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Only a toolOnly a toolPosted Jan 26, 2012 21:28 UTC (Thu) by cmccabe (guest, #60281)In reply to: Only a tool by corbet Parent article: LCA: Jacob Appelbaum on surveillance and censorship There's a difference between being legally culpable and morally responsible. The question you have to ask before passing any law-- or making anything a crime-- is what the real-world consequences will be. Having laws that are overly broad like "you should be a good person" doesn't lead to more good people; it just leads to abuses of the law. Making the writers of software responsible for every bad thing the users did would not lead to more moral people; it would just lead to fewer software writers. Personally I find David Brin's ideas about the transparent society pretty interesting. I don't think the clock can be turned back on at least certain forms of surveillance.
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Only a tool Posted Jan 26, 2012 22:11 UTC (Thu) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link] I agree on that difference. I honestly don't know if Jacob was saying that manufacturers of surveillance equipment should be legally sanctioned for their acts. "Culpable" ("guilty" or "blameworthy") does not necessarily imply that. Saying that somebody shares the blame for an evil act is not the same as sending in the SWAT team.
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