Microsoft wants to be more evil

Microsoft recently patented a system of digital "manners".

Different locations could have different "rules", and machines would obey these rules. So restaurants and movie theaters could automatically put your phone on vibrate.

And the government could turn off video cameras when they're kidnapping and torturing people. And turn off the cars of people who are fleeing, innocent or no.

This is why I'm not a professional writer. He says it very well. This is a BAD idea. A few of the fringe applications sound neat. But ultimately I don't want corporations limiting what I can and can't do with stuff I own. I can lend a book or a record or a video tape to a friend. And I should be able to do the same with digital objects. That's why I don't own a digital reader - I fear it being too limiting, rather than freeing.

Giving my boss or my teacher the technological power to shut off my phone or my laptop or my e-book so I pay attention in a meeting or class isn't "manners". It's dictatorship. It's Orwellian. Bad Microsoft! Bad corporation!