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U.S. attorney: Criticism of Aaron Swartz prosecution is 'unfair' | 118 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
FOSS has worked well ... but not for others
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, February 22 2013 @ 01:57 PM EST
It seems to me that FOSS should work well in any industry where delivering a
good product or service is more important than having someone to blame when you
make a mistake.

Take the US tax prep industry for example. It's often brought up as a place
where FOSS won't work. Usually because it's highly technical and would have to
be updated every year. Often on short notice.

But what would happen if all the big accounting firms got together and spent
their yearly tax software fee on producing open tax software? After the first
year or two, they would have something that cost them less to maintain, did
exactly what they wanted, and would likely be more accurate.

What they would lose would be the ability to blame someone else when something
went wrong.

On the other hand, if being able to blame others for your problems is more
important to you than your product or service, FOSS is not for you. Don't try
the liability argument. No matter what your contract says, if your proprietary
software company refuses to pay and declares bankruptcy, you are not getting
anything.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

U.S. attorney: Criticism of Aaron Swartz prosecution is 'unfair'
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, February 22 2013 @ 04:18 PM EST

Criticism is unfair? Yeah, right.

Wayne
http://madhatter.ca

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Aaron Swartz Prosecutors Weighed 'Guerilla' Manifesto, ...
Authored by: jbb on Friday, February 22 2013 @ 07:22 PM EST
Two news picks in the same day:

Aaron Swartz Prosecutors Weighed 'Guerilla' Manifesto, Justice Official Tells Congressional Committee

Increasing Public Access to the Results of Scientific Research

I was appalled that government officials would so openly and blithely admit that they used the power of their office to curtail Aaron's first Amendment right to publish his open access manifesto. Sure, you can say what ever you want but if you say something they don't like, you will be punished.

On the same day they made that shocking admission which showed their complete disregard for the Constitution, the so-called radical ideas in Aaron's manifesto have become the law of the land. That's right. Aaron was punished for proposing what has now become the law of the land. The intent of the punishment was to silence Aaron so he would not be able to spread his dangerous and radical ideas.

When the persecutors read the manifesto they must have been blind to the reasonableness of his suggestion and they only saw defiance of authority that, in their eyes, had to be punished. Yet even now they have not a shred of remorse for purposefully ruining his life in order to punish him for what he said.

In 1989 Capitalism defeated Communism. Since that time capitalism went on and defeated Democracy. If I say we should fight back and protected Democracy would that be sufficient grounds to persecute me too?

---
Our job is to remind ourselves that there are more contexts
than the one we’re in now — the one that we think is reality.
-- Alan Kay

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

  • I disagree - Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, February 25 2013 @ 04:00 PM EST
New Yorker cartoon
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, February 23 2013 @ 12:52 AM EST
Would help to use this link instead for those of us not using javascript:

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/issuecartoons/2013/02/25/cartoons_20130218?slide=
6

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

NeMicrosoft brings Azure back online
Authored by: JamesK on Saturday, February 23 2013 @ 03:51 PM EST
These are the people we're supposed to rely on for Secure Boot certificates???

---
The following program contains immature subject matter.
Viewer discretion is advised.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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