[Cialug] vote

[Chris Hilton]

I'm well aware of the Anti-trust case with MS, and of the Patriot Act.
I was referring to the SCO case.  
The Patriot Act has no direct problem with OSS that I can see; I don't
see how it would hamper the development of free software.  
While I understand the political dangers of the Patriot Act, the odds of
it directly affecting you seem to be slim (unless there is some kind of
nationwide internet activity snooping ordered by the President).
Disagree with it I may, lose sleep over it I won't.
And the Anti-trust case with MS; oh well.  It didn't go the way I'd like
it to have (although at the time I was on MS's side) now; but once again
it's a little thing in life.  Ultimately, MS is the consumers fault for
investing in the company; blaming the Government for not destroying it
is taking blame away from the people truly at fault: stupid spend-thrift
American consumers ;).


On Wed, 2004-11-03 at 14:20 -0600, David Champion wrote:
> Go re-read the history on the MS Anti-Trust case. The Executive Branch 
> intervened. Read up on the Patriot Act, which gives the Executive Branch 
> powers with no checks and balances from either the Legislative Branch, 
> or the Judicial Branch (there's a minor "check" with no recourse). There 
> was a very good documentary on the Patriot Act on the PBS show 
> Frontline, I believe you can watch episodes on their web site.
> 
> Judges are not necessarily politcally neutral, and in the case of the 
> Supreme court are appointed by the Executive Branch, and approved by the 
> Legislative Branch. We will likely have a couple of appointments to the 
> Supreme Court in the next 4 years, and they will likely be very 
> conservative people.
> 
> -dc
> 
> Chris Hilton wrote:
> 
> > Correct me if I'm wrong, but in our wonderful system judges are to be
> > impartial and are not up for election by vote; they are appointed but do
> > you really think that Kerry would have revolutionized our whole judicial
> > system (since that would be impossible).
> > Worry about DMCA, fcc, and others; but blaiming the executive branch for
> > court decisions is just failing to hold the correct people accountable.
> > 
> > Sorry if that was political, I am attempting to stick to just what is
> > set out as our law and avoid current people involved.  Hopefully calm
> > some fears.  But politically, neither candidate seemed like they would
> > help or even knew how on all things P.C.
> > 
> > On Wed, 2004-11-03 at 13:51 -0600, David Champion wrote:
> > 
> >>D. Joe Anderson wrote:
> >>
> >>>On Wed, Nov 03, 2004 at 10:52:23AM -0600, Academician Kula wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>On Wed, Nov 03, 2004 at 10:29:58AM -0600, admin@c0wzftp.com wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>[general off-topic political comments ellided]
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>Folks, I'd hate to see this list devolve to this. Could we cut it
> >>>>off here, please?
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>THANK YOU.
> >>>
> >>>Freedom is really "on the march," at least on the computers of
> >>>most of the people on this mailing list.  That's something, at
> >>>least, I'm happy to read about and talk about on this mailing
> >>>list.
> >>>
> >>
> >>For now... but just because we enjoy a huge amount of Freedom in our 
> >>little corner of the world doesn't mean that will continue to be the 
> >>case. Complacency will lose you that freedom.
> >>
> >>One of my biggest fears is that with the current administratioin's 
> >>policies towards things like the EPA, the FCC, the Patriot Act, the 
> >>DMCA, the Microsoft anti-trust case, ... , how confident do you feel 
> >>that lawsuits involving the defence of Open Source / Free Software will 
> >>get a fair shake? They've pretty much proven that they will ignore 
> >>science and public opinion in favor of corporate interests.
> >>
> >>Fortunately the only big OSS related case pending is the SCO case, and 
> >>it would be tough for any judge to blow that one. But, you've got some 
> >>of the same parties involved in this case as the MS case, and look how 
> >>that turned out.
> >>
> >>-dc
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Cialug mailing list
> Cialug@cialug.org
> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug