I know that many people think that it's not necessary to make a big deal out of everything, that there exist such "little things" not worthy of attention and that we should let them pass without comment or action. Much folksy wisdom has been written saying as much. Has it ever occurred to you, however, that perhaps the folksy sages that penned such catchy and clever witticisms were morons? I would suggest that perhaps, concerned reader, the "death of a thousand cuts" is no less a death even if you're buried, not in a mountain, but a mole hill.
I recently acquired two cheap laptops for my children to use for school. Upon first boot, I was greeted by the normal configuration screens and then the ubiquitous End-User License Agreement screen. How I hate them! Except that there were two EULA's. I noticed that the first was the familiar Windows EULA that had a note "Required to use Windows". Ok, that's normal—obnoxious and inappropriate—but normal. The second EULA was from the manufacturer (Acer) and had a note "Required to use the computer". An End-User License Agreement to use the computer?!! I'm not an End-User of the computer—I AM THE OWNER! I am not being granted a license to experience the wonder that is Intel integrated HD graphics; money has changed hands—I AM THE OWNER! There are no terms to which I must agree—I AM THE OWNER! We may have been tricked into drinking the "Intellectual Property" kook-aid, but hardware is still something we OWN! Have we become so inured, so dependent on the corporate masters of our technology, that we have forgotten the concept of ownership entirely? The rubbish arguments and pop philosophies that accompany "Intellectual Property" are apparently taking a toll, not only on the development and use of computer technology, but on our collective psyche as well. "EULA's? Sure. They're all over the place. You can't get around them, so just click through it. Stop making it such a big deal!"
This is how rights and freedoms are lost; whether of laziness or of faith, the blind eye we turn to daily inequities or to lasting legislation does not see the washout gully until home and croft are swept away by the slow erosion of the little things that we didn't sweat.