Cringely On Civil Disobedience 368
Sauron23 writes "Robert Cringely over at PBS has his usual weekly Pulpit out. This weeks it's a follow up to last weeks discussion of one of the enforcers of the DMCA, BayTSP. He clarifies some of the issues surrounding a planned bust in October for P2P users sharing movies and makes perhaps an unusual request for civil disobediance from P2P users. I don't know what 10 million pirated copies of "Debbie does Dallas" would be worth either Bob. Probably more than the courts would want to handle. Worth the read." Some of the stronger parts of the column, IMHO, is the commentary on the e-mails people sent in.
not effective (Score:5, Insightful)
With the civil rights movement of the 1960's, civil disobedience was very vocal and right in the public eye- this, on the other hand, will hardly be noticed by most people.
A more effective way to show your displeasure with the current legislation may be to protest in "real life" rather than in cyberspace.
Re:not effective (Score:5, Informative)
You are to violate the DMCA and immediately leave towards the closest police station, and demand a jury trial.
Re:not effective (Score:4, Interesting)
Everyone who hates the DMCA has to illegally copy a movie or a song, and then tell both the Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office exactly what they did.
How exactly is doing something like this going to catch the public eye? Joe Public still won't have heard of what's going on, the only people that will know about it are Congress and the US Copyright Office. Now, something like what Bruce Perens planned to do (violate the DMCA in front of a crowd) on a larger scale would be more like it...
Re:not effective (Score:5, Insightful)
Joe Public doesn't even vote (atleast not a very large part of them).
The people who don't care will never care and can be safely ignored.
Re:not effective (Score:4, Insightful)
You see, Joe Public has a habit of getting excited at pretty much any old issue that is pitched to him in the correct manner (the usual combination of the right logical fallacies -- appeals to emotion, everyone knows the DMCA is bad.)
Granted, copyright law is probably pretty far down on old Joe's list of things to care about, but the group of Jim's and Jane's using the internet is large and constantly increasing, so I don't believe it's out of the relm of possibility to raise widespread public awareness of the subject.
Re:not effective (Score:5, Interesting)
How exactly is doing something like this going to catch the public eye? Joe Public still won't have heard of what's going on, the only people that will know about it are Congress and the US Copyright Office. Now, something like what Bruce Perens planned to do (violate the DMCA in front of a crowd) on a larger scale would be more like it...
Agreed. Perens' ploy as an individual act in front of a crowd would garner much more attention than Jimmy the Gamer copying mp3's in his basement -- even if they both subsequently turn themselves in. If what Cringley is suggesting is we all do this alone, go to local police stations and turn ourselves in, and there is no broader infrastructure to communicate to the media what is happening, it won't work. Also, I think the plan is flawed because it suffers from the collective action problem: it will work if X number of people do it (and get attention), but it won't work if less than X do it. So if I break the law, and the number ends up less than X, everyone loses and I lose more. However, if X people break the law, and I am X+1, I have (from my POV) paid the costs of action unecessarily.
What I propose is a national gathering (perhaps in 2-4 locations simaltaneously) where folks can come together en masse to explicitly violate terms of the DMCA collectively in a public manner. This will encourage people to act (reduces fear of being less than X) and will make it much easier to garner media attention to the event(s). We all show up in San Fran, New York or Chicago, violate the DMCA like mad, document it, and then march down to the local police station and turn ourselves in. That just might work...
Re:not effective (Score:2, Insightful)
100 geeks or more standing outside the Whitehouse offering floppy disks containing DeCSS to the public. That could even get a mention on international news (the protest against Dmitry Sklyarov's arrest did have a mention on British news at least).
Sweet!
I'm in (Score:5, Insightful)
Would have modded you up, but then couldn't give you my email address =)
schlachtavius _at_ yahoo.com
Are you proposing it, or are you "proposing" it? Because if you're indeed proposing it, I'm in if it's well done, and I'll help organize. I'd probably be in for a California location. Perhaps we should throw up a site to direct people in this conversation to...
Okay, done. Check out the new Digital Mandate Consumer Advocacy [yahoo.com] group, at yahoo groups. We can start there as a place to gauge interest in a national act of civil disobedience.
If you're an armchair activist for tech issues, consider subbing our new group. The first thing we're gonna do is figure out who we've got, what issues we want to focus on, and how we might stage a massive protest. So sign up! We need you! I'll bring the Hi-C and rice krispy treats.
--schlach
Re:not effective (Score:3, Insightful)
"You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and they won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may think it's a movement."
He's talking about fighting the draft but the logic applies to overthrowing the DCMA as well. If enough people got together (the more the merrier), copied a single file, and turned themselves in en masse at the local police station, people would start to notice. Especially if the protesters alerted the media beforehand.
Re:not effective (Score:4, Funny)
Wait... and leave the warm, safe confines of our parent's basements? Are ye daft, lad?
It's much more fun to rail against the injustices of the world instead of actually doing anything about it. Geeze. Some people.
(For the humor impaired moderators out there, move along - these aren't the droids you're looking for)
Re:not effective (Score:5, Insightful)
I was at kent state. I saw kids the age of my older brother murdered by the government.
and I saw that what they were doing, what they DIED for succeeded.
It works, it works very well. and it takes people that care about it, and feel strong enough about it, and to have the BALLS to put their life on the line for it..
Unfortunately, today in 2002, the United States of America.... too many cowards wont do anything, the rest are lazy and cant be bothered to donate or protest.
the DMCA will survive... because YOU wont do anything as well as the rest of the population that bitches about it.
It does work, I saw it in action.. and anyone that says otherwise is pretty much blind.
Re:not effective (Score:3, Insightful)
Protesting a war, or demonstrating against an injustice or the violation of a civil leberty, is one thing.
Even if you are effectively breaking the law, it is for the sake of a greater principle which should transcend that law.
Illegally duplicating and distributing a movie is not in the same arena as marching against institutionalized racism. It is a petty crime with no moral value whatsoever.
I am neither a coward nor lazy. But I'm not going to bother turning myself into the cops unless I have a worthwhile crime to commit.
Re:not effective (Score:3, Informative)
Protesting restraints on our rights to free speech, and on our rights to use the public domain, is exactly the same as ``... marching against institutionalized racism.''
It is a petty crime with no moral value whatsoever.
Wrong. If you violate the DMCA by makeing a backup copy of copyrighted, encrypted content which you have legally purchased, your action is entirely moral. If you do it publicly, it is exactly like Rosa Parks' refusal to move to the back of the bus.
Re:not effective (Score:5, Insightful)
Cringely's technique will not be very effective, but it has nothing to with "this kind of civil disobedience". In fact, what Cringely is advocating is civil disobedience done right -- having lots of people break a stupid law openly, and accepting the consequences. Remember, just breaking the law from the comfort of your basement is not enough -- you need to let the Police break down your door and throw you in jail just for trying to play your "copy-protected" DVD or CD on your computer, all to show the public how absurd the law is.
