[free-sklyarov] [adhoc_it_union] ISSUES to address

[Jeme A Brelin]

On Thu, 19 Jul 2001, Jon Callas wrote:
> 
> The main question I have about a sick out is who is it going to hurt?
> My employer is no friend of the DMCA. I've been working against the
> DMCA for over three years now. Most people probably work for some
> company that neither knows about nor cares about the DMCA. A sick out
> is just going to make them say, "Huh?" Punching Peter doesn't hurt
> Paul.
> 
> If you do work for a company that's pro-DMCA, it might have an effect,
> but what sort of effect? Are you just making more work for your
> colleagues that don't care? That's not the way to convince them that
> it's a good cause, it's a good way to irritate them. If your employer
> is really evil, they'll merely deduct a sick day from you, and go on
> their merry way.

If we were just trying to halt a company or make some particular goal
difficult to achieve, we would target it in such a way.  But shutting down
Adobe for a day wouldn't make a difference to anyone at all.  Adobe could
announce a "Founder's Day" and take the day off and nobody but the
employees would care.

If Adobe's IT department took the day off work, the other employees at
Adobe might ask "Hey, what's going on?" and they would find out and be
more informed.

If the country's IT staff took the day off, every employee at every
company would ask "Why are they doing that?" and the answer to that
question would inform MILLIONS of people about this issue.

Today we are plagued by a public, politicians, and legal system that is
woefully ignorant of issues facing the digital world.  The solutions being
proposed by the politicians (on behalf of the wealthiest stake-holders)
are inadequate at best and extremely damaging at worst.  We are pounded by
propaganda daily that shows us a world where EVERYTHING is pay-per-view
(anyone see AI?  There's a scene in which Jude Law says "In this day and
age, nothing costs more than information."  I sat up and said "WHAT THE
FUCK?  When communication is good, when technology flourishes, information
is spread MORE EASILY and MORE CHEAPLY.  This is obvious crap that the
movie studios would LOVE to have us believe."  I was simply shushed.) and
everything is LICENSED and no information is yours.

If we want to change that attitude, we need to let people know that we
understand these issues better than they do and they'd better listen to
our side.

We have that power today.  We have that power as a group.

J.
-- 
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     Jeme A Brelin
    jeme at brelin.net
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