Re: sysadmin won't allow linux - PLEASE HELP
On 15 Aug 2001 12:43:38 -0500, Randy Reames wrote:
> Meanwhile, behind the facade of an innocent looking bookstore Michael Heldebrant wrote:
> >
> > My prediction is that Linux will be outlawed in 3 years as a system
> > which is legally declared as "primarily" for copyright circumvention.
> > Just wait until MS buys their way out of the lawsuit with the
> > republicans. MS will then continue to erode their own users rights in
> > favor of the DVDCCA, RIAA and MPAA and whine that linux should be forced
> > to as well. I doubt Linux will be implementing these mandatory
> > copyright controls and other bunk. Hence 3 years from now the DMCA (I'm
> > sure with additional resitrictive changes) will make us all criminals.
> > I think we should all move offshore now really. I really hope it
> > doesn't happen but I can certainly see it.
> >
> > --mike
> >
>
> What?! Too much of the US runs off computers, and too many of those
> are running Linux. I am not talking about somebody's home box that
> they got some Linux book at the mall and can't figure out how to get
> their sound card or winmodem to work. I am talking about the Linux
> clusters in the Universities, the servers running the public
> transportation systems, the city governments, major companies like
> Boeing, the kiosks, embedded systems, the Tivos, etc, fscking etc.
> You really think IBM is gonna let the government outlaw something
> they've invested a Billion dollars in? No way.
>
> George Bush is an maroon. He wouldn't know an OS from a bottle of
> Jack Daniels. He surrounds himself with smart people like a doughnut
> hole surrounds himself with a doughnut (yea I know Dennis Miller).
>
> Right now the Sklyarov/Adobe case is showing all the flaws in the DMCA
> I see the DMCA going away before Linux will ever be outlawed.
>
> Even MS admits that Linux is their competition. "We can't be a
> monopoly, look there's Linux out there." Servers stats say there are
> less registered Linux servers than Windows servers, well no shit how
> many admins register or even buy their copy of Linux for each server?
> But you better sign your soul away for each copy of Windows you put
> on a box. Linux is not going away, Windows is not going away. If
> anything they both will keep creating better products, at least one
> will have to start.
Your point is valid. Corporations will still use Linux because they
have the lawyers and resources to "hide" Linux or wrap everything in
remedial rot13 encryption and then hide behind the DMCA. I somehow
doubt an individual will be able to claim DMCA protections on his
private property. As an example the FBI records keystrokes to break
encryption of criminals. The DMCA SHOULD and MUST be invoked in this
case as an absurdity to show the real motives of the anti-circumvention
law - it hides criminal activity for corporations but never for private
citizens. Much like how the anti-trust laws in the past were used to
bust up unions instead of monopolies, the same thing will be done to
private users of Linux. Keep in mind this is my dark vision of a
dystopia and a worse case scenario. But it's something I'm preparing
for in the back of mind.
--mike
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