On Sat, 5 Jan 2002 23:11:12 -0500 (EST) Kevin Atkinson <kevin at atkinson.dhs.org> writes: > When I first read the slashdot article "Lawrence Lessig Answers Your > Questions" (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/12/21/155221) I
I have no net connection, at least not till pay day, so I can't see this or any other internet article unless someone sends them directly to me or posts them on this list. I don't cry very often either, but when I do, it is usualy because something has made my mind unstable. I suffer from depression, and I am emmotionaly handicaped. Pressure doesn't sit too well with me, my emotions go crazy. > cried, which is really saying something as I do not cry often. And > since them I have been having a wide variety of fixed emotions. But > I > think it settled down to being scared. Part of my fear can best be > described by the following article "The Coming Storm" by Bruce Bell > (http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/DVD/articles/comingstorm.html). > The other part of my fear is the fact that very few people > understand > what the existence of the Internet really means, and even fewer > people > see the upcoming battle. I know I didn't fully grasp what is going Very few people understand anything about computers or the internet, hence the danger for children on computers. We need to educate people about computers, the internet, and the good and the bad that exist in the Cyber-World. We also need to educate people on the dangers of censorship and the degredation and destruction of our fundamental freedoms here in the US, and elsewhere in the so-called Free world. > on > until I read the Lawrence Lessig responses. We have a fundamental > paradigm shift on our hands and hardly any one sees it. Hardly > anyone > sees that in with the existence of the Internet it is going to > imposable to control the flow of information, period. The only way > to stop this flow of information is to ban people all together from > the Internet. Any sort of censorship and copy protection is going > to > be defeated, plain and simple. What is even scarier is that if Not only WILL they be defeated, they SHOULD be defeated. Censorship of any kind has always been the greatest weapon of tyrants and dictators and corrupt governments. We MUST NOT ALLOW ANY government or organization of of the power of Censorship. As for Copy Protection, it is so wrong it is rediculous. If they had had their way we would not have VCR or any other Audio/Video recording technology. Imagine haveing to miss your favorite TV shows or movies because you were not allowed by law to record them? They think that copying is automaticaly an illegal practice, but it isn't. We should have the right to create copies of our own things for our own personal use. What we do with those copies cannot be decided by the Music or Software industries. > Richard Stallman article "The Right to Read" > (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html) was worded > slightly > differently I have a felling many people will not see the problem > with the picture he is painting. However, what really is upsetting > me > lately is that I have absolutely know idea how to get the typical > person to understand the magnitude of what is going on. I truly > fell that the upcoming issues over the free flow of information are > major, very major. Even bigger than the terrorist attack on the > U.S. > However, hardly any one is even aware of it, and I don't know how > to > make them aware. I agree. I think that the terrorists are actualy winning, because our reaction to these attacks has been to destroy the very freedoms we are supposedly fighting to protect. I'm even beginning to wonder whether or not certain individuals in our government KNEW of this attack before it occured and were just waiting to grab at the chance to take away our freedoms. But then, I'm probably just being paranoid. Don't mind me. :) > > So, my point of posting this is to hopefully open up some discussion > on > what is really going to happen and to address the key problem that > has > really gotten me down lately: > > How the hell do you get the average person to understand the full > magnitude of what the Internet means? And how do you explain how > the DMCA is just downright wrong, and how if the various media > originations (such as the RIAA, the MPAA) had there way we would > be > living in a world exactly as Richard Stallman explains. Or even > how to get them to understand that the picture Richard Stallman > is > painting is just wrong in more ways than once. I wish I could help, I'm just as clueless. I'm not very good at convincing the average person to agree with me. I'm just not that good at understanding others. > > I have never been so serious about anything in my life and would > really like some input here. I have felt certain ways against > other > issues in the past but all of them are extremely minor compared to > this. > > Also, if you know of better ways places to post this please let me > know. > > Yours, > Kevin. I'm also very serious about this. I believe very firmly that the worst things on the internet, such as the Child Porn industry, could be completely destroyed by the use of Freenet to freely distribute all of those horrible pictures and movies so that the bad guys can't make any money off of it. I also think that Freenet could be a very usefull tool for both sides, good and bad, of any issue, such as terrorism. It's sad, but, thats how it is. You take the salt and the sugar. ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! 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