[Wlug] [OT] ethics

[Mark Richards]

Hi Matt.

Matt Shields wrote:
> I haven't checked out CPSR, so I don't know what they are, but you
> can't enforce your beliefs on others.  This comes down to personal
> choice and where you want to work, or maybe working for the government
> is the only available choice at the time.  Some people have no problem
I agree.  What I was suggesting is the possibility for one or more 
people to make a statement as to where they choose to allow the fruit of 
their work to go, and/or how it is to be used.  That's not about 
enforcing beliefs, but about sharing (and refining) them.

The problem I have with open source licensing as it applies to this 
discussion I raised is that it does not discriminate as to use.  I had 
once posed the possibility of creating a modified license that would 
prohibit (any) government from using a certain work, but this is both 
way too complicated and of course begs the question as to exactly what 
in a project can be legally restricted in this manner.  After all, any 
project (including the one I am working on now) is comprised of a host 
of others, all bringing in license terms that do not have such a 
restriction.  Attorneys will be needed to figure out if the idea of a 
more restrictive version of a GPL is even possible.

> working for the government.  If you want to change how the government
> works because you don't like what they're doing, you elect officials
> to change policy and petition those officials to change things.  You
Well, I think that the effectiveness of the system itself is a whole 
other debate that would go way off topic here. :)  I do find the idea of 
a national referendum on important issues like blowing up other nations 
a pretty good idea.  Has immediacy.  But again, swaying way off here.

> don't come up with a society that boycotts working for the government
> because there's plenty of other people willing to take the job.
There are plenty of people.  But, as in organizations like Union of 
Concerned Scientists (the "concerned", I think, puts the intensity of 
the overall problem mildly), people have come together and made quite a 
difference.  If they hadn't tried then the issues they raise may well 
have remained in obscurity while scientists of conscience masked their 
understanding and "concern" with lots of rolaids.

/m