Charlie Stross wrote:
>
> On Mon, Sep 10, 2001 at 09:24:20AM +1000, Russell Blackford wrote:
> >
> > >Why does this
> > >whole subject make me think of how they are trying to control "g*ns"?
> >
> > I have no idea.
> :
> > I am finding it difficult to think of even one person whom I know off this
> > list with whom I could use such an analogy to suggest that the proposed
> > legislation is a *bad* thing.
>
> Let me go further: the FASTEST way to build public support for
> draconian legislation of this type in the UK would be to somehow
> link DRM circumvention tools to handguns in the public mind.
>
> Not saying there isn't a common factor in the mindset behind the
> clamp-down; just saying that to draw this out in public would
> be a very effective way of shooting ourselves in the [metaphorical]
> feet.
But I've often wondered which is a more effective political technique:
resisting something, with the result being that the resulting
legislation winds up somewhere in the middle, or else cheer it on and
push it so that it goes so far in the other direction that it is easily
thrown out as bad law by the courts, and the public changes its opinion
when their previous one is taken to its logical extreme.
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