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| 1 | ---------- Forwarded message ---------- | |
| 2 | From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> | |
| 3 | Date: Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 8:29 PM | |
| 4 | Subject: Re: [csail-related] Stay away from the space between Koch and 32 | |
| 5 | - | To: Brandon Cho <mhcho@csail.mit.edu> |
| 5 | + | |
| 6 | - | Cc: csail-related@csail.mit.edu |
| 6 | + | |
| 7 | standard practice. How else can one describe what they did today, | |
| 8 | paralyzing an entire large metropolitan area to search one | |
| 9 | neighborhood for a fugitive? In the US, just say the word "terrorist" | |
| 10 | and lots of people start being way too cautious, and the TSA eats it | |
| 11 | up. | |
| 12 | ||
| 13 | Please don't promote fear of shadows. It was sheer luck that the | |
| 14 | shootout occurred near this building. The bombers stole a car and | |
| 15 | drove away, so evidently they had no plan to come into Stata. The | |
| 16 | people who hacked the doors were probably MIT people. Maybe they | |
| 17 | consider the pox locks an injustice, as I do (which is why this | |
| 18 | particular lab member does NOT have the MIT pox card). | |
| 19 | ||
| 20 | 4 people killed in a week is not a lot compared with the background | |
| 21 | level of deaths in the US. It's not as many as in the Texas | |
| 22 | explosion. Car accidents in the US kill around 100 people a day, and | |
| 23 | surely grievously injure hundreds more. Every death or injury is a | |
| 24 | sad thing, but the fact is that many happen every day, and we should | |
| 25 | not let these few upset us disproportionally more than the others. | |
| 26 | Let's make an effort not to get bent out of shape about them, so that | |
| 27 | we can resist when people try to cite them as an excuse for tyranny. | |
| 28 | (This was already cited as a reason to vote for CISPA. See | |
| 29 | http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/house-passes-privacy-killing-cybersecurity-bill-despite-white-house-veto-threat.) | |
| 30 | ||
| 31 | As this week shows, chemical plants are the bigger danger. It is | |
| 32 | straightforward to reduce the danger if only we had the political will | |
| 33 | to do it. MIT people might be able to develop better monitoring | |
| 34 | technology for preventing these explosions -- it is one area in which | |
| 35 | "the Internet of things" might do good without violating any human | |
| 36 | being's privacy. | |
| 37 | ||
| 38 | -- | |
| 39 | Dr Richard Stallman | |
| 40 | President, Free Software Foundation | |
| 41 | 51 Franklin St | |
| 42 | Boston MA 02110 | |
| 43 | USA | |
| 44 | www.fsf.org www.gnu.org | |
| 45 | Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software. | |
| 46 | Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call |
