SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
A Venture Capital firm says techies need to get along with government:
From Airbnb to Uber, some of Silicon Valley’s most successful companies have been fighting regulators since their inception. Now, one of the tech industry’s most respected venture capital firms wants to help both sides of the battle make nice with each other.
Andreessen Horowitz announced today that it’s launching a new policy and regulatory affairs unit, and that it has appointed Ted Ullyot, Facebook’s former general counsel, to lead the shop. Ullyot, who worked at both the White House and the Department of Justice before coming to the Valley, will be tasked with helping the firm’s portfolio companies see eye to eye with the government regulators with whom they’re increasingly butting heads.
Well, what do techies say, agree with the VC or string them up by their toes and poke them with sticks? Inquiring minds want to know...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2015, @12:25PM
Why? The answer could still be "no", in case techies think stringing them up by their toes and poking them with sticks is not the only alternative to agreeing with them.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by edIII on Saturday April 18 2015, @02:00AM
I agree, and in a related note, I was reading about Persian methods of execution/torture.
In essence, they are asking for techies to betray their fellow citizens in the interests of greater profits for a group typically entitled to 90% of it anyways. So the level of greed is terrifically and horrifically transparent. Tragically, their shortsightedness as well.
The VC people incorrectly have concluded, that belonging to the 1% will save them. It's not an unreasonable conclusion, as government is run by the people that can be bought for the correct price. However, that only guarantees them a slippery slope where an ever increasingly tyrannical government demands more and more. No more privacy at all for any American, but what's next? Just what does cooperation mean? Where does VC draw the lines?
To indirectly threaten techies with clouded motives in the first place, whether they like it or not, is to throw their hats in the ring. They're doing it for government. Just hope they remember the lessons of history on those that choose sides, and betray the public interest for short term profits.
There is no seeing eye to eye. What the government wants, it cannot ever have. Techies deal with reality . I can actually remember right now my first words when somebody described the Internet to me for the first time, and after I received my answer that just anyone could send packets to my machine. "Really? Those precious flower children are going to get their asses handed to them. You can't just let anyone communicate on your network. That's fucking nuts, over my dead body will you hook that up." What's my reality today? I quickly adopted the Internet once it became apparent that half the traffic was boobies. It's also one in which we just don't have any certainty anymore over our security. My original concerns were valid and prophetic. I've got firewalls, application layer firewalls, heuristics, RBLs, signatures, sand boxing, TPM, etc., and all of it because anyone can send me packets.
Techies are faced with a daunting enough task to provide security in very rough times (security wise and economically). As hard as everyone has worked, there has been somebody working equally as hard against them, or at least, certainly not cooperating. Now techies now just how insane this bad actor has been for all of us, and it's ramifications. It's not hyperbole to say techies woke up one day to find out a real life Super Villain was working in secret the entire time. I don't know how else to describe just how far reaching the fallout is over these revelations. I don't think Purism [puri.sm] could get started without it, and thankfully they're not venture capital. Their goals directly conflict with the governments at a fundamental level.
The government became the enemy by their actions, and nothing else. It only used to be rumor, baseless accusations, and the ranting of disenfranchised people. The truth moved rather fast over to a stark reality of the US losing billions in our technology sector from foreign fallout alone. Who's to say how it will end up too, but techies will never forget that the government cannot be trusted, and the businessmen will never forgive the government for creating the situation in which they can't act corrupt in the darkness anymore. Look how pissed Sony Pictures Entertainment IS? ;)
Anyone with a brain at all has already concluded the only road is one in which privacy is taken by force, and that will be technological in nature. All of the arguments have fallen flat, been sorted, and seen for their truth. Now the government is working to shut off the money to those that refuse to cooperate after 'butting heads'. That 'butting heads' being the government saying business as usual, or key escrow, and the techies are rolling their eyes, saying it's not technically possible anymore, and modern security refuses to acknowledge their proposals as approaching a state of security.
Funny thing, is that the techies deserve every part of it. That was a deal with the devils they signed. You deal with Darth Vader, you get progressively altered deals that keep getting worse all the time. Just when you thought you were going to get special treatment, the storm troopers are setting up camp and eyeing your daughters. It's kinda their thing.
(Score: 1) by t-3 on Saturday April 18 2015, @03:27PM
I agree, and in a related note, I was reading about Persian methods of execution/torture.
Are you talking about the one with the milk and honey and ants?
(Score: 2) by edIII on Sunday April 19 2015, @03:31AM
Yes. Yes, I was.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.