I beg your pardon? Waterboarding is not torture? I'm sorry, but by any definition you care to mention being exposed to "simulated drowning" is torture. If you read up on the practice you'll find that it's slightly more serious than someone splashing a bit of water on you. For extra points go read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding and become enlightened.
Yes, it doesn't involve cutting people's hands off, breaking legs, setting fire to their eyeballs or anything of a more graphical nature. However, calling it "not torture" is ignorant at best.
If you use anything bigger/better/faster/stronger than simple un-managed switches, such as Cisco, HP, Extreme (and so on), you will find that the switch exports its MAC/CAM table via SNMP. This means that you can poll MAC tables of managed switches in different switching domains (separated by routers). If you are interested, tools like http://www.netdisco.org/ will do this for you quite nicely.
This is not intended as a flame, but did you actually read and underestand the link you just posted? They pretty much list every major research network in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.. what more could you want? They may not be named 'Internet2', but they're still pretty significant networks in their own right, covering a large number of research and educational institutions:)
Much as I hate to join a bandwagon, this is the most relevant comment about wireless networking so far. I have been involved in rolling out a large-ish wireless network (some 60 Access points) and encountered the exact issues the parent describes. In an area that is likely to be larger than the office mentioned by the original poster the design spec said 12 APs. Channel overlap and interference was an utter nightmare. The solution was to turn down the transmission power to the absolute minimum and completely switch off some APs.
In short, anyone considering a wireless network in a production environment with that many users absolutely *must* aquaint themselves with these aspects of networking. Use wires for your production systems and workstations, leave the wireless for visitors and casual web browsing.
So, youre saying that by asking a new Linux user to educate him/herself in the ways of Linux you're a snob? What would you have him do then? Hand-hold every user from n00bness to l33tness?
As another poster pointed out, Linux is hard. Let's not be coy about it, it is a completely different world for your average Windows user. Dare I say that a 'paradigm shift' is required? So, without effort from the new user, how would he/she learn anything?
And before you go off on a tangent, I'm not saying all long-time Linux/BSD users should throw newbies to the wolves (RTFM), just that if you want to learn how to use a brand spanking new (different) operating system a certain amount of effort on your behalf is required.
I can't believe the mods today (Must be the green beer after St.Patty's day). That's not Funny, it's Insightful (And scary).
Re:Why they always gotta make it a fight?
on
The Great HDCP Fiasco
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
While I admire your sentiment I believe you are fundamentally wrong. The EU populace are no different from their American counterparts (this being said as an European). Witness the European Copyright Directive and similar legislation being pushed through. It has been said before: America takes a right away from the public and the EU will follow in order to 'harmonise'. Then EU will take a right and America follows suit.
The sheeple in the EU doesn't know nor care about DRM or TCP/Palladium/whatnot. As long as they can pay money to see 30 minutes of advertisement before the feature at the cinema, pay through the nose for their mobile phone contracts and surf the Internet on their Brand Name Desktop they will never know. PC can't play the latest DVD/BlueRay? PC == Borked, get a new. TV can't show the latest DVD/BlueRay? TV+DVD == borked, get a new. Why? Because `that's the way it is`. And so the sheeple live their lives oblivious to the schemings of the corporations. When people finally get their heads out of their collective behinds, take a moment out from the daily soap and reality programming, they _just_ might notice enough to care. Even then my guess is that 90% of the good men and women of the EU will sink back into the comfortable way of consumerism.
And I think it's unfair to blame America for the current state of affairs. Think about it: When was the last time you purchased a DVD? Was it, per chance, region coded? Did you care? Of course not. Like me you might have a region free DVD player or DeCSS on you computer. DVD encryption is harmless because it's been broken, right? WRONG! What the media conglomerates have done is to introduce the idea that DVDs should be region coded. Ask anyone why their DVDs are region coded and they will not be able to tell you why. "Because that's the way it is" will be their answer. They have embraced the idea that there is a need to make it impossible for 'normal' DVD players in the EU to play DVDs from the States. They can not understand the reasoning behind this, but they gladly accept it. Then the next 'version' of DVD comes along, with slightly more draconian DRM. It will be broken in the end but that is not the point. Once more the corporations have had their wicked way. People have invested in their DRM and are becoming increasingly more used to it. Within a few decades people will not think twice about sacrificing their newborn child on the altar of the latest DVD release.
