[OS:N:] Re: Open Source in Schools and then some

[Daniel Carrera <dcarrera math umd edu>]

> Of course it affects _my_ life, because I work with it. What's less clear
> is whether it affects the lives of my technophobe friends. How is the DMCA
> changing their lives.

I'm not sure I agree with that.  The other day I told my mom that if she
bought a CD in Britain, it wouldn't play in Canada.  And that you'd go to
jail if you circunvented that.

That affects her fairly directly and she was very upset about it.

Technology also affects technophobes (even if not as much).

> Of course they do. That's why they elect governments that pass laws to
> ban assault weapons, criminalize driving while using cellphones and force
> restaurants to get rid of smoking areas. People not only give up rights,
> they gladly advocate the taking away of the rights of others. Happens all
> the time. People are constantly curtailing freedoms in favor of some
> perceived greater good.

The freedom to bear arms is not an inherent human right.  Nor is it to use
cellphones, or smoke.  However, the right to live *is* a right.  If any of
the former conflict with the latter, it is the human right (like the right
to live) that should take precedence.

What makes certain laws different is that they do interfere with inherent
human rights.  Such as the right to share my ideas.

In this way, the DMCA is very different from the laws that you stated
above.

> But just as the NRA believe it exists to maintain certain kinds of rights,
> the EFF and similar orgs exist to maintain other kinds of freedoms.

Yeah, I find it unfortuante that in the U.S. the bearing of arms is a
constitutional right.  It shouldn't be.


> Keep waving your arms in the air, to people who don't care about your
> message, and the labels will continue to stick.
>
> It's vital to carry the message as deep into the IT community as we can.
> When we succeed there the results will filter through into the rest of
> society, and that's arguably already started to happen. But it *must* be
> filtered that way -- for societal shifts do not turn on a dime. Going
> direct to the uncaring masses is an exercize in futility and possible
> humiliation.

I agree.  We should choose our battles wisely.  I also agree that we
should cater our argument to the listener.

Cheers.

Daniel Carrera                       ___                         ___
Graduate Teaching Assistant          ||  |   ___         ___     ||  |
University of Maryland               || _|__/  _\_______/  _\____|| _|
                                     ||(___(  (________(  (______||((_)
Teaching should be such that what is ||  |  \___/       \___/    ||  |
offered is perceived as a valuable   ||  |         ___           ||  |
gift and not as a hard duty.         || _|________/  _\__________|| _|
                                     ||(_________(  (____________||((_)
              --Albert Einstein      ||  |        \___/          ||  |
                                     ||  |                       ||  |