Re: OSD && DFSG - different purposes - constructive suggestion!
Nathan E Norman <nnorman@incanus.net> writes:
> On Fri, Mar 07, 2003 at 01:38:48PM -0800, Thomas Bushnell, BSG wrote:
> > "Joe Moore" <joemoore@iegrec.org> writes:
> >
> > > > 2. the Chinese Dissident.
> > >
> > > It has been suggested that this test be referred to as simply as the
> > > "Dissident" test.
> >
> > But the suggestion has not been taken. The point isn't to hammer at
> > China--though such hammering seems well warranted--but to point to a
> > *particular* kind of government repression, and not government
> > repression in general. The Soviet Union would do as well.
>
> That's silly. I think people understand what a dissident is. For
> instance, I may decide to join the Posse Comitatus[1] and write some
> code for them. I probably don't want to release that code so the US
> government can see it. Or, I may join the anti-Branden-Robinson cabal.
> It does not matter who the authorities are; the dissident wishes to
> avoid revealing her plans to them.
Of course. But the point is to highlight a case where we are
generally in *great support* and *sympathy* with the dissidents, not a
case where we would rather they go away, or think it's trivial and
unimportant.
The point is to highlight a case where you not merely don't want
someone to see it, but where you have a significant chance of being
*executed* or put in *prison for life* if it gets seen by the wrong
people.
Like I said, "Soviet dissident" would do as well; so would "dissident
in Nazi Germany". But "Indian dissident" or "Posse comitatus
dissident" just doesn't do the trick.
So I use the phrase "Chinese dissident", and I think I'm the one to
first frame the test in question on debian-legal in these terms at
all.
Thomas
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