Joel Spolsky – Google+ – Two things about SOPA/PIPA and then I’ll shut up (1) …

(1) The internet seems to ignore legislation until somebody tries to take something away from us… then we carefully defend that one thing and never counter-attack. Then the other side says, “OK, compromise,” and gets half of what they want. That’s not the way to win… that’s the way to see a steady and continuous erosion of rights online.

The solution is to start lobbying for our own laws. It’s time to go on the offensive if we want to preserve what we’ve got. Let’s force the RIAA and MPAA to use up all their political clout just protecting what they have. Here are some ideas we should be pushing for:

• Elimination of software patents
• Legal fees paid by the loser in patent cases; non-practicing entities must post bond before they can file fishing expedition lawsuits
• Roll back length of copyright protection to the minimum necessary “to promote the useful arts.” Maybe 10 years?
• Create a legal doctrine that merely linking is protected free speech
• And ponies. We want ponies. We don’t have to get all this stuff. We merely have to tie them up fighting it, and re-center the “compromise” position.

At the polar opposite position from big industrial companies sit startups, nearly every one of which begins with an effortless expression of why?  Big companies ask What? then How? but almost never Why? according to Sinek, who I think has it absolutely right. But good startups are motivated from birth by Why?

Nearly every good startup begins with why? and that why? is traditionally quite simple — because the founders want one for themselves. A hardware device or software application doesn’t exist and they’d really like one, so they invent it. For startups why is easy. If it isn’t easy then you probably don’t have a good startup.

If as a founder your answer to why? is “to get rich” you are in the wrong job.

(Reuters) – The California attorney general’s office has sent subpoenas to Fannie Ma e and Freddie Mac in a wide-reaching probe into the government-backed mortgage giants’ lending and foreclosure practices, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

The subpoenas are seeking information about how Fannie and Freddie are handling thousands of foreclosed properties, as well as details about their mortgage-servicing and home-repossession practices, the LA Times reported, citing sources families with the matter.

California regulators are also investigating how Fannie and Freddie bought and sponsored securities holding toxic mortgages, and how their activities might have contributed to the wave of foreclosures in California, the sources told the LA Times.

I’ve been seeing a lot of things published lately about our economy, about the huge proportion of economic resources that are concentrated in the hands of a small fragment of the population, about the  parallels between the present time period and the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.

As someone who has always been interested in business and the economy, it pains me to see the mental midgets in both political parties who keep trotting out the same things that have failed for nearly a century. For instance, the “jobs” bill is meant to follow in the footsteps of Herbert Hoover’s and FDR’s public works programs, such as the WPA. And while these programs (especially under FDR) definitely built our infrastructure, they did very little for the jobs situation. For several years, the US unemployment rate was stuck around 24%. (By way of comparison, the current rate is around 23%, [see ShadowStats unemploynment chart] but we have many more social programs today than they had back then. The rate would probably have to reach 35-40% before it had the same impact today.)

The most successful job creation programs are those whose main purpose is not to soak up surplus labor, but to accomplish some vital task. For example, the space program and the Internet have both produced numerous government, government contractor, and independent private jobs. Neither one was created to create jobs.

It seems that we believe that the government can create jobs out of thin air. This generally does not happen, and when it does, those jobs are short-term jobs, and may even cost as many private-sector jobs as they create.

Here are some of my thoughts, part of a new series on LOOACs and government versus individuals, families, small businesses, and local communities. LOOACs, for those who have missed earlier writings here, are Large, Out-Of-Area Corporations.

The reasons that Facebook and Google stand against anonymous or pseudonymous posting is because your privacy affects their income. The rhetoric about online behavior being different than in-person behavior is nothing but a smokescreen. It isn’t even true.

Visit your local Gree-C Burger during lunch or dinner hours. Observe the way the customers treat the employees. They do not do it because they feel the employees will not know who they are, since over time, many of the most rude customers become known by name, description, time of day when they are likely to be around, and even vehicle driven. No, customers mistreat employees because they know that managers will not defend their employees from mistreatment nor will managers allow employees to defend themselves.

Not enough for you? Do you remember seventh grade? Remember that bully that tormented you almost every day? You knew his / her name. You may even remember that name today, twenty to fifty years later. You learned, through occasionally encountering that bully outside of school, where he/she lived, where he/she hung out, and what times he/she was likely to appear. Bullies pick on people because they are jerks, not because people don’t know their names.

But you may say, it is Facebook’s (or Google’s) house. If you visit, you have to follow their rules. To this, I would respond that I am not advocating violation of their rules. I am advocating that you avoid places that place their financial gain above your privacy.

When the American colonists were building the case for independence from Britain, they did not stand in the public square with namebadges visible. They generally wrote, printed, and distributed their documents anonymously. It was only when they decided that rebellion was necessary that leading patriots met and signed their names to the Declaration of Independence.

Furthermore, they likely did not foresee at the beginning of their publication that rebellion would become necessary. This leads to one of the most important points of all: when anonymous or pseudonymous posting becomes necessary, you are not likely to have known beforehand that it would be needed. If you fell into the trap of joining sites with “real name” policies, you may be unable to remove obvious links to your “meatspace” (or “real life”) name, occupation, location, employer, education, and other identifying information. For this reason, almost all online accounts should use made up names instead of legal names. It is easy for you to make the connections when needed, but very difficult to break them if or when that becomes necessary.

In the case of Google Plus, it is mostly a centralized clone of Diaspora. The original is actually better and more usable, although Diaspora’s video chat is not fully implemented yet. With Diaspora, you find a “pod” or server that you trust and whose policies you agree with. You sign up, and you get a D-address that looks like an e-mail address: yourname@yourpodname. Just like with e-mail, that address enables you to interact with users who are using other Diaspora pods.

With Diaspora (or Friendika, which has a similar concept), you are not captive to a LOOAC. Even if all your friends are on PODX, you can host your account on PODY without losing any communication between each other. (Assuming that you send one another connect requests and you accept the connections.) Freedom from the control of one company means that no one can cram “real name” policies down your throat.

So the next time you decide to post online about questionable behavior you’ve observed at work or criticism of an elected official, ask yourself whether it is in your best interest to sign your name to everything you post. You don’t post about such things? Maybe not now, but you have no clue what you might see or feel the need to expose five years from now.
 
If you hope to be able to post about those things, start NOW by opting out of Facebook, GPlus, and other “real name” policy sites.