Jim Carrico on Tue, 11 Sep 2001 14:57:25 +0200 (CEST) |
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Re: <nettime> From Sea to Shining Sea |
> >From: Larry Blunk <lblunk@yahoo.com >Subject: Re: [dvd-discuss] Text of draft Security Systems Standards and >+Certification Act >Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 23:09:34 -0700 (PDT) > > This is how I believe this act will play out: > > 1) This act will sail through congress thanks to the heavy lobbying of > the copyright cartels. What frightens me most is that people are already talking about this like it's a done deal. it's been obvious for at least a year that this is the strategy that the media cartels are going to go with - because it's the last ditch, fall-back plan to maintain their faltering stranglehold on information, on what the masses of the public are allowed to see and hear and what sort of ideas they will be exposed to. the alternative is obviously unthinkable, implying as it does the inexorable erosion of the ability of money, and ultimately, mafia-style muscle to dominate modern culture. the point is, a purely technical solution is impossible - police powers must be invoked. For our own good of course - the internet is so scary - we need to lock out all the bad guys. and if you disagree you must be a bad guy. all this with a straight face. a recidivist criminal organization which produces the most insanely insecure software ever devised is about to be handed responsiblity for controlling access to all information, entertainment, and commerce. it's not that they're just being allowed to do this, they're being compelled to do it. it's almost mathematical - a monopoly operating system, tied to a state-mandated hardware architecture is the only way to maintain a pyramid of power in the information age. in this direction lie horrors beyond hitler's wildest dreams. the response has likewise been obvious for a while now - build out an alternative architecture, and move *our lives* there. not as "cyber-citizens" but as real flesh-and-blood humans - not as voters or consumers but just people - it's now or fucking never. the protest movement that has been building in the "first world" since seattle represents the best chance to step out from under the trap before it springs shut - not as a protest movement but as a new social form - leaderless, spontaneous, yet guided by common goals freely chosen, openly debated. just like the free software that, in case anyone has forgotten, still supports most of the internet. the indymedia network represents the intersection of these related tendencies, and may be the most alarming development yet for those who depend on being able to lie with impunity, without risk of embarrasing revelations from the great unwashed. this new social form needs to find its economic corollory - my hunch is that some mutation of crypto-cash with the LETS community-currency model may provide a 'kernel' for a new financial 'OS' that will let us begin to withdraw our deposits from the bank of neo-feudalism. the future of technology lies not in business models but *lifestyle models* - the killer app is revolution... Jim Carrico http://www.potlatch.net # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net