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Slashback V: Espionage, Midwifery, Intrusion
from the five-is-mystical-for-a-reason dept.
First, a word from our sponsor: We heard from the tireless Richard M. Stallman, nothing if not consistent in his argument, who wrote:
" Would you please post this? It is in response to the discussion of congressional hearings on Napster, but please post it however you think best.I ask people to think twice before using the term "piracy" to describe sharing published information with other people. That word is a propaganda term used by the owners of information to convey the idea that sharing is wrong; when you use it, you aid their campaign.
Unless you believe that sharing information is the moral equivalent of attacking a ship and kidnaping the people on it, please don't use the term 'piracy' to describe sharing."
Thanks for the note, Richard. Now tell Lars ...
Birth of an island. Regarding the story posted this week about the ongoing study of an emerging island in the South Pacific, Bobity writes "Additional photos are posted at this site." Why can't we embed some networking cable before it cools completely?
So maybe 730 days from now ... In the ongoing battle for hearts, minds and desktops, fingers and livers of free software users, Helixcode and Eazel aren't the only ones to make cool strides lately. Per Wigren writes: "Kaiwal Software (Shane) Co., Ltd. and theKompany.com have just signed an agreement to sponsor two developers for 2 years in order to focus on developing KWord, the free word processor for the KDE office suite. " And since at this moment, KWord is probably the closest thing to DTP for Linux (excepting demo-only FrameMaker), that news makes me smile. But two years?! That's long term thinking.
Red wine? White Wine. Hot towel? Your hard drive, please, sir? Red wine? With all the intrusions of modern life, it's good to know that at least the computer on your desk at home can't be used by your employer to check who you've been writing e-mail to, and about what. Unless they can. tregoweth writes "MSNBC has a story about one of the Northwest Airlines employees whose hard drives were searched by Northwest's lawyers, as previously mentioned on Slashdot. The last paragraph of the article is chilling. " It also makes you think about the significance of all those "give employees free computer" programs from Ford, et al.
Book larnin' on the cheap: carlos_benj writes "I ran across this site today and thought slashdotters who'd had their interests piqued by the ArsDigita free university subject might want to take a look. Their educational philosophy is interesting but may not appeal to those more interested in accreditation than the acquisition of knowledge. The concept would be a definite boon to those with little money but access to the net. The fact that they will be partnering with industry could lend weight to their degree programs to help offset the lack of accreditation. "
From the Mixed Up Files of James Bond And John LeCarre: SEWilco writes "Over at HNN they noticed that the latest UK military laptop theft included non-classified details of how the next generation of fighter aircraft can be controlled from the ground. Oops. Meanwhile, the US State Department says 16 laptops are missing, although only one had classified information -- but that's only one Department.
We discussed the possibilities of remote controlled warcraft earlier, but Her Royal Highness has not participated in the discussion nor have there been any demands from her laywers."
Piracy... the correct term. (Score:3)
PI'RACY, n. [L. piratica, from Gr. to attempt, to dare, to enterprise, whence L. periculum, experior; Eng. to fare.]
1. The act, practice or crime of robbing on the high seas; the taking of property from others by open violence and without authority, on the sea; a crime that answers to robbery on land.
Other acts than robbery on the high seas, are declared by statute to be piracy. See Act of Congress, April 30, 1790.
2. The robbing of another by taking his writings.
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The word 'piracy' was not only in use, but in common enough use to be canonized in the dictionary, as meaning 'appropriation of content' over 100 years before RMS was even _BORN_. RMS is fighting a fight that was over and done nearly 175 years ago.
He also slanders the original sense of the word, alleging it's synonymous with kidnapping and even rape. Nothing could be further from the truth. Piracy, in the original sense of 'robbery on the seas,' means just that -- robbery. It's analagous to a charge of armed robbery today; that doesn't imply rape or kidnapping, and if those crimes occured during a robbery, the suspect would be charged with those crimes separately.
Just wanted to get that off my chest -- I'm tired of people alleging that this word usage is 'corporate propaganda' when it was in use long before the existance of the corporations alleged to have invented it.
Propaganda cuts both ways.
--
RMS has a point, but... (Score:5)
Would Mr. Stallman be happy to learn that a major company was "sharing" a binary-only version of gcc which they had made substantial enhancements to? After all, we all know *sharing* can never be *wrong*.
