I'd be willing to bet that all of the runoff from farm fertilizers and pesticides in Wisconsin and Michigan bears as much blame as Chicago industry for the pollution of the Great Lakes. But I'm not sure, so I doubt I'd bet more than $5.
Quote: Don't believe me? When was the last time someone actually practiced what they preached and downloaded some songs by the independent artists on MP3.com? Those few who have actually done it know that independent artists generally produce crap, and go back to trying to find their Eminem and Metallica mp3s.
Actually, Metallica has gotten pretty crappy themselves these days, and I never liked Eminem, although his lyrics are pretty funny in sick, sarcastic, cynical sort of way. Maybe your problem is that you haven't spent enough time listening to different independent music to find the musicians that you actually like.
I've downloaded tons and tons of music by independent artists. Much of this fell into these categories:
I used to own it, but it was damaged, lost, or stolen
It was out of print or tough to find copies for purchase
The original musician(s) are now dead, so I feel little remorse for 'stealing' from record labels that have long-since recuperated their investments
I liked it, and ended up buying an album or at least seeing them live, so they got money from me that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise
I didn't like it, and deleted the file because it wasn't worth keeping anyway
Off the top of my head I can think of about 20 bands for which this applies. Rather than undermining these artists, usually if I hear their music it helps them become more successful. Unfortunately for the RIAA, it makes major labels less successful, because if I have access to the bands that I like over the Internet I won't be buying crappy corporate records in crappy corporate record stores.
But hey, I'll admit, I DO love free stuff, and I DO think it's a shame that I can't really get it anymore. I always have my CD burner, though.
As previous responses to this post have noted, the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and almost all of our other laws apply to everyone. Citizenship gives people here special advantages, such as the opportunity to get additional government services.
The most important advantage of citizenship is the inalienable right to remain on U.S. soil for life no matter what they do. This is where the importance of Dmitry's citizenship status comes in. His foreign citizenship should actually be a big ADVANTAGE to him in this situation, I would think, because it gives the US government a way. IANAL, but it seems to me that the easy way for the government to save face. In light of the fact that the initial mover in this case, Adobe, has pulled out its support for the prosecution, the government could find some way to tell Dmitri to get the hell out of the USA and never some back. That's not justice either because he deserves no punishment, but I doubt he ever wants to come back anyway after sitting in jail here, so it's fair in practice if not in principle. This solution might take some legal twisting and turning (again, IANAL), but that's what lawyers do best. What else do we pay them so much money for?
This is true for Germany, France, and as far as I know Britain also. That's the three most populous countries in Europe. It's probably true in Italy, too.
When I was 16, I got into some trouble when I sent some BBS mail to adults (educational administrators, actually) that was considered "threatening." I made a short trip through the juvenile court system, where I mainly learned that other people, who don't have as much understanding of computers, take these things a LOT more seriously than I did at that age. I was charged with telephone harassment, a special law in Wisconsin, becuase I used a modem over phone lines. I served 50 hours of community service for my crimes. I think the treatment I got was plenty enough to teach me my lessons: 1. find something more worthwhile to do with the computer, and 2. many adults have trouble putting the things that kids do in perspective. I definitely didn't need 10 years in a federal prison, as that would have taught me different lessons: 1. whenever someone messes with you, you fight him, and 2. don't drop the soap. Thus, I think the treatment I got under existing law was much more appropriate than what I would get under this awful proposed law. This also shows that there are definitely laws already in place that easily have enough force to slap some sense into an overly clever and reckless high-school prankster.
However, I think the comparison is fair in this case, because it's clear-cut and based on specific evidence rather than generalizations about character.
Sounds a little bit like the Nazis, who encouraged children to turn in their parents for having anti-Nazi ideas. Of course, I'm not saying that your workplace is quite the same thing as your parents, but you get the idea.
You're confusing "Linux" with "GNU/Linux". Much of "GNU/Linux", the operating system, is indeed GNU code: the GNU tools, which make up most of the population of/bin,/usr/bin,/sbin, etc. Still other important Linux denizens come from BSD, whose code base is also older than 1991. However, "Linux" is just the kernel, which was begun as a separate project by Linus Torvalds.
