[free-sklyarov] psychology: differences between the FBI/DoJ and Adobe

[Tom]

On Tue, Jul 24, 2001 at 04:03:51PM -0700, kathryn at ksml.com wrote:
> With Adobe, our protest = geeks persuading geeks. Adobe's programmers
> probably read Slashdot, etc., knew what was up, and could sympathize with
> Dmitri. With the gov't there'll be much less common ground. The FBI/DoJ acts
> suspicious at best about clever programming and hacks.
> 
> With the Gov't, they won't want the appearance of responding to protesters.
> Especially as to them "protester" = a mix of "riot, Seattle,
> tree-sitters..." = people you never deal with. Adobe looked out the window
> to see "unhappy customer base" = people you can't ignore.

which is exactly why I again appeal to creativity. they've seen
protests before and they've ignored protests before. give them
something new to chew on.

contrary to kathryn, I do believe you can play "good cop / bad cop"
with cops. just by slightly different rules. the idea is that one side
gives them a slightly untasty way out, while the other side shows them
that staying in will get more and more ugly for them.



> With the confirmation hearing- these are the people who voted for the DMCA.
> Their gut reaction might be "Do I want that an innocent man was arrested by
> the law I made? Easiest solution is to think of him as a guilty man." 

or:

"I voted for this law. I can't allow it to imprison innocent people.
that would reflect badly on both me and the law."