I feel like we’re in the middle of a, well, Revolution. On the Net People are taking power back from Corporations. Linux vs. SCO and p2p vs RIAA are the last ugly gasps of two outdated corporations.
Corporate, centralized media is breaking down. Reality TV is putting normal people on TV. Blair Witch was the start of normal people in Movies. Blogs are the start of normal people in publishing. Media is decentralizing and giving power back to people. The model of one producer for a faceless-nameless mass of consumers is simply an inefficient network. Decentralized Networks, by nature, are more robust and can handle more traffic than centralized networks.
We’re not just stupid consumers. We have our hard-drives, we have burners, we have our friends, and we have choice. People have something to offer and now people are taking power. We’re getting sued now, but, um, history will absolve us. That’s a Castro Quote, from the last line his famous speech. Fuck Castro too, it’s just a good line.
Here’s some Castro quotes from his speech, I think they kinda apply here. Once again I reiterate, Castro had some good ideas, but fuck Castro.
As far back as 1649, John Milton wrote that political power lies with the people, who can enthrone and dethrone kings and have the duty of overthrowing tyrants.
John Locke, in his essay on government, maintained that when the natural rights of man are violated, the people have the right and the duty to alter or abolish the government. ‘The only remedy against unauthorized force is opposition to it by force.’
Jean-Jaques Rousseau said with great eloquence in his Social Contract: ‘While a people sees itself forced to obey and obeys, it does well; but as soon as it can shake off the yoke and shakes it off, it does better, recovering its liberty through the use of the very right that has been taken away from it.’ ‘The strongest man is never strong enough to be master forever, unless he converts force into right and obedience into duty. Force is a physical power; I do not see what morality one may derive from its use. To yield to force is an act of necessity, not of will; at the very least, it is an act of prudence. In what sense should this be called a duty?’ ‘To renounce freedom is to renounce one’s status as a man, to renounce one’s human rights, including one’s duties. There is no possible compensation for renouncing everything. Total renunciation is incompatible with the nature of man and to take away all free will is to take away all morality of conduct. In short, it is vain and contradictory to stipulate on the one hand an absolute authority and on the other an unlimited obedience …’
I identify my ideology more with America’s Founding Fathers – Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Expression. Freedom. Thomas Jefferson, in particular, is the man on Intellectual Property (ie, it’s philosophically unsound). I wrote something bout him a few days back. I’m going to dump all this stuff into the Internet Law section. The EFF is a good organization that protects People’s rights online, there’s a lot of interesting reading there:
“If America’s founding fathers had anticipated the digital frontier, there would be a clause in the Constitution protecting your rights online, as well.
Instead, a modern group of freedom fighters was necessary to extend the original vision into the digital world.
That’s where the Electronic Frontier Foundation comes in.
Just as Patriots fought for liberty and freedom, we fight measures that threaten basic human rights. Only the dominion we defend is the vast wealth of digital information, innovation, and technology that resides online.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is comprised of passionate people — lawyers, volunteers, and visionaries — working in the trenches, battling to protect your rights and the rights of web surfers everywhere. The dedicated people of EFF challenge legislation that threatens to put a price on what is invaluable; to control what must remain boundless.
Electronic Frontier Foundation: Because being able to share ideas and information is the reason the Web was created in the first place!”
I may not like Fidel Castro’s politics but I love his persona. His ability to defy anything and any adversary is uncanny. I can care less what he has done to the Cowardly Cuban population here in Miami. He is still in power because they (The Miami Cubans) have done nothing to depose him except scream from the shore. They have no other meaning in their lives except oppose Castro. Like Franco in Spain, if he dies in power, HE WINS. The Cubans’ lives will be empty without him. So Cuba is free. Big deal. There will still be misery and poverty. This time however by the hands of Capitalist, corrupt, greed. What will be the difference? There will still be drugs and prostitution. So every rich Cuban here will have a summer house in Cuba. Not one will EVER go back to live in Cuba. The bottom line is that a Miami Cuban without Castro is just another Mexican. I’m not a racist. I’m half Puerto Rican. It’s just that I fought for my right to have a free country. So as long as these Cubans keep floating over to this country in their Buicks people like me and Lanta will have to learn Spanish at an early age in a public school which is less than adequate so we can get decent jobs in this “grate” city.
The strange thing about Castro is that when he seized power he was a committed non-communist. Not surprisingly so for a US edicated, baseball playing medical doctor.
He only wanted to free Cuba from Batista’s dictatorship. The US welcomed the coup but then things quickly went sour and it was then that Castro became a marxist.