I don't see why companies should be allowed to broadcast copy-protected data over the airwaves. After all, we own the airwaves, we can have a say about what they do or don't get used for. I don't see how it's in the public interest at all to allow such use of public property.
Burma has also largely banned use of the Internet. It is frequent to see anti-government activists slapped with charges of something like "unauthorized use of a telecommunications device." Of course, the reason is because the democratic resistance uses the Internet as an organizing tool (e.g. mailing lists, the Free Burma webiste). I don't doubt that the Afghan government is also thinking along the same lines: don't let people use the Internet, or they will see what's going on outside the country. The Internet can allow effective organizations that unite people inside and outside an oppressed country working toward freedom. That's why it poses such a threat to oppressive regimes. I would bet that the regime sees this as just as much of a reason for banning the Internet, but of course it doesn't sound as righteous so it's left unstated.
If the objection is that teachers just don't understand how to use Free Software OS's, then why don't more of us 'enlightened' technical people just become school teachers? For all the complaining that goes on around here about people being ignorant about computers, you'd think there would be more of an investment in trying to overcome the deficiency in our technical education.
It would also be a great covert way for free software to infiltrate the world's youth... just think if more and more places told MS sales reps, "Sorry, it's just not worth it to retrain our empolyees in MS software, because they are already familiar with Linux and X."
Of course, that might mean a cut in your $80,000+/year paycheck... but hey, where are all those homeless ex-dotcommers?
Granted, I'm sure a lot of us geeks (I can't decide whether I am one or not anymore, actually) didn't have such a great time in school and aren't too eager to go back there, but personally I plan to give it a shot.
The school's job isn't to teach the kids on-the-job skills, it's to teach them concepts, and teach them how to learn. Learning Free Software teaches you how to learn, because it allows to you participate in software at all levels rather than just learning the interfaces that the company tells you to learn.
Furthermore, it doesn't take that much to learn Windows, so if you learn Linux or some Unix distro it should be a fairly small step to read a few MS books and move into the MS world, if that's where you want to go.
One of the greatest strengths of Free Software is its potential for education. People often overlook this point, but it's not lost on RMS and the GNU project, who have pointed it out.
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I'd be willing to bet that all of the runoff from farm fertilizers and pesticides in Wisconsin and Michigan bears as much blame as Chicago industry for the pollution of the Great Lakes. But I'm not sure, so I doubt I'd bet more than $5.
Quote: Don't believe me? When was the last time someone actually practiced what they preached and downloaded some songs by the independent artists on MP3.com? Those few who have actually done it know that independent artists generally produce crap, and go back to trying to find their Eminem and Metallica mp3s.
Actually, Metallica has gotten pretty crappy themselves these days, and I never liked Eminem, although his lyrics are pretty funny in sick, sarcastic, cynical sort of way. Maybe your problem is that you haven't spent enough time listening to different independent music to find the musicians that you actually like.
I've downloaded tons and tons of music by independent artists. Much of this fell into these categories:
Off the top of my head I can think of about 20 bands for which this applies. Rather than undermining these artists, usually if I hear their music it helps them become more successful. Unfortunately for the RIAA, it makes major labels less successful, because if I have access to the bands that I like over the Internet I won't be buying crappy corporate records in crappy corporate record stores.
But hey, I'll admit, I DO love free stuff, and I DO think it's a shame that I can't really get it anymore. I always have my CD burner, though.
As previous responses to this post have noted, the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and almost all of our other laws apply to everyone. Citizenship gives people here special advantages, such as the opportunity to get additional government services. The most important advantage of citizenship is the inalienable right to remain on U.S. soil for life no matter what they do. This is where the importance of Dmitry's citizenship status comes in. His foreign citizenship should actually be a big ADVANTAGE to him in this situation, I would think, because it gives the US government a way. IANAL, but it seems to me that the easy way for the government to save face. In light of the fact that the initial mover in this case, Adobe, has pulled out its support for the prosecution, the government could find some way to tell Dmitri to get the hell out of the USA and never some back. That's not justice either because he deserves no punishment, but I doubt he ever wants to come back anyway after sitting in jail here, so it's fair in practice if not in principle. This solution might take some legal twisting and turning (again, IANAL), but that's what lawyers do best. What else do we pay them so much money for?
