[liberationtech] Another loss for the Internet

[Jonathan Wilkes]

On 02/19/2014 06:39 PM, Gregory Maxwell wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 3:21 PM, Jonathan Wilkes <jancsika at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> "Now say that the user has installed a third party add-on that either
>> accidentally or intentionally (through design or through compromise) blocks
>> or otherwise prevents my "TV Web Application" from delivering that EAM to
>> the user, and, consequently their house is destroyed, potentially with loss
>> of life.
> Or what if they looked away from the screen?
>
> The future of web-browsing?
> https://d2nh4f9cbhlobh.cloudfront.net/_uploads/galleries/31492/a-clockwork-orange-475864l.jpg
>
> Advertisers would love it.
>
> I don't discount that there are indeed arguments that fringe
> liabilities could exist— someone could even, as my silly example says,
> sue you because they looked away. But fringe effects are not part of a
> reasonable duty of care.

Yeah, but I didn't insert the guy's quote as a barrel of fish to shoot 
at.  I inserted it to show that people who work under the assumption 
that content trickles down from the top are quite effective at making 
the net a place where those companies can continue creating content 
using a model they prefer.  How effective are these people at their 
work?  So effective that such a fringe argument actually results in the 
relevant language being removed in its entirety from the standards document.

Meanwhile, what's the risk to a student who wants to test the boundaries 
of fair use?  Where's the infrastructure available to a scientist to 
release important pay-walled journal articles on public health as they 
come to his/her attention?  What's the likelyhood he/she would even post 
a magnet link to such material that someone else is seeding?  How can we 
take the meager resources available and build out infrastructure that 
lets artists, scientists, activists, etc., create and distribute content 
using a model they prefer?  And without creating in them a palpable fear 
that they're endangering their future by experimenting with an 
alternative model?  An anonymity overlay is the best thing I can think 
of that gropes toward that end.

Honestly, I'm just frustrated looking at how light the other end of the 
scale is.  Somebody should make an app that delays critiques of the 
current state of affairs until one spends equal time writing/improving 
documentation for Tor or Gnunet.

-Jonathan