Too Busy For Words - the PaulWay Blog

Thanks, Chris Samuel, for pointing out the patent for a TV advert enforcer that would stop you changing channels during ads. But why stop there? Why not have the device not allow you change channels, ever! The broadcaster certainly doesn't want you to change, and they're the ones that are going to be broadcasting the 'lock channel' flag... Let's go further! Have a TV that doesn't allow you to switch it off! Let's make it force you to watch by requiring you to strap yourself in to watch. Let's make people who buy the TV sign a contract that says they will watch TV all the time. Let's make the contract force them to go out and buy stuff we advertise! What a wonderful idea!

It's times like these that I really seriously wonder about how people get to be adults. This is not something that just popped out of some automated slot: a number of people ranging from techs to management went through the entire process of making and filing this patent. Did any one of them think "But I wouldn't want it in my house"? Did they think "There's a lot of people that wouldn't like this device." In the face of these personal ethical questions, why did they continue?

I know people that are convinced that Bill Gates is completely evil; that he's created a business whose sole purpose is to make life miserable for anyone who comes into contact with them. Now, this is obviously stretching the truth. But did Bill, at any point where Microsoft was grinding Netscape or Digital Research into the dust, say "You know, we're probably not going to get away with this." Or "We can't rely on a monopoly position forever - some day we're actually going to have a product that people want to buy, rather than are forced to because we've stuffed it down their throats.". Or "You know, if we keep shafting competitors, users and others in the industry, some day we're going to meet an organisation that's more powerful than us and are going to do the same thing to us. Maybe we should play fair to start with."

Coincidentally I got talking with a friend last night about whether the sixth book of the Lord Of The Rings sextet should have been put in the last movie. It's the part where the hobbits, after their part in the more ethereal battle of Good against Evil, come back and find that the Shire has been taken over and they have to fight the fight at home as well as off in Far Off Lands. (I don't think it was necessary - to me that whole section raised Frodo's determination and stamina from the heroic to the unbelievable; but that's another argument.) And this, I think, is a good point for us in the Open Source world to think on: that we work with an operating system and (for many projects) a set of principles that encourage us not to bow to any master, to not give in to any evil even if it seems convenient at the time.

I think part of the problem with the world today is that people don't think they need to fight any fight - that they can be excused for devising machines to kill and maim and brutalise people, or to screw over thousands of people in third-world countries indirectly by purchasing cheap foods and goods, because they haven't been doing the nasty work directly. The people who work for companies like Nestle, Microsoft, Enron, Union Carbide (responsible for the Bhopal disaster) and so on - from the people who turn on the valves and make the milk formula to the marketers and executives who can see the health problems and suffering of millions of people as just another marketing opportunity - how is it that they can sleep at night with their consciences at peace? Only by pretending that they're not directly responsible.

We all have a responsibility. We all have the choice. It's up to us to choose, as often as we can, the most ethically, environmentally, socially and morally responsible options that we're presented with. Yes, we sometimes have to weigh up the balance of several of those options and make our own choice. But that is still our responsibility; our choice in these situations makes up the moral, ethical, environmental and social temperament of our society. We need to work constantly to keep ourselves informed of the true impacts of our decisions. We make this decision in our own workplace as much as at home; we cannot assume that it'll be somebody else's problem. If all the workers voted with their feet and left organisations that were doing irresponsible things, then there'd be a lot less 'evil' companies around.

Go Google!