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Author
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Topic: Computer Programmers and Assasins
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Tailslide
Pilot
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posted 08-17- 02:39 PM
   
Amazing how ignorant you can be and still be appointed as a judge. 2600 magazine lost in a case where they were being sued for redistributing the source to DeCSS-- Kaplan rejected as baseless the argument by defense lawyers in a trial last month who said computer code is a free expression of speech entitled to maximum constitutional protection and that computer code essentially is exempt from government regulation.
“Computer code is not purely expressive any more than the assassination of a political figure is purely a political statement,” he said. He added: “Code causes computers to perform desired functions. Its expressive element no more immunizes its functional aspects from regulation than the expressive motives of an assassin immunize the assassin’s action.”
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Falck
Pilot
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posted 08-17- 03:03 PM
Wow...How much has that guy been smoking. I just cant see associating 'programmer' with 'assassin'. Well, im about done writing code for the day. Time to grab the scoped 6.5x55 and start my night job. IP: Logged |
charmstar
Pilot
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posted 08-17- 04:54 PM
Hmm, I think the analogy is good. He's just saying that if I go blow somebody away for purely political reasons, its still a murder punishable by law, regardless of my freedom of political expression. In the same way, if I distribute commercial software claiming freedom of speech, I'm still stealing.charm IP: Logged |
Tailslide
Pilot
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posted 08-17- 05:04 PM
They aren't distributing commercial software, it is software that was freely released into the public domain by the author.IP: Logged |
charmstar
Pilot
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posted 08-17- 08:13 PM
Oh. Well in that case, who was suing? I guess it wasn't the author :-)charm IP: Logged |
Tailslide
Pilot
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posted 08-17- 10:36 PM
Heres an article on it:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0%2C4586%2C2616841%2C00.html IP: Logged |
Mighty
General
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posted 08-18- 05:50 PM
Is 2600 hosting the source? I thought the big stink was that they were only linking to the source.Extending the ruling, you can't link to any objectionable content without incuring the risk of a law suit. And the entire affair was avoidable. The code was written, not to steal DVDs, but simply to play legally purchased DVDs on Linux boxes. IP: Logged |
Tailslide
Pilot
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posted 08-18- 05:53 PM
Mighty, I was also threatened with legal action for linking to the "freehost" warbirds hosting utility. I consulted some experts and apparently the wording of the milennium copyright act may be interpreted to mean just having a link is illegal. I didn't want to be the one to see if the supreme court thought the law is unconstitutional.(I wasn't even linking to the file directly, just the website that had the file) TS [This message has been edited by Tailslide (edited 08-18-2000).] IP: Logged |
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