In defense if NBC, they actually had to make some very hard decisions on how to air the olympics. The main issue that they had to overcome was the fact that, due to the time difference between the US and Australia, almost all of the events took place while america was sleeping.
While i agree that its annoying to watch everthing many hours after it has been filmed, and to have to put up with all the bullshit they edited into the broadcasts (ie. half hour bios on some athelete youve never heard of who takes last place), it was still better then having all the main crowd pleasing events showed at 4am.
Basically what im saying is that, even though I thought the coverage sucked, I understand the decisions that they made, and I dont really see a better way they could have done it.
Is code even related to the first ammendment. Correct me if I am wrong, but the first ammendment (free speech) really only concerns opinions and beliefs. It means that you are free to say and believe whatever you wish. I dont believe that code is really related in any way to the first ammendment, or really to any kind of writing, in that code is hard fact (assuming it is well written), not an opinion or belief. Any code, once run, is concrete, it does exactly what it is written to do.
A religious text, protected under the first ammendment, may claim that all other religions are false, and the participants in sed religion believe this. But anybody is allowed to believe, or not believe this religious text.
On the other hand, say a program is written that encrypts a certain file. It doesnt matter if you believe that the file is encrypted, it just is. Its in the nature of programming. If somebody else writes a program that decrypts this certain file, it matters not if you believe that the file is decrypted, it just is.
When seen in this light, it seems to me that code functions very differently then other forms of speech, and it doesnt seem logical that it be protected by the first ammendment.
Slashdot Mirror
In defense if NBC, they actually had to make some very hard decisions on how to air the olympics. The main issue that they had to overcome was the fact that, due to the time difference between the US and Australia, almost all of the events took place while america was sleeping.
While i agree that its annoying to watch everthing many hours after it has been filmed, and to have to put up with all the bullshit they edited into the broadcasts (ie. half hour bios on some athelete youve never heard of who takes last place), it was still better then having all the main crowd pleasing events showed at 4am.
Basically what im saying is that, even though I thought the coverage sucked, I understand the decisions that they made, and I dont really see a better way they could have done it.
Phalex
Is code even related to the first ammendment. Correct me if I am wrong, but the first ammendment (free speech) really only concerns opinions and beliefs. It means that you are free to say and believe whatever you wish. I dont believe that code is really related in any way to the first ammendment, or really to any kind of writing, in that code is hard fact (assuming it is well written), not an opinion or belief. Any code, once run, is concrete, it does exactly what it is written to do.
A religious text, protected under the first ammendment, may claim that all other religions are false, and the participants in sed religion believe this. But anybody is allowed to believe, or not believe this religious text.
On the other hand, say a program is written that encrypts a certain file. It doesnt matter if you believe that the file is encrypted, it just is. Its in the nature of programming. If somebody else writes a program that decrypts this certain file, it matters not if you believe that the file is decrypted, it just is.
When seen in this light, it seems to me that code functions very differently then other forms of speech, and it doesnt seem logical that it be protected by the first ammendment.
---Alex---