Alfred M. Szmidt said: > > By the same logic, I am being refused by the GNU project and the FSF > > to install free software on a PDP-10 since they are not providing me > > with MLDEV access, or DECtapes. > > You can't reject a real use-case with a hypothetical use-case. > > Funny enough, it isn't hypothetical.
Being unrealistic isn't the only problem with your analogy. It's actually a fallacy (the false analogy variety), which means it's not even an argument. Jean Louis quoted the GNU guideline: "it is ok to use another server if you wish, provided it allows access from the general public without limitation (for instance, without excluding any country)." and said: JL> That way, I am limited, when using wget, and wrong Tor exit JL> (hypothetically) to access the software. It is a clear limitation. The GNU guideline condemned the variety of limitation that is artificially imposed, whereby the capability would be there in the absence of blocking actions resulting from a limitation that is proactively constructed. As Jean Louis suggests, the scenario of using wget over Tor is a limitation, and it happens to be exactly the same kind of limitation (IP-based discrimination). People are being excluded, and an effort has been made to carry out that exclusion. Your PDP-10 analogy is not a constructed limitation (as an IP treatment policy is), it's actually a "limitation" due to someone else not doing some work for you, which makes it so perversely different as to only harm your position. This false analogy clearly puts desperation on display. -- Please note this was sent anonymously, so the "From:" address will be unusable. List archives will be monitored.
