Net Neutrality

http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2015/02/26/fcc-ruling-on-net-neutrality-will-have-major-implications-for-the-internet-space/

This article details the recent decision of the FCC to support net neutrality and eliminate the ability of internet service providers to create fast and slow lanes for various internet services.  Though the ruling is a win for anybody using the internet, the public reaction has been disturbing.  A game developer I follow on twitter said something along the lines of "There are two people in the Net Neutrality debate, those who are for it and those who haven't done the research to know better".  The comments to any news post is full of doomsayers claiming how Obama is evil and is trying to ruin the internet.  If they did their research they'd see the current decision is what's been practiced for years, and only recently was it determined that companies could use fast lanes (the thing this decision turns down).  The people who knew enough about the situation decided to do something about it, and sent in petitions to get this changed back.  The people who are too lazy to research did nothing, and then act outraged at a decision they don't understand.

IP

IP in Computer Science has always been a sore spot for me.  I've been doing entrepreneurial software development for a few years, and have received different counsel all across the board as to what my approach to it should be.  I've taken the stance that software patents are often unnecessary and actually hinder creativity (where as the point of patents is to foster creativity by forcing people to come up with new ideas).  Nothing we make in software development we make solely on our own.  Every bit of software is built on something someone else has written, all the way down to the original computer punch cards.  The only reason we're able to make cool things is thanks to those who made cool things before us.  I feel like we should keep our accomplishments as open as possible, and much of the licensing used in Open Source Software resembles this fact, in getting people to acknowledge that they're working together, and to agree to do it more.