"Secret U.S. government cables show a stunning willingness by senior Canadian officials to appease American demands (more here) for a U.S.-style copyright law here. The documents describe Canadian officials as encouraging American lobbying efforts. They also cite cabinet minister Maxime Bernier raising the possibility of showing U.S. officials a draft bill before tabling it in Parliament. The cables, from the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, even have a policy director for then industry minister Tony Clement suggesting it might help U.S. demands for a tough copyright law if Canada were placed among the worst offenders on an international piracy watch list. Days later, the U.S. placed Canada alongside China and Russia on the list." Unbelievable. Suddenly I understand why the SFPD had no qualms about acting as henchmen for Apple goons to violate someone's constitutional rights. If a government is messed up, it only makes sense this is reflected in the corporate policies of its prime corporations.
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Member since:2005-07-06
I stress a complex web of interrelations in societal dynamics. "Govs reflecting their society" being just one of them (but not a bad one to point out specifically, with how wilfully overlooked and/or denied it is typically...), what else the emphasised, more than once, "also" could mean?
And who allows for such state of affairs? Heck, in moderately functional liberal democracies, who votes in those people? Why the society doesn't care to see enough through the dirty tricks? Why it is... so often wrong in promoting their new mythical honest idol?
Those are our failures.
(oh, and "all else being equal" could just as well mean firm, strict, equal for all enforcement of fair and sustainable rules, of the so called values humans typically declare to cherish...)
Member since:2011-01-28
"Why it is... so often wrong in promoting their new mythical honest idol?"
I'm insulted by this notion that honesty is mythical. I try my absolute best to be honest when it comes to my jobs and responsibilities. Despite the fact that I see dishonest people getting ahead of myself, I've remained honest. Perhaps my kind will eventually die off because we're not fit to survive, but I still will cling to the view that honestly is a virtue worth having even if it is a competitive weakness.
"Those are our failures."
To the extent that we have control over them, then sure, but you must be aware that many people over here in the US view the government as a fascist entity acting on behalf of wealthy corporate interests through both parties.
It may be a conspiracy to you, but in their minds, their government does not represent them.
http://newjerseyhills.com/observer-tribune/news/article_7074df6c-f7.....
"Despite the poor national economy, the report found that the personal wealth of members of Congress increased collectively by more than 16 percent between 2008 and 2009. It also showed that 261 congressmen, or nearly half of the membership of the House of Representatives, are millionaires."
The fact is wealth plays a large part in getting representation within government. Regardless of the reasons, government is overwhelmingly composed of wealthy classes who would rather keep pushing corporate interests over us.
I'm an advocate of real democracy, but it's gotta represent the people. What we have today does not.
Edited 2011-09-04 20:54 UTC
The third and final WWDC product I want to talk about is - of course - OS X 10.9 Mavericks. While iOS 7 was clearly the focus of this year's WWDC, its venerable desktop counterpart certainly wasn't left behind. Apple announced OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the first OS X release not to carry the name of a big cat.
We already talked about iOS 7 yesterday (after a night of sleep, it's only looking worse and worse - look at this, for Fiona's sake!), so now it's time to talk about the downright stunning and belly flutters-inducing new Mac Pro. As former owner and huge, huge, huge fan of the PowerMac G4 Cube - I haven't been this excited about an Apple product since, well, I would say the iMac G4. This is the Apple I used to love.
Apple held its big keynote event thing at WWDC earlier this evening, but since I was away with friends I've had to read up on it later in the evening. The company announced iOS 7, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and they gave a preview of the new Mac Pro. Especially the Mac Pro impressed me, and while iOS 7's new Holo/Metro-inspired theme looks messy and garish to me, I do commend Apple for finally breaking the mold. This news item will focus on iOS 7 - I'll dive into the Mac Pro and OS X 10.9 tomorrow (it's late here now).And yes, the PRISM scandal is far, far from over. More and more information keeps leaking out, and the more gets out, the worse it gets. The companies involved have sent out official statements - often by mouth of their CEOs - and what's interesting is that not only are these official statements eerily similar to each other, using the same terms clearly designed by lawyers, they also directly contradict new reports from The New York Times. So, who is lying?This story is getting bigger and bigger. Even though most Americans probably already knew, it is now official: the United States government, through its National Security Agency, is collecting the communications and data of all American citizens, and of non-Americans using American services, through a wide collaboration with the large companies in technology, like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and so on. Interestingly enough, the NSA itself, as well as the US government, have repeatedly and firmly denied this massive spying on Americans and non-Americans took place at all.Ah, patents - the never-ending scourge of the technology industry. Whether wielded by companies who don't actually make any products, or large corporations who abuse them because they can't compete in the market place or because they're simply jerks, they do the industry a huge disservice and are simply plain dangerous. According to The Wall Street Journal (circumvention link), president Obama is about to take several executive actions to address patent trolls - which may seem like a good idea, but I am very worried that all this will do is strengthen the positions of notorious patent system abusers such as Apple and Microsoft.
With version 13.05, the developers of the Genode OS Framework take measures to ensure that Genode continues to scale well with a growing number of users and the steadily broadening platform coverage. Further highlights are the improved SoC support for Exynos 5, OMAP4, Raspberry Pi, i.MX, and new components for realizing headless systems.At the D11 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook once again took the stage to be interviewed by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. While most of the interview can be replicated by picking and reading 10 random Apple fanblog stories - there were still a number of very interesting things that warrant some closer scrutiny.
So, the Xbox One disaster continues. Microsoft's policy for dealing with the used games market has reportedly leaked - and it's a clear and direct attack to destroy the used games market. Prices for used games will be set at the retail value of a new game, and retailers have to hook into Microsoft's computer systems and comply with Microsoft's terms and conditions.At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
Member since:
2011-01-28
zima,
"So I'm not quite sure what 'government is not as clearly(??) a reflection of the public as you indicated'"
I meant exactly that, I'm still not sure what the issue is you are taking with my statement? If I misunderstood your view, then I apologize
"No, it is us. Also in who we collectively choose to promote to public positions, what traits we cherish there, in the end."
It still seems to me that you are assuming that corruption in government is purely a reflection of corruption in individuals, without considering that perhaps non-corrupt individuals face more challenges in politics than corrupt ones.
Keep in mind, a dishonest politician has all the maneuvers that an honest politician has, and then some. To the extent that he doesn't miscalculate the risks of his dishonest actions, he has more opportunities than the honest politician, all else being equal.
Edited 2011-09-04 19:07 UTC