Big Brother State
March 10, 2007 9:20 PM   Subscribe

Big Brother State. Nice animation about life in a surveillance society. [Via BB.]
posted by homunculus (48 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Part of the definition of fascism includes corporations actively merging their interests and activities with those of the state.

Considering that trusted computing is about following bits of data from their origin, through the network, into your computer, and through your computer's video card and into your eyes via an end-to-end protected stream into your monitor, it's easy to see how the US government would want to eavesdrop, once Microsoft puts the infrastructure in place.

It's definitely a legitimate concern.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:53 PM on March 10, 2007


I am fully aware that this will a) date me as old & b) single me out as totally wacko (so what's new)... but when I saw all of those hearts in the animation I suddenly had an overwhelming urge to hum the theme to Love American Style.
posted by miss lynnster at 10:07 PM on March 10, 2007


Nice to see an echo of what I've been saying: with the advent of Vista and its DRM/Trusted Computing, you are no longer the owner of your machine. Microsoft and Hollywood have veto power.

Once that infrastructure's in place, there's no reason it has to just be those two entities, either.
posted by Malor at 10:13 PM on March 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


"Big Brother State"--coming this summer from CBS!
posted by ColdChef at 10:15 PM on March 10, 2007




How does it feel to live in the panopticon?
posted by exlotuseater at 10:27 PM on March 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


The Government would like to obtain all of your personal, private information. Cancel or Allow?
posted by inconsequentialist at 10:43 PM on March 10, 2007


Forgive me if I'm missing something, but how does the authorities knowing the colour of my eyes equal a lack of freedom? It doesn't stop me from doing anything.
posted by divabat at 10:44 PM on March 10, 2007


Yeah, that was a very well done little clip there, thanks homunculus. For some reason or other, this is the very first I've even heard of "trusted computing". And I see it ain't exactly new, either. A cursory search turned up this and this. And this MeFi post from 2004. But I wonder, does anyone have any very recent news/info on the current state of trusted computing? Anything that could shed more light and add to the discussion here?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:51 PM on March 10, 2007


As long as your desires don't send up any red flags in the system, you'll be fine.
posted by homunculus at 10:52 PM on March 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


Divabat: Sure and neither does their knowing your bedroom habits, having a good tape of your girlish screams when tickled or the brand of lube you buy. I'll pass, thanks.
posted by IronLizard at 10:59 PM on March 10, 2007


They can have my information as long as they say they're sorry.
posted by inconsequentialist at 11:07 PM on March 10, 2007


flapjax: that 'cost analysis' link is pretty good. It's the same stuff, they just renamed it.
posted by Malor at 11:11 PM on March 10, 2007




In other surveillance society news: Wife of Chinese Cyber Dissident to Sue Yahoo
posted by homunculus at 11:18 PM on March 10, 2007




You're coming to a sad realization. Cancel or Allow?
posted by puke & cry at 11:25 PM on March 10, 2007 [3 favorites]


Cancel, dammit. Cancel!
posted by Malor at 11:37 PM on March 10, 2007 [3 favorites]


Vista's DRM is broken. Can't find any MeFi thread on it though.
posted by scalefree at 11:50 PM on March 10, 2007


I just want to add that I really admire the way he plays out the next several moves in advance, like a chess master showing a recalcitrant pupil why he's wasting both their times.
posted by scalefree at 12:01 AM on March 11, 2007


Maybe I spoke too soon. Still, there's hope.
posted by scalefree at 12:06 AM on March 11, 2007




Sorry. I clicked on this FPP quite by accident. Barely scanned the posts and did NOT click any of the user links. Save your form pop-up, I do not know these people.

Before you invoke that fun little script, tell me where you have my wife and kids you assh
end
- begin 4get 2.11 
- dump cache
- erase hist: -3mins
- back
posted by hal9k at 4:43 AM on March 11, 2007


NSFW. Clip contains images of stick figures performing deviant sexual acts.

All of your names have been entered in the Sex Deviancy Database.

But don't worry—it's for the public good.
posted by languagehat at 7:00 AM on March 11, 2007


"The person that decides what software [...] you can install on your computer certainly won't be you"

That's just utter bollocks. Trusted Computing (in as much as it exists) is mainly about detecting changes to hardware and drivers so that software that needs to can decide whether to run or not. Software that does not query the trusted computing architecture is unaffected. And if you install a whole other OS you never have to see it.
posted by cillit bang at 7:10 AM on March 11, 2007


People like to imagine that fascism comes in one fell swoop -- one day you wake up and shock troops kick your door in, and that's the end of freedom.

That's a very facile, cartoony way to see it. The way fascism really comes is gradually and voluntarily. You give up little bits, one at a time, and every time there's always a "very good reason" given for why you should do that. The individual gradually gives up more and more rights and information to people he doesn't know, largely because he doesn't even know what he's giving up. Eventually those early surrenderings are used to explain why the individual should surrender more rights and information. In the end there are no more rights to surrender, but the individual doesn't even realize that anymore. One wave of the flag and he's ready to give up more of what he's no longer got.
posted by clevershark at 9:32 AM on March 11, 2007 [4 favorites]


OMG it's the suede denim secret police.
posted by hortense at 9:40 AM on March 11, 2007




odinsdream, you're yelling like a loon. Trusted Computing would allow the media companies' own software to test how secure the outputs are, and refuse to run if they're not encrypted, but not the other way round.

