Irish Politician Calls For Crackdown On Open Source Internet Browsers 335
An anonymous reader writes "An Irish politician has called for tougher controls on the use of open source internet browsers. He said, 'An online black market is operating which protects the users’ anonymity and operates across borders through the use of open source internet browsers and payments systems which allow users to remain anonymous. This effectively operates as an online supermarket for illegal goods such as drugs, weapons and pornography, where it is extremely difficult to trace the identity of the buyers. We need a national and international response to clamp down on this illicit trade.' The politician added that the U.S. had 'taken action' to address this, but he seemed surprised that their solution was only 'temporary.'"
Shut up drinky (Score:5, Funny)
Posting as ac because I am both Irish and drunk, I forgot my password
Re:Shut up drinky (Score:5, Funny)
A Fine Gael TD named Patrick
Vied for the cluelessness hat trick:
He blamed anonymity
For people's affinity
To gambling, drugs and well-stacked chicks.
He represents Limerick, for Christ's sake. He had it coming.
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Re:Shut up drinky (Score:4, Funny)
Ok. Here's one from an old issue of Playboy, back in the mid 1960s:
There was a young maid from Madras
Who had quite a magnificent ass.
It wasn't pretty and pink as you probably think.
It was grey, had long ears, and ate grass!
Sorry Playboy, but this ditty has stuck with me for almost 50 years! :-)
Re:Shut up drinky (Score:4, Funny)
There was a young man named Frisk
Whose lovemaking was exceedingly brisk
So fast was his action
That the Lorentz Contraction
Reduced his tool to a disk.
Dirty enough for you?
Re: (Score:3)
There was a fag from Khartoum
Who took a lesbian up to his room
They spent the whole night
arguing who had the right
to do what and with what to whom.
(The most grammatically correct limerick I know...)
Re:Shut up drinky (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Shut up drinky (Score:5, Funny)
That was implied
because I am both Irish...
Re:Shut up drinky (Score:5, Funny)
well,
I'll drink to that.
Re:Shut up drinky (Score:5, Funny)
At what point does the brawl start?
Re:Shut up drinky (Score:4, Funny)
when we run out of Whiskey...
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Re:Shut up drinky (Score:5, Funny)
I believe you meant to say "At what pint does the brawl start?"
Re:Shut up drinky (Score:5, Funny)
I believe you meant to say "At what pint does the brawl start?"
Doesn't matter, it's pronounced the same in Ireland.
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If the rumors are true, and the Irish would rule the World if not for alcohol,
well,
I'll drink to that.
Well would you rather be sitting in the Oval office surrounded by world leaders or in an Irish pub with a pint of Guinness listening to folk music?
I think I speak for us all... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I think I speak for us all... (Score:5, Interesting)
He starts by condeming browsers and proxies that help people browse the internet anonymously. Then he jumps to saying that anonymous browsing leads to trading drugs, weapons, and pornography. Then he commends the USA NSA for spying on Americans but is concerned that now that they have been caught Americans might do something about it.
Re:I think I speak for us all... (Score:5, Insightful)
"He starts by condeming browsers and proxies that help people browse the internet anonymously. Then he jumps to saying that anonymous browsing leads to trading drugs, weapons, and pornography. Then he commends the USA NSA for spying on Americans but is concerned that now that they have been caught Americans might do something about it."
Seems to me there was something else I heard about that was anonymous, and can be traded for all kinds of illegal things.
Oh, yeah. I remember now: cash.
Re:I think I speak for us all... (Score:4, Interesting)
Seems to me there was something else I heard about that was anonymous, and can be traded for all kinds of illegal things. Oh, yeah. I remember now: cash.
Which is why cash is being so aggressively deprecated in all of its roles (anti-laundering laws, bonuses for loyalty cards, new methods of mobile payment every week...). It's always about control, and politicians love control.
Re:I think I speak for us all... (Score:5, Informative)
You mean they haven't yet?
See United States v. $124,700 in U.S. Currency. [wikipedia.org]
Re:I think I speak for us all... (Score:4, Informative)
Don't forget to mention that in most counties in this country, a large percentage of that seizure would go directly to that police department. It varies from state to state but many police departments end up getting new patrol cars and such have major busts. This is often sited as the reason minorities are so often targeted. Low hanging fruit with high payouts and low voter turnout means they're easy targets.
Re:I think I speak for us all... (Score:4, Funny)
Shh!!! Don't let them know our secret!!! They'll just make cash illegal too!
I think the batteries are running low in your Euros, I'm having difficulty tracking you.
