I'm partial to the idea that if left alone market forces will remove the bad players and favor the good ones.
Unfortunately the powerful use politics to mitigate the effects.
(And so the irony: "By the people, for the people." Whom do you speak of?)
If companies were to fix the security issues it would remove the backdoors the government has demanded be installed on all the voting systems.
Gag orders work wonders.
Any threat, like FOIA, is viewed by the government as an attack by a hostile force. Threats to one's life must be defeated.
It's them, or us. Someone is going to lose.
Gawker yesterday, New York Magazine today, and Techdirt tomorrow.
The rich and powerful make it a priority to control information.
The masses need unbiased, critical journalism to be able to make informed decisions. Unfortunately that's a threat to the powers that be.
Good thing they don't show these slides in NK. Dozing off gets a person a one way ticket to execution by anti-aircraft gun. (I assume the reason that that type of execution was chosen by Kim Jong-un was because he had just watched the movie The Jackal.)
How T-Mobile came up with the 26G is quite hilarious. From their Aug. 29th press release:
"Like with every plan, customers who use more data than 97% of our customers (currently over 26 GB per month) will have their usage prioritized below other traffic and may notice slower speeds during times and places of congestion. See T-Mobile.com/OpenInternet for details on data prioritization."
I bet the 97% would move that data cap a hair or two if 1.5Gb/s bandwidth was available over cell. The real question is would any cellular carrier really want to move the cap higher if the 97% wanted them to.
If governing means rising to your level of incompetence, then you're absolutely correct the government can govern itself.
Typically the government is just in the business of bustin' whistle blowers, and takin' money from the populace to fund their pet projects and pad their pockets.
In fact of all the government employees that I got to work with and know personally the ones who only had the authority to govern themselves and no one else are some of the hardest working people I know. Honestly those people make all of our lives better.
Just leave American out of the worldwide policing actions that our anti-culture attitude seems to generate.
We know about the barbarous actions of ISIS, the thought policing of France, the fashion policing of Iran, the child abduction of Boko Haram, etc., etc., etc., etc. ...
And if the U.S. wants to be the savior of this world then it needs to clean up its shit before bombing the shit out of other places on this planet.
If it isn't some life saving pharmaceutical it's some public funded service that is exploited for profit.
As always the rich want more riches and the poorest pay the most to make that happen.
Under the heading it's not a bug, but a feature. The U.S. government has to maintain a certain level of incompetence in which to have a ready supply of scapegoat to which it can attach blame for the inevitable failures that are sure to happen and result in the general ill health and well being for many Americans.
So now that media has hyped up the victimization of powerless groups they want a piece of the pity-pie. Nice.
What do these tech/political pundits say about Gary Johnson and Bill Weld?
I wish Aaron Swartz was still alive. But as you may know taking on the government requires a steep price, which not everyone is prepared to pay.
I've worked in government, and the results are exactly as I expected. It's a club, a culture, and society all it's own, and it takes care of its members very well.
My next door neighbor showed me a stack of FOIA documents on himself that was a result of informing the government about the plot to assassinate Reagan.
My neighbor saw Hinckley with others in his bar, and then Hinckley and the same couple again on the March 25th '81 taping of the Merv Griffin show as the camera panned the audience.
For his good citizenship he lost his business and had to leave town to put his life back together.
The list of good citizen's lives ruined by gov. spook agencies has to be long and extensive.
Forget Russia, NK, or China rights abuses. If you're a US citizen and have damaging information about your government you are in as much danger of having your life ruined as citizens of those countries.
Never forget that the number one job of government is to protect itself.
Went out the window as soon as the elites created exceptions to the rules.
Some people claim they need nothing more than air (specifically a substance known as prana, aka life air) to survive (thrive? I'm not sure if they claim that).
When I first met my wife there was a time I didn't need to eat or sleep. Maybe it's like that.
I could never imagine living in such a euphoric state like that for too long, as it seems to have a significant impact on one's health. But maybe some have figured out how to leave The Matrix and so normal rules don't apply to them.
Many years ago, before the Internet was a thing, a small cafe called Chilly's in the boondocks of Alaska got sued and had to change it's name because the Chilli's chain saw it as a trademark infringement. It was exactly the same thing, but besides letters to the editors, people's opinion about the abuse wasn't known.
Now the epoch of the internet.
Guess what Power fears, and thus hates?
I'd hate to be in his shoes. I was thinking, what if the information on the drive is something potentially dangerous for someone else? A scenario to the effect he has incriminating evidence of a powerful political leader and the child porn charge is a trumped up charge to get at the information. Any number of whistleblowers could have their names raked through the mud by the media with no ability to get justice.
My Answer to Your Question
"What will it take for them to actually follow what the evidence says, rather than continuing with faith-based copyright policies?"
Have scientists for politicians instead of lawyers, because obviously lawyers making laws is a conflict of interest.