My point with all this ranting? Think about it: DVD's CSS encryption was weak, got broken and now is irrelevant. Still they insist on crippling DVDs with it. We don't need to worry about the next DRM or even the one after that. What we need to worry about is the fact that some powerful individuals are looking to take away our freedoms as we know them. DRM is only the first step (or a gateway drug if you will). While the people with the knowledge about both sides of DRM fuss about the latest incarnation of CrippleWare we are missing the bigger picture. Go read the poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller and you will see what I mean.
I don't really like feeding the trolls so I'll keep this short and sweet.
If you cast your mind back a few years you'll find that it does not take a "fantasy conglomeration of righteous nations" to ram a plane or two into a building. The US will not be invaded for the sole reason that it's too bloody well protected by the seas (just like the British isles actually), and unless Canada or Mexico decides to invade it's likely to stay that way. The grandparent did not, however, suggest that the U.S of A would be invaded by a hostile force (as in D-day style landings and so on). In my opinion the grandparent stated that if the US continues to ride roughshod over other peoples pride and values you will find an increasing number of individuals willing to do whatever it takes, be that pamphleting or suicide bombing.
Please note I'm not advocating violence or an attack on the US, I merely seek to clarify as there seems to have been a gross misunderstanding.
I tried methlabs' http://methlabs.org/projects/peerguardian-linuxosx /
but it almost brought my box to a grinding halt while loading some 18.000 rules into iptables. After that the box was virtually useless as the load average was around 20.0!
The blurb on the methlab site advertises a very low CPU usage, but that's obviously only for the PG software itself as all the work seems to be done by iptables... YMMV.
For anyone experiencing SSH attacks, I suggest you have a look at fail2ban http://fail2ban.sourceforge.net/. I got fed up with random script kiddies trying to bruteforce my DSL connected box. Now all repeated SSH authentication failures are iptable'd to a tarpit:) This may of course not be suitable for everyone, as it creates potential denial of service conditions. Caveat Emptor.
Here we go again. Every time something along these lines happen, someone will make a funny/ironic/sarcastic/"no omg-wtf-god-help-us-all" comment, and in response someone who thinks the world is coming to an end will reply just like the parent.
Yes, people got killed. Yes, there's chaos. Yes, there will be grief. Yes, it's a tragedy for anyone involved.
HOWEVER: People die all over the world, all the time. Either due to accidents or deliberate actions by others. For most people, these things happen "far away" it doesn't affect them directly and they will therefore have less of an emotional impact.
And there we stand, Mr. Coward. I'm sure you don't break down and cry every time something bad happens somewhere in the world. It's useless trying to force people to feel sorry or to grieve, just as it's impossible to force someone to stop grieving.
These are decisions we'll have to make for ourselves. We are all creatures of concience.
I'm certain you are aware of Guantanamo bay then: Varying degrees of discomfort and a distinct lack of trials, courts, press and the like. Oh... I forgot... that place is not on American soil.. just run by the American government. That changes everything
Now, I am fully aware that, as with any country, America is made up of a plethora of different ideas and opinions. I am also certain that many americans were quite upset with the entire Guantanamo thing and would rather not have anything to do with it.
But I'm sure you can see the irony of americans demonstrating agains human rights abuse, when the US has been accused of shipping people abroad for torture. (I can't remember whether this accusation actually led to anything though)
You know the words: stones, glass house, throwing. Some assembly required:)
Might I suggest you have a look at http://www.root-servers.org/?
I'm sure you will find that there is a world outside the U.S, and that the rest of the world does not rely exclusively on American root servers.
Nice troll though:)
So if you don't care about their 'rights' (it's their 'property' after all), why should they care about your 'rights' (think DRM/CSS/whatever)?
Don't get me wrong. I have downloaded my fair share of copyrighed material but I have no delusions of being in the right. I treat the downloads as a free preview and I do go out and purchase the things I like. The content companies will of course treat this as illegal downloading and think I've cost them $billions in lost revenue, whereas I think it allows me to make informed decisions on where and how I spend my money.
Sadly, the political climate at the moment seems to be in favour of these companies and not the customers. No amount of breaking these 'laws'* will make them go away. It'll only serve to reinforce the industry's belief that their customers are only looking to 'steal' their stuff.
So, will I stop downloading before I buy? Not likely. Am I a hypocrite? Absolutely:)
*) I don't like to think of these bought laws as real laws, but that's a story for another time!
