[quote]vroom wrote:
So, yeah, be happy the tools are here… today. However, know that in the name of the children they will be gone tomorrow.[/quote]
Of course, that avenue could be attempted. I think it is pretty much unenforceable; at least, the costs to police all bandwidth, everywhere, all the time would be crippling to the economy.
It would require many news laws to be passed and I think eventually public opinion will wake up and realize that they’re better off with a “freer” internet, even if that implies occasional unpleasantness. The internet, like any tool, can be used for evil purposes.
Note also the technical difficulties in “blocking” unwanted communications when those communications are encrypted. If you don’t know what is being transmitted, it is harder to filter it. If you block all “encrypted” stream of data, people won’t trust ecommerce anymore. And while you can get information from the source and destination of the communication, there are ways to hide those also.
Basically, you need to become like China, where “anonymizing” software, if discovered, will land you in prison for an indefinite time.
Well, it would be pretty easy for the government to claim that encryption technology was the realm of terrorists… and stuff you into the auspices of the Patriot Act for making use of it and similar technologies.
Who would dare argue with that?
Then, while you may not be in prison, that fact that people are searching your house and investigating your library records and so on, may just cause most people to avoid breaking this particular law.
I mean, if you are breaking the law, and terrorists use the technology, that enough to send you to GITMO isn’t it?
Yes, I’m being facetious, but after the way liberties were tossed out the window due to 9/11, I don’t have a lot of confidence in government to protect them anymore.
Yes, I’m being facetious, but after the way liberties were tossed out the window due to 9/11, I don’t have a lot of confidence in government to protect them anymore.[/quote]
I don’t have a lot of confidence in the average American knowing when their own government is taking advantage of them.
[quote]vroom wrote:
Well, it would be pretty easy for the government to claim that encryption technology was the realm of terrorists… and stuff you into the auspices of the Patriot Act for making use of it and similar technologies.[/quote]
It’s already not far from that. In the US, encryption is regulated in the same way as firearms. They used to limited exportable encryption to 40bit strength and such.
People uninformed of the issues.
Yeah, but at that point we’re already living in a police state. We’re supposed to operate under a presumption of innocence, not of guilt.
I guess they could put anyone at Gitmo for whatever reason and you’d have little or no recourse. The outcry has been pretty minimal until now; so I guess they’re threading lightly will the people get used to it.
Didn’t you get the memo? Questioning the government is now unpatriotic and considered treason. Expect G-Men on your doorstep shortly.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
I don’t have a lot of confidence in the average American knowing when their own government is taking advantage of them.[/quote]
It is rather ironic that in this age, with medias everywhere, 24 hours news channels, the internet, etc. Most people are less informed than they used to be.