A new wrinkle in the Howell case

[Technomage-hawke]

On Monday 14 January 2008 20:05, Craig White wrote:
> On Mon, 2008-01-14 at 17:17 -0700, eric© wrote:
> > Is it possible to get through this stuff without people bickering like
> > grade school children?  I'm sitting here waiting for a "my dad can
> > beat up your dad" comment shortly...
>
> ----
> you might have a valid point and you might find some people that agree
>
> you might have noted that the threads revolving around litigation by
> RIAA against our neighbors is off-topic since there's no evidence of
> Linux anywhere.
well, I can make it on topic here.
how about the chilling effect on developers of mp3 software for linux, or even 
the venerable cd ripping and burning programs (cdrdao, grip, abcde, various 
command line and graphical players and encoders).

decisions from ill conceived court cases can damage or even remove the right 
to use any of the above programs/utilities. Taken to its most extreme, it may 
even make it illegal for one to backup their software in case of catastrophic 
failure.

>
> Personally, I don't see this as an issue of bickering like grade school
> children at all but I would guess that we have differing 'tact filters'
>
> http://www.mit.edu/~jcb/tact.html
>
> More specifically though, I do have the feeling that this is an issue of
> interest to a great many of the list members.
>
> Lastly, Chris is certainly bright enough to put forward a cogent
> argument for his opinions and I thought I was genial enough the first 2
> times I asked him to make his point relevant. I would think that a
> vigorous discussion (even dissent) is a healthy way to advocate an
> opinion.
>
> Besides, my dad is dead and before that, always made it clear that I was
> to fight my own battles.

a good sentiment. However, even the best generals know when to fight and when 
to strategically regroup. Still, one must stand by their beliefs (just make 
sure that they are the right ones).