The problem is that the absurdity will be lost on most people. This can't be compared to the Civil Rights movement, when the dignity of human beings was at stake. This is about bits, shiny things, and noise -- i.e., things that aren't really important when compared to human dignity. We all know what can happen in the future if laws like the DMCA don't get revisited in its current form. We know that the issue is more about property rights and control of information than about piracy. But since nothing important is at stake right now, anyone who participates in "civil disobedience" will be dismissed at best as a misguided geek, and at worst as an evil pirate hacker. After all, if you can watch a DVD on a DVD player, who cares if you can't watch it on a computer running Linux? We do, but noone else thinks it's important.
Let's face it, Our percieved right to download music or use media that we "own" on any device that has the technical ability to play it is not considered that important when there is so much else going on in the world.
Re:not effective (Score:2, Insightful)
And that's far more important than human dignity.
Re:not effective (Score:2)
Which is why shiny things will win. Everyone else is doing it--why don't I start? Downloading stuff for free is fun! The United States of America is a very powerful government, but when it challenges the fun of it's own people it always loses. Eventually the government will have to either cave in like with Prohibiton, limit enforcement to the biggest offenders as with speeding, or fight a perpetual losing war as with drug policy.
Reaching Joe Public -- try a PSA or infomercial (Score:2)
Most of the general public doesn't even know the DMCA *exists*, let alone what it stifles.
Seriously, any budding video producers here who want to tackle this??
Re:Reaching Joe Public -- try a PSA or infomercial (Score:4, Insightful)
And how, exactly, do you expect to get the to the public? Buy airtime on TV networks? I'm sure Ted Turner would be all giddy to run your ads.
The problem with fighting the people that control the media in the US, is that they can keep you from getting your message out. And don't be fooled for a second that the news organizations will do much to help your cause. That's the one flaw in this whole protest the DMCA idea, the news people covering it. They are going to spin it right into the dirt. I can hear it now, "Today, 300 people were arrested for illegal hacking. They were protesting laws that were enacted to protect computer systems from the threat of cyberterrorism." at this point they roll the interview with the geekiest looking 16 year old they could find, who, of course, is missing half his brain that day and says, "We're fighting the Man! They're trying to keep us down! Hacking Rulez!" Back to the reporter, "This just goes to show how widespread this problem really is. The children of today belive that stealing and trespassing are ok, and its all being done on the internet." Camera pans protest area, "The protest was held here, and was largly a forum for trading illegally coppied CDs and movies. Just about anything you want could be had here, and of course, in the spirit of this hacking fest, it was all free." Roll film of someone handing out burned DVDs "Any film you wanted could be had either free or very cheap. We even found videos of movies that are still in theaters, like this summers blockbuster (insert big movie here)." Back to reporter, "in all this was less a protest and more a meeting place of pirates and hackers."
Back to the studio "Wow. Thank you Jan, amazing how so many young people can be so misguided. And in other news..."
I wish people luck, but, other than Alan Greespan, they are fighting one of the most powerful forces in the US today.
Re:not effective (Score:2, Interesting)
Download the top 20 singles on Billboard from whatever P2P program (I almost guarantee they'll all be easy to find), or if you feel like covering your ass a bit download 70 or so minutes worth of songs from bands that have spoken out saying they want people to download their music.
Decode them to CD Audio format and burn a stack of CDs with those songs in that format, so that people will be able to play them in their CD players (at least a decent percentage of them). Sure, they won't sound as good as the originals, but that's always been part of the point, right? Now, go down to your local 'chain' record store or WalMart (the largest retailer of CDs in the US) and hand the CDs out to people going into/out of the store.
Alternatively, download whatever the #1 box office draw is this week and burn it onto a stack of CDs. Bonus points for formats supported by common DVD players (VCD? MPEG?). Then go down to your local movie theater and hand them out to people in line.
Do it in groups if you must. It'll cost you a little time and money, but it's more visible than sharing files on your PC.
How come (Score:2, Funny)
MOD PARENT DOWN!!! (Score:2)
I'll do it. (Score:2, Informative)
This just in! Random Blog gets front page news! (Score:4, Insightful)
I realize everyone in /. is crapping themselves over the DMCA, but does every two paragraph article about need to be front page material?
If you want to learn more about the real enforcement, read here [eff.org].
Re:This just in! Random Blog gets front page news! (Score:4, Interesting)
Congrats on reiterating his point. The link shows a total of 3 groups of people who have stood up to fight the DMCA. This is hardly going to persuade the world that the DMCA is wrong.
But what if everybody decided to breach the DMCA? This would mean that the DVD-CCA, Universal, and the DOJ would be obliged to prosecute all of them. The system would not cope, and it would prove that a very large minority of people oppose the law, and very few are in favour.
We're not going to of course, and Cringley knows this. We simply aren't organised enough. He simply wants to point out that since we're not willing to do this, complaining to uninterested parties is pointless.
Re:This just in! Random Blog gets front page news! (Score:2)
About 90% of drivers speed at least once a day. This does not stop the police from enforcing outrageously slow speed limits. In New York, some "school zones" have 15 mph limits which are universally ignored, even by school busses. There is still a sheriff sitting there with a radar gun though.
Cringely is no random blogger (Score:2)
Changing things through use of the masses (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Changing things through use of the masses (Score:4, Insightful)
Short answer : because noone will want to be the first.
That's a nice little thing with human beings. Group actions are always welcome and overhyped and you always find everybody is ready to do it... until someone _has_ to do it, of course, and then the first one to actually act suddenly finds himself all alone while the others are watching "so ? did it work ? is he in jail ?".
Cringely is clearly aware of that, just like he knows the first reaction of many ppl is to flamemail him instead of getting something done about the problem at hand. Maybe he's trying to give us some kind of electroshock...
I may seem overpessimistic, but in that kind of action people are usually just all talk. Of course, I we had a leader things would be different, but clearly as a community we would never agree on a leader (flamewars, yes, leadership, no
The fine line between geeks and nerds. (Score:5, Funny)
Some how I dont think anyone is really going to be impressed by a bunch of nerds holding a virtual "sit in" on a P2P network.
Re:The fine line between geeks and nerds. (Score:2)
Jaysyn
Critical Mass of Lawbreakers (Score:5, Interesting)
Everyone isn't going to do this. No way. I totally agree with his analysis of the problem, but unless some critical mass of lawbreakers were to be reached (chances being somewhere between fat and slim) you'd get the same result as you would if you were driving down the interstate in a pack of cars all going 100 mph: one guy would get nailed by the highway patrol and the rest would be ignored. The guy who pulled you over wouldn't care about the ones who got away... he got YOU, the rest are "job security".
But don't I WISH this would work!
