How about looking at it this way? It's free to the US to send satellietes around doing whatever it pleases, as it's free to the Chinese to send laserbeams around doing whatever they please.
Also, the satellite is in "free" space, that's fine. But it's spying on Chinese territory, which is an intrusion. No surprise the Chinese don't like it. Their response is to stop the spying, without harm to the sattelite.
It's like this: You're looking into the bedroom window of the hot naked girl across the street, and she pulls the blinds to stop you. Who if anyone committed a crime here?
You are right, however the article makes the mistake to draw the reverse conclusion, i.e. that it must be bad for the public just because it benefits the backers of the bill.
Let's face it. No legislation gets off the ground in the USA without serious money backing it. Serious money won't back anything unless it expects to get something in return. 99.9% of the time, the backers of the bill are the only ones to benefit. This is the rare example where not only the backers benefit, but also the rest of Californians, and the whole planet. So good luck to them!
I would be terrified to stand next to a fueling station that dispenses a highly flammable, poisonous and carcinogenic liquid at a rate of several gallons per minute!
Slashdot Mirror
And the New Yorker is the ultimate authority on the subject, right?
Since the laser in the case of the Chines does no permanent damage, maybe just a bright light would be a better analogy.
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Martin Niemoeller http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came...
Also, the satellite is in "free" space, that's fine. But it's spying on Chinese territory, which is an intrusion. No surprise the Chinese don't like it. Their response is to stop the spying, without harm to the sattelite.
It's like this: You're looking into the bedroom window of the hot naked girl across the street, and she pulls the blinds to stop you. Who if anyone committed a crime here?
You are right, however the article makes the mistake to draw the reverse conclusion, i.e. that it must be bad for the public just because it benefits the backers of the bill. Let's face it. No legislation gets off the ground in the USA without serious money backing it. Serious money won't back anything unless it expects to get something in return. 99.9% of the time, the backers of the bill are the only ones to benefit. This is the rare example where not only the backers benefit, but also the rest of Californians, and the whole planet. So good luck to them!
Patents have always been public. IBM is just making them more easily accessible. They're not giving up any rights, either.
Are we going to see this type of knotting in the space-time continuum every time someone charges one of these cars with 1.21 jigawatts?
I would be terrified to stand next to a fueling station that dispenses a highly flammable, poisonous and carcinogenic liquid at a rate of several gallons per minute!