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posted by
Dopefish
on Monday February 24 2014, @09:00PM
from the don't-click-ok-to-accept-the-eula dept.
from the don't-click-ok-to-accept-the-eula dept.
andrew writes:
"Alternet.org reports recent updates to terms of conditions for Bank of Americas cell phone app and Capital Ones new credit card contract have given banks unsettling new abilities. These privileges include the authority to access to your phone microphone and camera or even showing up at your workplace and home unannounced at any time.
From the the article:
We're witnessing a new era of fascism, where corporations are creating intrusive and over-bearing terms and conditions that customers click to agree to without even reading.
As a result, corporations in America have acquired king-like power, while we're the poor serfs that must abide by their every rule or else."
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Have Terms of Service Become Totalitarian Tools?
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TAPPING? You POLITICIANS! Don't you realize that the END of the "Wash
Cycle" is a TREASURED MOMENT for most people?!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by lennier on Tuesday February 25 2014, @01:26AM
Yeah, um. All I can say is, there's a reason why Richard Stallman set up the Free Software Foundation in 1985, and why there's an FSF Freedom Zero [fsfe.org]. And it's not because the 1980s were a paradise of software terms-of-service openness and love.
But it's cute that today's kids are rediscovering how abusive TOSes can be, after a generation of taking an open-connectivity Web for granted and then abandoning it for locked in 'apps'. Is it too grumpy-old-man of me to remind everyone that when TCP/IP and SMTP were starting to spread in the 1990s, the existing Online Service players fought openness tooth and nail [google.co.nz]? Yeah, it probably is.
Next: this UNIX thing - think it'll ever spread beyond Bell Labs? Never mind I'm sure there'll be no interference from corporate headquarters if it catches on. [wikipedia.org]
Delenda est Beta
(Score: 1) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday February 25 2014, @07:58AM
It turns out that the NSA is heavily into linux, and is quite good about contributing patches back upstream.
Using software for anything you damn well please, means that freedom zero provides the freedom to commit gross human rights violations.
I would be completely unsurprised were I to learn that North Korea is heavily into Open Source as well as Free Software.
(They're different things, kids. Learn to tell the difference.)
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1) by lennier on Tuesday February 25 2014, @08:31PM
"It turns out that the NSA is heavily into linux, and is quite good about contributing patches back upstream."
Yep, they probably breathe oxygen and use the English language as well.
"Using software for anything you damn well please, means that freedom zero provides the freedom to commit gross human rights violations."
Yes. But that is the point of freedom: that people can do (arbitrary bad things) and (doing that bad thing) is the wrong thing, not (using software) to do it).
The NSA implements the reverse logic and says "the Internet/your cellphone should not be used to commit (arbitrary bad thing) therefore we will tag and trace every packet sent and reserve the right to take pictures with your cellphone to make sure that the Evil Bit is not enabled". But that seems more problematic in the long run than saying "this is a technology, use it for what you want".
I'm not a huge fan of total libertarianism. I believe there is a place for government. But software and communication technology seems to be one of those awkward natural monopolies where it works best to either have zero regulation, or 100% totalitarianism, and I'd rather not have the totalitarianism.
Where tracing and enforcement needs to happen, I'd rather it not be baked into the fundamental core software we can't escape.
Delenda est Beta
(Score: 2) by Open4D on Tuesday February 25 2014, @03:10PM
For me, the linked page says "You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book." I'm accessing it from Europe.
(Score: 1) by lennier on Tuesday February 25 2014, @08:44PM
Ah, sorry about that. It was a random Google books link that seemed to summarise the 1980s online services world: the relevant paragraphs were:
(Not sure about 'Sierra Online'. That was Ken and Roberta Williams' game company, though they probably also ran a BBS like all tech companies of the era did; I doubt it was a major online service though.)
Delenda est Beta
(Score: 1) by Open4D on Wednesday February 26 2014, @03:12PM
I admit I was secretly hoping for some juicy story about legal attacks (perhaps using patents) on the new interoperable technologies. Or corporate lobbying of politicians on the matter.
But anyway, thanks for the extract.