If Men were Angels

Patent trolls, by definition, exploit the letter of patent law while ignoring the original intent to promote innovation. Record companies squeeze musicians by demanding ownership of their music and also penalize fans who share digital music. YouTube bots indiscriminately threaten amateur uploaders with litigation for using copyrighted material. The laws governing these situations were originally based on principles to help foster innovation and economy. These principles clearly suggest that patent trolls are bad, music should belong to the creator, and sharing is good, but as human experience has shown again, laws governing behavior cannot force adherence to principles. Until the law can do so, we must accept that the system is exploitable.

Whose to blame for stolen passwords?

 

Some believe that the Internet security problem will be solved by a better, more secure system than passwords, claiming that the password system is inherently insecure. While passwords are not 100% secure, irresponsible use of the system accounts for most of the difficulties.  For example, because passwords are hard to remember, users choose common dictionary words, reuse passwords across accounts, and sometimes keep default passwords. This behavior makes them sometimes easy to guess.  99% of the time users care more about usability than security; Dealing with hacked accounts and stolen money comprise the 1%.  Users exhibiting this behavior take security into their own hands.

James Madison said, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” Angels wouldn't need artificial limits to coerce them into proper behavior. Our attempts to coerce users into secure passwords fail to achieve their aim (http://xkcd.com/936/). Responsible users using the suboptimal password system would, in practice, be more secure than irresponsible users using an inherently more secure system like biometric authentication. We need to accept that passwords are here to stay and educate users of the Internet, meaning everyone, on Internet safety.

Playgrounds have bullies, and the Internet is one big playground

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law...” The legal rights of the accused are familiar phrases to any T.V. watcher, but few people know Internet copyright law. Perhaps users are too reliant on the computer to verify that they make no illegal move, as in a game of solitaire. It may also be that because they do not see a traffic cop to keep them under the speed limit, they believe that no such limit exists. Whatever the reason, general ignorance of copyright law is exploitable. Knowing your Internet rights leads to two things: One, you will not break the law. Two, you will protect yourself with it.

Ref: http://consumerist.com/2013/09/30/youtube-copyright-bots-finally-tick-off-someone-who-understands-copyright-law/

Great Aunt Georgiana Syndrome

Technological tools have broken down one set of walls in family history work, but another wall remains. Great Aunt Georgiana has already done most everything, or so we sometimes believe. We know that some work remains, but we aren't sure what it is. Besides, it took Georgiana decades to get to know the family tree. You can break down that barrier to entry, without putting in the same effort, because FamilySearch is now crowd sourced, or as some describe it, “your family tree meets Wikipedia.” An essential feature that helps ensures the accuracy of Wikipedia is the “needs citation” flag that any user can raise. FamilySearch has a similar mechanism, so don't be afraid to use it. If your eight-great grandpa has a birth date but no reference for it, raise the flag to tell Aunt Georgiana to attach the picture of his birth certificate. It's easier to supervise than to dive in, and it breaks the wall as well.