

Irish politician calls for crack down on "open source Internet browsers" - rmc
http://www.finegael.ie/latest-news/2013/odonovan-calls-for-crackd/index.xml

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Nanzikambe
Well, I'm glad Ireland's politicians have such grasp of the subject.

Someone should mention (in monosyllabic terms obviously) that most Tor nodes
runs Linux, an open source operating system, also in serious need of a good
cracking down.

    
    
      “Law enforcement agencies in the United States have recently taken 
      action to address this issue, however it appears the solution was
      temporary as replacement browsers quickly appeared to ensure the 
      continuance of the illegal trade."
    

I can't quite decide whether this is genius level satire, or serious.

~~~
Zuider
It's genius level stupidity.

I don't know if you have ever had the experience of trying to explain
something to someone so deeply committed to paranoid stupidity that they are
actively resistant to new knowledge. You could try monosyllables, or even
'Quest for Fire' style grunts and grimaces, but the results will be the same.
They tend to pick a few striking keywords from what you are saying (just the
words, not any actual concepts), and they will run with those. Someone
probably did try to explain to O'Donovan, but all he heard was "blah, blah,
open source, blah, blah, blah".

I suspect that O'Donovan is not the originator of the initiative that he is
championing here, but that he has been made privy to some insider information
about an impending EU crackdown on internet anonymity (which politicians and
bureaucrats hate as a matter of course) and he hopes to make political capital
by taking credit for it.

~~~
Nanzikambe
> I don't know if you have ever had the experience of trying to explain
> something to someone so deeply committed to paranoid stupidity that they are
> actively resistant to new knowledge.

I have actually, but I rather naively assumed that politicians would have
researchers or similar to make sure they can at least articulate the talking
points they adopt.

> or even 'Quest for Fire' style grunts and grimaces

PMSL :)

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jmmcd
Don't worry everyone. As the article says, O'Donovan has written to the
Chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Communications, John O’Mahony TD, who
is well-qualified to see through this nonsense -- he was elected because of
his fame as the manager of the 1998 and 2001 All-Ireland winning Galway Gaelic
football team.

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ikusalic
So much here that is wrong...

But what does he mean with "Law enforcement agencies in the United States have
recently taken action to address this issue (open source browsers)" in the
last paragraph?

~~~
bbrian
I assume the FBI exploiting Firefox in a previous version of Tor Browser
Bundle (on Windows only!).

[http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/09/freedom-hosting-
fbi...](http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/09/freedom-hosting-fbi/)

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bbrian
I figure this is in response to the Silk Road extradition trial that's coming
up (January 21).

[http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/man-faces-
extrad...](http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/man-faces-extradition-
to-us-over-alleged-link-to-drug-site-29912949.html)

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BerislavLopac
Wait -- I've heard that most of the drug trade is conducted in US dollars.
Let's crack down on those!

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vool
I'm sooooooooooooooooooooo sorry

