[pp.int.general] Bullshit EU consultation

[Richard Stallman]

    then you also have the tools by which the beneficiaries of these 
    laws can ensure the maintenance of the laws - these are more generally 
    written in the european union and concern issues of evidence disclosure, 
    data storage, due process, who is able to request what at what time.

Enforcement measures for laws covered by this survey include things
like DADVSI, HADOPI, and the UK's Digital Economy Act.  Thus, the
presupposition that enforcement should be the same for all these laws
could lead to harsher measures for patent enforcement.

    you will have less space for making the legitimate objections to things 
    such as intermediary liability, undue processes, rule of law, etc. if 
    you maintain this point.

If there is a limit on length of responses, that pressures people to
go along with the presupposition.  If someone wants to respond, "For
copyright, ABC; for patents, XYZ," there may not be space for the two
responses.

Due to this factor, and because the presupposition pervades all the
questions, the survey's responses will tend to reflect the
presupposition.  Thus, any actions taken based on the survey will
tend to be bad.

This does not mean one should not answer.  Rather, it means that
answers should be designed to fight against the bad premises of the
survey.

    in the second instance, i find it highly problematic that we are giving 
    better rights to certain beneficiaries of specific laws than we give to 
    most citizens who are disadvantaged by other circumstances around them 
    (for instance).

That seems like a valid point.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St
Boston MA 02110
USA
www.fsf.org  www.gnu.org
Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software.
  Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call