<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 8/25/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Zscoundrel</b> <<a href="mailto:zscoundrel@kc.rr.com">zscoundrel@kc.rr.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Actually there are two issues here:<br><br>First, had the guy been smart enough to get a lawyer, he would not have<br>plead guilty to some bogus trumped up charges and he would not have been<br>in this situation. He would have paid a few bucks to a scumbag to
<br>negotiate a cash settlement with some other scumbags and been done with it.<br><br>Second, had the guy been smart enough to realize that UPLOADING<br>protected materials to the internet REALLY gets some powerful<br>organizations upset, he would not have been in this situation.
<br><br>I hate the RIAA almost as much as I hate M$, but since I can't afford to<br>take either one of them on, I know enough to fly below their radar!<br><br></blockquote></div><br>To a certain point all of us in this group seem to be on the same page about the overview.
<br>There's a REALLY grim&gnarly downside afoot here that I first commented about privately, and now feel compelled to speak out. Dare we invoke the bit that ends with no one left to speak when they come for *US* ? For essentially that's what awaits us if we remain silent.
<br>And the remaining silent concept is on several key issues. All sadly converging on one lost soul. Who arguably could be if not us, could be someone we know.<br><br>Let me offer a dissection of the discussion's hard truths into blunt issues.
<br><br>1. Someone made a willful choice to violate existing law.<br><br>2. They for whatever reasons entered into a "plea bargain" with probation "upon terms"<br><br>3. The terms were and are de facto within legal bounds to most "reasonable persons"
<br><br>Here's the next set of blunt issues.<br><br>1. Copyright law has become a "cause celebre" arena for opposing factions in several realms.<br><br>2. WE risk losing credibility for the whole "Open Source" concept if we defend lawbreakers.
<br><br>3. The hardest course to take is one that protects ALL valid interests and harms none.<br><br><br>All of that to offer some *constructive* debate anchors in this and related cases.<br><br>Like it or not folks- the rule of law is a harsh cruel mistress under the best of guardians.
<br>And at times WE have to offer some corrective feedbacks to that rule of law.<br>In plain english to make no mistaking my final intent then I close with this.<br><br>WE need to arm ourselves with a clear sober awareness of what's going on here.
<br>Then we VOTE and PETITION effectively to that which serves our ends best.<br>OR by inaction we forfeit any reason to object when we lose what's left.<br><br>Oren Beck <br><br>"But once we were free- may become past tense"
<br><br>