"Don'it always seem to go, you don't know what you have till it's gone?" Today's main post was a real downer for me to write. I don't know that this needs to be a downer season, though. While we can use the Internet without feeding the monsters we want to starve, let's enjoy it. Most of my online time will be spent downloading content I want to save (mine and other people's) but there's no reason not to share and enjoy all the digital content we've really "liked" for all these years. I may be linking to posts from the 1980s; no apologies. Some people were posting good stuff back then, and deserve credit.
After all...we'll still have our skills. We can reenter the Internet if and when we get...this is my list, I encourage you to post yours:
* Privacy protected by federal law, with heavy penalties for anyone storing in one place enough information to be able to identify any person in the real world. (The federal government has its own special networks that do not connect to the regular Internet. As long as that disconnection is absolute, I'm not opposed to that.)
* Requirement that all "data centers" generate ALL of their own electricity (from sustainable, non-nuclear sources), recycle ALL of their own water (such that they're cut off from public supplies after drawing 50 gallons for workers to drink and wash their hands in), shut down instantly if monitors show them raising the air temperature 50 feet away, pay all content producers for all data they collect or use, are continually monitored and shut down permanently if they prey on data from unpaid sources, are unable to connect with computers that are in use, and generally are such a liability that nobody wants to build one anyway.
* Requirement that any company that uses content produced by any individual must compensate that individual within a week and before using, selling, or publishing the said content.
* Criminal penalties for any use of camera, microphone, or any unpublished content on another person's computer in the absence of either a specific contract signed before the transfer of each individual data file, or a legitimate search warrant for the prosecution of a crime. YouTube may not try to "see" even the silhouette of a human before playing a video. The fact that Microsoft has reacted recognizably to being shouted at, in the past year, must cost Microsoft mucho dinero. (The cats probably think I'm losing my marbles, with all the yelling at this computer they've heard. It's all been a scientific experiment. Yes, the microphone app has been turned off, and yes, Microsoft has still reacted as if it were turned on.)
* Redesign of the Internet to limit electronic payment, criminalizing any attempt to connect directly to any individual's bank or utility account. (Connections among businesses may be allowed at the businesses' own risk and expense, provided that the businesses receive regular and realistic warnings about how foolish this is.)
* Requirement that any company that delays payment for more than a week, without specific authorization from the person(s) to be paid, will jollywell pay the debt owed AS IT STOOD ON EACH AND EVERY DAY THAT IT WAS OWED. If a content site that owed you $10 in 2011 has not paid that debt by 2027, it can be held responsible, and its owners' assets sold, to pay you $10 for each day since the failure to pay in 2011. Yes, Paypal and many other e-businesses will be hurting, and they'll deserve it. No, companies can't withhold transfers of payment on transactions of which they disapprove. Yes, customers can refuse to pay for content because they don't like what the online worker produced or because they can't afford to complete the project or just because they want to dissolve their companies and get drunk, but they have to do that before a contract is signed, work is done, and the final copy of the content is delivered.
* Redesign of the Internet to allow NO third party to interrupt the use of a privately owned computer, except for law enforcement agencies with a search warrant for prosecution of a crime. "Updates" and "cookies" and spyware LOCKED OUT of computers for at least one hour after the last keystroke, and preferably, when the infrastructure is in place, for the time it takes the FCC to review a request to meddle with another person's computer and deny permission to companies that aren't making a positive contribution to the computer owner's experience. (Spyware might, following Yougov's example, be allowed to run after a contract has been signed paying the computer owner, say, $10 a month plus complete access to whatever the client company has been allowed to spy on.) Meanwhile, if, say, a Microsoft update causes your computer not to obey a keyboard command INSTANTLY, if you have time to repeat a keystroke because it's not obvious that the first command "went through," you would activate a red button on your screen (or on new computers' keyboards) that would require Microsoft or any other company interfering with your use of your computer to pay you a substantial fine.
* Redesign of Microsoft into HUMBLEsoft, the company that has been put in its place and will never again presume to try to "force" its Lords and Masters the Most Honorable Customers to buy or do anything. Its new slogan must be "One computer per person per lifetime." It can continue to provide an outlet for creative ingenuity...keeping the ever-evolving Internet accessible to every computer, to every software package that pleases its owner.
* Criminal penalties for the unpaid, unauthorized use of any likeness of any living person. Any image of a person who is not fully clothed, or who appears to be touching any part of another person's body other than hand to hand, may be considered unauthorized. Porn lovers now have Craiyon and can watch three-eared porn stars doing whatever occurs to the porn lovers' filthy little minds, but they should not be allowed to drag you or me into it.
* Since plagiarism bots are driving the demand that people use those ugly, hard-to-read sans serif fonts, recognition of the font "Calibri" as identifying data that has been made available for mining and is likely to be plagiarized, while other sites and systems use decent-looking serif fonts that print out looking like the print in real books--familiar and easy to read!
* Well publicized ban of any country whose government wants censorship from the new Internet, which is for responsible adults and does not pamper those whose feelings are hurt by new ideas. Foreign users logging in to the Internet should see a message along the lines of, "You are attempting to connect to the Internet, a service designed by and for a country that has freedom of the press. Successful prosecution of a crime under United States law is necessary to restrict access or 'reach' to any content. If your national government has a problem with this, then the Internet is off limits to you. Work on upgrading your national government. We regret the inconvenience."
* Requirement that electronic devices that cost the owner more than $100 be classified as COMPUTERS and come with physical data storage, solid opaque keys including pointer and clicker keys, and a reliable heavy-duty printer, while devices that store data "in the cloud" and lack these features are classified as ACCESSORIES and may not be sold for more than $99.
Yes, we should have demanded all of these things a whole lot sooner. No doubt, if we'd imagined how fast the garbage features could be cranked out and built into a dysfunctional system, we would have demanded them. Now we must demand them as conditions for re-entry into the Internet. No connection from Windows 10, or Windows 7, or Windows 92? Soooo long, it's been good to know ya...
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