[Robotgroup] Off Topic, but Topical

[Vern Graner]

Ed Xavier Gonzalez wrote:
 > From Ed Xavier @ ohlaser at swbell.net
 >
 > I got something in the mail today <snip>

Some things to look into and/or support for others (like Ed & I) who 
disagree with the RIAA/MPAA's current policies dealing with copyright:

http://www.eff.org

http://fairusenetwork.org

Think DMCA, then look at this quote:

"The only power any government has is the power to crack down on 
criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One 
declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men 
to live without breaking laws." --Ayn Rand

IMHO, Copyright & Patent law has become the instrument whereby we are 
all made "guilty", as is illustrated quite clearly here:

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/26/1612223

 From the article above:

--------------------- CLIP ----------------------
The author takes a look at normal daily practices and how many 
commonplace actions actually result in what can be considered copyright 
violations. "By the end of the day, John has infringed the copyrights of 
twenty emails, three legal articles, an architectural rendering, a poem, 
five photographs, an animated character, a musical composition, a 
painting, and fifty notes and drawings. All told, he has committed at 
least eighty-three acts of infringement and faces liability in the 
amount of $12.45 million (to say nothing of potential criminal charges). 
There is nothing particularly extraordinary about John's activities. Yet 
if copyright holders were inclined to enforce their rights to the 
maximum extent allowed by law, he would be indisputably liable for a 
mind-boggling $4.544 billion in potential damages each year. And, 
surprisingly, he has not even committed a single act of infringement 
through P2P file sharing."
--------------------- CLIP ----------------------

Ours is a nation of laws, designed to operate via contention. Make sure 
you back the contender (candidate or organization) that best represents 
your views! :)

Vern

-- 
Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE    | "If the network is down, then you're
Senior Systems Engineer    | obviously incompetent so why are we
Texas Information Services | paying you? Of course, if the network
http://www.txis.com        | is up, then we obviously don't need
Austin Office 512 328-8947 | you, so why are we paying you?" ©VLG