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Re:Angola’s Wikipedia Pirates Are Exposing the Problems with... by notahacker on Friday March 25, 2016 @09:24AM (#11359863)
Would you express the same cultural relativistic sentiments about the validity of purpose if a small group decided to repurpose your Wiki?

It's very damaging to trade with the developing world if we start accusing companies of "attempting to colonize" because they have the temerity to expect people granted subsidised access to their website to actually play by the same rules as everyone else. I mean, if we start assuming that Angolans can't or shouldn't abide by the same rules as everyone else, it's very easy to just ensure services aren't affordable to the average Angolan again.

Angolans might have more reason to avoid paying for content than the rest of the world and they might have more reason to use Wikipedia or Facebook as a vector for delivering pirated content than the rest of the world, but the people pirating the content in this manner are at least as aware and deliberate in their circumvention of rules as crackers in other countries, and they should be respected for their clever hacks and blocked from uploading just like crackers elsewhere, and not patronised as people who couldn't possibly be expected to understand or accept Western mores.

Re:Angola’s Wikipedia Pirates Are Exposing the Problems with... by labster on Friday March 25, 2016 @11:43AM (#11360709)
> Would you express the same cultural relativistic sentiments about the validity of purpose if a small group decided to repurpose your Wiki?

Well, I do have a wiki farm now, so I feel compelled to reply. Yes, I would have the same relativistic sentiments. I would just impose the banhammer nonetheless.

That's kind of the thing about the DMCA -- it turns us all into enforcement agents. It doesn't really matter how I feel about the rules, because if I don't follow them I get shut down.

How I feel about the core of the issue is that copyrights and patents are imperialism. Imperialism in every culture. The poor and middle class can't afford to enforce their own copyrights, and the are subject to the whim of the the rich. They've created a place where the only culture of the past available is the one they want to sell. Only a few organizations like the EFF stand in the way of this madness, but the IP system is madness anyway.

I have an uncle who served as US Border Patrol for 20 years. He never believed that all of the illegals need to go back, but it's a job. Someone needs to watch the border and deal with problems or it would be complete anarchy. You can have valid reasons for enforcing rules you don't entirely believe in.

So I'll follow the DMCA because I'm the little guy. And I'll do nothing about the IP laywer who I believe has infringed about a hundred of my own copyrights and has acknowledged and then took no action a DMCA takedown notice from me. Because I cannot afford to go against him in a rigged system. And I understand why Angolans want to work against a system that's rigged against the them.

Re:Angola’s Wikipedia Pirates Are Exposing the Problems with... by emodendroket on Friday March 25, 2016 @09:31AM (#11359906)
OK, then let's stop pretending this is a benevolent effort by Internet companies to get people on the Internet if that's not what it is. Facebook wants to have it both ways.
Re:Angola’s Wikipedia Pirates Are Exposing the Problems with... by notahacker on Friday March 25, 2016 @09:51AM (#11360011)
And the rampant profiteering entity that is Wikipedia?

Are you seriously arguing the Wikimedia Foundation's intentions can't possibly be benevolent because they won't let Angolans turn their server space into a repository of pirated content?

Re:Angola’s Wikipedia Pirates Are Exposing the Problems with... by emodendroket on Friday March 25, 2016 @10:00AM (#11360084)
That is a gross distortion of what I said but it's sure easier to argue against!
Re:Angola’s Wikipedia Pirates Are Exposing the Problems with... by notahacker on Friday March 25, 2016 @10:13AM (#11360164)
Well if your questioning of the Western web empires' benevolence wasn't in response to my statement that Wikipedia et al shouldn't be under any obligation to accommodate Angolans' copyvios then you sure picked the wrong subthread to express that view! :)
Re:Angola’s Wikipedia Pirates Are Exposing the Problems with... by emodendroket on Friday March 25, 2016 @10:37AM (#11360271)
I don't know what anyone's intentions are but I do know that companies are going around pushing a version of Internet access that serves their interests without bearing much resemblance to the Internet you and I use, and getting out there and telling people "wait a minute, this is our site and you have to follow our rules" kind of spoils the illusion that that's not the case. It seems to me like the Wikimedia Foundation is lending their name to a questionable cause.
Re:Angola’s Wikipedia Pirates Are Exposing the Problems with... by jrochkind1 on Monday March 28, 2016 @12:41AM (#11372762)
If I was providing the residents of Angola who didn't otherwise have internet with free access to only my wiki -- I certainly wouldn't be surprised when they tried to use my wiki for other than the purpose I wanted them to.
Re:Angola’s Wikipedia Pirates Are Exposing the Problems with... by sampo on Friday March 25, 2016 @11:10AM (#11360454)
> play by the same rules as everyone else

Actually, your "everyone else" who play by the Western rules, is probably less than half of the world population.

Re:Angola’s Wikipedia Pirates Are Exposing the Problems with... by notahacker on Friday March 25, 2016 @11:27AM (#11360579)
Nope, everybody on Facebook and Wikipedia is expected to play by Facebook and Wikipedia's rules, regardless of whether their local laws are stricter or laxer.
Re:Angola’s Wikipedia Pirates Are Exposing the Problems with... by jrochkind1 on Monday March 28, 2016 @12:48AM (#11372784)
The vast majority of people on facebook and wikipedia are not limited to internet access _only_ to those two sites however.

If the only internet I had was that, and I had no way to start my own internet sites either, I'm sure I'd be trying to find ways to use them for what I wanted regardless of their rules too. As it is, I've got the whole internet and have no reason to try and abuse facebook or wikipedia that way.

Re:Angola’s Wikipedia Pirates Are Exposing the Problems with... by zahmahkibo on Friday March 25, 2016 @09:30AM (#11359890)
For several centuries "trade" with the third world has essentially meant theft and imperialism, so to answer your question, yes.