7 ms·

Over a decade ago, a ton of tech companies (including Google) coordinated a “blackout the Internet” day of protest against U.S. legislation that would have requ

Over a decade ago, a ton of tech companies (including Google) coordinated a “blackout the Internet” day of protest against U.S. legislation that would have required them to alter DNS to fight piracy. Interesting that now that France actually does it, they say they will comply. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_SOPA_and_PIPA https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_SOPA_and_PI...

metadat 2y ago
Piracy is simply Terrible, it's chopping the dear copyright holders off at the knees, they are frequently having to go on food stamps, and it's unclear how they'll continue on. /s Fighting online piracy: First world, or even zeroth world problem. It's not loke the pirates are saying "hmm, should I pay exorbitant rates for this or should I pirate it?" The real competition is alternatives: "should I bother pirating this or just go do some other activity." Bottom line: In most cases it's actually free marketing, and has a net positive effect for the copyright holders. The continual attempts to aggressively clamp down really says a lot about the mentality of the Big Market Forces, *iaa, *aa, and now MS and Elgoog. Even when it's good fertilizer for their perpetual evergreen money tree, they still flip out.
- banish-m4 2y ago
  It's all about profit protectionism of the moats around streaming to enforce the arbitrary extraction of gotcha capitalism subscription fees from as many people as possible for as much as possible.
bognition 2y ago
In the last decade Tech has become part of the establishment. They are one of the dominant controlling forces. The blackout was _not_ about preserving free speech, or any other moral high road. It was purely about control. Tech hadn’t yet cemented their position as a dominant player and didn’t want to cede the control they had. Now that they’ve embedded themselves in the ruling class they don’t care as much because they already have control.
- blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
  This is the right line of thinking. My interpretation is slightly different - I think the tech companies have run afoul of various norms when it comes to things like the privacy of customers, anti-trust, taxation, etc. Because they are now reliant on these unethical ways of holding onto economic power or growing their economic power, they need to not get into trouble with governments. This means playing nice with them so that they do not become subject to legislation that will rein them in.
- darby_nine 2y ago
  Tech has always been part of the establishment, funded by capital trying to solve capital's problems. The only part of tech that really deviates from this is the free software community, which has always been hostile to capital. The blackout day emerged from people, not the industry, and people have changed.
  - amatecha 2y ago
    idunno, I remember when everything cool I found on the internet was on a .edu domain, because that's almost all there was. But yeah, capitalist tech has always been part of the establishment. A lot of the good stuff comes from non-profit-related motivations, fortunately.
    - throwAGIway 2y ago
      I remember how I used to call a BBS rather than go to the internet because there was much more than just universities and their research - took a long time until there wasn't a reason to call the BBS, around the point when all the people moved their content.
    - darby_nine 2y ago
      I wouldn't really call "cool stuff on the internet" the tech industry, as much as I'd love to claim it.
  - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
ihsw 2y ago
It was not about standing up against IP juggernauts in the interest of users, but in the interest of themselves -- it was tech companies flexing their strength to show that cooperation with tech companies was required, and that they are open to cooperation in other ways too.
cscurmudgeon 2y ago
Same with tech and China. They fold like paper without any protest: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-censorship-data.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-ce... Chinese state employees physically manage the computers. Apple abandoned the encryption technology it used elsewhere after China would not allow it. And the digital keys that unlock information on those computers are stored in the data centers they’re meant to secure.
- mdhb 2y ago
  Apple have repeatedly thrown their customers under the bus especially in China. At least Google had the courage to withdraw entirely.
  - thenthenthen 2y ago
    Google never left China, they literally just moved to a new building on the other side of the road (in Zhongguancun, Beijing). They even “left a couple of boxes there”[1]. [1] Blum, Andrew, Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet. New York, Ecco, 2012. https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_p9b6 https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_p9b6
    - ApolloFortyNine 2y ago
      You can't even install the play store in China... Google hasn't been accessible there since in 15 years. You can buy an iPhone there today, and Apple has agreements with China to hand over user data and has done so in the past.
      - thenthenthen 2y ago
        Apple has a datacenter in Gui’an New Area, Guiyang, Guizhou, China (run by GCBD[1]). [1] https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/icloud/en/gcbd-terms.html https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/icloud/en/gcbd...
      - 2y ago
banish-m4 2y ago
Yep. Net neutrality, my left foot. MAANG are all about participating in PRISM, monopolizing access, and choosing who can and can't speak because they compromise a for-profit, oligopolic, technocratic cartel.
freddealmeida 2y ago
I think these firms are all compromised. Poisoning dns is such a bad idea.

