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Feds to Publish Public Comments on MS Settlement
Silas writes: "This AP Article notes that the government is going to be releasing the comments submitted by the public on the Microsoft anti-trust case. Highlight: 'Overall, the department said it received about 7,500 comments from people in favor of the settlement reached by the federal government and nine states, while 15,000 opposed it. Another 7,000 comments were dismissed as opinion, like "I hate Microsoft."' Apparently they have to publish and respond to each one." CNN is carrying the AP wire story as well.
A small number of these submissions are simply advertisements or, in at least one case, pornography.
It also said that all submitters of comments will have their names listed in the Federal Register.
Cool! I'll be famous!
I submitted a comment...did you?
- Bill
>Like T.S. Eliot said in The Waste Land, "The best >lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of >passionate
>intensity".
Just a nitpick, that's actually from W.B. Yeats' The Second Coming, not Eliot 8-).
Only 5 years ago, a great many people would have e-mailed flame after flame to the DOJ against Microsoft; founded not on evidence or logic, but on emotional, personal opinion. But thanks to PR awareness and education in the community, more people can cite specific evidence or examples of Microsoft's illegal behavior, and make rational, well-formed arguments on how Microsoft has damaged innovation, broken published protocols, APIs and standards and how they have illegally leveraged their market position to force out competitors.
Gone, or at least greatly diminished, are the zealots who write "M$ SUCKS!" Instead, people are more educated on the issue and can express their comments with supporting evidence in a calm, rational manner.
Despite these advances and compelling arguments, the US-DOJ still backed down on its position in the antitrust suit; but it can no longer be said that the majority of people who disapprove of Microsoft's business practices are "Anti-MS-Zealots."
CUPS, brutha, CUPS.
DOJ is planning on publishing (on the web/cd/federal register/whatever) the ENTIRE e-mail that they received from people commenting on the case. This means that along with your comment, your e-mail address will be available to anyone who chooses to sort through whatever DOJ ends up releasing. It isn't too much of a stretch to then think of people who decide it's a good idea to send an e-mail to all the folks who spoke against MS or for MS, promoting whatever their cause is.
I won't even think about the poor fools who thought it would be a good idea to include home addresses, phone numbers and other personal information in their signature.
I'm quite sure, though, that the media outlets will pour over these addresses to look for trends like what they did with the screwed up ballots in Florida after the last election....
Personally, I'm just glad that I used an account I barely ever use when I submitted my comment - no need having my work e-mail address published by DOJ!
-Mark
A recent 2.4 kernel release corrupted ext2 and ext3 filesystems.
Hell, we even get frontpage stories about the latest anime DVDs to come out.
Why should we boycott anime DVDs? Most of the publishers aren't members of the MPAA, and don't pay DVD CCA dues. (The exception being Manga, who generally carries only the really bad stuff anyway) Many anime DVDs don't even use macrovision or encryption, and the North American releases generally aren't region-coded.
I'd say these are the kinds of DVDs we should be buying, to show that we're willing to support companies that don't place ludicrous restrictions on their "intellectual property".
From the above link, http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f9900/9946.pdf (emphasis mine).
For geek dads: Contraction Timer
Actually, according to this article:
The gov't received over 30,000 emails, 2,900 were "substantive", 45 were "major", 2,800 were form letters.
"Only about 10 percent had anything substantive to say, officials said, calling the volume unprecedented."