legalize over legalize

Posted Feb 18, 2025 10:50 UTC (Tue) by ras (subscriber, #33059)
In reply to: legalize over legalize by pizza
Parent article: The Linux Foundation on global regulations and sanctions

> When ideals and laws collide, ideals invariably lose.

Exportable crypto is one of those rare counter examples. Patents don't fare so well either. From memory, the law could have said to prevail against Decss, although it's author felt a lot of heat for a while. Now I think about it having the law on their side didn't help Sony when it came to running Linux on the play station.

In general if the law comes runs up against open sources ideas on transparency and free flow of ideas, my guess is the law usually loses in the long run.

legalize over legalize

Posted Feb 18, 2025 13:12 UTC (Tue) by pizza (subscriber, #46) [Link]

> In general if the law comes runs up against open sources ideas on transparency and free flow of ideas, my guess is the law usually loses in the long run.

Problem here is that "the long run" refers to generational time scales and there's going to be a lot of suffering along the way.

There's a saying in gambling circles that goes something like "The house can afford to outwait you".

(this is why doubling-down is rarely a winning strategy -- the house can absorb far greater shorter-term losses than you can)