Bay 12 Games Forum

The European Union has signed ACTA, right? Once it comes in force, do I need to delete everything from my mobile phone and laptop before trying to cross the border into neighboring Poland?

ACTA and SOPA makes me incredibly proud of the fact that I live in Belarus, which is constantly accused of censorship and human rights violations. The fact that the staunch protectors of human rights and press freedom - the USA and EU are passing laws violating human rights and press freedom is quite symbolic, don't you think?

As I understand it, the EU Parliament has yet to sign it into law (is that the right term for a treaty?). I don't know what the ceremony was about earlier this week.

Wow. It was ~908K when I signed it 45 minutes ago. It's amazing to see the names from countless countries scroll past you, knowing that all those people stand in support of the free internet.

How much signing time does this petition have before it's finally delivered?

I have a feeling that the media might be slightly pro government.

Not pro government for government's sake. Pro power, which means pro money, which means pro government. And money's only power when people are willing to follow the rules laid down by politicians who have been bought out. Fewer people are every day.

I can't recall a time I didn't support why they've done something, but I don't always support how they do it. I can see a DDoS working on, say, the WBC, but on US government websites? That's just silly. I would see more of a point in leaking information on illegal activities committed by the more powerful offending parties, ala WikiLeaks.

While I think that there are some dedicated, technologically knowledgeable hacktivitsts in Anonymous, there seem to be a lot of people who just think h@ck1ng is, l13k, t0ta11y l33t, d00d and who downplay its message of internet freedom because of that. The latter sort of people just download the LOIC, or whatever that tool is called, hit Install -> OK, and then go brag about their l33t h@ck1ng 5ki11s to everyone else. As an aspiring hacker (the good kind!), I feel very annoyed that 'hacker' is now synonymous with 'cracker', and these sort of people aren't helping that!

I'm also somewhat ambivalent about the Guy Fawkes masks. On one hand, V is an awesome character in the comic/movie, and he does make some excellent and eloquent points regarding revolt/dissent. Much of his nature fits the 'spirit' of Anonymous. On the other, perhaps it comes off to some people as childish or silly to be hiding behind the mask of a comic book character. Then again, they are supposed to be anonymous...

That's an excellent point regarding the social component of all this. I've generally held that a major culture change is needed before we can really fix the problems caused by our completely profit-driven society (because, in my experience, selfish winner-takes-all capitalism tends to be seen as acceptable in all but the worst scenarios). I'm not sure how such a thing could even begin, however...

Obvious they should do like everyone else does: Adapt or die. You want a free market, well this is how it works

One wonders if they'll bother adapting at all, or whether these desperate attempts at stifling the innovation that's now outdoing them are signs of these business models in their death throes. I don't expect such companies to truly fall for a long while, of course... Most likely, a cycle will continue for a while in which the media companies make an advance (e.g. taking down MU), and whatever internet community they anger or inconvenience will adapt around the restrictions they set up. Until something really big happens for either side (such as a major law that benefits one or the other), I don't see anything but a stalemate for now.

For a while I've been looking for a way to, if you will, "train" myself in use of the Metric system of measurement rather than defaulting to the US standard; since I find the US system to be very inconvenient/inconsistent. It seems that the Metric system is used far more often in scientific fields (in addition to being fairly universal and far more logically organized), which I think will be useful to me. I wonder, does anyone here know of a way to effectively switch myself to everyday use of Metric system?

(It might be worth mentioning that I'm ~16.2 years of age, so as you might expect, my 'reflex' to default to the US system of measurement is set in quite solidly already.)