Date: 04/18/2003 11:07 AM
From: Gene Tyree ([email protected])
Subject: Bar Code Site Calls It Quits
Whether or not the website was doing something illegal ("Bar Code Site Calls It Quits," April 17, 2003) just points to the Wal-Mart approach to doing business: Move into a town, run everybody out of business with prices which are extremely low due to its megapurchasing power, and then raise the prices.
The hometown attitude toward Wal-Mart is a scam, false advertising Wal-Mart uses while it runs the little guy out of business.... Don't fall for Wal-Mart's TV ads, either. While Wal-Mart is slashing prices on one shelf it is raising them on another....
Sam Walton was a marketing genius, but he was (and Wal-Mart is) ruthless…. The answer: Boycott Wal-Mart – well, now that's impossible since there are no competitors left in small towns. Sad.
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Date: 04/18/2003 11:27 PM
From: Tom Tucker ([email protected])
Subject: No Help for Callers in Trouble
The stupid bureaucrats in New York who have been diverting targeted tax money should pay through the nose – personally ("No Help for Callers in Trouble," April 18, 2003). The family of those boys should sue [the bureaucrats] for billions.
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Date: 04/18/2003 11:29 PM
From: greg ([email protected])
Subject: Peace Talk Halts Defense OS Job
Don't feel sorry for losers like the ones in this article ("Peace Talk Halts Defense OS Job," April 18, 2003). No one has to hand you money when you spit in their face. Guess the price of freedom is too high for some people. Look how many folks in Iraq died for just saying, "I don't like Saddam." I got a good laugh out of this article. Good hoots are hard to come by these days. Thanks.
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Date: 04/19/2003 09:06 AM
From: J. Falcone ([email protected])
Subject: Peace Talk Halts Defense OS Job
The coder has the right to free speech – and DARPA has the right to free hiring ("Peace Talk Halts Defense OS Job," April 18, 2003). Obviously, it wouldn't be in the best interests of a company to employ someone who dislikes the company. Why should DARPA be held to any other standard?
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Date: 04/19/2003 10:24 AM
From: Fred Bothwell ([email protected])
Subject: Peace Talk Halts Defense OS Job
The name of the game is Defense Advanced Research Project Agency ("Peace Talk Halts Defense OS Job," April 18, 2003). Nobody's free speech is compromised. The Department of Defense has my authorization as a taxpayer to decline to give money for the development of defense-related systems to individuals who express doubts about national defense policy!
The right to free speech does not guarantee an immunity to the effects of such speech on others – individual taxpayers or corporations or government agencies – who may exercise their freedom of speech (or regard for national security concerns) in any number of ways, among which may be the decision to withhold funding from the work of people who disagree with them!
I would hate to find myself in combat (again) relying on technology that had been developed by someone whose enthusiasm for national defense objectives, priorities and methods (to include unilateral initiation of armed conflict) was less than total!
I appreciate Mr. de Raadt's honesty, and he should appreciate the opportunity to undertake some form of work that is more consistent with his personal values.
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Date: 04/19/2003 10:34 AM
From: Mark Smith ([email protected])
Subject: Peace Talk Halts Defense OS Job
Oh, please. Free speech does not mean "free from consequences." No one threw him in jail for his comments ("Peace Talk Halts Defense OS Job," April 18, 2003). It does not appear that DARPA has conspired to prevent him from finding employment elsewhere.
"He who pays the piper calls the tune" – if the piper's performance is not acceptable to the payer, the payer is not obligated to continue funding the piper.
This misconception that freedom of speech means speech without consequences in reality makes the listener the slave of the speaker – "I can say anything I want and everyone must remain silent or support me."
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Date: 04/19/2003 11:02 AM
From: Dorothy Dillard ([email protected])
Subject: Peace Talk Halts Defense OS Job
Scary, isn't it ("Peace Talk Halts Defense OS Job," April 18, 2003)? Isn't this what the war was supposed to be about? Freedom. We should practice what we preach!
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Date: 04/21/2003 10:27 AM
From: Cindy Wolf ([email protected])
Subject: Focus on Software Piracy Problem
I have to say a hearty "BS" to Bob Kruger's worries that today's college students will think it's OK to share software because they are already in the routine of illegally downloading music from the Internet ("Important Focus on Software Piracy Problem," April 9, 2003). Do students get into college who don't know the difference between music and software?
I went to college before PCs and downloadable music, but didn't we make bootleg tapes of recorded music? It was easy, the technology was cheap and very prevalent. The difference is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Under prior law, copying recorded music for personal noncommercial use was allowed. Now it isn't. That's becoming more understood but the recording industry has a long way to go to stop illegal copying.
On the other hand, except for limited freeware, software has always come with a cost and a license. The people who illegally distribute software do so with full knowledge that they should be paying someone a fee. Is software piracy a problem? Evidently, but it has nothing to do with the ease of downloading music on the Internet.
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Date: 04/21/2003 09:50 AM
From: matt virus ([email protected])
Subject: U.S. Backs RIAA in ISP Fight
What happens when the person found to be distributing the files is innocent ("U.S. Backs RIAA in ISP Fight," April 20, 2003)? What happens if they simply had a Trojan Horse/virus and were being used as a proxy server for others? What about IP spoofing and packet redirection?
The RIAA is ramping up for a knife-thrust kill fest.... what if it is all premature?
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Date: 04/21/2003 08:52 AM
From: colin ([email protected])
Subject: Want Revamped Search? Just Ask
Actually, Jeeves wasn't "named after a stodgy animated butler" ("Want Revamped Search? Just Ask," April 21, 2003). Jeeves was the hyperintelligent butler and font of wisdom in P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster stories – hence quite a wise choice for a search engine.
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Date: 04/21/2003 07:20 AM
From: shadow ([email protected])
Subject: U.S. Backs RIAA in ISP Fight
The RIAA is like a lame newbie that won't go away ("U.S. Backs RIAA in ISP Fight," April 20, 2003).
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Date: 04/21/2003 10:42 AM
From: kobi ([email protected])
Subject: Magazine Appeals for CD Archive
This is foolish. The medium makes no difference ("Magazine Appeals for CD Archive," April 17, 2003). A CD archive is technically the same thing as microfilm, but updated with improved functionality. Perhaps from now on National Geographic will be more careful about letting photographers have copyrights.
This whole thing is bloody sad. As usual, the real losers are the libraries and academic institutions, and all over the greed of some shutterbug. Sounds like he got the whole idea from the lawyer in the first place. And the lawyer comes off like a dummy, by saying CD-ROM is different from microfilm in any but the most superficial ways.
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