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If my conception of a free market, what the credit card companies are doing is collusion, and I would ban the practice. Many people think they believe in free markets who only believe in commerce.
If the credit card company is providing a service the customer is willing to pay for, th
Re:I think I speak for us all... (Score:5, Insightful)
A lot of people seem to think that while the credit card processors will charge retailers a fee for accepting cards, that somehow accepting cash is free...
It's really not, there are all kinds of costs to a business that takes cash. The retailer requires change to give customers, and the banks charge them for supplying small change... You also need something like a safe to store the cash in, and you face the risk of that cash being stolen and are likely to pay higher insurance costs to cover that risk. Similarly you will probably need to get that cash to the bank, which for any sizeable amount will probably mean hiring a cash courier service to take it for you. Large amounts of cash also attract the attention of the tax authorities, as its very easy to simply pocket some of the cash and never declare it for tax purposes.
All of these costs add up such that in many cases it's actually cheaper to take cards.
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Mine has an anonymous loon on it.
Re:I think I speak for us all... (Score:5, Interesting)
I believe he's a non-techy abusing technical language he doesn't understand. He seems to be referring to the Silk Road, and it's replacement, with the words "open source browser." Silk Road is the only major source of illegal shit that's recently been shut down in the US, and it has (predictably) already been replaced. He also seems to be lumping various other initiatives (like TOR) with the same words.
It seems like he's an Irish ted Stevens. Some staffer has explained these concepts to him well enough that he kinda gets them, but not well enough for him to remember the words everyone else uses.
Re:I think I speak for us all... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I think I speak for us all... (Score:5, Funny)
You're thinking of Ted Kennedy, and he didn't quite make it across the bridge.
Re:I think I speak for us all... (Score:4, Insightful)
He starts by condeming browsers and proxies that help people browse the internet anonymously. Then he jumps to saying that anonymous browsing leads to trading drugs, weapons, and pornography. Then he commends the USA NSA for spying on Americans but is concerned that now that they have been caught Americans might do something about it.
Would it be in poor taste to express a hope that the British come and show him how much fun being the object of 'security' is, like they used to? There's no cure for an authoritarian asshole quite like a bit of repression that he isn't in favor of....
Tor Browser Bundle; Dogecoin is so cash (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Tor Browser Bundle; Dogecoin is so cash (Score:5, Funny)
I'm currently devoting nearly all of my hate to Doge. It might be the worst thing the internet has done in a long, long time.
wow, no love, much sad
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someone set up us the doge.
and yes, it was CATS. of course!
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Much hash, so fashion, wow! :-P
Re:I think I speak for us all... (Score:5, Funny)
Clearly IE, the popular closed source browser, ,is against anonymity. Who knows this for sure, the country with the code .ie - I feel dumb for not knowing earlier.
Re:I think I speak for us all... (Score:5, Funny)
Ya. Ow... The stupid, it burns!
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Wasn't there some link Ireland - Microsoft?
Not interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
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And in any case, such a bill would have to go through the EU parliament, not the Irish one.
Re:Not interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no idea so dumb or ill-informed that there isn't going to be some politician, somewhere, proposing it
True, and yet the exceptional examples need to be discussed in order for them to exposed to the hoots of derision and mockery which they so richly deserved. I doubt they will learn anything from it since their cranial capacity seems to be, thus far, impervious to analytical thought, but it makes the rest of us feel better.
Let the mockery resume.
Re:Not interesting (Score:4, Insightful)
This. I see too often people argue that something is not worthwhile discussing because it is so obviously idiotic, wrong, racist or god knows what else. They want to ignore it, make it illegal or somehow push it underground. That always makes things worse.
The only cure for stupidity is wisdom, knowledge or public mockery. Indeed, please continue.
The root of that problem is a particular form of arrogance or ego-centrism. The form is: it is so ridiculous *to me* because I understand what's wrong with it, that no one else will ever be persuaded by it, so there is no reason to expend the minimal effort it would take to nip it in the bud...
The Prohibition of alcohol happened this way. The Al Capones of the world were thankful.
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He's in Ireland's ruling party. He's not in the Cabinet, so it probably won't become law, but he's got more clout then most other TDs.
Assuming he's using "open source web browser" (what else could he be using it to mean? he clearly doesn't know what an actual open source web browser is) to refer to the Silk Road website and TOR network, his idea isn't that different from US Government policy. Or any official government policy.
