[free-sklyarov] Libertarian party is not our friends, they are no better then the democrats and republicans.

[Seth Finkelstein]

On Wed, Sep 12, 2001 at 06:24:01PM -0400, Declan McCullagh wrote:
> I'm actually writing an article on how conservative and libertarian
> groups view intellectual property, and I have not yet found one
> libertarian group that supports the DMCA.
> 
> [Obviously Democrats and Republicans are a little more enthusiastic ...

	It is an extraordinary dishonest and misleading set-up to
compare anyone who does not have to raise a lot of money to get
elected, to people who do. I pointed out, Rep. Ron Paul is the
closest thing the Libertarian Party has to having someone in
Congress. Earlier, he was as high in the Libertarian Party as one
could be. Where is his thundering statement of denunciation of the
DMCA, of the prosecution of Sklyarov, of the destruction of fair use?

	Instead of engaging this issue, there's an artfully reply to
something I didn't say: "there were no Libertarians in Congress; Paul
is a Republican.". But Ron Paul is the *closest*, per above, and he's
not exactly the embodiment of political opposition versus the DMCA.

	One possible reason for this? He had to raise more
than *two* *million* *dollars* for his Congressional seat.
http://www.opensecrets.org/2000elect/dist_total/TX14.htm

	This is a worked-example for my argument that Libertarian
ideology replaces and suffocates an ability to think about the real
world. The comparison "conservative and libertarian groups" to
"Democrats and Republicans" is a deliberate set-up to make the
writer's pet ideological think-tanks come out sounding good, while
heaping derision on the writer's whipping-boys. But it does a great
disservice to the reader, because it's empty cult propagandizing.

	In a nutshell, it lets one side make less than campaign promises,
and compares these to the actions of those who done what is necessary
to get elected. That's a nonsensical comparison, and I believe quite
mentally destructive to good analysis.

-- 
Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer  sethf at sethf.com  http://sethf.com
http://archive.nytimes.com/2001/07/19/technology/circuits/19HACK.html
BESS's Secret LOOPHOLE: http://sethf.com/anticensorware/bess/loophole.php
BESS vs Google: http://sethf.com/anticensorware/bess/google.php