"show me the incentives I will show you the outcome" or something like that.
Capability trickles down over time thanks to technological progress constantly making things cheaper and more accessible. No surprise that BigCo is constantly nipping at the heels of the kind of stuff that 20yr ago was so resource intensive it was reserved for state sponsored actors.
Both types of organizations have responsibility spread so thinly that they will behave as badly as they can justify in pursuit of their goals. Obviously Nintendo isn't gonna slip polonium in this guy's tea for hacking and France isn't gonna drone an ex-pat on a beach in Miami, the risk/reward doesn't favor that kind of behavior. But something like sending PIs to tail him is clearly fair game by Nintendo's analysis or they wouldn't have done it.
Given the nature of their work, I find it hard to see a situation where it doesn't become the corrupt degenerate swamp it is, unless it transforms to become radically open, transparent and accountable.
Given the vested interests benefiting from the current version, this seems unlikely to occur on its own. The cancer of secret corruption that has eaten that industry from the inside is the Achilles Heel of "Western liberal democracies".
I agree with you. However, Nintendo has/makes more money than many countries. I'm sure it's entirely justified in their eyes.
The better topic would be a discussion on how to change our various cultures to act in the greater good first and profits second. Even as I write that, I laugh at the impossibility of it.
But curious, thoughtful conversation on topics with political overlap is ok on HN [3], and always has been [4].
[1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
[3] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...
ed25519FUUU:
"Generally curious, do we just basically ignore what happened in the Soviet Union, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China when we discuss the “community motivations” of communism and how that plays out?"
- there's the political and economic philosophy, and then there are real world implementations, done with various degrees of honesty and varied goals
- some will claim Russia etc are state capitalism or some other format rather than "pure communism"
- some will point out that purest examples of practical communism, the Israeli Kibutz, were wildly successful
(none of this is to indicate I have remotest interest in living in communism - in fact we ran across countries and continents to not be in one... But the theory is still interesting and in some ways relevant)
In general, yes. Politics aren't really on the discussion list here.
"But our Western liberal democracies are so free!"
That's why it must all be kept so secret.
Snowflake at the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper.
Could we consider why it is appropriate for a state actor to it? If we were to break down why we consider it okay for the state to do (does it depend upon their intention, on some citizen mandate, does it factor in potential abuse or past abuse) and build up a consistent framework, I'm not so certain the distinction between these two things would be so clear cut. I personally suspect the outcome would find that state actors doing this thing is in the same realm of bad as company actors.
It's not surprising that massive multinational corporations engage in unethical practices, but these free market activities are perfectly legal in their respective jurisdictions.
I'd agree that spying on families for modifying video game products is unethical. I'd also argue that slavery is unethical. It's really eye-opening once you realize the scope of slavery and other unethical practices when it comes to our major everyday corporations.
Uyghurs, Falun Gong adherents, and other political dissidents make up most of the slave population in China. Many of them work in growing and processing cotton, and the largest Western clothing companies rely on this cotton. Many people are wearing, eating, and using products of slave labor right now without even realizing it.
Neither did Hitler.
Also, things get better over time. A hundred years ago, many racist and sexist things were probably legal but aren’t anymore. That’s good. The laws have gotten better. That’s my point. Laws need to evolve with the times. If what Nintendo is doing should become illegal, I am fully on board. If not, then I don’t care.
You can’t have it both ways. Either disallow it, or accept that it’s happening. Nintendo’s brand is too strong. No criticism from the public will affect it.
I have blocked all social media (including Twitter) at the DNS level so I usually have to skip over any HN articles that come from Twitter.
I am unsure about how it works in your jurisdiction, but where I live, sending a C&D rarely involves a lawyer sitting outside your house to note your schedule as well as other comings and goings.
1) Someone at Nintendo learns about a "anonymous hacker conducting exploits against the 3DS"
2) Exec's panic because "anonymous hacker" and a history of piracy battles and consequently hire a private eye to find out about the person behind the exploiting
3) Private eye does their job and writes a detailed report in the style of a private eye
4) Nintendo uses information to establish communications with said hacker
Just Hanlon's razor at work
Nintendo's measures included surveillance of the target. It included going through his work history and may have extended to surveilling family members etc. This also isn't the first time Nintendo has been accused of something like this.
Before the approach was made they attempted to find any other material they could use as leverage. This is deeply unethical and wrong.
It would be one thing to do this in the natsec context, where such an approach is understandable, but it is another for a private company to surveil and intimidate someone who has legally purchased hardware. Video games are amazing entertainment and (sometimes) art, but their importance in the big picture is out of sync with the disproportionate nature of these measures.
It might be of interest to HN moderators to replace the twitter link with this,
https://torrentfreak.com/nintendo-conducted-invasive-surveil...