Tag Archives: Freedom

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The TPP: We Should Enforce The Liberals to Democratically Decide Upon Whether or Not to Ratify the TPP Treaty

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So, remember when PM Harper and the Conservative Party signed omnibus legislation, limiting debate while passing disguised legislation?

I think PM Trudeau and the Liberal Party are poised to do something very similar, possibly to greater detriment, with the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty. I hope we inform this current government that this sort of thing is just as unacceptable now as it was when the Conservatives were in power.

I worry about the Intellectual Property and Copyright provisions of the TPP treaty; I think it will come with great cost to public domain knowledge; I think it will make an already problematic patent system (especially with regard to software patents) worse; I think it will embolden censorship; I think it will widen the class division between those who have access to knowledge and technology & those who have-not.

Should we agree to the TPP? I’m not sure; if my assertions are correct, I would say definitely not. I do know that the potential for worsening societal problems is there, and I hope there is plenty of public discussion amongst experts before we sign into anything. Personally, I don’t have faith that our government will do the right thing, in the interest of our democratic nation, without our enforcement. I suspect that selling an unfavourable treaty to the public is more politically convenient for the Liberals than scrapping the TPP and then trying to defend their position.

I am in the Information Technology business. Freedom of Information and Public Access to Information & Technology are a major concern of mine. I’ve begun studying genomics and I can predict how publicly available knowledge vs. privately held intellectual property is going to be the difference between inexpensive & available to all cancer treatments vs. potentially unaffordable treatment. I’m not sure that the spirit of Canada is compatible with the TPP.

I for one will be doing further research on the impact of the TPP and writing my MP and the Minister of International Trade, Chrystia Freeland. Possibly writing the PM. I hope you will consider it, too.

Copyright © 2015 Feel free to copy, distribute, retransmit or print this article.

Articles, Computing

the internet should be operated in the public interest

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umm… the internet should be operated in the public interest, with the goal of maximizing utility to the public, rather than with the goal of maximizing profits.  For mine and many other’s livelihood, the internet is as much an important public resource as the roads or hospitals are.  It is, in large part, necessary in order for me to make my money.

Besides, most goods will most likely soon not be sent via land, sea, or air; they will be transmitted through the internet and fabricated either at a local fabrication centre, or even at home.  Even now, books are distributed electronically, movies, music… next up, dishware, constructable furniture, houses… you name it, it likely already exists in a distributable electronic format, just waiting to be “printed” out.  Look it up.

here’s a link to some neat looking stuff.

Florea, Designer of the 3D Printed House & Gran Torino Has More Up his Sleeve – Is a Submarine Next?

 

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Articles, Computing

Net Neutrality: a great concern with regards to freedom of information & communication

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I believe we’re moving completely toward solar electricity, battery, electrical & human powered transportation, on-demand local manufacturing, open & free technology and information and communication, at home or neighbourhood based veggie production, and widespread free knowledge about how to take preventative health measures based upon your own personal genetic & environmental makeup, along with freely available & easily accessible mental health services for all.  Much less pollution of the mind, body, spirit, and ecosystem.  Much less profiting via passively (or actively) enforced ignorance which renders marketability to products previously unneeded to maintain health & happiness.

An important pillar of our evolution as a society is the ability to share the knowledge, this information, this discussion, about how to make our world a better place while learning how to free ourselves from the grips of those who profit from our lack of knowledge in our current consumerist culture.

Which is why the issue of Inter net Neutrality concerns me. I’m concerned about living in a world, where only that information for which telecoms have received a “premium price” is allowed to be shared or accessed. I am also concerned about paying a “premium price” for the information that I, or others, want to access.  There are many who would pay a “premium price” so that their information, and not others, is more accessible; you can imagine who they might be and what might motivate them. To me, not having Internet Neutrality leaves much too great a possibility of oppressed information. If we’re going to let oligopolies control our telecommunications infrastructure, we should be considering ways to ensure that all communication is treated as equal. I believe that this is a core feature of a free, healthy, democratic society.

Please, take some time to research Net Neutrality, while asking yourself critically why this is important.  Please come to understand the battles that are going on right now, over Net Neutrality.  It’s one of the most important battles for freedom of our age.

Please consider discussing this matter with everyone, including your local governmental representatives, perhaps even letting them know how you feel about it.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Articles

communism: will you be a victim?

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The Government of Canada (Sorry, the “Harper Government”) is providing $1.5 million in funding to a group titled Tribute to Liberty, who have plans to erect a “victims of communism” monument.  I am so saddened and disgusted by this, I’m going to have to take some time to calm down and think rationally about it in order to properly write about it.

To spend over a million dollars to erect such an illogical and hypocritical propagandistic symbol just outside of Parliament and beside a library is making me feel ill.  Just because there were nations in the past who both utilised communism and caused suffering, does not mean that communism caused suffering.  That is illogical.  If I started a country with a communist government, and decided I needed to slaughter the country next to mine, does that necessarily mean that communism is to blame?  No, it means that I’m a maniacal violent criminal of a leader.

Please people, educate yourselves.  It seems the federal government wants you to believe that communism is this terrible force that necessarily hurts people.  Why is this?  It seems foolish.

Communism is an idea, a model; for governance, economics, and other aspects of society.  It can be democratic and free, or anarchistic, or fascist and totalitarian, depending on who is utilising it.  Capitalism can also be fascist and totalitarian, depending on who utilises it. (Warning: link leads to leftist Analysis)

The Nazis and Soviets were also fascist and totalitarian, the two of which are terrifying; they did indeed cause a great amount of suffering to countless people.  Communism, however, is not necessarily to be feared, and works well as a means of production & governance for some aspects of our community or society.  To erect a monument which denounces communism in this way seems reminiscent of American cold war propaganda techniques.

I don’t necessarily agree with all points in this article (excerpt), (full article .pdf) but it is interesting and describes how our Free Software development methods more or less follow a communist model; it touches on current technology, the history of economics focusing on communism, and government.