Text 20707, 73 rader
Skriven 2006-01-02 02:58:30 av FidoNews Robot (2:2/2.0)
Ärende: FidoNews 23:01 [02/07]: Editorial
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                            EDITORIAL
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A new year. Some practical issues at hand, such as finding all the
places in different Snooze configs where the year has to be changed.

   But a new year also means a completely blank paper, that this new
year's events will be written upon. A year from now, we will have seen
lots of news passing by. Unfortunately we will probably have seen new
terrorist attacks on democracy. And equally unfortunately this will
most likely result in even more measures taken to "protect" us from
the terrorists.

   The terrorists, or freedom fighters depending on what side you're
on, that attacked what they regarded as the very symbols of US
military (the Pentagon) and economical (New York World Trade Center --
there are actually lots of WTCs other than NYC all around the world)
imperialism, in September 2001, probably could never even in their
wildest dreams imagine how successful they would be in their attack.

   From that day on, the entire western world seems to have gone
completely crazy, step by step violating almost every law there is to
grant personal integrity and freedom. And of course none of those
violations has any effect at all against further terrorism.

   One major step towards a Big Brother, 1984-ish society was taken,
more or less in secret, by the EU Parliament a couple of weeks before
Christmas. I'm embarrassed to admit that it was basically a Swedish
idea. If this recommendation by the EU Parliament actually makes it to
laws in the different EU countries it will make the US Echelon and
Patriot Acts look like Sunday School rules.

   What it says is, that every ISP and Telco must store, and make
available to any governmental institution, information about every
phone call (from and to what number, in the case of cell phone from
what geographical location the call was made), e-mail (from and to
what address) and even all the web sites you have visited. And all
this information must be stored for at least 24 months. Poland has
even suggested that they will make it 15 years!

   In case someone is still living in the blue, it's time to wake up
now! Surely we cannot let our politicians use the 2001-09-11 event as
an excuse to deprive us of all our constitutional, civil rights?

   -   -   -   -   -   -   -

   One subject, that pops up over and over again in fidonet, is the
issue of copyright. And basically the very strange notion that anyone
can actually own an idea. Humanity has evolved because ideas have been
passed on from generation to generation, and has been freely available
to base new ideas upon. But the last century some people has
introduced the idea that one single person actually can own an idea,
despite the fact that it's always based on previous generation's
ideas.

   Of course it all boils down to money and greed. Making money
without working has always tempted a certain kind of people. The
strange thing is, that some other people, that don't have anything to
gain from this strange notion, actively supports the right to make
money out of our inherited, intellectual knowledge base.

   This is the reason for this week's lengthy Food For Thoughts.
Written by one of the greatest minds the US has ever produced, I think
everyone should try to read and understand what Thomas Jefferson was
saying. Albeit on the subject of patent, but any immaterial rights
fits very well into what he's saying.


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