Each time I read an article which highlights a rather gray/bad aspect of the software industry, I cannot help but heave a huge sigh.
Check this out: Report of the National Consumer Council on EULAs. A shorter version of this can be found at their website.
It always pains me each time I see all these rather nasty sides of the software companies appearing. And to think that I am going into something that will eventually end up contributing to this whole shebang of a mess.
Already people are not having enough time to do stuff. Then, the subterfuge that millions of folks around the world face each day each time they use their device. Unfair DRMs, trusted computing platforms, and incomprehensible EULAs—it is obvious that most companies who dabble in technology are fighting rather dirtily to ensure that we are all bound to them indefinitely. So, in the future, it is likely that the governments of sovereign states have no true power; all of the political power and clout lie in that of the big corporations.
And it is not a dream; it is already happening as we speak now. Already we rely heavily on products from Google, and Microsoft, among other companies—it is known that countries are trying ways and means to seduce these large multi-national companies to set up regional headquarters in their countries, simply because of the influx of capital and investments.
All seems good. But this brings us back to my original qualm: there is no law anymore. Does anyone really think that all those anti-trust convictions of Microsoft in Europe are actually going to have the effect that they were supposed to have? Does anyone really believe that all these corporations are benevolent entities who are trying to make the world a better place by contributing to infrastructure in the places where they set up their various offices?
No! They are corporations, and by definition, profits are what they care of the most. And given their current [extended] reach, some of them have evolved to the point where they are no longer afraid of potential annihilation from any legal skirmish in any single country; one cannot "kill" something that has parts of it elsewhere from the place where one is trying to attack it.
Then, should we descend into anarchy? No, that is not the argument. A concerted effort by the leaders of the world and the legal geniuses should really sit down together and think this problem through. Already the traditional seats of government are having troubles with legislation with regards to the Internet, and now the Internet is literally real, with real money and real capital moving around, and no longer like the nebulous entity that was once thought of as an academic curiosity. If the concept of the government as the social protectors of a sovereign state is still true, then effective checks and balances must be enforced to give fairness back to the citizens.
When dictators take power, unsatisfied masses can take those said dictators down and bring about a period of peace and progress. But when multi-national corporations take power, and misuse them, who then has the power to take them down? Our last institutions for the social good, the government, seem to have reached the point where they are fast being manipulated by the corporations; tell me, who doesn't like money being injected into one's enterprise, be it a company or a country?
I fear for our future. If we don't beef up our sense of social good and rationality, we are fast descending into a situation where we won't be able to enjoy the simple pleasures that we are losing now, and more importantly, we might be in an age where we are all mere cogs of the larger corporations, whose existence spans beyond the constraints of laws, who wield more power than the UN, who make decisions which impact billions of people and yet are not checked in their power. We are then looking at the fall of human institution as we know it.
I'm not saying that all corporations are bad—I'm saying that in preserving their self-interests, they have reached the point where it is getting overexcessive, and is hardly fair to the consumers who literally give the corporations their perceived power in the markets. We need to bring fairness back to the people; technology should not be another class divide between the haves and the have-nots, and technology should also not be an imposition of the powerful's will on that of the masses.
Alright, I think I've spoken enough to relieve that discomfort in me. Again, till next time.
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