The BBC is reporting a bizarre scheme, concocted by the British government and compliant academic researchers, to track cars by satellite to catch or even prevent speeding motorists. The idea is to build special gear into the car, and let remote computer systems automatically slow the car down, by choking its fuel supply, if a driver goes too fast.
The sheer absurdity of the idea should be enough to kill it. I doubt the privacy questions will do the trick, unfortunately, as the British have utterly abandoned all pretense of privacy. Wherever you go in the U.K. these days, a camera is likely to be taking your picture.
It’s depressing to watch as the country that gave us the Magna Carta heads so unthinkingly down the road, pardon the expression, to authoritarianism. One of these days, the British people are going to realize how much liberty they’ve given up in the name of security. Of course, it’ll probably be too late when they do.
How Netizens Temporarily Thwarted the Entertainment Industry
In Part Two of my look at a major case involving intellectual property and free speech, we see how the Net community rallied against a major threat to open-source software and free speech.
This fight is just beginning, though. The way it’s resolved could have enormous impact on the Net in the future.
More information:
OpenDVD campaign
DVD Copy Control Association
Your Home, Your Castle?
Make sure the throne is ergonomically correct….
If the federal government gets its way, your employer may soon be visiting your home to check up on you — if you do any work for your employer at home, that is. The Occupational Health and Safety Adminstration believes home workplaces should be as safe as the company’s workplace. (Washington Post story, via SiliconValley.com)
OK, this does make some sense in theory. But the privacy questions are enormous. The feds should think this one through before they start enforcing it wholesale.
Another Online Stupidity
I was just using the Multex Investor service on CBS Marketwatch, and was offered a report from a major brokerage about a company (my employer) in which I own stock. It was “free” — as long as I registered with the brokerage.
Well, the brokerage asked some nosy questions. I only answered the ones that were absolutely required. When I finished registering and clicked on the button that would display the report, I was told the report was no longer available. So the brokerage had captured a bunch of personal information and given me zip.
The bait-and-switch con artists of yore had nothing on the online crowd.