Wednesday 17 March 2010: Piracy and Privacy
It seems that ever since the horrible terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, lots of new laws have been passed everywhere around the world that give law enforcement greater freedom in their investigations. The downside of this is that it weakens the freedom of individual citizens. When I visited the USA last summer, my photograph and fingerprints were taken and filed. I could accept that because I know what happened back in 2001 and if this helps to find the bad guys...
But it doesn't stop there... I don't know if the law has already been passed or not, but Dutch internet service providers are already or will be forced to log details of email correspondence of their customers. The new Dutch public transport access card is used to store start and destinations of all individual trips. This information is kept on file for six years. A system of toll roads is planned where movements of cars will also be recorded and filed. There are no clear rules describing how and when this information can be used by law enforcement. The Netherlands is a leader when it comes to the number of internet taps requested by law enforcement. It is totally unclear why this is or what the police are looking for...
On top of all this, the near future will probably bring us the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) which also aims at enforcement of intellectual property rights by forcing internet service providers to provide detailed information about internet traffic from individual citizens without a need for reasonable suspicion. What this means is that internet providers have to log all the things a customer does with his internet connection. It may even mean pro-actively reporting 'suspicious behavior'. The negotiations about ACTA are held behind closed doors; very democratic...
Don't get me wrong: copying software or movies without paying for these goods is wrong. Counterfeiting is wrong. But I'm worried about our privacy. If it doesn't even require a judge to get all sorts of details about where I have been and what I have been doing on the internet, who will take care my constitutional rights are not violated? In the meantime, most people don't seem to know or care that this is going on.
Sorry about this rant; this has been on my mind for quite some time and after reading another update about ACTA I felt the need to write about this...
About the image: it's a plastic skeleton that we bought when Nienke showed an interest in what bones are and how they work. The eyes are my eyes (well, actually they are two copies of my left eye) which I put in the original picture using GIMP. After that, I changed the original red colour of the backlight to blue.
The image represents icons of piracy (the skull) and Big Brother (the eyes)
Canon EOS 500D : f/13.0 : 10" : 20mm : ISO 400
Comments
Superb blip. I too have great concerns as I think that hysteria over terrorism is a wonderful shield to bring in a whole raft of measures that otherwise would not be sanctioned.
I sometimes wonder if it is the governments way of trying to control the beast that is the internet.
That's my rant over with.
~ raubrey
Excellent blip. It is one of the most worrying developments of the past few years. I think how creeping it has been and how far it has gone already is the scary part. Who knows where it will lead?
~ rutherfordium
Nothing like a good rant to make you feel brighter
My worry is who else can get their hands on my data..
We have a standing joke here about confidential data discs being lost in the
post or left in service stations or on the train...
Great pic too clever!
~ fledermaus
Yes that is quite some RANT!!!!!!
Love your Skeleton Blip...I have done a couple of cheery Skeleton Blips....if you fancy checking them out :-)
~ julietwocoats
I bought a skull today. I might Blip it.
~ CanCarrier
Good Blip, good thoughts about this.
Big Brother is watching us more and more....
~ powerplanter
I've a feeling we've already seen the last of the golden years of internet freedom....it's sad, definitely sad.....once upon a time I/you/we were left to make our own choices, read or not read, look or not look.....
~ meancoast
I think the problem is getting universal...security is a must but sometimes power and authority are misused. nice representative blip.
thanks for your comments
~ Adda
An excellent photo and rant.:-))
~ hinden
such a cute face, and cool light painting!
copying software or movies without paying might be wrong, but is not harmful! they are just virtual stuff! it's somehow an act of borrowing and because they're virtual we don't need to give them back!
to enable the maximum ISO speed, go to menu, in the green star column choose my menu settings, in the next menu choose register, in the next menu choose ISO expansion and finally open the ISO expansion and choose 'on'!
~ visualbinam
All this sounds to me that Big Brother is getting way too paranoid. The emphasis is on completely wrong things. We cannot take out the "bad" of the world by trying to reduce it. The only way is to increase the "good" so that there will not be space for the bad.
Big Brother should start showing more love. We all do. That is after all the essential thing that everybody needs. It is so weird: we all want to be happy, but we take actions that don't lead to happiness. All this sounds very idealistic and simple. But how hard is it to show love and compassion?
So when we love someone we also trust that person. Of course there are people in terrible situations in this world, but coming together and helping and loving each other will be the only way to make humanity survive.
~ nina54
A great write up and rant.
~ traceyflowerpot
Well-deserved rant - things go from one extreme to the other. I love the skeleton - I was always fascinated by bones when I was a child!
~ KathGordon
I totally agree. They always say "if you've got nothing to hide, then why would you object?". Well because it's nobodies business what I am doing in my own time. And with the way the government handles it's informatio I am not that certain that the information is safe.
Furthermore this will only get worse if our bleeched blondy of politics (Geert Wilders) comes to power. Because this paranoid has security 24/7 he is used to the big brother. And if he can take it everybody should take it right? To keep the big bad terrorists at bay. Well I'll tell you the terrorists are here already. People like Geert spread terror where there is actually nothing to fear. Then you are a true terrorist by my definition.
Sorry about that. It has been on my mind as well.
Love the creativity by the way.
~ memos
excellent blip...sometimes we can be too complacent about the infringement of our rights..love the image
~ BS
Good work on the image. When I started reading I thought it was going to be to signify the new x-ray machines going through security in some of the airports. It has opened up an interesting debate.
~ gblrps
Like the blip. In a few years we probably get a chip implanted so they can record how often we go to the toilet. You get like 2 tax-free toilet visits and after that you need to pay tax each time. And if you go to often they will arrest you because you match with some criminal pattern.
~ marcel
Great rant and image. But I have to admit to loving the free access to bootleg stuff in BKK! It's a way of life here ;-)
~ BangkokTattoo
You haven't been invited to comment on this journal. Why not start your own journal and join the community? It's free, only takes a minute and you'll be able to comment on everyone's journals. Click here to get started.