RMS is a great guy, but never forget that he's just as much into propaganda as anyone else, and arguably moreso than most.
the Potato server. (Score:5)
The Register wrote an article [theregister.co.uk] on how Slashdot and BBC got duped (even though /. used the humor icon), and another article [theregister.co.uk] after many people responded, including one of the guys behind the spud server.
Go get your free Palm V (25 referrals needed only!)
Misusing the word "pirate" *is* slander (Score:4)
By doing this, they are revealing their own ignorance. True piracy exists on the high seas today and is one of the most serious offenses an individual can commit under international law. There have been several cases around the world where individuals have successfully sued for being libel or defamation after being called 'pirates' inappropriately (for software theft and other actions)
The term 'pirate' for software theft *was* used precisely to place the alleged activities in a more negative light in several early lawsuits. I recall discussion of this in some of the hobbyist periodicals of the early 80's like SoftTalk (perhaps when it was called "Apple something")
It is no more legitimate than calling someone who wears fur a "murderer" - 'murder' means killing a human being (or, in some jurisdictions, causing to be killed, or being involved in a criminal conspiracy resulting in death) Fur isn't murder. Eating prime rib isn't murder. stepping on an ant isn't murder. Annoying Greenpeace isn't murder.
Some additional info:
DuPlessis v. DeKlerk [wits.ac.za] (South Africa) defamation suit against a broadcaster for using the term 'pirate', among other things
There was a case in the 80's in Australia, where a company that was successfully sued for illegal use and sale of commercial software (after ceasing to pay license fees), later turned around and successfully sued for the plaintiffs public use of the term 'pirate'. Unfortunately, i could not find a link for this
_____________
Re:RMS has a point, but... (Score:3)
Re:Boy, do I feel badly now... (Score:3)
sPh
"Intellectual Property" is propaganda, too! (Score:5)
Copyrights and patents are more an exclusive license than an inherent right of the author, but some people keep portraying it that way.
But "piracy" is the accusation (Score:3)
RMS's choice of focus is unfortunate because it draws attention away from the issues. It was like feminists crying about using the word "Man" to refer to all of humanity. There are women getting abused, rendered homeless, being raped and tortured, etc. etc. but all the feminists can talk about is what words we use.
The feminists weren't altogether wrong to focus on language. Language is shaped by power relations in society and language in part determines what is "thinkable" in any situation. Adding to our vocabulary (such as "chairperson" for "chairman") increases the likelihood that we will consider possibilities that were previously unthinkable (such as "The chairperson has really nice legs, don't you think?").
Security will be a growing issue. (Score:4)
And physical security is a growing issue. So some state department computer was stolen? If you know what you are doing, getting into "secure areas" is apparently pretty easy [cnn.com].
It isn't just a problem for computers, and it won't be goin g away [counterpane.com] any time soon.
Cheers,
Ben
Laptop Theft (Score:4)
I'm a consultant who's been at quite a few companies, and the laptops that disappear always vanish during normal business hours (meaning not when the cleaning staff is in there). What disappears after hours when the cleaning staff is there? Money, radios, food, and other small, cheap things.
The company I'm currently sited at has just cranked the security up a bunch, requiring passes to get hardware out of the building. They keep catching people trying to duck out with a laptop that's clearly not theirs. About one per week.
The thief is usually someone about four desks away from where the laptop was sitting.
We need to say something about Stallman... (Score:3)
But Stallman's views on Intellectual Property as just expressed do not represent my belief in Copyright (if you don't have Copyright, then you don't have the GPL), and I'm tired of people thinking that Stallman is representative of the ideals of Free Software / Open Source community as a whole. Of course I know that people who decide to look deeper into the community have discovered that most of us have a much more open attitude, 'use what works best' - if that's commercial software, so be it.
And, of course this rant of mine comes from having read Lars' commentary on the community, but, if he's managed to create such a view of us from just ESR's and RSM's web pages, we need to do something. I'd like to point out that, if you got to the end of the page, he actually managed to illuminate some good things.
Anyways,
The problem is that when stuff like this shows up in the mainstream press, everyone at the top of the food chain thinks we're all Zealots, even though the opposite is the case. We need to stand up and say that we like good software, that authors of _anything_ deserve compensation for their work (as they see fit), and that ESR and RSM are not representative of the community as a whole.
Whew. So much for all my Karma Whoring, but I just had to say something.
Cyano.
Potato-powered web server (Score:5)