Missing something (sic)

Hold on a second.

"This is something we would advise men never to attempt. The results can be quite horrific and long-lasting and have quite an effect on a man's sexual performance."

There it is, black on white. Yet no mention whatsoever that this barbarism is inflicted onto children every day (not even talking about excision and infibulation).

Stunning.

Wrong story title

The story should be titled: "EU wants monopoly on violating privacy".

Why are robbery, extortion, abduction, assault, etc. punished by law? Because goverments don't like competition.

Anyone who gives any credit to the EU is in for a big disappointment.

@Slightly OT but:

> Who owns the copyright on the torrent files themselves?

I do. All your torrents are belong to me. Now, bend over.

Makes you wonder...

So... in our "democracies" we get thrown into jail if we don't want to pay horrendous prices for music; while under the Chinese "dictatorship" you get the music for free.

Tough choice, ain't it?

But on the other hand, that's probably part of the PR. By now, they've worked on the public hard enough to have it believe any filesharer is a child porn lover (and hence, a child rapist). Now they have the additional argument that filesharers are totalitarians. For, everyone knows the governments don't give a hoot about the children (what about health care and education?), but we all know how dearly they care about democracy, don't we? Well, at least as long as everyone votes as they want them to (most recent counter example: Irish referendum about the Lisbon treaty).

df.

Get a grip, y'all

*Of course* when Microsoft speaks of "openness" it means "the way we can rake the most profit in".

But so do bloody Google and bloody IBM and bloody whatnot.

Wake the fuck up, folks! It took you a few decades, and you've learned to distrust every latest hype from M$. Very good. But then there comes another bunch of rascals with a new shiny green image and you woot and cheer and clap and dance all anew. But it's the same old thing, dammit. Get a grip. I don't wanna have to wait even one decade.

While it's sooo simple. Big bucks says "good" => good for them. Big bucks says "bad" => bad for them.

[Good for big bucks] => [you got big bucks] ? [Good for you] : [Bad for you]

(and we're talking biiiiig bucks here, not your puny savings account)

df.

Fundamental "rights"

Just to set one thing straight, with all this talk about free speech.

Constitutional rights, among which (as a rule) the right to free speech, are NOT rights of the individual per se. Constitutions are NOT a collection of fundamental rights of the individual which somebody (guess who... the gov't) would have to "defend". That's what they would like everyone to think, but that's not how it is. Well, at least that's not the idea behind constitutions and such (Bill Of Rights).

Contitutions are sets of rules binding, not the individual, but the *government*. The right to free speech doesn't mean anybody can say what they want in public; it means the *government* isn't allowed to impose any limit to your speech.

Similarly, the rule f.i. in the German constitution (which is quite a fine one as constitutions go) protecting the privacy of homes does NOT mean that it forbids burglary. It doesn't apply to individuals as such. It applies to governments and means, in this case, that the *government* (executive) isn't allowed to violate the privacy of your home (whereas the judiciary is). Of course, nowadays it's hardly worth the paper it's written on.

Individuals, then, are ruled by civil and criminal law -- not constitutional law.

Whether or not this is all right or perfect is beside the aim of this here humble contribution. But that's what the spirit of constitutions and, in general, classical (bourgeois) political philosophy is.

df.

Gratuitous sidekick

"'A New Kind of Science' (abbreviated NKS for those of you who prefer the Church of Scientology method of using acronyms to make yourself sound more serious)"

MUSA* a peculiarity of the CoS**? TNTM***.

* Making Up Stupid Acronyms

(and, incidentally: Made in the United States of America)

** Church of Scientology

*** That's news to me

Houston, we have a ...

"Google calls this an experiment"

It's a beta!

Gosh

"[...] Former head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's cyber group [...]: 'we need to measure everything'"

Why am I not surprised?

A title is required

Mmmhhhhhhh... piss.

Volatile storage

> It appears Foucher has now been released, having agreed

> to return to the negotiating table

Gotta wonder how long he'll remember that "agreement". Trouble is, as soon as you actually release hostages, that's when the bullets start raining.

Can't see what else they could have done, though. Other countries' plebs may seem like chicken when compared to the French, but even the French are little more than barking chicken. Sound good, but still deliver their eggs dutifully.

Money?

> Shadow health minister Mike Penning said it demonstrated

> "the severe strain the growing obesity epidemic is putting our

> emergency services under"

How high's the military budget again? How much cash has been shoved up banks' arses lately, again?

Silly me. It's all the fatsos' fault, of course.

Crooks?

I find it a bit saddening how heavy a use the article makes of the substantive "crooks". "Freedom lovers", "people who object to being spied upon" are categories that would warrant mentioning, IMHO. When one reflects upon how little evidence suffices to label Joe Public as a "suspect terrorist", you don't need to be a criminal (merely, f.i. a political opponent -- or icelandic) to be anxious.

Yadda yadda

Who gives a crap about what the church says or has to say?

Rule of law

The judiciary nowadays works through blacklists and presumption of guilt. Has there ever been a Rule of Law?

Missing gratification?

While I pretty much agree with the contents of the article, I'd like to raise one point here that I encounter too seldom for my liking.

Been there, done that. Yeah, GNU *is* better. Steep learing cure, though.

But... why the fuck does everyone want to have GNU/Linux/KDE|GTK dominate the desktop, Life Universe and Everything in the first place?! Are their phallusses that tiny? Isn't it enough to them that it's good? That's it's a pleasure to work with?

And aside from that, don't they realise that, if it actually did dominate, it would simply become Windows? The capital goes where the profit is. Economics 101, kids.

If you love free, collaborative software; if you love things done right for no other reason than esthetics... then _pray_ it'll remain a niche product.