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Call me when a bill to this effect has some chance of passing, otherwise I am not interested. There is no idea so dumb or ill-informed that there isn't going to be some politician, somewhere, proposing it. That doesn't mean anyone else in that legislature takes it seriously, possibly even the proposer isn't serious and is just mouthing off for political reasons.
True.
This just isn't worth anyone's time to read about.
False. When politicians say stupid shit, it's our duty to mock them for it. Otherwise, that stupid shit starts making it into actual laws. (Sometimes it does that anyway.)
Huh? (Score:2)
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Or telnet.
WTF (Score:5, Interesting)
Seems like this rather confused politician is confusing Firefox with Tor. And I bet if he knew who was funding Tor, his head would explode.
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He's definitely confused about something, with statements like this:
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.
He seems to think the US agencies seized some sort of browser or something. Assuming he's just confused about terminology, he's apparently seeking some sort of international ban on certain kinds of websites that are accessible via Tor, or a ban on Tor itself. Good luck with that.
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Ya he is saying the feds shut down 'silk road' (a browser) and then silk road 2 (another browser?) popped up (and subsequently closed). Comedy gold I tell you.
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I can just see it. The politician is looking at a screenshot of Firefox being used to browse Silk Road, and asks an aid "what is this technology called", the aide, not knowing the context, replies "the .. Firefox web browser?"
Many countries ban TOR, and work actively to block it - this wouldn't be that strange if he was talking about TOR.
Firefox with Tor (Score:4)
confusing Firefox with Tor
I don't see how Firefox with Tor [torproject.org] is so confusing.
Why use an open source browser as a base (Score:2)
Heck, I'm sure you can also merge Tor with Internet Explorer if you were silly enough.
It would infringe copyright. The key difference here is that merging privacy tools with a browser distributed under a free software license does not infringe copyright.
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In case any one is wondering. DARPA and the US Navy are two of the founders.
https://www.torproject.org/about/sponsors.html.en
Re:WTF (Score:5, Interesting)
Most people are not technically knowledgeable. I fear that things will keep getting more and more silly as the human race gets more and specialized. In the 1700s is was possible to be pretty knowledgeable about all the technology of the day. Today it just isn't. You can see an example of that here on slashdot when talking about spaceflight or battery technology and some idiot makes a reference to Moore's Law.
Damn those anonymous evildoers (Score:4, Insightful)
The only people who deserve no taxes in Ireland are those multinationals with accountants who drink a double Irish coffee with their Dutch sandwich.
Wow. (Score:2)
How in the heck did the idea of 'privacy' which, used to be one of the tenets of western civilization become something that our elected leaders (who are supposed to be on OUR side) actively try
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Did we learn nothing from the USSR and the Iron Curtain?
Mentally reviewing the last decade has led me to conclude...no.
Re:Wow. (Score:5, Insightful)
Did we learn nothing from the USSR and the Iron Curtain?
Yes. We learned how to do it better.
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He's just under/mis-informed about his choice of technologies.
He's afraid that using anonymous web technologies leads to bad things -- and to be fair, users of Tor are essentially divided into the paranoid, the pedos, and the paranoid pedos. Blame the early adopters for quickly figuring out that an anonymous web is a great place to sell drugs, guns and children... ...and host Linux ISOs or something.
I can't tell you what "most" anonymous web-surfers do. I can only tell you the part of it that makes the ne
Dodgy. (Score:2)
It's only the buyers that he wants to track?
Does he want to know who is customers or competitors are?
Who let this guy on a computer? (Score:3, Insightful)
This just goes to show how people who know nothing about computers shouldn't be in a position to make public statements about them. I mean, while we're at it, why don't we ban cars from driving on the road just so that bank robbers can't use them as getaway vehicles?
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Have you seen the state of Irelands roads?
Yup... (Score:2)
Internet Users call for Crack Down on Stupidity (Score:4, Insightful)
Good luck with that, King Canute (Score:5, Insightful)
Let us know how that works out.
I agree with the people above, it sounds like he's confusing Tor and Firefox. For my part, I'm a member of an on-line community and am dealing with their 64-year-old admin who refuses to let anyone post live links in the discussion forum because "it's a security risk" and won't allow any images, or media. She's wondering why this little web community is dying.
You sometimes need to keep old people away from the keyboard.
Re:Good luck with that, King Canute (Score:5, Informative)
You sometimes need to keep old people away from the keyboard.
Patrick O'Donovan, the politician in question, is 36 years old. My father is a 70-year-old web developer. Sure, in general younger people probably understand the internet better than older people, but there are so many exceptions to this in both directions that any generalization based on age is pretty well meaningless.
