In tough economic times in the 70's, Pres Nixon is famous for saying "We are all Keynesians now". Is Google suggesting "We are all Supply-siders now."?
GOOGLE: 2. SOPA and PIPA would be job-killers because they would create a new era of uncertainty for American business.''
Law-abiding U.S. internet companies would have to monitor everything users link to or upload or face the risk of time-consuming litigation. That’s why AOL, EBay, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Twitter, Yahoo and Zynga wrote a letter to Congress saying these bills “pose a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job-creation.” It’s also why 55 of America’s most successful venture capitalists expressed concern that PIPA “would stifle investment in Internet services, throttle innovation, and hurt American competitiveness”. More than 204 entrepreneurs told Congress that PIPA and SOPA would “hurt economic growth and chill innovation”.
makes me nervous to side with big corporations on anything, even if the big corporation is google.
ReplyDeletei signed google's petition because the marxists said sopa would make their internet archive site illegal.
big corporations and marxists on the same side. Strange Bedfellows.
but i still don't know anything about sopa and pipa. got any insights for me?
interesting blog name, by the way.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the blog name change: My wife recieved a big promotion at work but it required relocation to the Chicago area. I finished my semester at the school I worked at for 6 years (CHS) in December and have been here for a month now. I lived in Tx since 84' after getting out of the USMC. I changed the name to reflect the fact I am an Economics teacher without a job right now. It is rare to find a job mid-year BUT I found a long term sub job for an AP Economics teacher going on maternity leave in Feb---dumb luck falling into that one. I have taught at the more advanced level in HS for many years and dont think I would be too happy doing anything less. Gotta have that stimulation...
ReplyDeleteRegarding SOPA/PIPA: There is so much noise coming from both sides I cannot get a grasp on the issues, to be honest. The big issue for me that does not get enough attention is the changing role of Private Property Rights (which I include copyrights), as traditional thought of.
ReplyDeleteI see a slow erosion of the appreciation of these rights by young people especially. The supposed "freedom" of the internet has exacerbated this notion. Most kids simply do not see it as stealing when they take content that in ANY other context they would have to pay for.
I am at a loss to explain how we crossed that divided. Is the internet SO different that it transends traditional notion of private property rights? Do I just not get it? Probably...
Interesting you note the Marxist site. Is a basic tenent of Marxism the abolition of private property rights? Does "Kelo" move this process along as well?
As far as Google, Wikipedia et al are concerned I don't really think as corporate entities they care much about "internet freedom" (maybe once, in the founders idealistic days) but more about regulatory compliance. Cynical? Yes, but that is probably 90% of their thinking.
Google (YouTube especially) and Wiki(great source to STEAL for homework/projects--students you KNOW what I am talking about!) have the direct attention of the young public at large everyday. So here is Google/Wiki stratgey: Even though a tiny fraction of the content they use will be affected let's tell the users ALL of it is theatened and there will be massive shutdowns of websites!! YIKES! That will get Facebook status updates going a mile a minute, with little critical thought about it actually means.
Bottomline for me is the long term affects on the concept of private property rights. Call me old-fashioned, and I have NO love for the Corps who want this passed, but preserving this right is important to me...
I am just a squirrel trying to understand the nuts... :)
Well, good luck to you both then, with the new jobs and all.
ReplyDeleteBack when cloning sheep was in the news, my son was in high school & we were talking about cloning. On the news there were moral questions. To my son there was no reason to hesitate before using the technology.
To him it wasn't so much something new as something possible. He didn't know a world where it wasn't possible, so he saw no reason to preserve that world.
I think it is like that with "young people especially" and the technology of music theft. Like gunpowder, once the technology is invented there's no stopping its use.
I've been teaching myself computer programming since before the days of the Commodore-64. I know how difficult it is to write a decent program. So I was never into the copying-files thing (and this goes back to before the internet, when there were "bulletin boards"). My neighbor was like everybody else, unable to make the computer say "Hello, world" but more than willing to "share" other people's software.
On the other hand Bill Maher was complaining recently about the theft of his "Religulous" dvd or whatever it was. I don't have much sympathy for him as a complainer.
It's a tough question.
Again -- good luck to you.