Re:Critical Mass of Lawbreakers (Score:5, Insightful)
Naturally, there are some issues with this proposal (people will start driving even faster and more aggressively, accident rates will increase dramatically etc.), but those are not relevant here. What *is* relevant is that what Cringley describes is possible *if* EVERYONE does it. Truth is, almost everyone does. It's much easier to single out those who obey the official speed limit (most often American drivers passing through / visiting) than those who don't. Mind you, this didn't happen overnight, it took time -- first people averaged 105km/h, then 110 and so on. Kinda like what's happening with our constitutional rights right now (i.e. the first amendment, slowly being eroded by those with enough money). Right now, you can pretty much be sure you won't get pulled over unless you're going over 120, unless you stand out.
Personally, if everyone violated the DMCA on small scale (as in, don't copy 100 cds a day to make a profit from it), nobody would probably care. If Napster took longer to become the service that it was, it probably wouldn't have been as visible to the people at RIAA. But, it happened virtually 'overnight', made a big splash thanks to the media, got noticed relatively quickly, and viola! I betcha if someone started a nation-wide promotion of cheap, reliable radar detectors, those would become outlawed within weeks.
So, to recap, I think civil disobedience would be the way to defeat the monster, I'm just not sure about the proposed tempo.
Re:Critical Mass of Lawbreakers (Score:2)
Re:Critical Mass of Lawbreakers (Score:5, Informative)
The impact of speed limits on highway speed:
http://www.ibiblio.org/rdu/sl-irrel.html
The impact of speed limits on safety:
http://www.hwysafety.com/hwy_montana_200
http://www.nj.npri.org/nj99/03/fedagency.ht
Summary of findings by the US Dep't of Transportation study:
* Based on the free-flow speed data collected for a 24-h period at the experimental and comparison sites in 22 States, posted speed limits were set, on the average, at the 45th percentile speed or below the average speed of traffic
* Speed limits were posted, on average, between 5 and 16 mi/h (8 and 26 km/h) below the 85th percentile speed.
* Lowering speed limits by 5, 10, 15, or 20 mi/h (8, 16, 24, or 26 km/h) at the study sites had a minor effect on vehicle speeds. Posting lower speed limits does not decrease motorist's speeds.
* Raising speed limits by 5, 10, or 15 mi/h (8, 16, or 25 km/h) at the rural and urban sites had a minor effect on vehicle speeds. In other words, an increase in the posted speed limit did not create a corresponding increase in vehicle speeds.
* The average change in any of the percentile speeds at the experimental sites was less than 1.5 mi/h (2.4 m/h), regardless of whether the speed limit was raised or lowered.
* Where speed limits were lowered, an examination of speed distribution indicated the slowest drivers (1st percentile) increased their speed approximately 1 mi/h (1/6 km/h). There were no changes on the high-speed drivers (99th percentile)
* At sites where speed limits were raised, there was an increase of less than 1.5 mi/h (2.4 km/h) for drivers traveling at and below the 75th percentile speed. When the posted limits were raised by 10 and 15 mi/h (16 and 24 km/h), there was a small decrease in the 99th percentile speed.
* Raising speed limits in the region of the 85th percentile speed has an extremely beneficial effect on drivers complying with the posted speed limits.
* Lowering speed limits in the 33rd percentile speed (the average percentile that speed were posted in this study) provides a noncompliance rate of approximately 67 percent.
* After speed limits were altered at the experimental sites, less than one-half of the drivers complied with the new posed limits.
* Only minor changes in vehicles following as headways less than 2s were found at the experimental sites.
* Accidents at the 58 experimental sites where speed limits were lowered increased by 5.4 percent. The level of confidence of this estimate is 44 percent. The 95 percent confidence limits for this estimate ranges from a reduction in accidents of 11 percent to an increase of 26 percent.
* Accidents at the 41 experimental sites where speed limits were raised decreased by 6.7 percent. The level of confidence of this estimate in 59 percent. The 95 percent confidence limits for this estimate ranges from a reduction in accidents of 21 percent to an increase of 10 percent.
* Lowering speed limits more than 5 mi/h (8 km/h) below the 85th percentile speed of traffic did not reduce accidents.
* The indirect effects of speed limit changes on a sample of contiguous and adjacent roadways was found to be very small and insignificant.
Re:Critical Mass of Lawbreakers (Score:2)
During the Carter years, the Federal government declared that America had to conserve oil, so states who did not enforce a 55 MPH speed limit on the highways would not receive their usual federal funding for the interstates. (In terms of really asinine oil-saving measuers of the 70's, this actually came in second, behind President Carter's suggestion that we ramp up the use of coal.)
The law became a joke, as most traffic in most states moved at about 65 MPH on the highway, and there were even cases of police asking law-abiding drivers to "keep up with the flow of traffic." In one state, they would let you purchase pre-paid speeding ticket books, so if you got pulled over, you could just hand the cop on of your cupons, and drive on.
Letter-writing and lobbying never would have changed the nation-wide 55 if the overwhelming majority of people were not already ignoring the law entirely, making it unenforcable.
Re:Critical Mass of Lawbreakers (Score:2)
Yep. And in Atlanta, a subset of everybody averages 85-90 MPH for several hours a day, and the speed limit remains 70. So I guess we agree.
Re:Critical Mass of Lawbreakers (Score:2)
But then the solution would be to associate and have sort of mutual insurance that compensate the unlucky guy of the 10K fine. Why not do that?
Re:Critical Mass of Lawbreakers (Score:3, Insightful)
Hm, I think that what's happening (or at least being proposed) now is a lot more like the government requiring a device in every car which would physically prevent you (by taking over the brakes/acceleration) from exceeding the locally posted speed limit..
The point is that while they can't go after all the people who are actually breaking the law, they can make it illegal to manufacture a widget which does not act as a proxy for the government (ie, enforce the law itself). Then they go after the widget manufacturers.
Since widget manufacturers (think GM or Intel) are less numerous and easier to find, the theory is that this is a more attainable goal.
Daniel
easier said than done. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:easier said than done. (Score:5, Interesting)
But if you made $500,000 a year from out-moded buisness practices, wouldn't you get protective about it? Most people fear and dislike change. Some downright hate it. If you don't have the courage to stand up to them, then this article isn't for you.
Personally, and this will be quite the unpopular opinion, I figure that this kind of stuff will not get thrown down soon. Why? Prohibition failed because everybody drank beer. Not enough people are online right now to make the difference. The citical mass is not there.
Patience is important in a thing like this. The people's mood must be red-hot to propagate action. Actions made while the people's mood is indiferent, are at best, small at changing things.
So til then keep the hope alive by donating to the ACLU and the EFF, they are the Flagbarers, they will eventually lead the fight.
Re:easier said than done. (Score:4, Insightful)
You'll have your critical mass.
Re:easier said than done. (Score:2)
Re:easier said than done. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:easier said than done. (Score:2)
Let us use them as pawns ;)
Money (Score:5, Insightful)
Counter the RIAA's dollars by making a contribution to the Electronic Frontier Foundation [eff.org] and earmark the donation for fighting the DMCA.
Take some of that money you're saving by not buying CD's and poney it up to those than can help.
