Re: [tlug] SCO's CEO McBride is visiting Japan

[Shimpei Yamashita <shimpei@example.com>]

On Fri, Jul 04, 2003 at 05:33:06PM +0900,
Brett Robson wrote:

> > http://www.eetimes.com/sys/news/OEG20030703S0026
> > 
> 
> Let's picket him!
> 
> "HAND OFF LINUX"

I have a better slogan:

"DON'T FEED THE TROLL"

What good will picketing accomplish?
1) Will it let SCO know how much we hate them? No--they already know that, and
   they couldn't care less.
2) Will it help educate the CELF members about SCO? No--they've presumably
   read the press, which should have already made them realize that SCO is a
   scumbag. What they really want to know, is not whether SCO is a sociopathic
   corporation--which it is--but whether it has the goods it claims it has.
   Picketing won't help with that.
3) Will it help Linux's perception with the public? No--picketing sysadmins
   will look like hippies on TV; McBride will probably look spotless in
   comparison. The picketers will have rambling printouts from Slashdot as
   press releases, if at all; McBride's will have have been vetted by
   a lawyer and PR firm, for sure, not to mention a spell checker. You'll look
   like complete idiots in comparison.   

Right now, SCO needs attention, and it also needs materials to discredit the
Linux community in any way it can. Just like the Usenet trolls of days long
gone. Picketing provides them with both, for free.

-- 
Shimpei Yamashita                               http://www.shimpei.org/
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?    -- Steve Wright