So would I. And I would expect a policeman to know the law to the lette and a doctor to know everything there is to know about the human body. I would expect the meter maids to never get a parking ticket and a chef to always make fantastic food.
But guess what? All these people are like you and me. Yes, better educated within their particular field but still as fallible(?) as any other person. A cop on the beat will not know about IP law. A doctor will have specialised in a particular field of medicine. Anyone could misjudge the meter and the guy with the hot dog stand could serve you food that will kill you.
Until recently I (kind of) had all these expectations. That changed when I started my education as a network engineer and looked into doing practice work with the university IT department. Know what? They are just regular guys. They go for a pint after work on a friday. They do normal stuff all the time and they are not ubermensch as we like to think. Not all companies can afford to employ the cream of the crop in all departments. After all, a company's main purpose is to MAKE MONEY. Everything else comes second. This includes the computers and IT infrastructure. If 10Mb ethernet can do, it will have to do and if an unsecure wi-fi access point can do, I suppose it will have to do too.
I suppose my point is that you may not be too far off saying the cleaners were involved in the IT rollout. In the real world we all wear many hats, some better fitting than others.
I don't think they'll actually print the ad. However, the story that a (large?) group of people all over the world gathered funds to promote a piece of free software in the NY times just may make it to other media agencies.
Well.. IANAL:) I just thought it would be worth exploring that option. I am by no means advocating the infringement of other people's copyright. If it's the law, it's the law (Yes, it can be changed but I don't have that kind of money).
My point is, I suppose, that if the lawmakers dish out these tools the community should make use of them to the best of their abilities. When one of these policies blows up in someone's face (with a bunch of the aforementioned money) we just might see some changes, hopefully for the better. Having seen how things are progressing I think it's going to get a lot worse before that happens.
In the mean time, I'm not an American citizen so whatever happens over the pond does not directly apply to me (until someone in the EU parliament gets a bright idea... *shudder*).
Too bad you posted AC... for that insight I'd add you as a friend!
That was my initial thought. But think about this:
What if you could make the BT client enforce a click-thru license like other commercial/free software does. This "license" could stipulate something like "If you are a member of RIAA/MPAA/?? you may not use this software... etc"*. Surely, if a MS/Oracle/whatever click-thru license is enforceable, this will be too?
This may apply the access control mechanism you pointed out in your post..
This access control mechanism could be bolstered by a mandatory encryption layer like CSS. The BT/p2p author could then license this method to the users by way of the click-thru license.
Feel free to shoot me down on this one.. it seemed like a good idea at the time:)
*> I saw a film at some point (8mm?) where a doorman had to ask every patron wether they were a member of a law enforcement agency. Something to do with entrapment?(I may have dreamt this one, and as with many things films do not always reflect the reality).
For my own part I started using MySQL to satisfy my database needs because I read an article about it in some Linux magazine. At the time I did not hear of any alternatives (such as PostgreSQL), nor did I care much. MySQL, at the time, was all I needed to store my DVD database. It may not have sub-stored procedural selects and three dimensional locking over-views but it did (and still does) all I need.
Will I change to PostgreSQL? I don't know. I am sure there are good reasons to do so, and good reasons not to.(I only use the most fundamental SQL functions anyways)
In the end I feel it's all about apples and oranges. It scratches my particular itch.
And for the PHB quote: MySQL has an actual company "backing" it. It adds credibility in the heads of PHBs:)
It has been pointed out repeatedly, here on slashdot, and elsewhere: When it comes to digital media the word "steal" is somehow lacking. We may use the word "steal" when we deprive someone of something through illegitimate means.
However, when we "steal" digital media, the original media remains unchanged and still in the posession of the owner. Therefore, the media has not been "stolen", but duplicated.
The movie and music industry likes to label people who "duplicate" media as "thieves" and liken their activities to the "stealing" performed by "thieves".
I do not dispute that under current law the "duplication" of digital media may or may not be legal. However, please use the correct terminology when discussing this important matter.
Should all digital media ever created be free (as in beer)? I don't think so. When people are not required to pay money to experience another person's creative work (be that music or film or whatever) the incentive to create these forms of media disappears.
The solution? Find another way to compensate the creators for their efforts. They did after all make something worth while should you decide to get a copy eh?
