To steal a page from Kurtzweil (sp?), it's a Really Good Thing that government doesn't change with the speed of fashion or business. We may call it "Gridlock" or whatever, but it's slow moving by design.
Imagine if laws could change with the speed of opinions (or popularity) on/. Eek.
Like others have said, I hope Oracle fights this one. If a corporate interest could claim legal control over product reviews that made them look bad then there could be a lot of lawsuits out there.
Of those possible, the potential for lawsuits from drug companies and food manufacturers scare me the most.
It's all about the basic fact that corporations are not citizens.
Once upon a time I had a great professor (Yale Patt) who made it his business to bring up "unmentionable" subjects in class. His rationale:
If I tell a student "we don't say that here," that's all they learn. That they can't say whatever offensive thing in public. I've done nothing to combat the idea itself. On the other hand, if I drag that weird, racist, crazed idea out into the light and subject it to the same sort of scrutiny to which everything else in this room is subject, the student might actually learn something about the validity of his prejudices.
All we accomplish by censorship is to teach perverts, racists, bigots, and other morons to keep quiet. Unless we can talk about an idea, we can't disprove it.
Out of curiosity, is anyone here actually supporting censorship?
This is basically what I do already. After
several years of fighting various schools,
companies, and employers to keep my Social
Security Number private...I've accepted that
it, as well as my credit card number will be
stolen at some point.
The best I can do is to compartmentalize as much
as I can (so the theft can't leak too far) and
watch all of these accounts for weird activity.
Slashdot Mirror
If I had my way, Nader would take a single state worth 3 electoral votes. The other candidates would come in at 269 and 268.
I'd be able to giggle for the next two months, every time I thought about my government.
-C
To steal a page from Kurtzweil (sp?), it's a Really Good Thing that government doesn't change with the speed of fashion or business. We may call it "Gridlock" or whatever, but it's slow moving by design.
Imagine if laws could change with the speed of opinions (or popularity) on /. Eek.
-C
Like others have said, I hope Oracle fights this one. If a corporate interest could claim legal control over product reviews that made them look bad then there could be a lot of lawsuits out there.
Of those possible, the potential for lawsuits from drug companies and food manufacturers scare me the most.
It's all about the basic fact that corporations are not citizens.
-COnce upon a time I had a great professor (Yale Patt) who made it his business to bring up "unmentionable" subjects in class. His rationale:
If I tell a student "we don't say that here," that's all they learn. That they can't say whatever offensive thing in public. I've done nothing to combat the idea itself. On the other hand, if I drag that weird, racist, crazed idea out into the light and subject it to the same sort of scrutiny to which everything else in this room is subject, the student might actually learn something about the validity of his prejudices.
All we accomplish by censorship is to teach perverts, racists, bigots, and other morons to keep quiet. Unless we can talk about an idea, we can't disprove it.
Out of curiosity, is anyone here actually supporting censorship?
This is basically what I do already. After several years of fighting various schools, companies, and employers to keep my Social Security Number private...I've accepted that it, as well as my credit card number will be stolen at some point.
The best I can do is to compartmentalize as much as I can (so the theft can't leak too far) and watch all of these accounts for weird activity.
I'll probably use this service.
-C