Irish Politician Calls For Crackdown On Open Source Internet Browsers 335
An anonymous reader writes "An Irish politician has called for tougher controls on the use of open source internet browsers. He said, 'An online black market is operating which protects the users’ anonymity and operates across borders through the use of open source internet browsers and payments systems which allow users to remain anonymous. This effectively operates as an online supermarket for illegal goods such as drugs, weapons and pornography, where it is extremely difficult to trace the identity of the buyers. We need a national and international response to clamp down on this illicit trade.' The politician added that the U.S. had 'taken action' to address this, but he seemed surprised that their solution was only 'temporary.'"
Re:Leave it to a politician to blow hot air (Score:4, Informative)
Microsoft, Google and Apple all have their European bases in Ireland. Firefox has its European base in the UK, and Opera is based in Norway.
Re:I think I speak for us all... (Score:5, Informative)
You mean they haven't yet?
See United States v. $124,700 in U.S. Currency. [wikipedia.org]
Re:WTF (Score:2, Informative)
In case any one is wondering. DARPA and the US Navy are two of the founders.
https://www.torproject.org/about/sponsors.html.en
Re:Good luck with that, King Canute (Score:5, Informative)
You sometimes need to keep old people away from the keyboard.
Patrick O'Donovan, the politician in question, is 36 years old. My father is a 70-year-old web developer. Sure, in general younger people probably understand the internet better than older people, but there are so many exceptions to this in both directions that any generalization based on age is pretty well meaningless.
W3C + HTML5 + DRM (Score:5, Informative)
I'll tell you what this is all about:
http://boingboing.net/2013/10/11/w3cs-drm-for-html5-sets-the.html [boingboing.net]
Soon, all compliant browsers will have to be opaque, in order to have DRM that will protect Netflix and other streaming services. Independent browsers will disappear. Open source browsers will be a big hole in the plan to completely lock down the internet once and for all and cannot be allowed to exist. Irish politicians have learned their globalization lessons well and know on which side their bread is buttered. He may not be the most eloquent advocate, but he knows what the agenda is.
We are very close to the end of the internet as we know it. I've long said that the internet is turning into cable television. Now the transformation is almost complete.
http://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/post/72759474218/we-are-huxleying-ourselves-into-the-full-orwell [tumblr.com]
Re:Hurray! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I think I speak for us all... (Score:4, Informative)
Don't forget to mention that in most counties in this country, a large percentage of that seizure would go directly to that police department. It varies from state to state but many police departments end up getting new patrol cars and such have major busts. This is often sited as the reason minorities are so often targeted. Low hanging fruit with high payouts and low voter turnout means they're easy targets.
Re:Good luck with that, King Canute (Score:2, Informative)
What does King Canute has to do with this? Canute had a great understanding of how the world worked, unlike somebody else making /. headlines right now.
If you are referring to the story about the chair on the beach and the rising tide, then you are part of the majority, who is misinformed of what actually happened. The story goes that after conquering England, a rumor started that this pagan considered himself greater than God and that made him an evil man (at least according to the people who used to have the power in England). King Canute had a chair (his throne?) placed on the beach and commanded the water not to make his feet wet. When the tide made his feet wet, he stood up and announced that hit feet got wet because God and God alone controls the tide. He (Canute) was a mere human and was unable to control anything God didn't intend humans to control. Supposedly this was a strong and successful attack on the rumor and it is very possible that he avoided a rebellion by doing this. Still somebody didn't like him and wrote it like he believed himself that he could control the tide, which is aimed at making him look like a loon with megalomania. There is no indication that he should be silly. In fact he was known as "Canute the Great" while he was alive and "the great" refers to his mind, not his conquests (even though his conquests justified this name as well). Please don't compare him to a modern day misguided individual.
Back on topic:
I agree that it appears to be a confusion between tor and firefox. Imagine this scenario:
Somebody with a black Audi with fake license plates commits a crime and drives away. To prevent this from happening, the politicians bans all black Audis, which are able to use fake license plates. After all the owners would have the means to modify their vehicle into hiding their identity and after that they can commit a crime, which would be solved more easily if they had used a license plate registered in their real name. (the difference here is that fake license plates are illegal, tor isn't)
For some reason no politicians propose a bill like this. Why is it that once we say keywords like copyright that politicians can come up with ideas like this?
I agree with the bitcoin statement though. I never trusted the system and viewed it from the start as a haven for criminals. Bitcoin mining doesn't help, certainly not when executed in botnets. Why should I trust a payment system, where botnets plays a role?