Money 2 (Score:3, Interesting)
No, Votes will make this go away (Score:2, Insightful)
Polititions care about money but only in so far as it can get them more votes. If taking money from the RIAA for a bad law costs them more votes than it buys them, they won't do it next time.
-Eric
Excellent! Get those donations in! (Score:2)
NRA vs. EFF (Score:2)
No, I think the EFF's lobbying efforts are much more effective.
Did you ever notice how the NRA gets its point across very nicely? Because hunters pool their dollars and go through a single voice. Let's let the EFF rival the NRA in clout.
Should be considered, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
Have 20 armed-to-the-teeth RIAA goons kick down the door of her bedroom, drag her to court and prosecute her for 20 years for music piracy. If some high-powered RIAA lawyer claims US$ 20 Mil. for IP theft, from her hapless parents, that's even better. Lock Jane Doe in prison. Cut to Jane's parents crying over both the tragic destiny of their daughters and over the lawyer's bill.
Then, plaster her (cute, innocent, doe-eyed) face all over the net and all over CNN and every other TV network in the world and have Linus Torvalds himself explain that "this terrible injustice could happen to your teenager! And all this just for downloading a music file!!".
Then stand back, relax, and watch the public outrage, roused by the suffering of poor cute little Jane Doe, sweep away the RIAA, the MPAA, the DMCA and whatever else is bothering you.
This is very effective. But not very nice for the poor "Jane Doe"...
Re:Should be considered, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
It'll never happen this way... (Score:2, Insightful)
The precident that the RIAA/MPAA chooses to permit to proceed to the Supreme Court will only be the one that they have the maximum chance of success with. Until then, they are satisfied with the chilling effect and scare tactics, and in the case where there are civil/criminal charges laid, they will be dropped if they figure out halfway through that this is not the *right* case to go to the wall with.
That's the frustrating part: the Constitutionality of the DMCA will not be determined until a case regarding it is heard by the Supreme Court, but the case on which it is presented is one that the court will be loathe to find in favour of free speech. But, we can hope.
Re:Should be considered, but... (Score:2)
This is where your hypothetical breaks down. Prosecution is expensive. The RIAA isn't going to bother with someone downloading a single song when they can spend a similar amount of effort nailing someone who is sharing multiple gigs of works that RIAA members hold the copyright on.
You're trying to create this case where the law is being disproportionately enforced against the smallest offenders. Trying to do this in a case where the law is being unenforced anyway is just absurd -- the majority of file sharing copyright infringement cases are getting ignored, so it's silly to imagine that the RIAA would be desperate enough to go after the small fish with so many larger fish swimming around.
Re:Should be considered, but... (Score:2)
but it needs to be 30 second commercial spots.
and it needs to be aired on EVERY network during prime time..
a series of RIAA, MPAA and DMCA is the true Satan and evil commercial spots are ean for a 3-6 month span in a high rotation you will get public outrage and outcry.
so who's going to spot the 20 million for the airtime and production costs?
Ahhh thought so....
There is a way, and you have to play their game.
Re:Should be considered, but... (Score:2, Interesting)
Do this as an Infomercial or PSA (Score:2)
That way Jane Doe-eyes needs only be acted, not real life. And it reaches the same audience now seeing Britney preaching the evils of music piracy.
The only difference being that "ours" needs to point out that tossing poor Jane in the slammer for 20 years is LEGAL, thanks to the DMCA.
Do Something (Score:5, Insightful)
Think of the time it would take to find and download this movie, and instead spend half that time writting a letter to your representative.
If you've already written your representative, then write somebody else.
About hiding behind a Post Office box (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a movement! (Score:5, Funny)
And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in with an MP3 of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement.
And that's what it is , the Alice's Restaurant Anti-DMCA Movement, and all you got to do to join is rip it the next time it come's around on the guitar.
Re:It's a movement! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It's a movement! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It's a movement! (Score:3, Funny)
(kudos to the great post)
Re:It's a movement! (Score:2)
I think this would really be poinent. It would provide a bridge for those who have no idea what this battle is about, but know all about Alice's Restaurant, to support the cause. If we were loud enough about it, we could have everyone thinking about the DMCA next Thanksgiving when they play Alice's Restaurant on every radio station in the country. Maybe Alro Guthrie could do a special version? After all, we wouldn't have folk music if Intellectual Property had always been in the current state, and we sure as hell won't have any new folk music. Saving folk music would be good PR, after all, what's more wholesome than folk music?
Of course I think RXC should take the lead
You do have to wonder about the effectiveness of this. Could we also bring reason to the war on drugs if we all sparked up joints outside the DEA offices in DC?
You can get, all the freedom you want, at Alice's Restaurant.
Re:It's a movement! (Score:2, Informative)
"...And creating a nuisance."
And they all came back, shook my hand, and we had a great time on the bench, talkin about crime, mother stabbing, father raping, all kinds of groovy things that we was talking about on the bench.
http://www.arlo.net/lyrics/alices.shtml [arlo.net]
Re:It's a movement! (Score:3, Funny)
Mother rapers.
Father stabbers.
Father rapers!
Father rapers sitting right there on the bench next to me! And
they was mean and nasty and ugly and horrible crime-type guys sitting on the
bench next to me. And the meanest, ugliest, nastiest one, the meanest
father raper of them all, was coming over to me and he was mean 'n' ugly
'n' nasty 'n' horrible and all kind of things and he sat down next to me
and said,
"Kid, whad'ya get?"
I said, "I didn't get nothing, I had to pay $50 and delete my mp3's."
He said, "What were you arrested for, kid?"
And I said, "Trading Mp3's".
And they all moved away from me on the bench there, and the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things, till I
said,
"And creating a nuisance."
And they all came back, shook my hand, and we had a great time on the bench, talkin about crime, mother stabbing,
father raping, all kinds of groovy things that we was talking about on the bench.
Slashdot in a nutshell (Score:3, Insightful)
In a way I agree.... (Score:5, Interesting)
all one will really accomplish here is get fined, possibly have their equipment conficated...
and end up with a criminal record, this will not change anything...!
The Question becomes what will change things...?
What I think...give this issue about another year or so and its going to start to divide people....
Digital Rights are going to end up being an issue like Abortion rights, what I would like to see is it reach the level of slavery. We all know what happened then, and while I don't advocate that kind of outcome, not by a long shot...I think it needs to reach that kind of level of awareness in peoples minds.
The corporations need a wake up call....
Organize a strike against the offices of big music/movie studios...block the entrances so they can't go to work, and produce thier wares then they will start to listen...you have to impact the bottom line in ways that have a public eye showing. No Vilolence people...I can't stress that enough, just protest.
You can't win through boycott either, because little suzy's parents are always going to buy her the next Disney DVD no mater what the issues...
Is Cringely trying to get arrested? (Score:2, Insightful)
Unfortunately, law enforcement officials don't have a sense of humor. IANAL, but I believe he is inciting to commit a crime, and incitement to (food) riot too. OTOH, it would be a great publicity stunt to get arrested.
