> > Maybe you should be made an example. I think if someone looks long
> > enough, they can find something you are doing that is against the law,
> > and find someone else just as offended at what you are doing who would
> > prosecute.
> [Fawcett, Mitch] I'm aghast at your response to my e-mail to this
> list. If I can't make a simple suggestion such as writing a letter to your
> congressional representative without getting this kind of flak, I'll think
> twice before sending another e-mail to this list.
If you post a suggestion, expect critiques.
I regularly write my congressman, and congressmen on the comittees
that have legislation I am interested in seeing killed. I was about
to add "or passed", but I don't think I remember anything even getting
to conference without enough evil accretions to cause me not to
support it.
The last round of internet copyright legislation was one such battle -
which is why you struck such a raw nerve. In effect you were saying
that my efforts to keep the net relatively unencumbered by government
were wrong. We really should have ISPs censoring anything that even
seems dodgy? Letters like yours were presented as to why we needed
draconian regulation.
I really, really don't want congress legislating that somewhere in DC
there will be a regulatory and enforcement board for the internet.
Many other people do want it. And they use excuses that "it will stop
kiddie porn" or "it will stop software piracy". People who have a
tendency to do wrong things should not be encouraged, be they crackers
or congressmen.
> > See the text under the heading "Deterrence as a Private Good".
> [Fawcett, Mitch] Sorry I offended you so much!
It is Washington DC that offends me so much. You haven't told me how
writing your congressman is going to help. You are probably smarter
than he is and you could not think of a plan to correct even this one
site (I assume you sent your letter as posted). Congress cannot
repeal the laws governing either physics, economics, or human
behavior. But they can pass a lot of silly things. And there are
laws.
And unlike you I did give a solution. One that all Palm Shareware
authors could get behind and might actually put teeth into some of
those currently meaningless laws because the situation we are in
parallels that which occured in the link (did you bother reading it)
so the solution - which actually did word - might be applicable in our
case.
If you don't care about applying current laws, how is one more law you
can't even define going to help?
Have you tried calling the SPA or BSA? Did they explain how concerned
they were about your software that they were going to take immediate
action? Or did they say to call back when you are bigger than MSFT?
My solution (as proposed) is for the Palm shareware collection sites
to save a small amount of money out of each transaction to hire a
lawyer, detectives, etc. specifically for enforcing copyrights and
shutting down such sites and bringing lawsuits against the violators,
and publish this fact boldly. A sort of "Don't worry about the FBI or
SPA, we have a lawyer that just loves filing injunctions and he has
several summer law students paid to make your life miserable if we
find out you are responsible for the cracked software".
And your solution to the problem is?
