[lug] FSF plans Apple Genuis Bar "denial of service"

[Nate Duehr]

Jason Schaefer wrote:

> Nate - you are legitimately sounding like a crazed loon. 90% of what
> you say is not even justified by a response. 

Because they're true, or just because you don't like them?  Which?

> I hate to tell you this
> way but this is a LUG mailing list, your posts are getting a little
> agro and the appropriate place to post this would be on your blog.

I'm purposely sounding loony in reply to crazed loons who think DRM is 
about real human freedom.  Does any human need to watch a damn movie?

Even have a computer?

Want to "free" the world, move to Cambodia and save child sex slaves 
from their oppressors.

Go to Africa and help hungry people get food so they can fight warlords.

Perhaps even just take a homeless person right here in Denver into your 
home with your family.

But please... get a clue about what the important fights are.  We only 
have so much time in a lifetime, and DRM is not exactly a battle worth 
fighting.

Come on.  You gotta be kidding me right?

Here's some more sarcastic lunacy, if you like:

"OMG!  The movies!  Who will be able to watch them without buying a 
product that licensed the player?  Think of the CHILDREN!"

What a crock of crap.  Tying DRM to real Freedom battles lessens the 
sacrifices... real ones... made for real Freedom by many people.

There's plenty of people who need real Freedom a little worse than 
iPhone users need this crackpot movement to "help" free them by 
log-jamming the Genius Bar at a trendy computer store in the mall.

This is a made-up "movement" for bored kids in the 'burbs to act like 
they can have a say in what content providers make and how they 
distribute it, while the rest of the world doesn't care.

The top 2% of wealth holders in the world are squabbling over how they 
get their movies delivered to them, as if it's the most important thing 
in their day.  Whoop-dee-doo.

LOTS of people just want to watch a movie and don't mind if Apple and 
the MPAA put some code around it so you can't send it to other people.

In fact, I bet the vast majority of the people spending millions on 
entertainment every weekend, don't care and never will.  Movies are 
ENTERTAINMENT.  Music is ENTERTAINMENT.  Fight DRM on some other grounds 
that you can't see a freakin' movie on a PC and you have to buy an iPod, 
for God's sakes.  Come on.

I spent last weekend helping a group raise about $1000 for the USO.  It 
wasn't much, but it'll keep some bored, lonely people fighting for our 
real freedoms (the freedom to have this argument, even) a little more 
comfortable while they're away.

If these twits that want to stage this silly stand-in at Apple stores 
had a better clue about what real Freedom was and how it's won, they 
wouldn't care what Apple sells or does.  Apple's just a company.

Go fight real tyrany and then come back and see if you care about Apple 
or anyone else selling DRM'ed music, movies and TV shows.  My dad's a 
Vet, and friends of mine spent years in jungles being shot at for this 
country, I could go ask them if they give a damn about DRM.  I can 
already tell you the answer, though.

Read again carefully:  Don't like Apple doing it, don't buy.  Movies and 
music are far from the bottom of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.  People 
don't need Movies and Music in non-DRM'ed formats to survive.  Really.

Buy the CD, see the movie in a theatre, and put up a set of rabbit ears 
on your TV.  Don't buy Apple products.  You get all your "rights" back 
instantly.  Yay.

Want it distributed to your COMPUTER, a device that can easily copy it 
and send it on to others?  Bet your butt that the people sending it to 
you are going to try to protect it in some way, so you as the buyer 
don't do any copying to your friends and relatives (or the whole 
Internet).  Duh.

There's just no "battle" here other than in the minds of anti-DRM freaks 
trying to make it one.

They get the open-source/Linux crowd on their side because everyone 
RUNNING Linux thinks they're part of some grand movement of software 
Freedom because RMS is a crack-pot and they relate to him, or something.

(Not CREATING Linux, you note.  Just running it entitles one to a badge 
in the Freedom Brigade, according to RMS - I'm almost certain.)

They popped an install CD into their drive, loaded an OS, and filed a 
few bug reports and think they're "Freedom Fighters".

Marching to save the world from DRM, one stupid stand-in at one computer 
store at a time!  Yay!  Go Freedom Fighters Go!  Get us freedoms we 
don't care about.

Hell, want a real "white collar" Freedom Fight?  Want to help people 
have real Freedom in the U.S.?

Stand in front of the Apple store... hell, the whole mall entrance, and 
hand them out flyers about consumer debt.

Tell them who and how long they'll be enslaved to work for for the rest 
of their lives -- if they're going into to mall to buy things on credit 
that they can't afford.

(They won't care... because you know, when you sign up for bad mortgages 
because you can't read, the G'umb'mint will come and bail you out, at 
the expense of the rest of us.  Hey look, they just did!  So much for 
being responsible adults...)

Nate