Cut them off at the pass!

So the government (lord mandelson) has decided to stamp on more of the damned ungrateful illegally downloading unwashed, by blatant siding with big corporates (pushing for a non-exec at news corps perhaps) and forcing through legislation which will (eventually) penalise 560 million uk citizens — i am using government & industry methods of calculations here so just bear with me — who are thinking bad thoughts, to recant and think good thoughts; if they refuse, they will have their connections to the greater-net removed and they themselves cast into the outer rings-of-darkness until re-education is certified complete.

Oh dear, and yes i know it sounds as if too many c-movies have imprinted themselves on my impressionables.

Hands up all those (those who remember cassettes as the pinnacle of consumer audio technology) who spent time at college or university and tried out that tape your mate had wittily compiled of the best bits from last weeks top of the pops replete with tiny tv speakers hiss as the music warbled through, or they lent you a tape which had those precious fragments ready to speed into your spectrum where you hoped the head alignments would more or less match?  How many, over the years, found themselves on the hugely expensive upgrade path and stuck with it, and now own your own company, buy a huge number of licenses, and each year are told by your accountant it’d be cheaper going down the open-source route?   All because you had that hands-on positive playful experimental experience, all those years ago.

If I were to take the shirt off your back, that's not stealing that's daylight muggery, and would probably leave me with a heart attack and sever ticking off by the law.  If I take your car without permission, that's stealing mixed with daylight robbery, if I get my hands on your hard earned cash as commission or bonus's whilst my action brings down a financial institution, that's just good luck on my part, bad luck on yours. 

But we need public education, because we the public are stupid and never know what's right or wrong unless we have our faces forced into it.  Sort of like t–no i’ll stop right there.  But people are getting screwed because as a population we’re happy getting screwed, because so many of us are screwing everything left, right and centre — good thing for bayonet caps; as that’s where 30 years of me, me, me and markets know best have brought us. 

So as the country with the oldest democratic (sic) parliament goes down the great wall route, let’s hope that it isn’t too long before programmers rise to the challenge and create software that will truly blow a raspberry along with a great big hole through it and keep us out of orwellian brothers clutches, at least for a few more years!

Now where did i put that nice post…