Archive for February, 2008

The UK Times Online reported a new bill attempting to get past in the UK legislature will legally require ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to cut users off from the internet if they are suspected of illegal downloading music. Essentially it follows a three strikes you’re out mentality with users suspected of wrongly downloading films or music will receive a warning e-mail for the first offense, a suspension for the second infringement and the termination of their internet contract if caught a third time.

Did you catch the error in logic?

“users suspected of wrongly downloading films or music” Suspected. What happened to innocent until proved guilty? Also, how will the ISP know I am downloading an MP3 illegally, or downloading it from iTunes unless they examine my packets. And if they do, does that ring the death knell for online privacy.

The bill goes further to make ISPs who do not enforce these rules to be open to prosecution. The government in the UK is still deciding if ISPs should be required to share information with other ISPs.

There are two sticking points, the first is wi-fi piggy backing, where someone jumps onto your wireless connection and downloads using your bandwidth, the other is how fast ISPs need to respond to infractions.

Roz Groome, vice-president of antipiracy at NBC Universal said “We call upon ISPs to take action now. They must play their part in the fight against online piracy and work with rights owners to ensure that ISPs’ customers do not use their services for illegal activity.”

I understand the logic. ISPs are unwitting participants in a crime, they can mitigate that, so this law would force them into action. I would like to propose some other calls for action.

1. I would like to call upon on all car manufactures to stop making cars that can exceed any posted speed limit. In Canada that is 110km/h, in the US I think it is 75 miles/hour. It is ridiculous to make a sports car that can go 220 km/h when no one can ever legally drive that fast.
2. I would like to call on all standing armies to be responsible for their own arms. So when the conflict is over the army that put down the land mines should need to clean them up, they should also need to pay for the disarmament and disposal of any unexploded ordinance.
3. I would like manufacturers of unhealthy foods to pay a “fat tax” to help pay for the additional health care costs their products cause.
4. I would like to call on gun manufacturers to be responsible that their customers do not use the guns in any illegal activities and if they do, for those gun manufacturers to be held criminally liable.

What other things could we extend the same logic to?

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The Star put up a post today about the ethics of selling body parts, which I had already posted on.  What stunned me about their post was they asked Moira McQueen, director of the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute to contribute.  Now obviously Dr. McQueen has a right to an opinion, and as a well-respected theologian I am sure she has some very interesting things to say, but look at the group she represents. 

The Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute has links to such nonsense as “New Study Shows Double Cervical Cancer Risk for Oral Contraceptive Users” from LifeSiteNews.com which is a religious pseudo-news site.  I say pseudo news since, there is no way to verify much of what they report. Unfortunately the Life Site News didn’t have a link to the study to follow on further.

One could easily argue that the pill (oral contraceptive) is the greatest advancement in women’s rights, giving them the opportunity to choose when and if to have children;  allowing women to enter the work force in record numbers not to mention the thousands of women who might have died during childbirth.  One might also note the church’s strong condemnation of the pill, in favor of the the Billings Ovulation Method an alternative contraception that the Church considers acceptable. Think Monty Python’s skit, every sperm is sacred.

The CCBI site also contains links to such idiotic articles as “Abstinence programs help youths make wise choices” and “The Achilles’ Heel of Condoms – Chastity and Fidelity Proving More Effective” as reported by Father John Flynn.  A priest is reporting on condom use.  Isn’t that like me reporting on how to milk a yak?  How on earth would he know what a condom is, or how one is used?  Rather than making rash statements, lets take a look at the teen pregnancy statistics off of Wikipedia shall we?

Take out Niger, since as a mostly rural country in sub-Saharan Africa teen marriages are common.  Instead look at the US and Brazil, both countries mentioned in the good father’s report , both of which preach a lot of “abstinence”. Much higher than countries like the Netherlands which teach proper sexual education.  The issue isn’t that abstinence is wrong, it isn’t, but to only educate kids with one solution to the issue is not only idiocy but in my opinion criminal.

The all time fav for me is the article entitled “Study: HIV-positive Practicing Homosexual Men 9000% More Likely to Develop Anal Cancer” Which opens with “New research has again shown the grave danger of homosexual sex acts to the human body.”  Talk about fear mongering.  And the list of nonsense articles goes on:

• Study: Even with 100 % Condom Use 30% Still Contract Potentially Deadly HPV Virus … (June 26) – Illinois Family Institute
• Medical Doubts About Condoms and AIDS Prevention … (June 22) – ZENIT Archive (ZE06062220)
• New FDA Condom Guidelines “An Appalling Deception” According to Family Group … (November 14) – LifeSiteNews.com

…and on and on.

If the CCBI wants to be looked at as a center for science and ethics, which is a very noble and worthy cause, they should have the decency and common sense to look at the research presented in some of their links before they post them.

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“A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on.”
William S. Burroughs

The Canadian government, with the help of the B.C. and Ontario governments is pilot testing “enhanced” drivers licenses. They are being touted as an alternative to having a passport when crossing the US border, and some critics claim are an attempt to encourage us to harmonize with the US and their national identity cards. 

Jennifer Stoddart, the federal privacy commissioner said, “We think it’s unnecessary. We think it’s intrusive, and we think it’s a route that Canadians don’t need to follow.”

The Province reported, “The enhanced licences contain a radio frequency identification chip with a “unique identifier” that can be read from 10 metres away. It’s that identifier that worries commissioners, since it could form the basis for a national identity card and allow governments to track people’s movements.”  Not only is the RFID a concern but also the fact that the database needs to be in American hands for this system to work, and they are in the process of instituting a dossier system that would make Stalin blush.

Proponents of the system claim that, “The information on the licence will be much the same as on a regular licence, and will not include a person’s driving or criminal record.”  Red flags should be going off in your head right now.  If it was the same information as a regular licence, how exactly is it “enhanced”  I would rather just have an officer look at my licence.  Also the key words in the statement are “much the same”  meaning some is different.  But what exactly is different?

Many people forget the US is a sovereign nation, we don’t own them, they don’t own us. They are a seperate nation and travelling to American should be treated with the same concern and consideration as travelling to China, or Germany.

“This new licence will encourage closer social ties with our U.S. neighbours and support economic growth on both sides of the border,” B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell said in a written statement.  Given the sorry state of personal rights in the US, I don’t want closer social ties with them.

©Dontspyonus.com

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