The scenario you envisage would require Vista to actively prevent unsigned code from accessing the DVD drive. If Microsoft wanted to implement this, I'm sure they could, but it has little to do with Trusted Computing.
posted by cillit bang at 10:36 AM on March 11, 2007


once Microsoft puts the infrastructure in place

I enjoy a good Microsoft bash as much as the next guy, but MS doesn't make much hardware beyond keyboards, mice, joysticks and the x-box MS applications and web sites usually rely on Third Parties for content. People don't have to use MS software - I think Linux is shit but go ahead and use it if you don't like the alternatives. Taking on software companies is not like taking on the phone company, most CS students could create a working operating system.

Where I live the ISPs talk about "blazing fast music downloads" - and say in really small print at the bottom "please download legally". These corps know that sometimes there is money to be made by screwing over each other - all you have to do is say the right things.

So fight the real enemy, the governments and the lobbyists who create the legal and regulatory framework that allows this kind of electronic snooping and censorship.
posted by Deep Dish at 11:09 AM on March 11, 2007


most CS students could create a working operating system.

You have a much higher opinion of CS students than I do.

I was one, at a school with very smart people, and I doubt many of them could actually create a working OS.

I've been a professional programmer for quite a while, and an OS isn't something I'd want to tackle.

Unless your definition of "working" is much looser than mine. "Hello world" in assembly loaded from the boot sector does not an operating system make.
posted by flaterik at 11:22 AM on March 11, 2007 [1 favorite]


Blah.

"The government can compile a database of the private details of my life without any judicial warrant at all and... OMFG Trusted Computing means I can't install Linux!"

WTF.
posted by Flunkie at 12:01 PM on March 11, 2007


Most CS students can't create a working "for" loop, let alone an operating system.
posted by Flunkie at 12:02 PM on March 11, 2007


It's not like one could gain exploitable informations from the trashinfo you leave beh...oh wait ! Government dumpster diving ? Done comfortably from a desktop with a donut and coffee ? Noooobody would ever do that, too easy ! It's street action, chasing real criminals , biting bull...oh wait !
posted by elpapacito at 1:03 PM on March 11, 2007


Divabat: Sure and neither does their knowing your bedroom habits, having a good tape of your girlish screams when tickled or the brand of lube you buy. I'll pass, thanks.

Hmm. I rather doubt that they'll be spending their time looking out for free citizen porn. Wouldn't it really be just an overload of information?
posted by divabat at 1:45 PM on March 11, 2007


Did anyone notice that in the old thread on Vista, Jairus posted a comment from Schneier's blog, and everyone took it as Schneier's words, when in fact Schneier is of exactly the opposite opinion about Vista DRM? I looked up this comment, and it's just some random trying to debunk Schneier's take on the matter. It seems Jairus, not finding someone well known and respected who agrees with him, misrepresented Schneier.

I will instead leave you with a comment from Bruce Schneier's site, which said what I was going to say, but probably better:

Ooh, tricky, he never said it was Schneier, only implied it. What a douchebag.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 1:49 PM on March 11, 2007


I'd just like to mention that currently, the DVD companies don't allow the playing of DVDs on VLC. VLC uses DeCSS to crack the copyright protection, which is illegal under the DMCA.

That's why you have to go through several hoops to get VLC to play DVDs when installing it on a Debian/Ubuntu system.

We already can't play content on the players we want, under the current laws.
posted by zabuni at 2:05 PM on March 11, 2007


That's why you have to go through several hoops to get VLC to play DVDs when installing it on a Debian/Ubuntu system.

As they said in the video, we're one step away from a total police state.
posted by cillit bang at 5:25 PM on March 11, 2007


Wouldn't it really be just an overload of information?

Sure, until someone with access to this information takes a personal interest in you, for whatever reason. Maybe then they leak it for fun and profit?
posted by IronLizard at 5:51 PM on March 11, 2007


Whoever animated this needs to get to wokr on the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy.
posted by Pastabagel at 6:07 PM on March 11, 2007 [1 favorite]


Hmm. I rather doubt that they'll be spending their time looking out for free citizen porn. Wouldn't it really be just an overload of information?

I grew up with a lot of guys who became cops. There are lots of cops who are fine, upstanding people; these guys are not among them.

I've also dated a couple of girls who had guys that practically stalked them out of unrequited love. One of those was a cop. We called him "fish-eye", because he would show up at places she was hanging out ("coincidentally") and give us all the fish-eye from across the room.

Finally, once not too long ago I got a call from a guy I went to high school with. Mind you, he was a friend of a friend, and I had to look in the yearbook to even remember his face. Also, I had been out of high school for OVER TEN YEARS. Why was he calling me? To tell me how his life was falling apart, and to sell me Amway.

My point, if I have one, is that we spend (esp. when younger) a good portion of our lives doing things that, overall, we don't want certain people (or the general public) knowing we're doing. That's everything from horribly illegal and deviant acts right down to picking your nose once and a while. Take surveillance, add the Internet, then mix in one person that (for whatever reason) takes an interest in you and has access to that information...and your career and personal life can be ruined and your reputation destroyed, or you can even be blackmailed.

And none of that even takes into account more sinister possibilities; this is just run-of-the-mill the-guy-who-[bullied-me|I-bullied]-in-high-school-is-now-a-cop stuff.
posted by davejay at 7:44 PM on March 11, 2007


So more or less the surveillance society is bad because it reveals to the police:

1) the color of my eyes
2) that I'm into watersports
posted by scarabic at 10:46 PM on March 11, 2007


The Failed Attorney General
posted by homunculus at 11:47 PM on March 11, 2007


Hmm. I rather doubt that they'll be spending their time looking out for free citizen porn. Wouldn't it really be just an overload of information?

Yeah, surely they have better things to do.
posted by EarBucket at 4:46 AM on March 12, 2007










« Older I'll Send An SOS To The World   |   American music Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments