This is an effect of Japanese corporations lobbying for copyright legislation, not Japanese "society".
I agree that the word "society" can be used to convey social norms, whether imposed by the general public or a powerful minority, but here it's use is deceptive, because there is a connotation that society at large accepts this application of law as just, and had the practical power to influence copyright law.
Definitely. Unfortunately, Language implementations that guaranteed exceptions were not in wide use at the time. Also, to have a chance at being implemented on more than one CPU, it had to work in C and assembly.
Very true! But probably for different reasons. Interfacing to a micro-controller or a PIC is a bit more complicated than plugging a keyboard and monitor in.
That seems like a very real effect, but the votes need to be disclosed after they occur. Otherwise, the lobbyists have even more power, because the committee has an incentive to collude with the lobbyists, if their individual votes are not known, and they accept bribes. (I agree that having their votes be unknown helps if they do not accept bribes).
The only foolproof solution is to remove power from the lobbyists.
I think the feelings have been there for a long time. What changed is that it is harder to exert corporate culture (eg. fear or information control) while out of office.
We don't have vaccines for the 200+ viruses that cause "the common cold". The flu, which is usually a more serious disease, has a vaccine that is updated and offered yearly.
80% of US medical personnel already take the yearly flu shot.
Actually, I'm with you in that I think Apple's motives are different than people think, but I think yours are incorrect as well.
> Apple has been, as part of their privacy initiatives, trying to do as much as possible on the device. That's how they have been defining privacy to themselves internally. Then someone said "can we do something about CSAM" [...]
As a separate issue, many people in the company certainly do care about privacy, and that may go all the way to to Tim Cook. Who knows.
What is much more important to Apple the company, though, is making money. Governments have been hounding them for years about letting them spy on users. And they have painted themselves into a bit of a corner, by having the most secure phones.
Now the government comes to them with an offer they can't refuse, cloaked in child porn motivations. I believe many (most?) of the people involved are sincere. It's clear they have tried to make the least invasive system that still does what the government wants.
But that's not good enough in the crazy connected cyber-world we find ourselves in today.
Apple doesn't have a motivation to do this themselves. But they will do what they calculate they need to do.