Journal Entry #3

10/6/2015

*Freedom is a word that, like love, can mean vastly different things to many different people. In our consumerist society we’re so quick to say that free=good, free=optimum. However, in software, the definition of free doesn’t imply the same benefits that free means at the grocery store. A linux distro is very different from a cookie; the latter is pre-packaged and easily consumable. The former is like giving you ingredients with no recipe or oven. Sure, those components are free but it still takes effort to take advantage of them and package them yourselves. Microsoft provides the cookie.

*The most interesting thing to me is that the free software movement is about more than just providing software, but allowing for a software community. This is starting to sound less like an industry report and more like the american revolution. It really is a lot of people rebelling against the current practices based on what seems to be strong moral objection. In other words, a revolution

*Looking back on this revolution from today’s perspective, when free software is so prevalent, it’s hard to visualize the struggles that Stallman and others were facing, pioneering this new idea of content distribution. And yet the landscape of today’s software is fundamentally based on that.

10/82015

*Cliff Stoll goes through a big change of perspective, especially with regards to the government. Though his latter beliefs line up with mine, I don't think that his experience necessarily made him learn the 'truth', rather, his experience merely opened his eyes and made him question previously held assumptions. Were I to go through the same experience, my outlook would definitely change.

*Some things about Stoll are consistent throughout the book -- for example, his mistrust of authority which impels him to take things into his own hands. Because he doesn't wait for someone else to 'take charge', he ended up spearheading this whole campaign to find the hacker. I like to think that he was uniquely placed, both in position but also in personality, to find this issue and track it down. I suspect that him ending up in that position was far from coincidental. There was probably sizable inspiration that resulted in him being in the location he was in

*I'm intrigued that today's discussion is so different from Tuesday's. On Tuesday we talked about free software, and today we're talking about all the ways to legally protect software. Clearly the software world is divided on the best strategy for software development. I kind of expect that commercial software will overtake opensource, in spite of how well open source has done. This I expect because of how much appeal commercial software development has to the rising generation of engineers.

10/13/2015

*Privacy issues are a big deal, obviously, but I kind of feel like they're generational. I see a lot more outcry about privacy from people who are closer to my parents' generation than from my own peers. We've grown up in a world where tons of information is easily accessible, so the idea that our own information might be viewable by the government doesn't turn as many heads.

*When people make comments about the proper way that a government should be run (thinking on the wikileaks article), the first thing I think of is the past. The origin of the US government happened under extremely different circumstances and needs than today. I find it interesting that so many people discuss the 'right' way that a government should be run, though it's never sourced to anything historical or traditional. It has the flavor of a naturalistic logical fallacy.

*What interests me about the NSA email collection article is the acknowledgement that this has been happening since the Bush administration and into the Obama administration. It is examples like this that make me reflect on presidential administrations and realize that there's so much more that goes into them an individual president. You can't assign any result of a campaign to an individual president, as there may be other things in progress from previous administrations.

10/15/2015

*I'm really fascinated that President Benson is so plain in his condemnation of communism. I think the culture of today is so focused on not offending anyone that we tend to think of communism and communist societies in a friendly light. But he is very straight forward. I need to remember that communism is directly against the principles of the gospel.

*The way the public found out about the email collection was by a leak from a former attorney in the Justice Department. It just goes to show that a government or agency can make as many policies as they want, but actions still come down to the choices of individuals. Reminds me of the line from the Cuckoo's Egg when Dennis tells Stoll that the whole network is a community based on trust. Clearly, the community the attorney had been in was not strongly based on trust, because he felt driven to reveal their information (break their policy), rather than keep it a secret (keep the policy)

*I understand the point the hacktivists are trying to make, but I don't think they realize the value of actually having the point be understood. They seem to be so caught up in this struggle with 'authority' that they don't realize that their methods are what's decreasing the chance for understanding. That being said, the fault rests squarely with both parties. The figures of authority are doing no favors by being so reactionary, either.

10/20/2015

*This discussion is a perfect example of the laws of a society evolving to meet the needs and the culture of the society. Before cameras, no one really conceived of so readily copying information in such a way that can be done with cameras. The law, in order to properly react to the needs of the people, needs to properly predict from the cultural trends what will be possible to exploit and protect the people from it.

*John Anthony Walker -- his story reminds me of the example of the attorney who leaked the email collection operation. They're not similar by intent, but by action. Both were part of communities that required trust, and both broke that trust of their own volition. Yes, John Walker's was built on a desire to profit personally, and hurt the US, but it was still his own decision that sent him down that path. Ultimately, every community is still composed of individual human beings.

*"Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s ethical" -- we're living in a world where what is right is increasingly separated from what is allowed. This means that it is more important than ever to fix upon a personal moral code (by whatever standards you set yourself; mine are religious) and hold to it. Personal morality is going to become rarer, and therefore more viewed and more respected.