There is a good chance his next column will be entitled:
or evenSelective Enforcment (Score:5, Insightful)
No, when the speed limit was 55 and everyone drove 70, the police could pull over anyone they disliked. They didn't try to pull over everyone all at once. But speed limits are very different than copyright laws. When some of us started driving 55 (I kept right), the road became dangerous and they had to raise the limit.
The DMCA is only selectively enforced already. We can't make them enforce it.
Re:Selective Enforcment (Score:2)
The reason we finally got rid of the silly speed limits is because in 1994, after 40 freakin' years, folks were fed up enough about a few things to toss the Democrats out of congress on their on their collective deaf ear.
One of the very first thing the freshman Republicans did was present the pres with a bill removing federal speed limits & at the time the pres was so intimidated (completely freaked really) by what had happened in in the elections that he signed it.
I have no great love of either party, but that is what happened.
This is not Civil Disobedience (Score:5, Insightful)
The best way to explain civil disobedience is with the words of Thoreau himself:
"If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth. Certainly, the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring or a pulley or a rope or a crank exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy is worse than the evil. But if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another then I say break the law . Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I must do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn."
Obviously, not being able to copy movies surely doesn't constistute as making you "the agent of injustice to another." Instead of breaking the law, go out and vote for god's sake. How many of everyone hear complaining has 1) voted in the previous presidental and congressional elections and 2) attempted to educate fellow voters about the evils of laws like this?
If you really care, do something about it. Don't try to pretend that you are doing something about it by breaking the law.
Principles at work here (Score:4, Insightful)
A fine idea, but not necessarily the moral one:
Something the **AA and all artists should keep in mind, for it is a battle we are losing ground to on many fronts:
With my luck... (Score:5, Funny)
BlackBolt
Don't break the law. (Score:2)
You're presuming enlightened self interest... (Score:2, Insightful)
If their sales go down, for any reason, they'll blame file sharing. The notion that people just don't want their crap will never occur to them.
What we need is for artists and consumers to bypass the IP oligarchs entirely. Don't sign that contract! Give away free samples over the Internet, of low fidelity. Sell tickets for live performances. Works for the Dead.
The real problem (Score:5, Insightful)
"But don't blame me for it. Most readers had never heard of BayTSP and had no idea how the DMCA was enforced until last week's column, "
We talk about the DMCA just about weekly here and in other forums, never seen by mainstream Americans. When
If we want to change the DMCA, we need to start talking to mom, dad and the neighbors. They need to understand that shortly they will be buying a CD of their favorite music that will only play on registered devices. That these devices will require replacement on a regular basis and they will will be paying for it. That the DVD they bought their grand-daughter forces her to watch more commericals before she can seen her movie, than a network Saturday morning. That the networks consider video taping programs theft and are working on making it illegal to fast forward through commericals and the device will prevent it and keeping the current vcr will not be an option.
They are soon going to hear Britney Spears tell them that downloading songs is a crime. They are going to hear it on TV and they are going to believe it is a crime (the distinction of ownership, and fair use is not going to be made by RIAA or MPAA).
We need Americans to start looking at the DMCA, the RIAA and the MPAA with the same eye they used when the tabacco companies told us "Smoking is not addictive." We need to do just as much to show them that if they are not concerned, their representatives will go to the mine and leave them with the shaft.
I'll Start (Unless Somebody Has Beat Me To It) (Score:2)
Also, I have upwards of 10 illegal mp3s. (However, they're mixed in with all the legal ones and I don't know if I could find them again.)
Arrest Me! I want my trial! I want my one phone call!
Valuation (Score:2)
Ahem, the definitive answer is: Priceless
Disagreement (Score:5, Insightful)
This follows the simple principal that if you or I drive 100 miles-per-hour on the highway, we get a ticket, but if EVERYONE drives 100 miles-per-hour, they change the speed limit.
Quite simply, no they don't. When I drive down the road going 80 miles per hour where I live, which everyone does, does a cop simply shrug and decide that since everyone is doing it, it's okay.
NO! What the cop instead does is pull over an individual person to use to set as an example. Such an example never works, but the police do this simply for the point of collecting money.
Same with the music industry, same with the music industry. There's no way they'll ever be able to stop people completely from pirating stuff. Instead, they make examples out of people, and force them to be fearful that, they too, might be caught in the end.
Cringley is looking back on prohibition (although he doesn't site it) most likely as an example. Since people still had alcohol anyway, let's make it legal again. WRONG! The point of making Alcohol legal again wasn't so much out of frustration of stopping it as to deflate the mafia's cash cow.
The only similarity I could see in that is passing a law like this to deflate companies like Napster and Kazaa. Kazaa is still around though, much like the mob, even though the law deflated them.
I love his idea though. I'd love it if everyone reported themselves, demanded a trial by jury, etc. But it's NOT going to happen. And even if it did, what's the implication of it?
If every husband beat his wife, would the overwhelming rampant crime of this nature become legal? No! Because the whole point of this country involves creating laws that protect the minority.
It might sound odd, but in the case of the RIAA fighting millions of people, the RIAA is the little guy here. One little guy vying for a little too much power.
I don't see the minds of congressmen changing ever. The only way for this to be resolved is to convince organizations like these that it is in their best interest not to bite down so hard with laws like these. Maybe then, without a fighting force to keep a law like this alive, it will crumble.
I welcome lucid and informative reponses. And I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong on these points.
Image is everything (Score:5, Insightful)
You cannot and will not get the PR and imagery of the 60's with the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam Protestors. Accept it and move on.
Today, DC was scheduled to be 'shut down' by IMF protestors. In the preceeding week, thanks to the media's constant drumming the the Chief's press conferences, John and Jane Public consider the protestors to be a big annoyance while driving to work, and thanks to the police for keeping those nasty people from disrupting my work routine.
If Cringley's so-called mass protest is pulled off, I suspect that the authorities will use the media to pass along the mantra: "These are hackers. These are thieves. These are bad people. We put bad people away."
Well (Score:4, Insightful)
Illegal Laws (Score:2, Interesting)
So it seems to me that Cringely is suggesting thay you demonstrate to your legal system that the DMCA is just such a frivolous law.
Sounds like a good idea, but difficult to co-ordinate...
Copying a movie is not a violation of DMCA (Score:5, Insightful)
Sending all your friends a copy of DeCSS would be such violation. Or giving people on the street floppies with DeCSS - this one would be more public and likely to get some media and authorities' attention, which is the goal.
Correct, but... (Score:2)
Someone please post (Score:3, Funny)
Honest-P2P (Score:5, Interesting)
It would be such a massive wave of honesty that their mail server would probably collapse.
We're going to jail! Any volunteers?? (Score:2)
Meanwhile, the rest of you bastards would take one step back!
Shit! I fell for the oldest trick in the book!
