I feel I am being taken again out of context...or people just aren't fully understanding my point of view.
I am not saying it is illegal or wrong to hack a system, mod a system, or what not. However, people don't stop there. If they did that is cool. Some of the coolest computer gadgets are mods. I do not support stealing of any kind...and yes that even includes survival theft...yet that makes more sense that most theft that goes on. Hackers, Modders, rarely stop at legal side of the bar. They almost always engage in some sort of theft. And yes in this information age, I understand it is getting harder to understand intellectual properties and when you are stealing and when you are attaining it legally. For instance, if I have the cart can I download the ROM and play it on an emulator. Most people will agree yes, you can....but legally I do not think that is the case. That is just example of many in this digital era.
The analogy I was upset with was the idea that a locked door must be opened like we have this right to know whatever we want to know or obtain what we want to obtain because it is there and we have the ability to do it. To me that is a self serving and pretty evil attitude. It is an attitude that doesn't exist in every society...but usually in the higher individualistic societies.
Do I want discovery to stop? No. Do I think we should respect every entities properties including corporations? Yes. Do I think corporations go to far protecting their precious things and do foolish stupid things? Yes. Do I think we are all slaves to corporations? No. That is silly...at any moment I can stop buying and giving a corporation my money.
It is the individual's choice as to what to do thing the information once that lock has been undone. At the bottom of Pandora's box was Hope. Times and time again needless suffering has occurred because knowledge has been missed used. Yet we are still here, we have grown stronger, better from that same knowledge. The universe is locked to us. These locks can be real or metaphorical. We cannot go to Mars because we lack the tools to do so and until recently we could not use a PS3 as we see fit until these tools were released.
There is nothing individualist or selfish about what they did. They saw something to be discovered and gifted it to the world. Had they commercialised it for their own profit, you might have a point.
To these people, unlocking the PS3 is like going to Mars. It would be selfish of them not to share the fruits of this knowledge as it is a benefit to society as a whole. Sure Sony might lose out, everybody else gains. What others do with this knowledge is their own damn business, otherwise you could regress indefinitely to the inventor of any item or idea that harms another both legally and morally.
What you are doing to these people and others like them is the equivalent of what Zeus did to
Prometheus. I dare not claim that hacking a PS3 is on the same level is stealing fire from the Gods and giving it to mankind. But what these people did, is of the same spirit. They didn't do it so they can be tied to a metaphorical rock to get their livers torn out each day. Yet here you are, playing the eagle each and every day.
Corporations are useful things. They gather wealth and talent to make something greater than the sum of their parts. No problem with that. In some ways, not too different from government and both serve a very useful purpose. However there is a couple of problems with corporations.
Corporations one and only goal is to gather wealth and any action that can lead to more wealth. The second is that corporations are quasi
immortal. While the founder or other strong individuals may set the direction of a corporation, however his or she influence only extends as far as they are in power or lives. Once this influence is gone, a corporation reverts back to it's natural state which is to gather wealth by any means. Corporations transcend governments. I mentioned before corporations are not people, but yet they have voice within government. Government are meant to serve the people, to the will of the people and the consent of the people. Corporations not only exists over multiple countries, but have influence over multiple countries. Corporations have no concept of consequence beyond their own portfolio and limitations governments can impose. But corporations can and does influence government resulting in unnecessary harm to others and environment as they use up public goods like air and water in order to generate more wealth.
Did I mention Corporations are very useful things? They have helped mankind accomplish many great and useful things. Commercialised bits of science so they can be brought to the every Joe Blow in many practical forms and costs. The modern world wouldn't exist with out them. They allow the pooling of wealth and talent in a secure environment from sources of people who would rather kill each other. However I believe that they have grown too powerful. As greed given form, they must be limited and controlled produce something positive or at least, do no evil.
Like many other corporations before, Sony has over stepped and must be punished. But given the balance of power and the general brokeness of the US legal institutions, by the time we get a ruling negative or positive, the PS3 will be obsolete. The gain to society would be lost to time. Sony wins. Look at the
Exxon Vades Spill through the use of endless litigation reduced the penalty to a fraction of the damage, yet corporations can multiply penalties to those individuals they sue to multiple
Hundards of Thousands of Times.
Yeah it's a comedy site, but what better way to point of the absurdity of it all, so sue me. I for one don't see the problem for taking action that are extra legal against corporations should they not only break our laws, but make them for it's own benefit and our collective detriment.
That said, what action you take is up to you. I could consider you the better man for not breaking the law no matter how unjust they many be.
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
Perhaps getting the order of the words correct helps with the meaning. It often does so in the English language, unlike some other languages where it sometimes makes little difference. The above quote is attributed to Edmund Burke, a well-known 18th century political philosopher. It has been quoted often in recent years, especially by reform candidates for public office, sometimes without appropriate attribution. It means that evil is not neutral; if you and/or society stop resisting evil, it will continue to grow and spread. It is a call to arms for people to stop being complacent.
Evil is not neutral and there can be no neutrality exercised toward it. Anyone who is not against it is perforce in favor of it.
Source
I want to work for a corporation one day, as they can offer opportunities and benefits I can't have otherwise, take pride in something bigger, but not if it costs me my soul. Corporations can be a force for good, but this runs contrary to it's true nature so must be restrained, questioned and challenged like our governments so it can work for us, not us for it.
Edit: typos
Topic: HAY LETS TALK ABOUT PIRACY IN HERE (Read 23807 times)
