Re: [tlug] OT: government getting ready to inspect your iPod, laptop without probable cause

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Scott Robbins writes:

 > Seems I read somewhere (on the Internet--it must be true) that he uses
 > FreeBSD.  :)

Go to his website, supposedly his server does.  Check to see if it
sports the devil logo.  :-)

 > Yuppers.  If people weren't so selfish and silly, a lengthy boycott of
 > all companies that support the DRM would probably end it.  However, no
 > one would give up their non-Indie music and movies for very long. 

Something like that.

 > Back to what Josh has said, as a couple of people wrote here, you don't
 > HAVE to give them the password, but they really are answerable to no one
 > at this point.

Realistically, the police almost never are answerable to anyone a a
given point in time, but they're (mostly) restrained by social custom.

The problem with La Migre, as with the BATF, is that the opponent is a
mythical secret society of vampires (you of all people should grok
that! :-) who can fly by night and are physically identical to regular
people, but have (in the eyes of the policy elite) the moral status of
"vermin".

 > Very scary, as well as sad.

Yeah.  At least for now.  My very strong feeling is that "this, too,
will pass."

Congress occasionally does get things pretty much right on the first
try (the Audio Home Recording Act is one, maybe it didn't go far
enough but given how sweeping it is it's hard to ask for more).

We can hope that with a Dem in the White House they'll get around to
reversing some of the really bad stuff.