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I'm sure he wants to crack down on people's freedom of expression, but his comments are so bizarre that I'm not at all convinced he knows what he's talking about. "Ignorant" and "evil" are not mutually exclusive, which I suppose is better for the rest of us ... Anyway, there's no need to bring age into it. Politicians of any age are much of a muchness.
Re:Good luck with that, King Canute (Score:5, Insightful)
Old people? You need to open your eyes.
When you run into one of those nasty little fascists who have no respect for civil rights and damned little compassion, you can pretty much bet it's a 20-something.
And my buddy's 83-year-old father knows a hell of a lot more about computer hardware and software than most people I know aged 15 to 35. Among other things, he's digitized and sorted generations of photographs, sketches and Super-8 films. He's turned a selection of them into some really excellent movies, and he's set up a data base that's both flexible and easy to search covering families, family trees, friends, events and much more.
If you want a security nightmare, let a teenager loose on the family computer. Clueless little shytes, for the most part.
This reminds me of when... (Score:5, Interesting)
This reminds me of when Senator Orin hatch wanted to develop technology to destroy peoples computers if they were caught downloading anything that was copyrighted.
I actually witnessed this exchange live on C-SPAN.
Excerpt from an article that's no longer up:
"No one is interested in destroying anyone's computer," replied Randy Saaf of MediaDefender Inc., a secretive Los Angeles company that builds technology to deliberately download pirated material very slowly so other users can't.
"I'm interested," Hatch interrupted. He said damaging someone's computer "may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights."
The senator, a composer who earned $18,000 last year in song-writing royalties, acknowledged Congress would have to enact an exemption for copyright owners from liability for damaging computers. He endorsed technology that would twice warn a computer user about illegal online behavior, "then destroy their computer."
"If we can find some way to do this without destroying their machines, we'd be interested in hearing about that," Hatch said. "If that's the only way, then I'm all for destroying their machines. If you have a few hundred thousand of those, I think people would realize" the seriousness of their actions.
"There's no excuse for anyone violating copyright laws," Hatch said.
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What, seriously? (Score:2)
Someone ask him what his position is on the internet being "a series of tubes".
Wait what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Pro tip, just because it is online, or open source, does not make human nature any different.
Some people will beat their spouse or hire a hitman. Some people will be addicts. Some will sell to the addicts. Some will fondle their niece.
Claiming some tool is enabling these behaviors and ignoring that tool's greater benefit greater benefit to society is either fear-mongering or blind unthinking fear (possibly instilled by other fear mongers). If the former, you are the worst kind of control hungry sociopath to use fear to restrict others. If the latter, you are a puppet and a simpleton. in either case, you do not deserve to be in any position of leadership.
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I wonder if he even realises... (Score:2)
Thanks (Score:2)
A few times I've heard an Irish use the term "gobshite" and I wasn't sure what it meant 'till today.
What more can one expect from total Assholes? (Score:5, Insightful)
Just when you think that you have grown beyond caring, theses guys manage to poke beneath the shield and hit the "AAAAAARRRGGGHH" button !!
I am sorry for taking this seriously, but after the Bank Bailouts, the corruption, the incompetency, the cover-ups and the sheer fuck-wittery of the past
years, they attack OPEN SOURCE BROWSERS !!
What more can one expect from politicians that:
- kowtow-ed to the EU on the Maastricht Treaty re-Vote, (It puts the lotion in the basket, and votes again and again until the answer is YES)
- sold 3 generations of their own people out, in the form of a bank bailout for *private* non-system critical banks,
- have no concept of Justice whether social, civil or criminal
- have no concept of public probity, of duty or what to be a servant of the people actually means
- assume in blind arrogance that their own short-sighted, small-town, bigoted, religion-ridden, never questioned views are "NORMALITY"
and those of everyone else, are simply illegal.
In short. Olympic level Assholes.
Winking and smiling and smirking, crapping out their "hokesy/folksy" catchphrases, with constant shit eating grins.
Concepts such as free speech, right to privacy, equal treatment before the law, due process, ... are considered amusing or just dismissed,
womens' rights (especially reproductive rights),
out of hand, by these troglodytes.
For example, the implicit assumption that *all pornography* is simply illegal!
The US and Britain have blanket surveilled every Irish citizen for generations, and this cringing *lackey*
assumes that *law enforcement* was the purpose.
Call me harsh, but I interpret the failure of elected representatives to protect .the rights of their citizens,
in the face of blatant intrusions, as more than incompetence, more than failure.
It is treachery.
