We got news of a new, widespread Internet security hole this week, and it turns out this one was caused by government. They caused it.
Government is bad at controlling the Internet, and so now it turns out the Net Neutrality plan of Barack Obama’s to regulate the Internet may cause even more problems. Net Neutrality will break streaming.
Nicholas Weaver’s post there is definitely worth reading. He explains why ISPs often get falsely accused of breaking things, when in fact the problems are caused by copyright infringers. Keep in mind it was Comcast shutting down illegal Bittorrent operations* that started this whole Net Neutrality fight to begin with.
And now this plan the socialists have been cheering, that Obama has been rushing to pass, as written will break the Internet. Thanks Obama.
* Yes, it’s true Bittorrent is legally neutral. It is a tool that can be used for good, or for ill. But the people Comcast shut down were breaking the law.
I couldn’t post Wednesday because RedState had some maintenance going on, which spiraled into a major episode of downtime. So we’ll catch up as best I can with some quick links here.
Speaking of Net Neutrality, Netflix tried to ride the scorpion in a greedy quest for winners and losers, and ended up getting everything that was in government’s nature to give it.
Make no mistake, this is all about control. And content control will come.
Conflicting reports about comrade Edward Snowden. Some say he wants to return to the US. Others say he wants to go to Switzerland. One thing is clear though: He broke the law, he is guilty, and he has confessed. So it’s insane that he is saying he won’t get a “fair trial” simply because he would be convicted of crimes he committed.
How long until Obama tries to ban anti-facial-recognition glasses?
Gun control doesn’t work, and online cybersecurity control will fail even worse since the ‘weapons’ are data. Note that link claims that post-WWI arms control worked. Except it didn’t. WWII happened. Online treaties won’t stop online WWIII, either. They’ll just hinder the innocent, as defensive and testing tools often mirror offensive tools.
Carly Fiorina thinks the new patent troll bill in the House is too comprehensive. If it’s true, and I have no reason to believe it’s not too ambitious, I agree with her and oppose it. I hate comprehensive anything legislation. You could have a comprehensive pet kittens reform bill and they’d find a way to pick winners and losers in it.
So whether you agree with the reformers (and I tend to) or think they’re wrong and anti-patent, too big of a bill is a bad idea. That means the Senate taking up a narrow bill is interesting.
Bitcoiners continue lie, cheat, and steal. It’s the essence of the currency. You have no property rights. There is no mechanism in the system for the enforcement of property rights. Bitcoin is anarchy, and anarchy is the strong stealing from the weak.
So there’s a big scare going around that the Supreme Court is overturning its rulings on sales taxes, except it’s not really true. There’s no ruling, and none of the commentary by Kennedy really matters until it actually has a case, and we have no reason to believe that Kennedy’s musings actually speak for the court on the law, or even that Kennedy would necessarily rule that way. It’s a nothingburger.
The Internet is a nasty place full of horrible people. Don’t let kids on the Internet.