look out! its politics time! rant! yay!
as a user who has been fucked by telcos, watched wireless companies screw its customers, investors, employees and myself, and now is currently forced to either pay local loop charges and get dsl or pay a cable company- I have came to the recent conclusion that passing of laws like the new revisions to the digital millenium copyright act, or the rave act- is good! I hope they BOTH pass!
I know you are thinking, what crack are you smoking?
why do I like watching my rights erode away every day?
because more and more, all of us are getting to the breaking point. We are sick of corporate welfare. We are getting moe and more tired of candidates who represent business and not people. I will never vote again for a single republicrat :) I will always support new parties, that represent the people and the people's needs. Democraps and republiRich's represnt corporate america and the status quo.
let em pass shitty laws. Because soon, one of them will piss too many people off and we will throw their asses out.
Its proven by nature itself, you can only push someone or something so far before it breaks.
think about it this way. sure, microsoft will say, you have to use this hardware, and you cant do this or that or this...blah blah blah, and other manufacturers will make products to fall in line with the great big icky giant.
guess what will happen- users that dont want to buy into their bullshit will-
support companies that manufacture products and provide services without these stupid, ass backwards limitations.
They wont be able to pass laws that force manufacturers to infringe on personal rights. period, Its the constitution, and the bill of rights, that will in the end, protect us. As much as I hate the supreme court, they usually wont allow things to happen that completely ignore our rights.
The problem for corporate america is, there are places in the world like sweden where the people arent entirely focused around making money. There are people in this world who believe that sharing is not only an important part of human existence, but vital in building community. Look at the beauty of things like LINUX, that are FREE and in many ways far more badass than winblowz. COLLECTIVE involvement means collective benefits of the PEOPLE, NOT corporations. Look at researchers who openly share their research with others FOR THE BETTERMENT OF SOCIETY AS A WHOLE.
so yah, I run windows right now. I use a national ISP. I am not going to be using the isp for long, and will soon have a 7mbit connection to my house, and It will cost me around, oh, 100 bucks.Because of a community based concept.Did you know that if you buy bandwidth directly from a tier one on a backbone, that on average its about .20cents per MEGBIT ACCESS per MONTH? screw local loop - get yourself a nice BIG wireless backhaul. add some 802.11 flavor - and you got one bad ass fast network, that works good as a fiber network, for 1/1000th of the price:)
SO- When microSUCK makes some new products that infringe on my personal rights, I will drop them and anyone who attempts the same bullshit, same with anyone else who doesnt believe that sharing something isnt the equivalent of stealing. Corporate america has stolen enough from people. Its our turn to take back what is rightfully ours, which is our right to SHARE and our RIGHT TO PRIVACY and our RIGHT TO vote with our pocketbook.
Understand that most corporations only purpose is to serve the needs of their investors. to make profit. Eventually, people WILL wake up, and they will lose.
Sure, many people wont wake up. The suburban living, minivan driving, aol using, national media believing,
sucka's out there. They can have their mcdonalds and sizzler life for all I care.Let those who are ignorant
be ignorant.
In conclusion- you cant fix whats broken. Our political system is shot, core values are gone, and needs fixing.
Until the system of checks and balances is EQUAL, all fighting each stupid law will do is slow the inevitable breakdown of the system causing a new and more balanced system to emerge. So let it happen and people may eventually throw mud in their faces, and then we can go back to being what makes america a great place- freedoms.
Until then, I will keep pointing and laughing, rooting for the man or woman who represents me and my beliefs.
Look at it this way- remember how "somewhat" okay the clinton administration was? You see how bad a bush admininstartion is? We were nice and placated during slick willie's term, and now we are all getting pissed off. Nader was right, by him throwing the democrat vote, this next time people are going to be even more likely to vote for a liberal candidate.
Jeff