Kapor's Honorable Exit from Groove
New York Times: Software Pioneer
Quits Board of Groove. Mitchell D. Kapor, a personal
computer industry software pioneer and a civil liberties activist, has
resigned from the board of Groove Networks after learning that the
company's software was being used by the Pentagon as part of its
development of a domestic surveillance system.
As the technology industry turns more and more into a tool of the
surveillance state and other control freaks, it's good to know that honor
and liberty still matter to some people.
UPDATE: On reflection, I think I'm being somewhat unfair to the people at
Groove. Ray and Jack Ozzie (and the others I've met from the company) are
not bad people; far from it. And the toolmaker can't choose who buys his
tools.
Yet I'm troubled by Groove's increasingly government-oriented business
thrust, and deeply unhappy that the company is acting as a willing
accomplice in the formation of the surveillance state. Maybe that's where
the money is, but it's not socially responsible in my book.
• posted by Dan Gillmor 06:51
AM
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