Well, better start practicing my Kung Fu so that I can "pitch" instead of "catch" in prison
T
T
Finally! and thank GOD (Score:3, Interesting)
I can't believe how many people actually try to treat copyrights like some kind of enlightened incentive property right. What a bunch of garbage - what if I came along and said "There is no incentive to grow cotton without slave properties, c'mon - don't you care about the farmers? If you free them, you're a dirty little thief!
Disobedienceware? (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps someone should write a Windows trojan that pops up a dialog box explaining the situation (and consequences) with "click Ok to engage in civil disobedience". The application would download some unauthorized digital content, then print the "Turning Yourself in to The Authorities" HOWTO.
Protesting DMCA vs protesting copyright (Score:5, Insightful)
Cringely is correct - fight for your freedoms (Score:2, Informative)
D'oh! (Score:2)
My trial is next week....
The problem of stupid laws is lack of democracy (Score:4, Informative)
A democracy should be a government of the people, by the people, for the people, as Lincoln put it. The US have gone quite a long way since then. It has gotten a government of the people, by the industry, for the economy.
Of course, the economy is very important. The primary needs of people are food and shelter. If those can be most efficiently provided by a healthy economy, and if a healthy economy can best be established by private companies that only need to act in the monetary interests of their shareholders, then humanity has found a nice trick to profit from greed instead of suffering from it, and it can be said that it is indeed in the best interest of the people to create a legal system that supports those institutions of canalized greed.
But greed in itself only respects the law of the jungle, and does not value democracy's principle of every citizen's vote being equally important. Instead of 'one man, one vote', private enterprise works according to the principle of 'one dollar, one vote', and where the dollar comes from, it really matters not.
Therefore, a democracy cannot work by allowing the economy's fuel, greed, to flow unchecked, because the even distribution of power among all people would merely become an even distribution of power among all people of equal wealth. And if democracy does not choose to distribute wealth evenly, its only other choice is to minimize the power of the wealthy over the poor.
To stay a democracy, I think that a government must at least respect these two laws: 1. guard the freedom and the vote of all citizens against the concentrations of (economic) power in society, and 2. serve the (economic) interests of the people, but only where that doesn't conflict with the first law.
The ordering principles of the economy do not lead toward democracy, they lead away from it. Democracy and economy can co-exist, but only if the former is in charge. It kills itself if the economy becomes more than means to an end.
The USA is definitely heading away from democracy, and it's not hard to see why. People who haven't heard from you won't vote for you. Reaching people through mass media costs money, even for politicians, so the politicians with the most money can reach the most people. In the US, that money may come from donations by private entities, making politicians susceptible to the obligations that tend to come with gifts. Of course, the bigger the gifts, the bigger the obligations.
Therefore, the system already leans towards 'one dollar, one vote', instead of actively working against it, as a democracy should, in order to maintain itself. Every law that favours existing economic interests at the cost of the freedom of the individual citizen is evidence of that. We know the DMCA and the CBDTPA as particularly painful examples, but they may not be the only ones.
The only way to defend our freedom is to fight for real democracy, the 'one man, one vote' type, and against its perverted brother, the 'one dollar, one vote' type. We can only do that only if we take every step necessary to remove the influence of money from the government.
Power alone already corrupts enough. Let's not add money to it!
Cringley Wants You To Risk Being Raped (Score:4, Informative)
It's been all over the news lately. [aegis.com]
Lonely Mission Stephen Donaldson Wants to Stop the Sexual Abuse of Inmates by Inmates
Chicago Tribune (CT) - FRIDAY, June 23, 1995
In a comfortable downtown Chicago restaurant, Stephen Donaldson is suddenly silent, his face turning a deep red, his eyes staring at nothing. Donaldson is trying to describe something so horrible, so sickening, so painful that it almost destroyed him.
It is very difficult for me to talk about it, Donaldson says, taking a deep breath and pushing away his plate. This is a good way to lose an appetite.
It began Aug. 9, 1973, when Donaldson--by then a college graduate, Navy veteran, journalist and Quaker pacifist--participated in a pray-in at the White House on the 28th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan.
Donaldson was arrested for trespassing and sent to the Washington, D.C., jail, where he refused on moral grounds to post a $10 bond. Donaldson believed the bail system discriminated against poor people and minorities.
At first, Donaldson was housed in a section of the jail reserved for older and non-violent detainess. He spent an uneventful week playing chess and talking with other inmates.
But Donaldson said jail officials began pressuring him to pay his bail and get out. I refused, Donaldson recalled. I said I was going to stay until trial.
Soon after, Donaldson was transferred into the jail's general population--something officials evidently hoped would force Donaldson to pay the bail. Almost immediately, a young inmate who introduced himself only as Baseball approached Donaldson and said a group of inmates wanted to talk to him about his politics.
Not suspecting any threat, Donaldson followed Baseball into the inmate's cell. Eight men were waiting for him.
They blocked the exit and told me to take my pants off, Donaldson recounted. I said, 'Like hell.' They picked me up and began ramming my head against the iron railing of the top bunk. They sat me down on the toliet seat and Baseball stood in front of me.
Baseball ordered Donaldson to perform oral sex. Donaldson refused. He started punching me, Donaldson said. There just wasn't any way out. I was totally surrounded. I was terrified. They said if I said anything about it, they would kill me. At that point I gave in.
Donaldson was forced to have oral sex with Baseball. A second inmate demanded anal intercourse. When Donaldson refused, the inmate tore off Donaldson's pants, shoved a pillow over his head so that he couldn't scream and raped him. It was excruciatingly painful, said Donaldson.
For the next four hours, several dozen inmates dragged Donaldson from cell to cell raping him.
Baseball collected two packs of cigarettes from each inmate who raped Donaldson. That was the price of sex in the D.C. jail. This is just the way we welcome new kids on the first night, one of the rapists told Donaldson.
You won't have to go through all this again. The inmate lied. The next night Donaldson was gang-raped again. It was devastating psychologically, says Donaldson, his voice almost inaudible. It seemed like I was going to spend the rest of my life . It was like the end of all hope.
Donaldson managed to escape his attackers and run to the nearest guard post, where he collapsed. The next day, after posting bail and being released, Donaldson held a press conference to tell the world about what had happened to him.
Since then, Donaldson hasn't stopped talking about the problem of prison rape, which he estimates affects more than 300,000 inmates each year at juvenile centers, adult jails and prisons nationwide.
As president of the New York City-based Stop Prisoner Rape--the nation's only advocacy group dedicated to the problem--Donaldson speaks to state legislators, law school students, psychologists, private attorneys, correctional officials, talk show hosts and just about anyone else who will listen.
Working out of his New York apartment on a shoestring budget, Donaldson corresponds with about 300 inmate victims of sexual assault and wrote a friend of the court brief in a landmark 1994 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that holds correctional officials liable if they fail to protect inmates against sexual assault. Donaldson also helped put together two groundbreaking audio tapes and manuals used in prisons to educate inmates and correctional officers about prison rape.
