FC: Geeks in government? A bad idea: Geeks should write code, not laws

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Mon Aug 12 2002 - 09:30:30 PDT

  • Next message: Declan McCullagh: "FC: Godzilla movie owner nastygrams "Davezilla.com" humor site"

    http://news.com.com/2010-1071-949275.html?tag=politech
    
       Geeks in government: A good idea?
       By Declan McCullagh 
       August 12, 2002, 4:00 AM PT
    
       WASHINGTON--There's a lot for a politically aware geek to be alarmed
       about nowadays.
       
       Big companies are wielding copyright threats to stifle legitimate
       security research. Hollywood is itching to hack your PC. Your privacy
       is vanishing as fast as Al Gore's 2004 presidential hopes. And the
       merry band of technophobes in Congress is just getting started.
       
       Too often, though, programmers, system administrators and other IT
       pros become understandably outraged by the latest attempts to restrict
       technology--and react by doing precisely the wrong thing. They set up
       irate Web sites, launch online petition drives and tell all their
       friends to write to their congressional representatives.
       
       Here's the bitter truth: These efforts are mostly a waste of time.
       Sure, they may make you feel better, but they're not the way to win.
    
       [...]
    
    
    
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
    You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
    To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
    This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
    Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/
    Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan
    CNET Radio 9:40 am ET weekdays: http://cnet.com/broadband/0-7227152.html
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon Aug 12 2002 - 09:24:46 PDT