Bonum Certa Men Certa

Liberty is Not a Moving Target

Statue of liberty



Summary: A tad philosophical take on what needs achieving and how

The absolute goalposts which define personal freedom never truly change; it's the obstructions on the way to the goal which keep moving away and showing up, so the struggle for freedom is eternal. Humans and animals are innately motivated by power -- the will to impose on others views/actions which they do not want to carry out. Slavery in the classical sense is of out of fashion in the modernised, supposedly civilised world, but new forms of slavery (notably wage slavery in the hands of lenders) filled its room. Despite distractions like imaginary outside enemies, people engage in a class battle to further restore balance in power and those who are least powerful are usually isolated geographically because -- as the famous saying goes -- out of sight, out of mind.



“Many things are interconnected and separating politics from technology is wishful thinking at best.”In 2010, many people rose up and spoke up. Rather than wave banners at a roadside people utilised the Internet, so once again those in power set up new barriers, which include censorship (e.g. blacklists), Net neutrality, bandwidth caps, domain seizures, battles against transparency, financial deprivation, and so on. And that's hardly scratching the surface of protectionist measures like copyrights and patents. Many things are interconnected and separating politics from technology is wishful thinking at best.

Freedom is relative and means of achieving freedom depend on what prevents its fulfillment/achievement. Instruments like patents may no longer exist within a few decades, but that does not mean that problems associated with creativity and knowledge-sharing will be solved. Just look at how drug bans change over the decades or centuries, sometimes to readjust and account for class factors.

In 2006 this site was established to tackle Novell and scope expanded to the extent where it touches many of the technological mechanisms for control and power (over the population at large). This hardly scratches the surface as personal freedom depends not only on the digital world. But that's why we're called "Techrights" and not just "Rights".

Recent Techrights' Posts

Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 23, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, November 23, 2024
[Meme] GAFAMfox
Mozilla Firefox in a state of extreme distress
Google Can Kill Mozilla Any Time It Wants
That gives Google far too much power over its rival... There are already many sites that refuse to work with Firefox or explicitly say Firefox isn't supported
Free (as in Freedom) Software Helps Tackle the Software Liability Issue, It Lets Users Exercise Greater Control Over Programs
Microsofters have been trying to ban or exclude Free software
In the US, Patent Laws Are Up for Sale
This problem is a lot bigger than just patents
ESET Finds Rootkits, Does Not Explain How They Get Installed, Media Says It Means "Previously Unknown Linux Backdoors" (Useful Distraction From CALEA and CALEA2)
FUD watch
Techdirt Loses Its Objectivity in Pursuit of Money
The more concerning aspects are coverage of GAFAM and Microsoft in particular
Techrights' Statement on Code of Censorship (CoC) and Kent Overstreet: This Was the Real Purpose of Censorship Agreements All Along
Bombing people is OK (if you sponsor the key organisations), opposing bombings is not (a CoC in a nutshell)
Links 23/11/2024: Press Sold to Vultures, New LLM Blunders
Links for the day
Links 23/11/2024: "Relationship with Oneself" and Yretek.com is Back
Links for the day
Links 23/11/2024: "Real World" Cracked and UK Online Safety Act is Law
Links for the day
Links 23/11/2024: Celebrating Proprietary Bluesky (False Choice, Same Issues) and Software Patents Squashed
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, November 22, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, November 22, 2024
Gemini Links 23/11/2024: 150 Day Streak in Duolingo and ICBMs
Links for the day
Links 22/11/2024: Dynamic Pricing Practice and Monopoly Abuses
Links for the day
Topics We Lacked Time to Cover
Due to a Microsoft event (an annual malware fest for lobbying and marketing purposes) there was also a lot of Microsoft propaganda
Microsofters Try to Defund the Free Software Foundation (by Attacking Its Founder This Week) and They Tell People to Instead Give Money to Microsoft Front Groups
Microsoft people try to outspend their critics and harass them
[Meme] EPO for the Kids' Future (or Lack of It)
Patents can last two decades and grow with (or catch up with) the kids
EPO Education: Workers Resort to Legal Actions (Many Cases) Against the Administration
At the moment the casualties of EPO corruption include the EPO's own staff
Gemini Links 22/11/2024: ChromeOS, Search Engines, Regular Expressions
Links for the day
This Month is the 11th Month of This Year With Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (So Far It's Happening Every Month This Year, More Announced Hours Ago)
Now they even admit it
Links 22/11/2024: Software Patents Squashed, Russia Starts Using ICBMs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 21, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, November 21, 2024