Hitting rock bottom
For Donaldson, it's been a lonely, difficult and bitter personal struggle. Donaldson, 48, has been imprisoned four times since his first jailing and raped repeatedly during each incarceration.
He dropped out of two graduate schools, bagged a promising journalism career and drifted from one job to another. He was briefly homeless, arrested twice for drug possession, started carrying a gun, and suffered through alternative bouts of rage, paranoia, helplessness and depression.
For years, Donaldson said his whole body would shake uncontrollably for no apparent reason. He suffered panic attacks when there were a lot of men around. He has suffered chronic insomnia and he attempted suicide in 1977.
Donaldson hit rock bottom in 1980 when he fired a handgun in the emergency room of a New York City hospital after he was denied treatment for a cut on his hand. Nobody was hurt, but Donaldson was convicted of assault with intent to commit murder and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.
He was released after serving four years, started therapy for rape trauma syndrome and eventually became a rape counselor. Donaldson also intensified his efforts to publicize the problem of prison rape--something he describes as his mission in life.
But that, too, has been a difficult and frustrating experience.
Despite the publicity his case initially generated--hearings were held in the District of Columbia City Council in the early 1970s--Donaldson says his words have fallen mostly on deaf ears. The D.C. jail guards, who he alleges allowed him to be raped, were never punished. And Donaldson can't remember how many letters he's written about prison rape to politicians and prison officials that were never answered.
The public also hasn't been too interested in inmates being sexually abused behind bars. And correctional officials nationwide tend to downplay sexual assault in prison, saying that sex behind bars is rare and more often than not consensual.
I don't want to minimize the problem, but I think that the number is relatively low, says Tom Metzger, speaking for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which runs 81 institutions with about 97,000 inmates. There are a number of individuals who suggest that this is a much greater problem than we think it is.
But research tends to support Donaldson's contention that prison sexual assaults are not infrequent. A 1982 study found a 14 percent sexual assault rate in one California prison, while a 1984 study reported that 28 percent of the inmates in six New York state prisons had been the target of sexual aggression at least once.
A 1994 study found that 22 percent of male inmates at three Nebraska prisons reported they had been pressured or forced into sexual contact ranging from grabbing the genitals to oral or anal sex. Only 29 percent of the Nebraska inmates who had been sexually assaulted said they reported the incident to prison staff, the study found.
This problem needs to be addressed, said Donaldson, who held a series of meetings in Chicago in May. Even those members of the public who don't care about the humane treatment of prisoners need to understand that prison rape is a serious public safety issue.
The rape system is an assembly line which takes young, non-violent newcomers and efficiently fills them with rage and a desire for revenge and then deposits them on our doorsteps, Donaldson added. If they've also been infected with HIV, we've given them a death sentence which they in turn will spread. That will come back to haunt us all.
---
Criminiologists say prison rape has been around as long as there have been prisons. It has nothing to do with sex. It's an act of aggression, power and control.
The whole idea is to force someone--to take away someone's manhood, said Wayne Wooden, who co-authored the California study and is coordinator of the Criminal Justice and Corrections program at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, Calif.
Wooden said that new inmates usually are targeted by sexual predators within three days of the newcomers' arrival in prison. The predators, called jockers or studs, primarily go after young, attractive, heterosexual men.
Most of the victims are non-violent offenders who are unfamiliar with the Darwinian rules that govern life behind bars, criminologists say. And most of the targeted inmates are not affiliated with powerful street gangs that dominate life inside many prisons.
Wooden says that unless the targeted inmate fights back and wards off the attack, he will get a reputation that he can be taken and he will be victimized. Predators also use a variety of tricks to lure weaker inmates into sexual relationships.
As soon as a fish walks into prison, all the normal issues of survival come to the forefront, said Michael Mahoney, president of the John Howard Association, a Chicago-based prison watchdog group. Weaker inmates have to hook up with stronger inmates or with a gang and part of that may be for sex. In other situations, they just decide they are going to rip you off for sex.
The perfect target
In many ways, Donaldson was the perfect target. A middle class kid born into a military family in Norfolk, Va., Donaldson was valedictorian of his high school class in Long Branch, N.J., and a graduate of Columbia University.
Before he was jailed in D.C., Donaldson had had only one brush with the law: He had been jailed for one night in 1968 after being arrested for trespassing during an anti-war protest at Columbia. Donaldson was also very spiritual, placing his trust in God to protect him.
I was very naive. I wasn't prepared for anything monstrous like that, said Donaldson, referring to his jailhouse rape. I knew that there were fights in jail, but I had never heard about gang rape.
Inmate Michael Blucker also says he wasn't prepared for what happened to him at Illinois' maximum-security Menard Correctional Center. Blucker, who filed a lawsuit last month in federal court against the Illinois Department of Corrections, alleges he was repeatedly raped by gang members between May, 1993, and April, 1994.
Blucker says he contracted the HIV virus, which causes AIDS, after being sexually assaulted--and that corrections officers failed to protect him even after he reported the attacks. A former resident of Crystal Lake, Blucker is incarcerated at the Dixon Correctional Center and is serving a 10-year sentence for residential burglary and automobile theft.
I became a gang slut, said Blucker, 25, in a telephone interview. I became my cellie's sex slave. He sold me for cigarettes, coffee, sometimes for nothing. You can't get over something like this. Everyday I think about it. Everyday I dream about it.
Blucker, a non-gang member, said the first rape occurred several days after his arrival at Menard when three gang members cornered Blucker in his cell, brandished homemade knives and wrapped an electrical cord around his neck. In another incident, several inmates beat Blucker over the head with bricks before gang-raping him in the shower room.
I didn't do nothing unless my gang member told me to, Blucker said. I feared for my life. I'd seen what they had done to other gang members. I wanted to come home alive, not in a box.
Howell of the Illinois Department of Corrections refused to comment on Blucker's lawsuit. But Richard Ahmad, executive director of the Prison Action Committee, a Chicago-based group that aides ex-cons, said it is highly likely that Blucker could have been sexually assaulted.
The officers often leave the cellhouses totally unattended, said Ahmad, who served 17 years in six state prisons--including Menard--for murder. The guards really don't have control over the cellhouses now.
A. Nicholas Groth, a Florida psychologist who has worked in the Massachusetts and Connecticut prison systems counseling victims of sexual assault, said the most traumatized rape victims are inmates like Donaldson.
In Donaldson's case, he was not a hardened criminal who had adopted that value system and lifestyle, Groth explained. To him, it would have been much more devastating psychologically than someone whose life has been marked by abuse, neglect, mistreatment, and institutionalization.
---
Donaldson is walking down Michigan Avenue and people are staring at him. With his Lincolnesque beard, thick glasses and white baseball hat that reads, Stop Prisoner Rape, Donaldson does not fit into the crowd. He looks and acts like an outsider. Rape does that to a person, Donaldson explains.
You feel alienated from everybody around you, said Donaldson. I became extremely alienated from all power structures. Rape is ultimately a power issue. I started feeling like an outlaw--being outside the shelter and protection of the law.
