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[Canalan]

Sorry, not sarcasm, hehe.

I know what you mean about the apparent elitism of the ruling class, I've been friends with those kinds of people and there is a lot to despise.  But for every person born into power, there are two who get there on their own steam.  The world and its power structures are far more diverse and international than the media ever lets on.

It is not, as you put forth, the role of the government to follow the commands of the wealthy. Rather, it is the role of the government to serve the interest of everyone to the greatest extent by making laws that in fact increase the comfort, safety, and freedom of all citizens. I do not believe that corporations creating laws that protect their cartels are an expression of that ideal.

Your conception of government is an idealization.  Yes, economies of size can in many respects be synonymous with cartels.  In principle, I totally subscribe to your description of government.  What we have in reality is the US as global hegemon that is doing - from a historical perspective - a damn better job at *global* integration than anyone else before.  Because the US government is a hegemon, it thinks and acts globally, so it is understandable that individuals may feel sidelined.  But if we put our pride aside, and look at it honestly, things really are pretty good, no?

/reached 2 post limit in internet political discussion, さよ〜なら！

So you are saying that if America is at least comparatively better than <INSERT CRAPSACK COUNTRY HERE>, you don't give a damn about how bad we actually are.  I'm sorry, I refuse to submit to that idea.  We have to always strive to keep this country clean of corruption, or else it will slowly grow until there is nothing we can do about it.  Apathy is corruption's best friend.

[SalmonGod]

But for every person born into power, there are two who get there on their own steam.

I don't believe this, and no raw data I've ever seen on the subject agrees with this.

[kaijyuu]

Look at the current top 1000 or so richest people in the world. Guess how many were born into a rich family.

Hint: Damn near all.

[forsaken1111]

Yeah but all of those rich families got rich somehow. Somewhere along the line someone did something to bring in that wealth. It doesn't just "-poof- money!"

(Well not usually.)

[Canalan]

They did hard work or introduced a new product to the world or just killed their competition because there could only be one.  Of course, this all happened a long time ago, back when you could do that sort of thing.  Now, these wonderful examples of entrepreneurship crush other examples of entrepreneurship because they like having majority control of their market.  The era of "rags-to-riches" is over.  We need to stop reading those Horatio Alger novels.

[SalmonGod]

And even the ones that weren't were at least born into middle class families and time periods with lots of opportunity.  I don't think there's anyone among the super rich that was born into modern poverty in a truly rags to riches fashion.  There may be plenty of millionaires living quite comfortably who were, but I don't even have a problem with them.  There's a difference between having enough to live comfortably without any worries, and having enough personal wealth and influence in wealthy institutions that you can bend society to your will through sheer brute economic force.  It's the people with hundreds of millions and billions that I have a problem with.

[kaijyuu]

Yeah but all of those rich families got rich somehow. Somewhere along the line someone did something to bring in that wealth. It doesn't just "-poof- money!"

(Well not usually.)

Well yeah, but the point is, if you don't have money, you're not going to be making much money. You're more than likely going to be stuck in your economic class for no other reason than who you were born to.

This is in direct opposition of stuff like the "american dream." If you like rags to riches stories and ideals, then the current rich get richer scheme is a hellishly bad thing.

[SalmonGod]

I think we can leave it at this -- Unless you are born into at least the top 10% or so of wealthy families in the U.S., you have a better chance of scoring big in the lottery than you do of becoming greatly influential in politics/the economy... and you know what they say about scoring big in the lottery.  Yeah, it's possible... but the odds are ridiculous.

[Dae]

Wow, that is one hell of a derail. And I feel somehow compelled to be a part of it.

I'll restrain myself, even though I would very much like it. It would've been too consensual anyway. Most people here agree, with only one or two disagreeing.

Still, can't restrain too much : the problem I have with lobbying is that representatives are elected by the people to serve their interest. Representatives are their voice at congress or in whatever chamber to which they were elected. Now, if stakeholders can give you money while you're pondering the law, you're only serving the interest of the highest bidder. Not the interest of the people who voted for you.

Back to MegaUpload, Kim Schmitz is a former hacker. The basis of being a declared hacker is to have a few toes on the bad side of the law, while staying on the good side of the law. I'm pretty sure they will get out of the trial unscathed.
What I hope it will show is that, even though "the MegaUpload system fuels small mafias", Universal is a BIG mafia. Sending the FBI take down a concurrent and arrest its head executives ? Sounds pretty bad. But not as bad as their PR. Now, for most of the Internet, Universal must die. Serious hackers will want to make an example out of them.

By the way, I heard MegaUpload was only the first one. The next that are considered are MediaFire, VideoBB, FileServe.

PTTG, about the decentralized system, the thing is maybe it would require too much redundancy. P2P has a lot of it, but only popular files are saved. Maybe an architecture similar to the TOR network would be more appropriate, with people around the world turning a computer into a server, with only 3 or 4 copies of a file distributed. Basically, the more stable machines would be reserved for unpopular content, so you'd trade stability for redundancy.

Back to SOPA and PIPA, they said the bills were postponed "until a compromise is reached". What does that mean ? With who do they want to compromise ?

[SalmonGod]

The next that are considered are MediaFire

Great.  That's where I host my capstone project to link to in my online portfolio.  Guess I'll be looking for a new file host tonight for my legitimate purposes.  One lesser known and less likely to be targeted.

[olemars]

The next that are considered are MediaFire

Great.  That's where I host my capstone project to link to in my online portfolio.  Guess I'll be looking for a new file host tonight for my legitimate purposes.  One lesser known and less likely to be targeted.

That's what everyone will be doing right now. Suddenly that's the biggest player and gets MPAA agents absailing through their windows.

[SalmonGod]

The next that are considered are MediaFire

Great.  That's where I host my capstone project to link to in my online portfolio.  Guess I'll be looking for a new file host tonight for my legitimate purposes.  One lesser known and less likely to be targeted.

That's what everyone will be doing right now. Suddenly that's the biggest player and gets MPAA agents absailing through their windows.

True.  What can you do?  The internet is hated by traditional establishments.  No part of it that is not owned by them is safe.

[Bohandas]

oh, great. looks like everyone using the internet is going to be imprisoned purely for uploading stuff to it, then.
good luck when there are only a few hundred thousand people outside of prison and billions locked in.

I think that they'd try to do this if they thought they could.

I believe that most major corporations would kill anybody who wasn't a customer all and loot all of theri valuables if they thought that they could get away with it.

[Valid_Dark]

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Oh wow, I checked and that image is actually real. I thought it was a parody.