[free-sklyarov] AAP at it again - "DMCA essential to the future of E-Commerce"

[Xcott Craver]

On Sun, 23 Sep 2001, tom poe wrote:

> She says, "We also need to educate the public."  An honorable challenge for
> all sides.

	I just read an article about how to organize a university
	course on computer ethics.  Mostly, however, the article focussed
	on the ethics of intellectual property, as if this was anywhere
	*near* the most important issue re: ethics for computer scientists.

	If I had to design a course on ethics for CS majors, most of it
	would be about the ethics of unreliable software development
	practices vs medical and military applications, and such.  The
	rest would mostly cover modern software business tactics and
	iffy issues like bundling, dumping, selling software "as is," etc.

	Maybe I'd spend a week or so on intellectual property, and I'd
	certainly spend at least twice as much time on the dangers
	of badly designed security systems!

	I certainly wouldn't force kids through an entire semester of
	writing reports about what "intellectual property" means to them,
	or why they shouldn't use Napster.  Feh.

> She says, "That must be remembered by all of us as we proceed."  Are they
> shifting to a strategy of closed communications?  Are they headed
> "underground", "behind the scenes", or possibly increased lobbying?

	I hope they aren't coming to grips with their colossally bad
	PR.  They've really helped out the Free Dmitry crowd by behaving
	like the perfect stereotypical evil greedy bastards.

							Xcott