Following the usual, endless cycle, whenever social unrest threatens, the Haves in Ireland, ... the opposition is simply disenfranchised.
push the Have-nots to emigrate. Since, conveniently, the non-resident cannot vote, there
was, is and will never be any pressure on the ruling elite to change any of their policies
And nothing changes.
I dream of another Ireland.
A country where an informed electorate hold their elected leaders to account, demand the
definition and enforcement of just laws which protect individual and public rights.
A truly Free Ireland.
Until then, I apologise to the world that we are represented by these fools and that
you have to listen to their blather.
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Everything is becoming "The land of take what you can, and fuck the other guy!"
And you will see most of them in church on Sundays!
We need to crack down on doormakers too ! (Score:2)
Because low cost and easy to acquire doors from doormakers (there might even be discount door sellers !) protect children from being seen when they get abused.
Join, the remove all doors movement, we provide you the feeling of being better people, because you can morally pic on others that don't want to declare to you why they love to fuck asses or wear sissy dresses, or just want to be who they are .. unwatched & unsuppressed.
No way it'll happen here in America (Score:3)
It's cheaper than actual freedom, and it makes keeping track of us easy as a cowbell.
W3C + HTML5 + DRM (Score:5, Informative)
I'll tell you what this is all about:
http://boingboing.net/2013/10/11/w3cs-drm-for-html5-sets-the.html [boingboing.net]
Soon, all compliant browsers will have to be opaque, in order to have DRM that will protect Netflix and other streaming services. Independent browsers will disappear. Open source browsers will be a big hole in the plan to completely lock down the internet once and for all and cannot be allowed to exist. Irish politicians have learned their globalization lessons well and know on which side their bread is buttered. He may not be the most eloquent advocate, but he knows what the agenda is.
We are very close to the end of the internet as we know it. I've long said that the internet is turning into cable television. Now the transformation is almost complete.
http://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/post/72759474218/we-are-huxleying-ourselves-into-the-full-orwell [tumblr.com]
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Don't be so hard on poor O'Donovan. I don't know how to get those newfangled "Tweat" things on Prodigy or CompuServe either.
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You'll have to find a piece of paper, a pen, an envelope, and a stamp. Tweeting won't work here.
Re:Leave it to a politician to blow hot air (Score:4, Informative)
Microsoft, Google and Apple all have their European bases in Ireland. Firefox has its European base in the UK, and Opera is based in Norway.
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Double Irish (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Double Irish (Score:4, Insightful)
So if the Dáil Éireann passes a law banning any browser containing any open source code, we'll have rid the world of Safari and Internet Explorer?
"There is no greater love than to lay down one's browser for one's friends."
Pajitnov: FOSS "should never have existed" (Score:2)
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As usual, you can substitute the word "cash" or "gold" in.
Cash and gold take a lot longer to send from one continent to another than Bitcoin.
As wasted as that idiotic Irish luddite (Score:5, Funny)
... and the fact that that idiotic Irish luddite can be elected as a politician says a lot about those who voted for him !!
Re:As wasted as that idiotic Irish luddite (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:As wasted as that idiotic Irish luddite (Score:5, Insightful)
Democracy creates these idiots. The problem is that politicians are expected to have opinions on everything, yet it's impossible to know everything. These people end up making decisions on things they understand little or nothing about.
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Just cluing in that Democrazy is a BAD thing?
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Just cluing in that Democrazy is a BAD thing?
That's oversimplifying it, but any system that puts people in charge of making serious decisions about things they know little about isn't good.
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"Those Internets" --President George W. Bush
These are men that either campaigned for or held the top elected office in this country, and they really had very little clue as to what the Internet was or how it could be used. To an extent Dole can get a pass, as in 1996 very few people, relatively speaking, used the Internet commercially, but by the time that Bush-43 was president this should have
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Democracy creates these idiots.
Finally, an argument in favor of authoritarianism. About time.
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"Democracy: that ultimate triumph of quantity over quality." -- Peter H. Peel
Re:Hurray! (Score:5, Funny)
What is that "Senior System Engineer/Architect" thing doing in a slashdot sig?
Furthermore, your sig says: "Notice: If you post anonymously do not expect a reply" and you just replied to an anon!
You seem to have problems following basic algorithms which is questionable for a " Senior System Engineer/Architect".
Take care nevertheless man ;-)
--
Senior master/architect of the universe
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Ireland doesn't really matter. It's the Midwest of the United Kingdom.
--
Only on Slashdot does an AC get modded Informative for pointing out that the LHC is in Europe.
The combination of your post and your .sig is sadly hilarious.