The constitutionality or appropriateness of the the
node in question is irrelelvant. What is relevant is that
any ambulance chasing MPAA/RIAA toady could place an injunction
on the Monestary and initiate an extensive and (for vroom)
expensive process that could, as merlyn suggests, lead to
the closure of the site. There have been many, well-documented
cases where the threat of litigation has been enough to
shut folks down.
I do not agree with this - it should be the content,
not the fear of litigation that
prompts
any
censorship.
Yes, we live in an imperfect world, but do you really think
that this site will get closed down for posting something
like this? The MPAA (or others) can send a letter from
their attorney "asking" PerlMonks to remove the code,
and we (TINW) would probably do so. If not, we
could always keep it and enlist slashdot in our defense
(PerlMonks has some friends in important places there).
To further play Devil's Advocate, shouldn't the very
links to the source code
be removed as well, as the MPAA has gone after mere hyperlinks,
as evidenced by the
2600 case? Shouldn't we
also remove all GIFS from the Monastery, in case they
were made with unlicensed GIF encoders? After all, this is
another corporation that is not afraid to go after
people on the web.
My point is yes, we should draw a line, but not
at this particular script. I also just noticed
that the node in question still has
the code in it (albeit in a "hidden" form), and if
that comment afterwards was by the original poster,
I concede that it was probably partly a political
statement.
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