Having only read your excerpt of the article (I'm lazy, so sue me:)
Is it not possible that he meant that criticizing google was impossible because "everyone loves google"? What would happen if I chose to criticize GNU/Linux here on slashdot?
Slashdot Mirror
I beg your pardon? Waterboarding is not torture? I'm sorry, but by any definition you care to mention being exposed to "simulated drowning" is torture. If you read up on the practice you'll find that it's slightly more serious than someone splashing a bit of water on you. For extra points go read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding and become enlightened. Yes, it doesn't involve cutting people's hands off, breaking legs, setting fire to their eyeballs or anything of a more graphical nature. However, calling it "not torture" is ignorant at best.
If you use anything bigger/better/faster/stronger than simple un-managed switches, such as Cisco, HP, Extreme (and so on), you will find that the switch exports its MAC/CAM table via SNMP. This means that you can poll MAC tables of managed switches in different switching domains (separated by routers). If you are interested, tools like http://www.netdisco.org/ will do this for you quite nicely.
This is not intended as a flame, but did you actually read and underestand the link you just posted? They pretty much list every major research network in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.. what more could you want? They may not be named 'Internet2', but they're still pretty significant networks in their own right, covering a large number of research and educational institutions :)
Much as I hate to join a bandwagon, this is the most relevant comment about wireless networking so far. I have been involved in rolling out a large-ish wireless network (some 60 Access points) and encountered the exact issues the parent describes. In an area that is likely to be larger than the office mentioned by the original poster the design spec said 12 APs. Channel overlap and interference was an utter nightmare. The solution was to turn down the transmission power to the absolute minimum and completely switch off some APs.
In short, anyone considering a wireless network in a production environment with that many users absolutely *must* aquaint themselves with these aspects of networking. Use wires for your production systems and workstations, leave the wireless for visitors and casual web browsing.
So, youre saying that by asking a new Linux user to educate him/herself in the ways of Linux you're a snob? What would you have him do then? Hand-hold every user from n00bness to l33tness?
As another poster pointed out, Linux is hard. Let's not be coy about it, it is a completely different world for your average Windows user. Dare I say that a 'paradigm shift' is required? So, without effort from the new user, how would he/she learn anything?
And before you go off on a tangent, I'm not saying all long-time Linux/BSD users should throw newbies to the wolves (RTFM), just that if you want to learn how to use a brand spanking new (different) operating system a certain amount of effort on your behalf is required.
I can't believe the mods today (Must be the green beer after St.Patty's day). That's not Funny, it's Insightful (And scary).
While I admire your sentiment I believe you are fundamentally wrong. The EU populace are no different from their American counterparts (this being said as an European). Witness the European Copyright Directive and similar legislation being pushed through. It has been said before: America takes a right away from the public and the EU will follow in order to 'harmonise'. Then EU will take a right and America follows suit.
The sheeple in the EU doesn't know nor care about DRM or TCP/Palladium/whatnot. As long as they can pay money to see 30 minutes of advertisement before the feature at the cinema, pay through the nose for their mobile phone contracts and surf the Internet on their Brand Name Desktop they will never know. PC can't play the latest DVD/BlueRay? PC == Borked, get a new. TV can't show the latest DVD/BlueRay? TV+DVD == borked, get a new. Why? Because `that's the way it is`. And so the sheeple live their lives oblivious to the schemings of the corporations. When people finally get their heads out of their collective behinds, take a moment out from the daily soap and reality programming, they _just_ might notice enough to care. Even then my guess is that 90% of the good men and women of the EU will sink back into the comfortable way of consumerism.
And I think it's unfair to blame America for the current state of affairs. Think about it: When was the last time you purchased a DVD? Was it, per chance, region coded? Did you care? Of course not. Like me you might have a region free DVD player or DeCSS on you computer. DVD encryption is harmless because it's been broken, right? WRONG! What the media conglomerates have done is to introduce the idea that DVDs should be region coded. Ask anyone why their DVDs are region coded and they will not be able to tell you why. "Because that's the way it is" will be their answer. They have embraced the idea that there is a need to make it impossible for 'normal' DVD players in the EU to play DVDs from the States. They can not understand the reasoning behind this, but they gladly accept it. Then the next 'version' of DVD comes along, with slightly more draconian DRM. It will be broken in the end but that is not the point. Once more the corporations have had their wicked way. People have invested in their DRM and are becoming increasingly more used to it. Within a few decades people will not think twice about sacrificing their newborn child on the altar of the latest DVD release.
