On Wed, 03 Apr 2002 11:15:55 +0530 Das Menon <dasmenon@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > At 03:54 AM 4/3/02, PCastro wrote: > > >One can accidentally become a "criminal" by just > >opening (reading) a weak "digital protected format" or > >"reverse disassembling/engineering" something > >not supposed to be digitally manipulated that way... > >(ah, just the "other" way...) > > I have wondered the extremes to which US goes, on one side the govt. > legislates laws that automatically makes one a criminal yet on the other > side, as far as I know, only the US constitution provides its citizens to > "bear arms against its govt.". I guess if enough citizens become "default > criminals", it is time to bear arms :-)) Unfortunately, the spirit of that part of the constitution has been somewhat watered down by both the legal interpretation of it meaning the right for a state to keep a militia (usually the "national guard" of a state), and by the NRA interpreting it to mean that citizens have the right to buy and use for recreation as many of whatever kind of weapon they desire. Typically, government struggle is between the rights of the nation vs. the rights of the state. Sometimes, and with increasing frequency, the rights of both the nation and the state trample the rights of the individual. Personally I'm a pacifist and don't believe that differences of opinion or belief, or business disputes, are worth killing or intimidating people over, or destroying economies over either. But sometimes i wish the various governments had more to fear from their respective populations. - Eric - Eric
