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Re: Today's blog
Hey Doc, I'm glad that Dmitry is on your radar, but boycotting Adobe, I think, is a poor use of your time. Yes, Adobe messed up. Adobe used a bad law to try to cover up its own mistakes but they also relented and asked the Attorney General to drop the charges. Unfortunately, since this is not a civil matter, but a criminal one, it's out of Adobe's hands. To make things right, not just for Dmitry but for everyone, we need to readjust our targets from Adobe and to this horrible law. The legal battle will go on, but I think it imprudent to sit on our hands and wait for a good test case to finally get to the Supreme Court. What we need is to create enough pressure on the legislative and executive branches of the government to induce action. Congress needs to eventually understand that what they have passed is not a law against piracy but a law against free speech. A law which tilts the balance of power dangerously in favor of the corporations and away from the rights of the citizen. Unfortunately, none of the three branches of government are going to listen to the Slashdot crowd, whom they most likely (and unfortunately) see as the chief reason for having the law. To get action, we either need a massive outpouring of support for revising the DMCA or we need strong support from key players who have the lawmakers' ears. Lawrence Lessig's recent op-ed piece in the New York Times and Richard M. Smith's thesis move us toward that goal, but it's not enough. We need big players. Someone recently (and I can't for the life of me remember who) said that the two most likely were IBM and Sun. Our efforts should be directed at going up the chain and getting support. We (the little players) can help in that grassroots effort. Doc, you and I and everyone else are part of the solution here. Keep the pressure on... Jay Allen http://www.openwire.com/web/ There are responses to this message:
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