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Re: GNU.org is down


From: David Steuber
Subject: Re: GNU.org is down
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 22:43:43 GMT
User-agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3.50

Bob Nelson <bnelson@nelsonbe.com> writes:

> David Steuber <david.steuber@verizon.net> wrote:
> > David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> >> What kind of people gleefully cause a considerable permanent damage to
> >> a charity instead of elsewhere "just" for the hope of monetary gains?
> >> I hope that they are found and dealt with in proportion to their
> >> crime and the impact it will have.
> 
> > The kind of people who deserve a disproportionately harsh punishment.
> 
> That type of attitude does not imply one of tolerance and understanding.
> It conveys an absolutist view of ``good'' and ``evil'' and ``right'' and
> ``wrong''.

OK, so I'm intolerant.  Suppose instead of breaking into a server and
doing who knows how much damage that people then have to spend
valuable time fixing, the miscreant instead took a sledgehammer to the
windshield of your car.  Would you not want at least compensation for
the damages and time to repair them?

> Rather than seek ``harsh punishment'' for those involved, it's more
> constructive to become aware of the motivation that led to the deed.
> Perhaps GNU needs to better covey its ideals.

I'm not sure I see this as constructive.  Suppose, hypothetically,
that the GNU and Debian servers were broken into by people
politically opposed to the GPL and Free software.  Understanding
their motives will not prevent them from doing so again.

For certain types of people retribution is the better course of
action.  Not everyone out there will listen to reason and admit that
what they did was not acceptable social behavior and undertake never
to do that sort of thing again.

Some people only understand force.

Also, it is possible that there are absolutes like 'good', 'evil',
'right', and 'wrong'.  Laws are often based on those concepts.  If
the general case of destruction of another person's property is not
wrong, then what is?

This is all off topic at this point, so I won't say anything further
here.

-- 
   One Emacs to rule them all.  One Emacs to find them,
   One Emacs to take commands and to the keystrokes bind them,

All other programming languages wish they were Lisp.


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