From a comment on SuW's blog. One of the problems with this stuff is explaining it to uninterested people in terms they can understand so it's not just us who are freaked out about it. This is a problem I have with Lessig's approach of talking about remixing. It's just too subtle compared with "pirate". We need the sound bite because the opposition are sound bite masters. Nothing to do with data retention, but I've been explaining the EFF fight in terms of VCR time shifting and skipping past the adverts. This is something that *everyone* sees as a basic right because everyone has done it even if their VCR still blinks 12:00. Now explain that their next VCR works just like their current one except that one day it refuses to record Lost or 24 or ER. Or when they do record it, it refuses to skip the ads. Or the quality is really bad until they spend another 1000 quid on a new plasma screen. Or the CD they buy won't work in the car. Or the music they thought they bought is dead because they upgraded to a new laptop or the supplier went out of business. And on and on. In terms of data retention, we need to fight with real world examples that people can relate to. Otherwise you get the sort of response that says "I wouldn't mind having an ID card, I've already got 4 in my wallet, what's one more? The government already knows everything about me, what's the problem? If it's going to stop bombings on the subway/immigrants taking my job/ID theft/benefit scroungers/teenage drunkenness/hoody hooligans/Chavs I'm all for it". |
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[ 29-Aug-05 4:29pm ] [ Identity , DRM ]