

Nicholas Carr - Piracy and Privacy - bproper
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2012/01/piracy_and_priv.php

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casca
This is a spurious comparison. Restrictions on piracy are immediately visible
to people. They get blocked from doing something, they pay more for music or
films, they go to prison. There is a tangible effect that gets media coverage.

Privacy and the loss thereof is almost always entirely invisible. So Google,
Facebook et al collect all my browsing habits and use it to sell things to me.
It's not an event that can make the average person upset.

SOPA got the internets aflutter because it's something they (think they) can
understand. Privacy - not so much.

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jnorthrop
> It's not an event that can make the average person upset.

Not yet anyway, but public opinion is changing and faster than many think.
Carr mentioned the updated European Data Directive due out today, but right on
it's heels will be a report from the FTC[1] and one from the Department of
Commerce[2] formalizing drafts released last year that outline privacy reforms
in the US.

Events like Google recording Wifi spots, Carrier IQ gathering data and even
the story of Apple secretly recording location data are becoming more
prevalent. I think we are only 12-18 months out before scattered public
opinion changes to real momentum for privacy rights activists.

[1][http://www.privacyrights.org/ftc-protecting-consumer-
privacy...](http://www.privacyrights.org/ftc-protecting-consumer-privacy-
report-comments)

[2]<http://www.iab.net/public_policy/1495162>

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cjoh
This meme of "The Internet People are Organized and Powerful" is nuts and
wrong.

There would have been just as much hubbub had Wikipedia decided to run a
national television advert during Modern Family asking people to call
Congress.

This was a lot of things, and it was certainly successful. But it wasn't
because people are well organized or that there was some serious campaign
management going on. There wasn't. And truth be told, efforts like this have
almost a half-life to them.

Think about Howard Dean's incredible run in 2004. Where are those activists
now? Or Obama's 2008 list? Where is that now?

People are fickle on the Internet and they get tired of causes quickly. And
there's no "universal consensus" amongst "people on the Internet"

Long story short, should Google try and somehow protest its own interests on
Privacy, I suspect that you wouldn't see nearly as much universal consensus
around that as you did around SOPA. It's hard to write legislation that
lopsided or dumb, and even harder to generate the kind of public panic behind
it more than once.

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cabalamat
> Where are those activists now? [...] People are fickle on the Internet and
> they get tired of causes quickly.

What we need is a permanent, federated, worldwide organisation to fight for
internet freedom. We could call it a "Pirate Party".

~~~
cjoh
I suspect most people believe that piracy is bad, and that free speech is
good. The pirate party might have a problem in this regard.

