New York Times: Software Pioneer Quits Board of Groove. Mitchell D. Kapor, a personal computer industry software pioneer and a civil liberties activist, has resigned from the board of Groove Networks after learning that the company’s software was being used by the Pentagon as part of its development of a domestic surveillance system.
As the technology industry turns more and more into a tool of the surveillance state and other control freaks, it’s good to know that honor and liberty still matter to some people.
UPDATE: On reflection, I think I’m being somewhat unfair to the people at Groove. Ray and Jack Ozzie (and the others I’ve met from the company) are not bad people; far from it. And the toolmaker can’t choose who buys his tools.
Yet I’m troubled by Groove’s increasingly government-oriented business thrust, and deeply unhappy that the company is acting as a willing accomplice in the formation of the surveillance state. Maybe that’s where the money is, but it’s not socially responsible in my book.