Interesting Links for 30-01-2014

[andrewducker]

• Spotify: how a busy songwriter you've never heard of makes it work for him
  (tags: spotify music business )
• UK government plans switch to open source from Microsoft Office suite (kinda)
  (tags: opensource software government uk )
• Welcome to the new era of fast genetic engineering
  (tags: genetics )
• German cows cause methane blast
  (tags: methane cows

Comments

China's internet vigilantes and the 'human flesh search engine'

[cartesiandaemon]

I think this is essentially an example of a new crime, one that never needed a law for before. When information didn't spread so fast, a mob wasn't really a problem unless they turned up in person, when we have existing (imperfect but useful) laws describing the difference between threatening behaviour, legitimate protest, and rioting.

But now, the ability of 1000s of people to ruin someone's life by all doing something which, individually, is rude but shouldn't be criminal, exists, and probably *ought* to be controlled in some way.

I mean, maybe it'll just peter out and false accusations won't be a problem, but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't.

Of course, I'm not sure exactly what form a law should take. Legitimate protesting, eg. complaining to someone's boss about something unethical/illegal has to be ok. And is incredibly valuable, giving a way of fighting back against abuse when the law doesn't help. But harassing someone just because someone on the internet said so, maybe not. And in this case it sounds like the government may or may not be biased.

[gonzo21]

It would be covered by existing laws in the UK wouldn't it? Stalking and harassment.

[cartesiandaemon]

Is it really? The laws normally assume that those are a *pattern* of behaviour. If you ring someone up and call them a evil fuck, that's not stalking or harassment (or it shouldn't be, right?) If you strongly suspect, but don't actually know, that 999 other people have just done the same thing... is that enough to make it harassment? Maybe it is, but even if so, I think it need to acknowledge the differences. And it's horrendously difficult to prosecute -- everyone will say "oh, but I didn't know everyone else was doing it".

[andrewducker]

I'm fairly sure that an individual act can be harrassment if you do it as part of a campaign.

But yes, difficult to deal with.