Restore the Old Republic [LWN.net]

Restore the Old Republic

Posted Dec 6, 2005 21:15 UTC (Tue) by jmorris42 (guest, #2203)
In reply to: Restore the Old Republic by jwb
Parent article: Linux in a binary world... a doomsday scenario

A lot of the issues we are facing in the tech world are the result of becoming important enough to show up on the radar of the political world. You can only ignore politics if it is willing to ignore you back. Those days are long gone. The only political structure compatible with the generally held beliefs of most tech types is libertarian even if most tend towards socialism out of ignorance. Don't like the DMCA or the eventual law that will mandate TCPA? Well you can't build a reasoned argument against either unless you start from the assumption that we are Free Citizens entitled to be treated as non-criminals and that there are things the State simply cannot be permitted to do. So long as you think the State Enthroned is morally acceptable you have to abide by it's decision that those things we hate are in the best interest of the State and that it, and it alone, has the moral authority to make these decisions for you.

I assert that things are bad generally with our Republic and have been for a couple of generations. And that any attempt to fend off the DRM Hell that is being planned for us needs to start with the basics, restore the Old Republic and the Constituitional limits to State power that would make abominations like the DMCA unthinkable. Trying to kill off each attempt piecemeal is doomed to failure in the longterm, our foes are much better organized and financed, have a lot of power and money at stake and appear to have little moral compuctions about playing dirty. We have to bat 1000, they only need to hit a single time. We have to change the rules of the game.

Restore the Old Republic

Posted Dec 8, 2005 9:14 UTC (Thu) by dvdeug (subscriber, #10998) [Link] (4 responses)

Of course; everyone who disagrees with does so out of ignorance, and everyone needs to hear your brilliant lectures even if they are off-topic.

BTW, even the most strict reading of the Commerce Clause would give Congress the power to prohibit interstate trafficing in things the DCMA prohibits.

Restore the Old Republic

Posted Dec 8, 2005 11:02 UTC (Thu) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Further, a lot of us aren't governed by the US Constitution at all. Personally I'd rather not see the Old Republic in the UK reestablished: Cromwell was an unpleasant man, and his followers were equally unpleasant religious fanatics who did immense damage to architecture.

Plus I like my Christmas and don't want him back to ban it again.

Restore the Old Republic

Posted Dec 10, 2005 22:12 UTC (Sat) by jmorris42 (guest, #2203) [Link] (2 responses)

> BTW, even the most strict reading of the Commerce Clause would give
> Congress the power to prohibit interstate trafficing in things the DCMA
> prohibits.

Wrong on two counts. The Commerce Clause has been horribly abused of late to attempt to justify things that are blatently unconstituitional. Most attempts to use the Commerce Clause to control anything other than interstate tariffs, shipping, etc are abuses.

But even if you were correct as to the original intent of the writers of the Commerce Clause, the Bill of Rights are AMENDMENTS and therefore superceed anything in the original. "Congress shall make no law...." is pretty blunt. Code IS speech and attempts to supress publishing the source of DeCSS are so obviously an infringement of the First Amendment that only a moron or a "Constituitional Scholar" could fail to see it.

Restore the Old Republic

Posted Dec 11, 2005 6:17 UTC (Sun) by dvdeug (subscriber, #10998) [Link] (1 responses)

I don't care about how the Commerce Clause has been abused. It clearly gives Congress the right to control interstate commerce, which would naturally include the right to ban things from being sold across state lines.

As for your reading of the First Amendment, it does not accord with the reading given by the "Old Republic", which passed the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Most code is not any more expressive than a car's engine. People didn't want to copy DeCSS to read it or understand an opinion behind it; they wanted to use it as a tool. Burning a flag to protest the president is protected speech; burning flags to power your generator isn't.

Your attitude that only a moron would disagree with you is the real problem, though. Just because some disagree with you doesn't mean they're ignorant or stupid. Frequently, they have good reasons for their opinions, and discussing it with them instead of insulting them may be enlightening. You're not convincing anyone of anything they didn't believe to begin with; you're just offending them.

Restore the Old Republic

Posted Dec 16, 2005 20:22 UTC (Fri) by Baylink (guest, #755) [Link]

> Burning a flag to protest the president is protected speech; burning flags to power your generator isn't.

No, but it's not *illegal*, either.