This is true for Germany, France, and as far as I know Britain also. That's the three most populous countries in Europe. It's probably true in Italy, too.
When I was 16, I got into some trouble when I sent some BBS mail to adults (educational administrators, actually) that was considered "threatening." I made a short trip through the juvenile court system, where I mainly learned that other people, who don't have as much understanding of computers, take these things a LOT more seriously than I did at that age. I was charged with telephone harassment, a special law in Wisconsin, becuase I used a modem over phone lines. I served 50 hours of community service for my crimes. I think the treatment I got was plenty enough to teach me my lessons: 1. find something more worthwhile to do with the computer, and 2. many adults have trouble putting the things that kids do in perspective. I definitely didn't need 10 years in a federal prison, as that would have taught me different lessons: 1. whenever someone messes with you, you fight him, and 2. don't drop the soap. Thus, I think the treatment I got under existing law was much more appropriate than what I would get under this awful proposed law. This also shows that there are definitely laws already in place that easily have enough force to slap some sense into an overly clever and reckless high-school prankster.
True!
However, I think the comparison is fair in this case, because it's clear-cut and based on specific evidence rather than generalizations about character.
Sounds a little bit like the Nazis, who encouraged children to turn in their parents for having anti-Nazi ideas. Of course, I'm not saying that your workplace is quite the same thing as your parents, but you get the idea.
You're confusing "Linux" with "GNU/Linux". Much of "GNU/Linux", the operating system, is indeed GNU code: the GNU tools, which make up most of the population of /bin, /usr/bin, /sbin, etc. Still other important Linux denizens come from BSD, whose code base is also older than 1991. However, "Linux" is just the kernel, which was begun as a separate project by Linus Torvalds.
I don't see why companies should be allowed to broadcast copy-protected data over the airwaves. After all, we own the airwaves, we can have a say about what they do or don't get used for. I don't see how it's in the public interest at all to allow such use of public property.
Burma has also largely banned use of the Internet. It is frequent to see anti-government activists slapped with charges of something like "unauthorized use of a telecommunications device." Of course, the reason is because the democratic resistance uses the Internet as an organizing tool (e.g. mailing lists, the Free Burma webiste). I don't doubt that the Afghan government is also thinking along the same lines: don't let people use the Internet, or they will see what's going on outside the country. The Internet can allow effective organizations that unite people inside and outside an oppressed country working toward freedom. That's why it poses such a threat to oppressive regimes. I would bet that the regime sees this as just as much of a reason for banning the Internet, but of course it doesn't sound as righteous so it's left unstated.
If the objection is that teachers just don't understand how to use Free Software OS's, then why don't more of us 'enlightened' technical people just become school teachers? For all the complaining that goes on around here about people being ignorant about computers, you'd think there would be more of an investment in trying to overcome the deficiency in our technical education.
It would also be a great covert way for free software to infiltrate the world's youth... just think if more and more places told MS sales reps, "Sorry, it's just not worth it to retrain our empolyees in MS software, because they are already familiar with Linux and X."
Of course, that might mean a cut in your $80,000+/year paycheck... but hey, where are all those homeless ex-dotcommers?
Granted, I'm sure a lot of us geeks (I can't decide whether I am one or not anymore, actually) didn't have such a great time in school and aren't too eager to go back there, but personally I plan to give it a shot.
The school's job isn't to teach the kids on-the-job skills, it's to teach them concepts, and teach them how to learn. Learning Free Software teaches you how to learn, because it allows to you participate in software at all levels rather than just learning the interfaces that the company tells you to learn.
Furthermore, it doesn't take that much to learn Windows, so if you learn Linux or some Unix distro it should be a fairly small step to read a few MS books and move into the MS world, if that's where you want to go.
One of the greatest strengths of Free Software is its potential for education. People often overlook this point, but it's not lost on RMS and the GNU project, who have pointed it out.