The New Sense of Responsibility

It's like first realizing that snow is cold.

As superhero reincarnations go, this would be my second. I was a hero in a past life many moons ago before fading to a dark side that not many people know about. With some help, the villain changed his uniform. I started doing for the greater good, with some help from my friends. Now, the uniform is worn hoping to graduate to a cape some day. But such a Kafka metamorphosis origin and rebirth tale will be reserved for another day. Not knowing how many times I will have this blessing, I am trying to make the most of it.

Maybe it's this particular mentality that I speak from, because some of you may not know where I am going with this parallel. There are certain environments that heed an acceptance of certain behaviors. Continuing with the crime/punishment, good/bad theme I started with, one would expect (for example) how the institutionalization of a prison would create the desperation or the reform for a prisoner behind bars. You expect and assume that such behaviors and activities would be accepted in such a hostile and controlled environment. That assumption goes for plenty of environments and descriptions: brokers and Wall Street, the White House Press corps and the morning briefing, TMZ.com in front of celebrities...there are expectations within a microcosm experienced.

Such is the case with IT professionals in technical environments, be it personal or commercial systems. The expectation is that "we" (yeah, I guess, with four years into the biz, I can be considered as such a professional) know our way around hardware, operating systems, applications, methods of transport and other languages, is some cases. It's with this assumption that lay-mans ask for advise, support and a helping hand here and there.

The problem with assumptions is the truth is usually more than meets the eye - and I don't mean to associate IT folks with Transformers. Since I have been indoctrinated into this environment, the general assumptions have been benign for the most part. But when you get deeper into the rabbit hole, the erosion of the soil gets more and more obvious in the descent.

By nature and trade, IT folks tinker and experiment and break to rebuild and rebuild to thrive. Faster, better, stronger...without having to do one push-up. So, with innovative, engineering minds toiling away at solutions, some minds wonder. When they wonder, it looks benign on the surface, but is much more insidious that first imagined.

I laugh every time Stephen Colbert heeds the "invisible hand" of the free market. If he made time with any IT professionals, there would definitely be some "free" talk, but not a word about market. As my new cape is still on order, I see a conflict of morality with my fellow heroes...

It's the main reason why companies worry more about the inside job than the outside hack. It's the reason why countermeasures are made with watermarks and service packs to ensure integrity of product. It's the dirty, filthy, noisy secret that the IT world would never let you in on, unless you have the fifteen spare minutes in the lab or the back-knowledge of packets of data slowing down everyone's throughput.

To my IT brethren, I implore you to KNOCK IT OFF! With the general public's ever-growing knowledge and accessibility of technology and the continued general morality of the difference between right and wrong...CUT IT OUT. Just because we know how to break digital watermarks, procure legitimate product keys, acquire software developers are being laid off for, doesn't mean we have to continue our amoral practices.

In my partial decade of being an IT guy, I have seen a continued apathy and disregard for theft of product and art that hundreds of people expect compensation. It's just not right. On a daily basis, no one would steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. Why would anyone steal source code from Redmond, WA on such a frequency? Or for that matter, a full set of film reels from Paramount Studios?

This disregard must cease. The trickle-down is here and now with $8 movie tickets, exorbitant prices for software titles (leading to cuts in traditional-tech jobs like programming and quality assurance) and degradation of a world wide network that is pushing like a "series of tubes".

Now, in no way, shape or form am I saying "quit downloading, you are scaring the children!" The "invisible hand" is noticing the paradigm shift to where not everyone will enjoy the 56" LED with traditional entertainment service providers. The Internet is turning more and more like our TV-Looky-Box. Viacom, Hulu and YouTube get it. And also, there is quite a few alternative freeware versions of regularly-expensive software. Thank you very much, OpenOffice! No, this is not that argument. We can yield plenty of use from other legitimate sources (that want to email us every time there is an update).

No, no. This is just a special message to all of my IT buddies that know they are doing wrong. Are other IT folks that don't partake in the grand theft data accessories to the constant crime? Complicity is a bitch, isn't it? I would like to bring up the discussion as to why the state of the Internet and the state of IT is where it's at, one could easily argue that with this continued look-the-other-way mentality, it could get much worse.

Truly, how many more dominoes must fall before the doppelganger heroes of IT realize that the morality play is one-sided, not layered? Guys (and ladies), you know who you are. And you know what to do.

Lessons Learned, my three things.
1) No matter how long I live here, I will never become a Mavs fan. Sorry. Sloppy, slow, dispassionate basketball is not my thing. At least a Spurs fan appreciates what they have (which is one pro sport team in there town--and that's it!)
2) There should really be a class on how to fill out your W-4 form when you get married. Seriously, can someone help me carry the 2?
3) The Lovely and I have moved to the Metroplex during the second snowiest winter EVER! I don't know what kind of omen that is.
In the bonus: Happy Birthday to the big brother. Brother, you are my brother.

Quick disclaimer: not every IT professional steals product and art from the Internet. In fact, it's a very limited number. Not all IT folks hack or crack or steal. But there has to be a sense of responsibility and trust when we know the whole is the sum of it's parts. If you are good, stay good (and vigilant). If you are bad, even part of the time, the example is not being set. Talk later.