Rich Morgan wrote:
>> Sufficient for Russia, not here. Visa/MasterCard have refused to honor
>> payments to allofmp3.com. The RIAA has filed a $1.65 trillion lawsuit
>> against them, and the existence of this website threatens to prevent the
>> entry of Russia into the WTO. See the Wikipedia article.
>
>
> I find it very fascinating that the Recording Industry Association of
> *America* is able to strong arm multinational companies like Visa into
> blocking payments to apparently perfectly legal Russian companies. I also
> find it very fascinating that the RIAA can coerce national governments
> into blocking other sovereign nations' attempts to join the World Trade
> Organization.
>
> Given these and the many other offenses committed against mankind by the
> RIAA/MPAA mafia, I'm really starting to have the opinion that anything
> they don't like is probably good for the consumer.
>
> Honestly, is this a perfect example of everything the Open Source
> community stands for, philosophically speaking? Freedom of choice against
> an abusive monopoly? I've never purchased anything from allofmp3.com but
> I'm seriously tempted to just because.
>
Please erase all traces of your having known me in your files. When they
bang on your door, I don't want them coming after me, too. ;-}
Big Law, Big Pharma, Big Grocery, etc. all influence the policies of all
nations. Not just American companies, and not just American policy. For
example, construction law and standards are almost completely formulated
by the construction industry to favor their own interests, regardless of
their effect on consumers. They have a bigger lobby than we do.
Open Source isn't really about freedom of choice *against* an abusive
monopoly. It's just about freedom of choice. It just so happens we have
the 900lb gorillas of monopolies in our back yard (Microsoft, Adobe),
making our jobs that much harder. It's kind of heartening to see how the
internet has empowered people to be a force for change outside of
organized lobbyists and corporate boardrooms. Now if we can just keep
the internet free....
Paul
-- Paul M. Foster ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
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