> "Hey, let's all play a game. Cal, here's you're controller."
>
> "No thanks, I'm good just watching."
>
> "OK..."
This is anti-social and unreasonable. Take the controller and play with them.
It's not your computer, i.e. not your responsibility.
> "Sorry..." ........ "Well, would you like to watch that series you
> like?" [holds up flash drive with videos on it]
>
> "OK, I guess..."
This is forcing your own preferences in. The message you're giving out is, "I
refuse to do the things you like to do, but I want you to do the things I
like to do." It's anti-social and uncooperative.
> But Netflix is an entirely different matter.
No, it isn't. It's still their computer, their money.
> But all this is a moot point, because the videos were being played on
> MY computer. Even loading Netflix is MY responsibility.
If it's your computer, by all means, don't use Netflix. It shouldn't work,
anyway, because you don't have a browser with EME support, presumably. And
you should have JavaScript disabled anyway.
> I've never been in a situation where I've used a communication program
> on someone else's computer for my own communication. That's just weird.
I couldn't tell from context if you were talking about messaging or Netflix.
You seemed to be talking about Netflix.
As far as messaging goes, yes, by all means, tell your friends that you don't
have Skype or WhatsApp. But if a proprietary communication tool is so
essential to staying in touch with them, and I know RMS would disagree with
me strongly on this, but I think you should just give in and use the program.
Do so on a dedicated computer for these proprietary programs. You can explain
to them that you do this because proprietary software is a threat to
security, privacy, etc, and so you are keeping it away from your regular
computing. They might think you're paranoid, but they won't get mad about
this.
> By placating the demand for a movie with Netflix, you are not
> practicing the demand for DRM-free movies, and the market will stop
> bothering to provide them with that lack of demand. Watching Netflix
> destroys the market supply of DRM-free movies.
DRM-free movies are already long dead. They have been DRM-encumbered for
decades; DVDs have DRM that is easily crackable, but it's still there.
Anyway, you're sacrificing your well-being for activism. Don't do that. We
will be just fine if you duck out when it's time for social interaction. Put
your own well-being first.
> Work sends a link to a web app to my personal email.
>
> "Hey, I know you sent that link to my personal email, but could I do
> it here?"
>
> "Maybe, why?"
>
> "Uh, my computer is really old and crashed when I tried visiting the
> page."
>
> "Oh, OK. I'll see what we can do."
I was hoping for an example from your social life, not from work.
If your employer is requiring you to run proprietary software, you should
certainly try to do so on company computers (you should do so anyway, since
you shouldn't work off-the-clock), but if you need to use proprietary
software on your own computer to keep your job you should do so and promptly
look for a different job. Employers are very different from friends.
