IANAL, but I have read some stuff written about this area.
In short, if you've got not presence in Australia, don't lose any sleep over this. US courts have a long history of throwing out decisions that violate public policy (i.e. free speech). For instance, see Matusevitch v. Telnikoff (702 A 2d 230 (Md CA 1997)). In this case an English defamation decision was thrown out in America.
OK, I don't often post here, but sometimes I see something so egregious it just annoys me...
Slashdot is the home of the big-bad MS bashing, but worse than Big Tobacco? These guys deliberately withheld information that showed smoking was addictive and killed people. What's MS done? At worst played fairly dirty when competing, and trying to achieve a monopoly. Hardly a fair comparison here.
Now I agree the settlement is pretty silly, mainly because it doesn't cost MS very much at all. Personally I think even the Red Hat solution is poor. After all, they're saying that these poor schools just don't know how to spend the money, so we'll pick for them. Wouldn't a better solution be to just give the money directly to the schools in question so they can spend it where it's needed? There's not much point providing computers to schools if the literacy standards are too low, for instance.
From what I dimly remember of being that age myself, here are a few suggestions:
'Cordelia's Honor' by Lois McMaster Bujold.
'The Moon is Hell' by John W. Campbell. (Although that's pretty hard to find these days)
'On Basilisk Station' by David Weber. (A good introduction to SF, and available free online! See the Baen Webscription site. (Free registration required).
'A Fire Upon the Deep' by Vernor Vinge
For the slightly older beginning reader (or if you don't mind so much about adult themes):
'Hyperion' by Dan Simmons
'Steel Beach' by John Varley
'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress' by Robert A. Heinlein
Not that any of those will really warp someone's mind, but some people are sensitive. A good place to look for books to read is the list of Hugo winners. The Hugo is the award given for the best Science Fiction novel of the year, and the list is a good collection of the best of SF.
Slashdot Mirror
In short, if you've got not presence in Australia, don't lose any sleep over this. US courts have a long history of throwing out decisions that violate public policy (i.e. free speech). For instance, see Matusevitch v. Telnikoff (702 A 2d 230 (Md CA 1997)). In this case an English defamation decision was thrown out in America.
Slashdot is the home of the big-bad MS bashing, but worse than Big Tobacco? These guys deliberately withheld information that showed smoking was addictive and killed people. What's MS done? At worst played fairly dirty when competing, and trying to achieve a monopoly. Hardly a fair comparison here.
Now I agree the settlement is pretty silly, mainly because it doesn't cost MS very much at all. Personally I think even the Red Hat solution is poor. After all, they're saying that these poor schools just don't know how to spend the money, so we'll pick for them. Wouldn't a better solution be to just give the money directly to the schools in question so they can spend it where it's needed? There's not much point providing computers to schools if the literacy standards are too low, for instance.
- 'Cordelia's Honor' by Lois McMaster Bujold.
- 'The Moon is Hell' by John W. Campbell. (Although that's pretty hard to find these days)
- 'On Basilisk Station' by David Weber. (A good introduction to SF, and available free online! See the Baen Webscription site. (Free registration required).
- 'A Fire Upon the Deep' by Vernor Vinge
For the slightly older beginning reader (or if you don't mind so much about adult themes):- 'Hyperion' by Dan Simmons
- 'Steel Beach' by John Varley
- 'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress' by Robert A. Heinlein
Not that any of those will really warp someone's mind, but some people are sensitive. A good place to look for books to read is the list of Hugo winners. The Hugo is the award given for the best Science Fiction novel of the year, and the list is a good collection of the best of SF.