In recent years, Donaldson has sought spiritual solace in the Buddist and Hindu religions. And he has found an outlet for his anger and rage in the punk scene, where Donaldson spends most weekends listening to jarring music and slam-dancing. He writes for several alternative music magazines under the byline Donny The Punk.
But like many survivors, it is Donaldson's cause--stopping prison rape--that has given him a reason to continue living in a world that has brought him so much pain and suffering. With an IQ of 180 and boundless energy, Donaldson has become a walking encyclopedia on the issue on sexual assault.
I don't know anybody who is more knowledgeable about this issue both intellectually and through experience, said Fay Honey Knopp, former director of the Safer Society, a Vermont-based group that hired Donaldson to produce the audio tapes and manual about sexual assault in prisons.
During his two-day Chicago visit, Donaldson was in perpetual motion. He spoke to the Chicago Sun-Times' and Chicago Tribune's editorial boards, held a press conference with Michael Blucker's mother and the mother of another alleged Illinois prison rape victim and talked to psychologists at the Midwestern Psychological Association meeting.
He also met with a dozen private attorneys, American Civil Liberties Union officials, Mahoney of the John Howard Association, and State Rep. Cal Skinner (R-Crystal Lake), who is sponsoring legislation requiring state prison officials to inform new inmates how to avoid and prevent sexual assault, provide literature and tapes to inmates on rape and rape trauma and allow access by rape crisis counselors to inmate victims.
The bill, which Skinner says has little chance of being approved by legislature this year, also would require all prison officials to receive training on how to identify and prevent prison rape, and require guards notify the warden when they recieve a report about an actual or threatened sexual assault.
Donaldson supports the legislation, though he doesn't believe it goes far enough.
He is encouraging lawyers in Illinois and nationwide to file class action suits against correctional officials to force them to house weaker inmates away from sexual predators. Donaldson also wants prisons and jails to distribute condoms to inmates to slow the spread of AIDS behind bars.
It's an ambitious agenda. Donaldson is doing most of the heavy lifting himself. But Donaldson feels optimistic.
I feel like I am finally able to get something done, said Donaldson. To feel that somebody is listening to me, that gives me self-confidence. I don't feel as vulnerable as I used to.
CAPTION: PHOTO: Stephen Donaldson, president of Stop Prisoner Rape, estimates that more than 300,000 inmates are abused each year. Tribune photo by Walter Kale.
Prison Sex (Score:3, Insightful)
But massive public displays of pot smoking in the 60s didn't do much for reforming the laws. Civil disobedience may be overrated. All that happens is the cops make their quota going after the minorities and the poor - those without the political connections to give them trouble over it.
It really won't work ... (Score:3, Funny)
I have a friend of a friend who's a city cop here (Tallahassee, FL -- state capital). After reading the article, it occurred to me: so what would an everyday cop walking the beat (she actually has a cruiser, but that's beside the point) actually say if something like this came up.
Anyway, I e-mailed the friend and asked whether or not the cop was online. I don't know her well enough to just "barge in" (odd that I felt the need to confess POLITELY to a federal crime, but I digress). Turns out she is, so I left my e-mail addy and screen name with the friend. I'd pretty much forgotten about it until later tonight when a message window opened. To make a long story short, my confession went something like:
"I recently used my laptop to watch The Matrix. Since I run Linux, I was forced to use an illegal decryption algorithm in order to watch it. It's my DVD, though. I bought it when it first came out. Anyway, if you guys want to arrest me I can give you my address."
I really think she thought I was some kind of nutcase. But she was polite. "Why was that illegal," she asked, "if you own the movie?"
I explained, briefly, and gave the spiel about "circumventing protection schemes".
She said, "You bought the movie. Watch it however you want, just don't copy it and sell it outside the mall." Kind of an inside joke, since a modest-sized music-pirating ring was busted here a while back. They were burning illegal CDs and selling them openly at swap meets and the like. Why? Because, for months, the cops apparently had NO CLUE they had an obligation to do anything about it. Or maybe they just didn't care until someone lit a fire under them. Who knows.
I finally asked: "Aren't you going to arrest me? I'm guilty of, I dunno, dozens of violations of federal law. I wouldn't even know how to guess how many times I've gotten bored and thrown a DVD onto my laptop."
She gave me an LOL and said, "I don't know what would be more stupid. You trying to get arrested for something like that, me for being willing to do the paperwork over something like that, or any prosecutor who'd stop doing his job to go after you for it."
I guess the city cops haven't been briefed properly on the finer points of cybercrime, so people like me could happily watch The Matrix illegally on the courthouse steps and the Powers That Be would just smile and keep on walking.
In the tiny little town where I grew up, my uncle was the sheriff
Interestingly enough, the conversation went on for quite a while after that. Seems she was intrigued by Linux. She's currently using Windows ME,that steaming piece of crap someone at Microsoft decided, for whatever reason, to call an operating system. How the same company that created Windows2000 could create THAT is beyond me. Anyway, as converts go, ME users are generally an easy sell. It's not like things can get any worse, right? Maybe I can get her to convert
Re:Just Don't Buy (Score:2)
Boycotts rarely serve anything aside from addressing people's own moral qualms about whatever they are boycotting. The fact is that most people in America don't believe that file sharing should be legal for anyone but themselves. They have no concept of the implications of copyright law down the road, they just want themselves to get music/movies/whatever without having to pay for it. Simple as that. There are some who have reasoned arguments about why the laws are asinine, but we are in the minority.
I have nothing against boycotts, but people seem to believe that they are more powerful tools than they really are in most cases. You're not going to get enough people to sign on to this to make it effective.
What will really help is to spend your time seeking out the non-RIAA labels and small artists releasing their own works. Places like ampcast.com, where the artists make more of the rules for themselves. Look for indie filmmakers in your area and go to a showing at the local arthouse theater. See some foreign movies. That will move your dollars in a visible way away from a distribution method you are opposed to, to one you believe in, and help out your struggling artist for the day.
Re:Just Don't Buy (Score:2)
Little Suzy, wants the latest Disney Video, and her parents are going to buy it for her no matter what...
The only way to stop the problem is at the root, protect the company's themselves, block the entrances and don't let them go to work so they can't produce the video in the first place....
Re:Just Don't Buy (Score:2)
Re: You do sound like a terrorist . (Score:2)
some one needs to take out BayTSP, or at least a couple people over there. Take one for the rest of us
Man, are you mad ? You are soliciting for a murder ! even if this was not a major felony (and rightly so !), Do you really think the DMCA is worth taking a man's life in cold blood ?
These guys at BayTSP, snivelling little moral wretches that they are, have families, parents, wives you suggest to widdow, children you wish to orphan. Think about the consequences of what you say !
You do sound like a terrorist. The real, fanatic, psichopathic kind. I hope it's because you wrote w/o thinking, not because you really are. Humanity has far too many of those.