Re: Software Warning?

["Robert G. Brown" <bob@xxxxxxx>]

This has been a heckuva thread!  I want to hit a few high points...

>I thought I was joining a linux mailing list only to find a 
>constitutionalism thead taking off :)

No smiles, Imago, I would claim that one comes with the other. The
sort of expansion (in kind) and extension (over time) that UCITA
represents cannot help but politicize this entire area of intellectual
property rights, and ownership of content. The success of Linux (and
related software development efforts) demonstrates the culture clash.
Like many confrontations in this country, this will be fought out in
State Legislatures and courtrooms in the coming years.

Stallman advocates a forward defense, maybe an offense. He does not wish
to see this reach courtrooms, preferring to getting it snuffed out before
it becomes law. I tend to agree that this is the kind of activism required.

One may look no further than the "Cathedral and the Bazaar"; which starts:
"Linux is subversive..."

Steve Poling:
>anybody ever see the movie "Rollerball"
Yes, of course. The context of the movie is runaway corperatism, and the 
game (Rollerball) is an ultra violent sport televised to the masses to
distract them from the fact that all real power resided in super-corporations.
There was no "Exxon", but there was "Energy", presumably the amalgamation of
all energy companies, etc.  The game is a metaphor for that culture, since
it was so brutal that no individual lasts long enough to become a star. Until
"Jonathon E" becomes so good at it that the game itself must change.

Are we there yet? The Individual is probably still too strong an image in our
culture for things to get that extreme. However, the movie is not a bad wake-
up call.  When we see laws like UCITA proposed, combined with low voter turn-
out and all of the material distractions around us, its worth wondering who
has heard the bells go off....

>So now we have the lackies of the corps, the legislatures,
Self fulfilling prohesy, folks. This is a very dangerous trap!
We elected these poeple, and if we didn't, it was because WE were too busy
playing with our toys or couch-'tering it, and someone else was minding the 
store.  Want to win back the State Legislatures? The go to work on that, and
stay awake when people are talking about these issues.  As long as we have
the ability to ignore what's going on in Lansing, or in Washington as the
chatterings and natterings of bought politicians, things won't change. WE
have to make them accountable, and if we don't ....

Cynicism leads to apathy, which is the most powerful factor acting on favor
of the enemies of liberty, in all times and places.

The PRICE of liberty is vigilence. If we fail, we get what we deserve.

>So now we have people throwing a lot of packets at big sites
>to paralize them....
And there's a tendency to "pass laws" against this sort of thing. We actually
have laws on the books, and when they catch the miscreants, they'll be able to 
charge them.  The danger of the current atmosphere is quite clear; anyone who
is too involved in this stuff is likely to get stigmatized, and there has been
a lot of that historically. Combine that with a tendency towards over-reaction, 
and a streak of anti-intellectualism that runs through the culture, and there's
a pretty dangerous mix out there...

                                                           ---> RGB <---