theblackmask
16th August 2010, 22:14
A great talk with Eben Moglen, author of the dotCommunist Manifesto (http://www.revleft.com/vb/dotcommunist-manifesto-t133880/index.html?t=133880&highlight=eben+moglen). He's got some interesting ideas on the development of the web, and seems to really hate Mark Zuckerberg. He is, however, a lawyer, so...take that how you will :D
http://www.isoc-ny.org/?p=1338
Everyone wants a piece of you these days: Google, Facebook, Flickr, Apple, AT&T, Bing. They’ll give you free e-mail, free photo storage, free web hosting, even a free date. They just want to listen in. And you can’t wait to let them. They’ll store your stuff, they’ll organize your photos, they’ll keep track of your appointments, as long as they can watch. It all goes into the “Cloud.”
How we got here is quite a scary story. But nowhere near as scary as getting out again. Eben Moglen, a Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University and the founding director of the Software Freedom Law Center, warned you about privacy and the cloud before. At a public meeting of the Internet Society of New York on February 5, Moglen asked you to consider how much worse things have become since then and explain what you can do to reclaim your freedom in the era of Web 2.0.
I've always thought it was kinda crazy to the extent which many groups rely on other people's computers and "the cloud" to conduct their online activity. Given the recent trends of cracking down on filming police, Facebook activism, etc. I think this is really relevant.
Google and Facebook are already (mostly) passively monitoring our activity. If we were ever anywhere near a revolutionary situation, it wouldn't be hard for the ruling class to completely shut down our methods of online communication. I agree with the speaker in that we need to be moving to our own boxes and our own infrastructure.
The Internet as we know it is compromised, and while we may be able to use it as a tool now, it is still in the hands of the capitalists. If we ever intend on seriously challenging the system, we need to wrest this tool from their hands.
http://www.isoc-ny.org/?p=1338
Everyone wants a piece of you these days: Google, Facebook, Flickr, Apple, AT&T, Bing. They’ll give you free e-mail, free photo storage, free web hosting, even a free date. They just want to listen in. And you can’t wait to let them. They’ll store your stuff, they’ll organize your photos, they’ll keep track of your appointments, as long as they can watch. It all goes into the “Cloud.”
How we got here is quite a scary story. But nowhere near as scary as getting out again. Eben Moglen, a Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University and the founding director of the Software Freedom Law Center, warned you about privacy and the cloud before. At a public meeting of the Internet Society of New York on February 5, Moglen asked you to consider how much worse things have become since then and explain what you can do to reclaim your freedom in the era of Web 2.0.
I've always thought it was kinda crazy to the extent which many groups rely on other people's computers and "the cloud" to conduct their online activity. Given the recent trends of cracking down on filming police, Facebook activism, etc. I think this is really relevant.
Google and Facebook are already (mostly) passively monitoring our activity. If we were ever anywhere near a revolutionary situation, it wouldn't be hard for the ruling class to completely shut down our methods of online communication. I agree with the speaker in that we need to be moving to our own boxes and our own infrastructure.
The Internet as we know it is compromised, and while we may be able to use it as a tool now, it is still in the hands of the capitalists. If we ever intend on seriously challenging the system, we need to wrest this tool from their hands.