OT Re:Make some profit from a killer.

[Ken Burtch]

On Wed, 2006-02-22 at 08:40 -0500, Ivan Avery Frey wrote:
> At the very least place OT in the subject heading.

This thread has wandered far from my original post.

> Walter Dnes wrote:
> > On Sun, Feb 19, 2006 at 07:16:00PM -0800, Christopher Browne wrote
> >> On 2/19/06, frankpeng-VsqqI1RANlHk1uMJSBkQmQ at public.gmane.org <frankpeng-VsqqI1RANlHk1uMJSBkQmQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> >>> This is a kind of moral issue not a legal issue.
> >>> In April, President Bush will shake hands with the killer from China. What
> >>> you say?
> >> I say that if I was interested in discussions about US politics, I'd
> >> head to a mailing list or newsgroup about US politics, rather than a
> >> mailing list purportedly about Linux.
> > 
> >   This was started off by a post bashing Google dealing with China.  I
> > was merely pointing out that some people were into "do as I say, not as
> > I do".  I'm willing to accept either of 2 compromises...
> > 
> >   1) If people can complain about Google dealing with a China that
> > imprisons without cause and tortures, the same complaints can be made
> > about the USA.
> > 
> >   2) If people don't complain about Google dealing with China, I won't
> > complain about Google dealing with the USA.
> > 
> >   I prefer solution 2), what about you?
> > 

Hello Walter,

To be fair, I never mentioned China in my original post, nor did I
mention imprisonment or torture.

Google has a history of hiding web sites based on outside pressure, not
because of internal values.  For example, giving into the pressure of
certain religious groups with high-priced lawyers to ban web sites that
object to those groups (Wired magazine, January 2003).  The incident
with China last month is not an isolated one, and it brings up shades of
former media kings like William Randolf Hurst who had the power to
control what people could see and hear, who could ruin personal careers
or entire companies at a word.

Don't make a comparison of personal convenience, about what has the
least impact on one's circumstances.  Think about it in bigger terms.
Using a deliberately unrealistic example, suppose Google decided to ban
all Linux sites because the U.S. government felt that Linux and open
source was "un-American" (as Microsoft described Linux).  So do we
complain to Google that Linux sites are unjustly banned and risk having
all of Canada being banned for being "un-American" for not participating
in the Iraq War?  Based on Google's track record, they have the ability
and are capable of doing something similar to this if they were
pressured enough.

It's easy to say "let it side" when Google's decision doesn't affect one
personally.  You mentioned China, torture and imprisonment...grounds for
having the TLUG website and the TLUG mailing list banned in China,
according to the Chinese government.

At the PegaSoft meeting last night, we discussed the Google issue (see
the minutes page).  Should Google be participate in corporate and
government cover-ups, an accessory to a crime, no matter how much money
was involved?  On Valentine's Day, protesters walked in front of
Google's office in Toronto because Google China banned discussion on the
oppression of their people.  Do we say to these people, "Sorry, you're
country is too small and your suffering is so far away.  If we
complained we won't be able to Google cnn.com?"  How petty is that?
Rather, shouldn't Google be standing up for these people, using its
influence to protect the right to talk about these issues openly?

So, no, I can't say I agree with your position.

Ken B.

-- 
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Ken O. Burtch                                     Phone: 905-562-0848
Author "Linux Shell Scripting with Bash"            Fax: 905-562-0848
http://www.pegasoft.ca                            Email: ken-8VyUGRzHQ8IsA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org
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