[free-sklyarov] Protest strategy & goals

Seth Finkelstein sethf at sethf.com
Sun Jul 22 10:01:56 PDT 2001


> On Sun, Jul 22, 2001 at 01:57:33AM -0400, Seth Finkelstein wrote:
> > that Congress has a moral responsibility to define property
> > in some conjectured Libertarian-type fashion, and then endlessly
> > repeating some variant of government-bad when they do not - well,
> > it seems to me that's unproductive in the extreme. Maybe it
> > fills column space. But in terms of analysis, in terms of having
> > any utility whatsoever besides preaching (maybe not even to the
> > choir), I just don't see it.

Declan McCullagh wrote:
> The above is silly to the point of verging on nutty.	
> 
> Congress has a responsibility to act in the best interests of all
> Americans, not just special interest groups. Legislators should enact
> new federal criminal laws as a last resort, not just because of some
> aggrieved lobbying by the software industry.

	"And I say unto you, that it is written in the Book of Cato, that
the DMCA is a sin against the commandments of the RAND." In case you
missed it, when the DMCA was passed, there was much claim that it
was in the best interests of Americans. And remember, it was
viewed as protecting *property* *rights*. You have demonstrated
my point: An endless repeating of government-bad has no intellectual
utility. It's merely the re-iteration of scripture.

http://www.thomas-paine.com/tpnha/archive/AOR1.html

"But admitting, for the sake of a case, that something has been revealed
to a certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation
to that person only. When he tells it to a second person, a second to
a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation 
to all those persons. It is revelation to the first person only, and
hearsay to every other, and, consequently, they are not obliged to
believe it."

Thomas Paine, "The Age Of Reason"

> And members of Congress should be held accountable for their actions,
> at the ballot box when the time comes, and before that with 
> demonstrations, if necessary.
> 
> This is just common sense.

	You and what million-dollar campaign contribution?

	A refusal to analyze the means and methods of business interests
here leads to statements that are at best empty rhetoric, and at worst
destructive cult proselytizing.

-- 
Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer  sethf at sethf.com  http://sethf.com




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