[Gllug] Priracy.

[David Damerell]

On Friday, 7 Mar 2003, Jonathan Harker wrote:
>On Wednesday March 5 2003 10:32, David Damerell wrote:
>>On , 4 Mar 2003, John Hearns wrote:
>>>On Tue, 2003-03-04 at 17:36, David Damerell wrote:
>>>>You can believe what you like, but if you want your beliefs to relate
>>>>to reality you should examine;
>>>Can we please agree to disagree?
>>About what RMS says? No.
>So you can't even agree to disagree with John? That makes you out to be a 
>stubborn, uncompromising fuckwit, and you've lost all your
>credibility.

This is nonsense. What he is saying is pure fantasy; something which
is self evident from examination of the FSF Website. I append some
quotes below, since I expect you'd rather rant at me than confirm for
yourself that Mr. Hearns is utterly mistaken.

What you're asking me to do is like "agreeing to disagree" with
someone who claims the sky is green and the world is flat. This is not
a matter of opinion; I am right and he is wrong, and anyone who cares
to actually _check_, rather than engage their own fantasy, will be
able to confirm that with the greatest of ease simply by reading the
remaining paragraphs of this message.

Uncompromising? Certainly. To "compromise" by allowing obvious
untruths to go unchallenged is absurd.

"Many users unconsciously recognize the wrong of refusing to share,
so they decide to ignore the licenses and laws, and share programs
anyway. But they often feel guilty about doing so. They know that they
must break the laws in order to be good neighbors, but they still
consider the laws authoritative, and they conclude that being a good
neighbor (which they are) is naughty or shameful. That is also a kind
of psychosocial harm, but one can escape it by deciding that these
licenses and laws have no moral force." - Richard Stallman

"If you don't believe that illegal copying is just like kidnaping and
murder, you might prefer not to use the word ``piracy'' to describe
it. Neutral terms such as ``prohibited copying'' or ``unauthorized
copying'' are available for use instead. Some of us might even prefer
to use a positive term such as ``sharing information with your neighbor.''"

-- 
David Damerell <damerell at chiark.greenend.org.uk> flcl?

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