My point with all this ranting? Think about it: DVD's CSS encryption was weak, got broken and now is irrelevant. Still they insist on crippling DVDs with it. We don't need to worry about the next DRM or even the one after that. What we need to worry about is the fact that some powerful individuals are looking to take away our freedoms as we know them. DRM is only the first step (or a gateway drug if you will). While the people with the knowledge about both sides of DRM fuss about the latest incarnation of CrippleWare we are missing the bigger picture. Go read the poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller and you will see what I mean.
I'll go back to my cave now.
If you cast your mind back a few years you'll find that it does not take a "fantasy conglomeration of righteous nations" to ram a plane or two into a building. The US will not be invaded for the sole reason that it's too bloody well protected by the seas (just like the British isles actually), and unless Canada or Mexico decides to invade it's likely to stay that way. The grandparent did not, however, suggest that the U.S of A would be invaded by a hostile force (as in D-day style landings and so on). In my opinion the grandparent stated that if the US continues to ride roughshod over other peoples pride and values you will find an increasing number of individuals willing to do whatever it takes, be that pamphleting or suicide bombing.
Please note I'm not advocating violence or an attack on the US, I merely seek to clarify as there seems to have been a gross misunderstanding.
I tried methlabs' http://methlabs.org/projects/peerguardian-linuxosx /
but it almost brought my box to a grinding halt while loading some 18.000 rules into iptables. After that the box was virtually useless as the load average was around 20.0!
The blurb on the methlab site advertises a very low CPU usage, but that's obviously only for the PG software itself as all the work seems to be done by iptables... YMMV.
For anyone experiencing SSH attacks, I suggest you have a look at fail2ban http://fail2ban.sourceforge.net/. I got fed up with random script kiddies trying to bruteforce my DSL connected box. Now all repeated SSH authentication failures are iptable'd to a tarpit:)
This may of course not be suitable for everyone, as it creates potential denial of service conditions. Caveat Emptor.
Here we go again. Every time something along these lines happen, someone will make a funny/ironic/sarcastic/"no omg-wtf-god-help-us-all" comment, and in response someone who thinks the world is coming to an end will reply just like the parent.
Yes, people got killed. Yes, there's chaos. Yes, there will be grief. Yes, it's a tragedy for anyone involved.
HOWEVER: People die all over the world, all the time. Either due to accidents or deliberate actions by others. For most people, these things happen "far away" it doesn't affect them directly and they will therefore have less of an emotional impact.
And there we stand, Mr. Coward. I'm sure you don't break down and cry every time something bad happens somewhere in the world. It's useless trying to force people to feel sorry or to grieve, just as it's impossible to force someone to stop grieving.
These are decisions we'll have to make for ourselves. We are all creatures of concience.
You know, last season that would have been a good analogy. This season the boy/girl in the Panda would probably have won hands down.
I'm certain you are aware of Guantanamo bay then: Varying degrees of discomfort and a distinct lack of trials, courts, press and the like.
Oh... I forgot... that place is not on American soil.. just run by the American government. That changes everything
Now, I am fully aware that, as with any country, America is made up of a plethora of different ideas and opinions. I am also certain that many americans were quite upset with the entire Guantanamo thing and would rather not have anything to do with it. But I'm sure you can see the irony of americans demonstrating agains human rights abuse, when the US has been accused of shipping people abroad for torture. (I can't remember whether this accusation actually led to anything though)
You know the words: stones, glass house, throwing. Some assembly required:)
Might I suggest you have a look at http://www.root-servers.org/?
I'm sure you will find that there is a world outside the U.S, and that the rest of the world does not rely exclusively on American root servers.
Nice troll though:)
So if you don't care about their 'rights' (it's their 'property' after all), why should they care about your 'rights' (think DRM/CSS/whatever)?
Don't get me wrong. I have downloaded my fair share of copyrighed material but I have no delusions of being in the right. I treat the downloads as a free preview and I do go out and purchase the things I like. The content companies will of course treat this as illegal downloading and think I've cost them $billions in lost revenue, whereas I think it allows me to make informed decisions on where and how I spend my money.
Sadly, the political climate at the moment seems to be in favour of these companies and not the customers. No amount of breaking these 'laws'* will make them go away. It'll only serve to reinforce the industry's belief that their customers are only looking to 'steal' their stuff.
