theft? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:ID Theft? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Clueless legislators (Score:2, Insightful)
- John
Re:ID Theft? (Score:3, Insightful)
So should we ban porn? Should we ban IE because it's easily exploited?
And while limewire and kazaa (and the many other programs) have a a good chance of infecting you, what of bit torrent, it's quite a bit safer. Why should it be banned when it's has so many good uses.
(Yes I realize you don't agree with the argument.)
Re:just like guns (Score:2, Insightful)
Paper weight?
Using a gun is always a violent act.
Re:ID Theft? (Score:5, Insightful)
The media doesn't spread the news because they are owned by the same corporations that "contribute" heavily to both "mainstream candidates" (IE, both the Republican and Democrat wings of the Republicrat Party) in every major race.
When Nader was running as a "third party" (Green) candidate, he wasn't on the ballot in enough states to gain the Presidency even if he won every state he ran in, and the media slobbered all over him. The Libertarians were on the ballot in 49 states, yet the media said nary a word about him.
Your corporate overlords, most of whom are foreign (Sony, BP, Shell, etc) aren't about to let go of their power. We, the People, lost and lost big a long time ago.
That said, I still vote, but split my vote between "third party" candidates. Because voting for a candidate that will vote against your interests is worse than wasting a vote, it's just plain stupid. People don't stay away from the polls because they're apathetic, they stay away because they know they have no real voice. Both candidates against legalizing something you love? Why vote?
Re:Many Don't Seem to Understand (Score:5, Insightful)
And you're helping them fight us.
BTW, I'm a geezer.
It's said that if you're a conservative when you're young you have no heart. If you're a liberal when you're old you have no brains. I'd say if you consider yourself boxed into outdated ideas like "liberal" and "conservative" you have neither brains nor heart.
When I was in my tewnties, marijuana was going to be legal as soon as my generation got in power. Well, so much for THAT generational battle!
Re:Clueless legislators (Score:5, Insightful)
Show me an independent report from a neutral party that shows the level of P2P piracy outweighs legitimate uses and I'd accept your argument. Better yet, show me that these idiots in Washington have read such a report.
I've already shown a couple valid uses for P2P. Here are a few others:
I bet that most people don't realize that by simply visiting popular websites like Google you're relying on P2P to some extent. They may not be using well known products like bittorrent or limewire but the data moving around the back end of search engines, the images you see on websites like Microsofts, and even the videos you watch on a site like youtube, are all distributed in part through P2P systems of some sort. They may be entirely custom built or they may rest on top of a protocol like bittorrent. The bottom line is that there's a lot of data being transferred legally via P2P for a number of purposes. I bet if somebody could come up with a realistic and impartial set of numbers you'd be surprised at how much legitimate P2P traffic there is compared to illegal P2P traffic.
Re:Many Don't Seem to Understand (Score:2, Insightful)
Do remember that those "old" who are now collecting Social Security and Medicare were "robbed" to pay for SS and M for those before them. I'd be thrilled to eliminate SS and M - except that I've been paying into it for many years money I could have otherwise been investing and that I'm damned sure I won't get back if SS and M go away. Give me back all that money, with appropriate interest paid on it (that is, if it was invested in 1993, it should get the kind of return that well invested money in 1993 got) and I'll gladly help you dispose of the institutions. Otherwise, fuck off.
Re:just like guns (Score:5, Insightful)
Paper weight?
Using a gun is always a violent act.
Sadly (Score:4, Insightful)
Is this the best trolls can do these days? (Score:3, Insightful)
Because in the latter example, you're stealing material property. That crime is called theft. In the former example, you're copying data illegally -- that crime is called copyright infringement, and the difference is that nobody was deprived of a physical copy of the merchandise. Thievery means taking something physical or otherwise tangible (money counts) and depriving someone else of it.
As for admitting that you engage in willful copyright infringement... well, that just wasn't too smart, now was it? But people like you do give a bad name to those who use BitTorrent for legitimate purposes.
Re:just like guns (Score:5, Insightful)
From a strictly military standpoint, wounding an enemy is much, much more advantageous than killing him. It's one of the reasons NATO dropped from 7.62mm rounds to 5.56mm rounds - the smaller bullets tended to enter the target and tumble, causing more wounding. The 7.62mm rounds tended to pass straight through, meaning the most effective way to use it was to kill. Guns aren't designed to kill, they're designed to intimidate, often working even when no shots are fired or (if shots are fired) nobody is even hit. The decision to use the weapon to instead kill lies with the shooter.
when will they get it? (Score:5, Insightful)
Its one thing for some old politician to not properly understand the technology that he is trying to ban, but one would think a university would be better educated than to assume ALL p2p traffic must be copyright infringment.
Re:ID Theft? (Score:3, Insightful)
No! That simply can't be it. It's apathy! Bad voter! BAD! There is absolutely no way it's due to having appalling choices or ones that are so similar to each other that they're effectively interchangeable. It also has nothing to do with an endless cycle of "whomever gets voted in winds up screwing the people" or political corruption that's so pervasive that utterly nobody is surprised when it becomes public for any given politician.
Nope. It's your fault as a voter for not caring.
Re:Many Don't Seem to Understand (Score:2, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:ID Theft? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm from Australia where they are always full and voting makes a difference.
Re:ID Theft? (Score:2, Insightful)
Email is a waste of time, agreed. It's not even considered by politicians, but letters, you know, on paper, in envelopes, signed and posted with stamps? That's a different story. For whatever reason, they are taken seriously. I think the 'metric' is:
1 Letter = 2k implied similar viewpoints
Why? Don't ask me. I think it has something to do with time, effort, and the general lethargy of the gripers, as a rule... hence a 'rule', of sorts.
Re:just like guns (Score:3, Insightful)