Back in January, I briefly mentioned Herdict, a web-based tool built by the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society that aims to collect and aggregate data on web blocking and filtering. Using the magic of crowdsourcing, Herdict displays information in real time about where in the world various websites are inaccessible and why. To celebrate the launch of the site, the Herdict team has produced the video below, which explains how the site works using sheep puppets and a comical voiceover from Herdict creator Jonathan Zittrain:
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Since no US ISP has ever blocked Web sites, it appearsthat PK is touting this tool so as to gin up fears of nonexistent blocking so as to further its push for stifling Internet regulation.
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“Since no US ISP has ever blocked Web sites, it appearsthat PK is touting this tool so as to gin up fears of nonexistent blocking so as to further its push for stifling Internet regulation.”
Yeah, because all ISPs tell us exactly what they are doing at all times…
Just because your ISP doesn’t do any filtering doesn’t mean other’s don’t. I shure as hell wouldn’t put it past Comcast or Cox to decide that they knew better then me what I wanted to view on the internet, and implement filtering, Probably without telling me.
For that matter, every argument I’ve seen you make on this page essentially boils down to “Waaaah, these regulations would make it too expensive for me to succeed”. Now, why you’re directing your anger at the people behind the regulations, rather than your upstream providers, who are apparently gouging your bandwith costs is beyond me.
Personally, I have nothing against something along the lines of QoS controls, but once internet providers start actively modifying, or delaying data being transmitted excessively, that I take exception.
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In other words, since you cannot demonstrate that any US ISP actually has blocked Web sites, you’re trying to cast aspersions. Sorry, this doesn’t wash.
Kindly do not try to regulate, needlessly and destructively, something you obviously know nothing about.
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“Kindly do not try to regulate, needlessly and destructively, something you obviously know nothing about.”
Because waiting for someting to fail before regulating works so well, what with the current financial crisis…
Reactionary regulation is far more destructive and likely to go wrong than preemptive regulation, as history demonstrates (not just the financial crisis, either).
Also, If you’re going to dispute my arguments, please refrain from making insinuations about what I do and do not know. The only way you are going to convince anyone of anything is by showing them they’re wrong, not calling them idiots.
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I see. In the words of Andy Capp, “I thought that he was going to hit me, so I hit him back first.”
Funny — a recent administration used this nonsense as an excuse for a needless war that killed hundreds of thousands.
Your pre-emptive war on the Internet — and especially small and competitive Internet providers — could be just as destructive, though it would kill thousands of jobs and businesses rather than people.
Fortunately, those of us who actually work in this business, and are not inside-the-Beltway astroturfers in the pay of large corporations (primarily Google, in your case), will win, because we are actually doing something productive. Unlike mendacious, morally bankrupt lobbyists like your organization.