So, will I stop downloading before I buy? Not likely. Am I a hypocrite? Absolutely:)
*) I don't like to think of these bought laws as real laws, but that's a story for another time!
As of yesterday I could access it here : http://www.big-boys.com/articles/kosovo.html
I don't know if it's taken down as the site is blocked from where I work:(
I know most people would find the parent funny. I for one wish I had a "Scary" mod option right now.
So would I. And I would expect a policeman to know the law to the lette and a doctor to know everything there is to know about the human body. I would expect the meter maids to never get a parking ticket and a chef to always make fantastic food.
But guess what? All these people are like you and me. Yes, better educated within their particular field but still as fallible(?) as any other person. A cop on the beat will not know about IP law. A doctor will have specialised in a particular field of medicine. Anyone could misjudge the meter and the guy with the hot dog stand could serve you food that will kill you.
Until recently I (kind of) had all these expectations. That changed when I started my education as a network engineer and looked into doing practice work with the university IT department. Know what? They are just regular guys. They go for a pint after work on a friday. They do normal stuff all the time and they are not ubermensch as we like to think. Not all companies can afford to employ the cream of the crop in all departments. After all, a company's main purpose is to MAKE MONEY. Everything else comes second. This includes the computers and IT infrastructure. If 10Mb ethernet can do, it will have to do and if an unsecure wi-fi access point can do, I suppose it will have to do too.
I suppose my point is that you may not be too far off saying the cleaners were involved in the IT rollout. In the real world we all wear many hats, some better fitting than others.
I'd say it was the reference to 911 and Iraq. And no, it wasn't me:)
I don't think they'll actually print the ad. However, the story that a (large?) group of people all over the world gathered funds to promote a piece of free software in the NY times just may make it to other media agencies.
Well.. IANAL :) I just thought it would be worth exploring that option. I am by no means advocating the infringement of other people's copyright. If it's the law, it's the law (Yes, it can be changed but I don't have that kind of money). ... *shudder*).
My point is, I suppose, that if the lawmakers dish out these tools the community should make use of them to the best of their abilities. When one of these policies blows up in someone's face (with a bunch of the aforementioned money) we just might see some changes, hopefully for the better. Having seen how things are progressing I think it's going to get a lot worse before that happens.
In the mean time, I'm not an American citizen so whatever happens over the pond does not directly apply to me (until someone in the EU parliament gets a bright idea
Too bad you posted AC... for that insight I'd add you as a friend!
That was my initial thought. But think about this: :)
What if you could make the BT client enforce a click-thru license like other commercial/free software does. This "license" could stipulate something like "If you are a member of RIAA/MPAA/?? you may not use this software... etc"*. Surely, if a MS/Oracle/whatever click-thru license is enforceable, this will be too?
This may apply the access control mechanism you pointed out in your post..
This access control mechanism could be bolstered by a mandatory encryption layer like CSS. The BT/p2p author could then license this method to the users by way of the click-thru license.
Feel free to shoot me down on this one.. it seemed like a good idea at the time
*> I saw a film at some point (8mm?) where a doorman had to ask every patron wether they were a member of a law enforcement agency. Something to do with entrapment?(I may have dreamt this one, and as with many things films do not always reflect the reality).
Will I change to PostgreSQL? I don't know. I am sure there are good reasons to do so, and good reasons not to.(I only use the most fundamental SQL functions anyways)
In the end I feel it's all about apples and oranges. It scratches my particular itch.
And for the PHB quote: MySQL has an actual company "backing" it. It adds credibility in the heads of PHBs :)
However, when we "steal" digital media, the original media remains unchanged and still in the posession of the owner. Therefore, the media has not been "stolen", but duplicated.
The movie and music industry likes to label people who "duplicate" media as "thieves" and liken their activities to the "stealing" performed by "thieves".
I do not dispute that under current law the "duplication" of digital media may or may not be legal. However, please use the correct terminology when discussing this important matter.
Should all digital media ever created be free (as in beer)? I don't think so. When people are not required to pay money to experience another person's creative work (be that music or film or whatever) the incentive to create these forms of media disappears.
The solution? Find another way to compensate the creators for their efforts. They did after all make something worth while should you decide to get a copy eh?
Is it not possible that he meant that criticizing google was impossible because "everyone loves google"? What would happen if I chose to criticize GNU/Linux here on slashdot?
Food for thought if nothing else.