metadat 2y ago

Piracy is simply Terrible, it's chopping the dear copyright holders off at the knees, they are frequently having to go on food stamps, and it's unclear how they'll continue on. /s Fighting online piracy: First world, or even zeroth world problem. It's not loke the pirates are saying "hmm, should I pay exorbitant rates for this or should I pirate it?" The real competition is alternatives: "should I bother pirating this or just go do some other activity." Bottom line: In most cases it's actually free marketing, and has a net positive effect for the copyright holders. The continual attempts to aggressively clamp down really says a lot about the mentality of the Big Market Forces, *iaa, *aa, and now MS and Elgoog. Even when it's good fertilizer for their perpetual evergreen money tree, they still flip out.

banish-m4 2y ago
It's all about profit protectionism of the moats around streaming to enforce the arbitrary extraction of gotcha capitalism subscription fees from as many people as possible for as much as possible.

bognition 2y ago

In the last decade Tech has become part of the establishment. They are one of the dominant controlling forces. The blackout was _not_ about preserving free speech, or any other moral high road. It was purely about control. Tech hadn’t yet cemented their position as a dominant player and didn’t want to cede the control they had. Now that they’ve embedded themselves in the ruling class they don’t care as much because they already have control.

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
This is the right line of thinking. My interpretation is slightly different - I think the tech companies have run afoul of various norms when it comes to things like the privacy of customers, anti-trust, taxation, etc. Because they are now reliant on these unethical ways of holding onto economic power or growing their economic power, they need to not get into trouble with governments. This means playing nice with them so that they do not become subject to legislation that will rein them in.
darby_nine 2y ago
Tech has always been part of the establishment, funded by capital trying to solve capital's problems. The only part of tech that really deviates from this is the free software community, which has always been hostile to capital. The blackout day emerged from people, not the industry, and people have changed.
- amatecha 2y ago
  idunno, I remember when everything cool I found on the internet was on a .edu domain, because that's almost all there was. But yeah, capitalist tech has always been part of the establishment. A lot of the good stuff comes from non-profit-related motivations, fortunately.
  - throwAGIway 2y ago
    I remember how I used to call a BBS rather than go to the internet because there was much more than just universities and their research - took a long time until there wasn't a reason to call the BBS, around the point when all the people moved their content.
  - darby_nine 2y ago
    I wouldn't really call "cool stuff on the internet" the tech industry, as much as I'd love to claim it.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago

ihsw 2y ago

It was not about standing up against IP juggernauts in the interest of users, but in the interest of themselves -- it was tech companies flexing their strength to show that cooperation with tech companies was required, and that they are open to cooperation in other ways too.

cscurmudgeon 2y ago

Same with tech and China. They fold like paper without any protest: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-censorship-data.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-ce... Chinese state employees physically manage the computers. Apple abandoned the encryption technology it used elsewhere after China would not allow it. And the digital keys that unlock information on those computers are stored in the data centers they’re meant to secure.

mdhb 2y ago
Apple have repeatedly thrown their customers under the bus especially in China. At least Google had the courage to withdraw entirely.
- thenthenthen 2y ago
  Google never left China, they literally just moved to a new building on the other side of the road (in Zhongguancun, Beijing). They even “left a couple of boxes there”[1]. [1] Blum, Andrew, Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet. New York, Ecco, 2012. https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_p9b6 https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_p9b6
  - ApolloFortyNine 2y ago
    You can't even install the play store in China... Google hasn't been accessible there since in 15 years. You can buy an iPhone there today, and Apple has agreements with China to hand over user data and has done so in the past.
    - thenthenthen 2y ago
      Apple has a datacenter in Gui’an New Area, Guiyang, Guizhou, China (run by GCBD[1]). [1] https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/icloud/en/gcbd-terms.html https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/icloud/en/gcbd...
    - 2y ago

banish-m4 2y ago

Yep. Net neutrality, my left foot. MAANG are all about participating in PRISM, monopolizing access, and choosing who can and can't speak because they compromise a for-profit, oligopolic, technocratic cartel.

freddealmeida 2y ago

I think these firms are all compromised. Poisoning dns is such a bad idea.