Guns, criminal misuse and p2p
p2pnet News View:- “The president believes that the manufacturer of a legal product should not be held liable for the criminal misuse of that product by others,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. “We look at it from a standpoint of stopping lawsuit abuse.”
Wait a minute. The president thinks the Grokster decision is wrong?
Nope. And actually, this comment has nothing to do with file sharing. But it has everything to do with gun manufacturers.
The observation came back in late July when the US Senate was gearing up to vote on a bill (S. 397) that would ban lawsuits against gun-makers when their firearms are used in crimes.
So what’s behind the glaring difference in standards when it comes to file sharing?
Corporate interests —– backed up by ‘trade’ organizations. The NRA (National Rifle Association of America) was backing the gun legislation. The RIAA and MPAA were trying to stop Grokster.
If ever there was proof that governments are controlled by corporate interests, this is it.
I actually think having corporations involved in government decision making is a great idea. I think we should even let corporations vote in elections. I can almost see the PR departments of the world churning out press releases championing democracy and being quickly copied verbatim by the media: “One Company, One Vote!”
It would be great – the Fortune 500 would have one vote each and the decision on who to vote for would be made at a special meeting open to all shareholders. It’d be a democracy within a democracy. The ceo could take up the company’s concerns with their local representative just like everyone else does – letter, fax, phone or email. Unfortunately for the corporation, this would mean being treated just like everyone else:
Dear Legal Entity,
Thank you for your letter. Please be assured that all views will be taken into consideration at the appropriate stage.
Yours sincerely,
Your elected representative
Think the business world would go for it? No?
Perhaps they should back the hell away from our governments, then.
Corporations and trade organizations now have such an influence on governments that statements like the following one have become all to common:
“This is a day in America when the little guy lost out to powerful special interests.” Guess which issue the statement refers to – Bill S. 397 or MGM vs. Grokster).
Speaking on the Kazaa decision, Michael Goodman, a senior analyst with Yankee Group said, “the court system and legislation can’t keep up with technology. They’re always fighting yesterday’s battle.” Is this because government is simply a slow moving institution? Surely with so many technological advances in recent years it could move a little more quickly. Or is the real reason that corporations have to spend time figuring out how a technology will affect their business? If the technology bring in cash or savings, fine. If it doesn’t…government intervention is required?
Perhaps if the world’s larger companies employed a few more radical, tech-savvy, visionaries they’d have more of a clue about how the world is really working. Until then, we’re stuck with obvious corporate influence on government policy and government hypocrisy in corporate laws.
If you’re a p2p developer and you’re reading this, perhaps you should consider dropping that new BitTorrent client and start making assault weapons instead.
You’ll probably have a better chance in court if you’re only dealing with the machine gun and a few dozen dead people.
Alex H, p2pnet development manager – Sydney, Australia
[Alex is an operations manager for an ATM (automatic teller machine) supplier and he specialises in infrastructure development and maintenance, and logistics. He`s also an[other] active member of the Shareaza community.]
=================
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
=================
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win
- Mohandas Gandhi
September 8th, 2005 at 8:17 pm
Well said Alex, I couldn’t agree more.
September 9th, 2005 at 1:27 am
Government controlled by corporate interests = fascism. The world fought against it, now is being aggressively taken over by it with the backing of the country that fought it. Can we get this straight & stop beating around the Bush? Actually, beat up by Bush. LOL. The corporate elites always loved fascism, just not by some foreigners.
September 9th, 2005 at 5:18 am
I cannot agree more. The fact that we have guns is probably the only reason why the gas chambers and ovens have not been implemented. I just have to say though,
that it is not only the Republicans that are engaged in this fascism, it is also the Democrats as well. Remember Clinton opening our border and granting most favored nation trade status to China (One of the most repressive regimes in the world)? As long as we continue to vote for the “lessor of two evils” (most Democrats or Republicans), we are going to be really screwed.