Cracking Down on P2P.

Is not good.

I as a user of Linux am very leery of the courts trying to shape the marketplace and this is what the RIAA is trying to do. Don't think this is going to stop those from using the Internet for nefarious purposes either. There are plenty of people out there running wide-open servers for anyone to find and log onto to (no need for cracking, as they are as open as secure as a screen tent).

This kind of government meddling in the market place has to be stopped. It has (admittedly it is just a matter of convenience) caused me grief. The other day Blackfive posted a report of how three humvees worth of MPs (and some were women to boot) kicked some terrorist tail in Iraq. They had a link to the video recovered from the ambushing terrorists and the video was in WMV format which if I understand correctly is some sort of MS standard. Since my system runs on Linux I don't have a viewer for the WMV format. No problem!

I hit up Google find a site that contains an X-Windows package to view WMV files. Guess what? It is shutdown! They can not distribute their code anymore due to patent litigation. This is why I hate MS, they do not publish their standards.

Don't think I support the lawsuits against MS anymore than lawsuits on behalf of MS.