Trust Us?

Darn it. My favorite bittorrent tracking site, SuprNova, closed down a few days ago. The really stupid part of this is that SuprNova itself didn’t contain any files whatsoever, all they did was list the links to the files at other places. So, does this mean that linking is soon to be illegal? Heh.

With the death of SuprNova, there goes my source for various e-books and manuals, not to mention music. I wasn’t doing a lot of downloading, just very specific things. Actually, the vast majority of the music I downloaded was stuff I had already bought years ago on tape. I didn’t download any movies or anime because my hd space is at kind of a premium. Looks like the MPAA is making the same mistake as the RIAA did with the original Napster.

I won’t use Kazaa. I’ve seen and heard too many stories of worms and virii showing up along with (or embedded in) the files and didn’t want to experience that myself, even though I keep my anti-virus up to date.

Adam Fields’ weblog has some interesting things to say about file sharing…

Here’s what I think it boils down to - a simple choice. We, as a society, have to choose one of:

1) Copy protection.
2) General purpose open computing.

They are not compatible. Copy protection (and everything else that goes along with being able to perform copy protection) simply cannot be enforced in a world where the end user has control over their hardware and software. Everything else is a thin sugar layer on top of that, disguising the fact that we’re heading for one of two worlds - where all entertainment (and consequently, all other computing) is viewed with industry-mandated black boxes, or the content creation industry (movies, music, games, etc. …) learns to live in a world where they can’t force people to pay for their product. Currently, it’s a weird mishmash, but eventually, It’s one or the other.

But what happens if the end-user doesn’t have control over their hardware and software anymore? Do you think Microsoft, Intel, AMD, and Creative (examples) are sitting idly by watching all this unfold and not fiddling with things to make it so that we have less and less control over our own machines and software? Believe me, they are doing something(s) about it, and it doesn’t favor the end-user.

When is someone going to take a stand for the end-users? Or, don’t we matter anymore, except for the dollars we spend? Over and over again, in my case, since much of the content I’m interested in is 25+ years old and I’ve already paid for it 3 times with various format changes. Do I ever actually have any consumer rights to what I’ve already paid for multiple times, or will I keep paying for the same unfair licensing over and over again with every format change for as long as I remain breathing? And why am I expected to produce purchase receipts 25+ years after the fact, when I had no idea all those years ago that I would need to prove anything to anyone? Not to mention that some things are just NOT available commercially anymore… so, what then? I go without something I already paid for? I don’t think so.

Quite frankly, I’m getting really (REALLY!) tired of being treated like a child. I don’t need content warning labels, “net nanny” filters, nor laws purporting to “protect” me from either myself or others which only serve to maintain the status quo — in other words, corporate control over as much as possible in some veiled “trust” network that shows me how little I am really trusted. I’m a big girl now, I don’t need government or corporate babysitters, honestly. Can someone get me a “Trusted User” card so I can walk into a music store and walk out with those old recordings on a new format… without having to pay for them again? Yeah, I know, I won’t hold my breath waiting for that.

But anyway, the same goes for governmental authority… if my government supposedly trusts me, why does it do it’s business (much of which has nothing to do with “national security”) under a veil of “national security” and why does it spy on its own citizens, while failing to provide information and accept responsibility for its own wrong-doing? And why should I give any so-called “authorities” any information at all about my life (or marketing preferences, etc.) when they won’t reveal information that was paid for by the country’s own citizens? Even the FOIA requests are being curtailed with new rules designed to hide information that has nothing to do with any reasonable definition of “national security.” If government and corporations are not accountable to the citizenry, why should I be held to a higher standard than they? Hmm?