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This is an idiotic post. I run OpenDNS. If SOPA passes and I don't implement it, I will be sued out of existence. The 60 jobs I provide now, and the 60 jobs

by davidu 15y ago

This is an idiotic post. I run OpenDNS. If SOPA passes and I don't implement it, I will be sued out of existence. The 60 jobs I provide now, and the 60 jobs I'm hiring for, will vaporize. And there will be programmers who will do the work required to implement it. This is not the right way to fight laws. In fact, this is one of the Brocard's -- Dura lex, sed lex -- "The law is harsh, but it is the law." In other words, you must obey the law, even if it is wrong. You must work to change the laws if they are unjust.

imgabe 15y ago
I know that you, or rather your company, would be legally obligated to comply with the law. Your employees however, are not legally obligated to continue working for you if they disagree with what their job requires them to do. Indeed, you are not required to continue operating your company if the government requires that it operate in a way you deem unethical.
- davidu 15y ago
  Let me know when you want to get in touch with reality. This is SOPA. The government has done far worse. And the Internet will survive SOPA, just as it survived the DMCA. That doesn't mean it isn't horrible. It still needs to be stopped. That's why I went to DC to meet with congressmen to talk about how badly written and reckless it is, but you think I should destroy 120 jobs over it? I don't think so.
  - imgabe 15y ago
    Talking to Congressmen is great. I hope that it's sufficient to stop this. If it's not, then what? Is your position that it's just not really that bad? Or that whatever freedom we lose is less important than running your business? That's a valid position to take. Everyone is entitled to set their own priorities. Maybe they'll just go this far and stop, and that will be enough interference with the operation of the Internet. I'm sure plenty of people thought that was the case when the DMCA passed.
    - jim-greer 15y ago
      Clearly his position is that it's a horrible law. He's traveled to DC to fight it, which is more than the rest of us on this thread. But getting his business sued out of existence would be a futile, if noble, gesture. The law is technically simple to implement, and it's going to happen if it gets passed. This whole thread is a fantasy based on the misguided idea that implementing SOPA requires building some Great Firewall of America. It doesn't require that. It's just domain seizure, which already works alarmingly well. I'm all for engineers fighting, striking, etc. But we need to stop this law now, before it is passed.
jberryman 15y ago
> In other words, you must obey the law, even if it is wrong. You must work to change the laws if they are unjust. I appreciate your perspective, but your last paragraph is frankly absurd. Pretty much every hard-won progressive reform in America was gained through civil disobedience.
- davidu 15y ago
  You'll find that perspective (of which I strongly support) will overwhelmingly apply to individual criminal and constitutional matters, not laws like SOPA. civil disobedience of these sorts is just asking to get your ass legally handed to you.
  - ken 15y ago
    All civil disobedience is "just asking to get your ass legally handed to you". That's the whole point. You're intentionally breaking the law to show the injustice. Civil disobedients like Gandhi and King spent a lot of time incarcerated. In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, King wrote: "One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law."
  - CamperBob 15y ago
    This is a Constitutional matter.
civilian 15y ago
http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=469 http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=469 If you implement SOPA in OpenDNS a real patriot will make a truly open DNS system.

by davidu 15y ago

imgabe 15y ago

I know that you, or rather your company, would be legally obligated to comply with the law. Your employees however, are not legally obligated to continue working for you if they disagree with what their job requires them to do. Indeed, you are not required to continue operating your company if the government requires that it operate in a way you deem unethical.

davidu 15y ago
Let me know when you want to get in touch with reality. This is SOPA. The government has done far worse. And the Internet will survive SOPA, just as it survived the DMCA. That doesn't mean it isn't horrible. It still needs to be stopped. That's why I went to DC to meet with congressmen to talk about how badly written and reckless it is, but you think I should destroy 120 jobs over it? I don't think so.
- imgabe 15y ago
  Talking to Congressmen is great. I hope that it's sufficient to stop this. If it's not, then what? Is your position that it's just not really that bad? Or that whatever freedom we lose is less important than running your business? That's a valid position to take. Everyone is entitled to set their own priorities. Maybe they'll just go this far and stop, and that will be enough interference with the operation of the Internet. I'm sure plenty of people thought that was the case when the DMCA passed.
  - jim-greer 15y ago
    Clearly his position is that it's a horrible law. He's traveled to DC to fight it, which is more than the rest of us on this thread. But getting his business sued out of existence would be a futile, if noble, gesture. The law is technically simple to implement, and it's going to happen if it gets passed. This whole thread is a fantasy based on the misguided idea that implementing SOPA requires building some Great Firewall of America. It doesn't require that. It's just domain seizure, which already works alarmingly well. I'm all for engineers fighting, striking, etc. But we need to stop this law now, before it is passed.

jberryman 15y ago

> In other words, you must obey the law, even if it is wrong. You must work to change the laws if they are unjust. I appreciate your perspective, but your last paragraph is frankly absurd. Pretty much every hard-won progressive reform in America was gained through civil disobedience.

davidu 15y ago
You'll find that perspective (of which I strongly support) will overwhelmingly apply to individual criminal and constitutional matters, not laws like SOPA. civil disobedience of these sorts is just asking to get your ass legally handed to you.
- ken 15y ago
  All civil disobedience is "just asking to get your ass legally handed to you". That's the whole point. You're intentionally breaking the law to show the injustice. Civil disobedients like Gandhi and King spent a lot of time incarcerated. In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, King wrote: "One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law."
- CamperBob 15y ago
  This is a Constitutional matter.

civilian 15y ago

http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=469 http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=469 If you implement SOPA in OpenDNS a real patriot will make a truly open DNS system.