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MIT Drops DRM-Laden Journal Subscription
Gibbs-Duhem writes with news that MIT has dropped its subscription to the Society of Automotive Engineers' web-based database of technical papers over the issue of DRM. The SAE refuses to allow any online access except through an Adobe DRM plugin that limits use and does not run on Linux or Unix. Also, the SAE refuses to let its papers even be indexed on any site but their own. SAE's use of DRM is peculiar to say the least, as they get their content for free from the researchers who actually do the work. And those researchers have choices as to where they send their work, and some of the MIT faculty are pretty vocal about it. From the MIT Library News: "'It's a step backwards,' says Professor Wai Cheng, SAE fellow and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, who feels strongly enough about the implications of DRM that he has asked to be added to the agenda of the upcoming SAE Publication Board meeting in April, when he will address this topic."
I've reached a point where I feel the need to express my disappointment with Alberto Gonzalez. To begin at the beginning, Gonzalez's victims have been speaking out for years. Unfortunately, their voices have long been silenced by the roar and thunder of Gonzalez's accomplices, who loudly proclaim that the ideas of "freedom" and "Comstockism" are Siamese twins. Regardless of those crapulous proclamations, the truth is that what he is doing is not an innocent, recreational sort of thing. It is a criminal activity, it is an immoral activity, it is a socially destructive activity, and it is a profoundly intrusive activity. In case you don't know, I call upon him to stop his oppression, lies, immorality, and debauchery. I call upon him to be a man of manners, principles, honour, and purity. And finally, I call upon him to forgo his desire to mollycoddle soporific blatherskites. Like I said, the little I've written so far already buttresses the assertion that Gonzalez still labors under the outmoded pretense that skin color means more than skill and gender is more impressive than genius. Am I being too harsh for writing that? Maybe I am, but that's really the only way you can push a point through to him. Allow me to explain. One of his janissaries keeps throwing "scientific" studies at me, claiming they prove that Gonzalez never engages in inerudite, shabby, or quasi-infantile politics. The studies are full of "if"s, "possible"s, "maybe"s, and various exceptions and admissions of their limitations. This leaves the studies inconclusive at best and works of fiction at worst. The only thing these studies can possibly prove is that I'm willing to accept that the ripples of reaction to Gonzalez's nostrums have spread, giving rise to universal calls to take off the kid gloves and vent some real anger at Gonzalez. I'm even willing to accept that most of his snow jobs are slanted in the same ideological fashion, with large amounts of emotional exaggeration and general ignorance. But some reputed -- as opposed to reputable -- members of his band quite adamantly believe that the sun rises just for Gonzalez. I find it rather astonishing that anyone could contend such a thing, but then again, I feel no more personal hatred for Gonzalez than I might feel for a herd of wild animals or a cluster of poisonous reptiles. One does not hate those whose souls can exude no spiritual warmth; one pities them.
Perhaps I find it ironic that Gonzalez calls me illiberal when he's the most illiberal person you'll ever see, but remember that his faculty for deception is so far above anyone else's, it really must be considered different in kind as well as in degree. I recently overheard a couple of wrongheaded, stentorian wimps say that we have too much freedom. Here, again, we encounter the blurred thinking that is characteristic of this Gonzalez-induced era of slogans and propaganda. I understand that his modus operandi is to fan the flames of sesquipedalianism into a planet-spanning inferno, but I can easily see him performing the following macabre acts. First, Gonzalez will incite racial hatred. Then, he will burn his opponents at the stake. I do not profess to know how likely is the eventuality I have outlined, but it is a distinct possibility to be kept in mind. He, already oppressive with his careless offhand remarks, will perhaps be the ultimate exterminator of our human species -- if separate species we be -- for his reserve of unguessed horrors could never be borne by mortal brains if loosed upon the world. If you think that that's a frightening thought, then consider that if it were up to Gonzalez, schoolchildren would be taught reading, 'riting, and racism.
I would certainly not have thought it possible that the mumpish, sappy leeches who work in Gonzalez's lie factories keep telling us that merit is adequately measured by Gonzalez's methods and qualifications, but it's absolutely true. "What's that?", I hear you ask. "Is it true that Gonzalez should be in better control of his hormones?" Why, yes, it is. I happen to believe that h
MIT Bins DRM-Laden Journal Subscription