---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>

Date: Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 8:29 PM

Subject: Re: [csail-related] Stay away from the space between Koch and 32

It is certainly possible to be "too cautious". In the US, that's

standard practice. How else can one describe what they did today,

paralyzing an entire large metropolitan area to search one

neighborhood for a fugitive? In the US, just say the word "terrorist"

and lots of people start being way too cautious, and the TSA eats it

up.

Please don't promote fear of shadows. It was sheer luck that the

shootout occurred near this building. The bombers stole a car and

drove away, so evidently they had no plan to come into Stata. The

people who hacked the doors were probably MIT people. Maybe they

consider the pox locks an injustice, as I do (which is why this

particular lab member does NOT have the MIT pox card).

4 people killed in a week is not a lot compared with the background

level of deaths in the US. It's not as many as in the Texas

explosion. Car accidents in the US kill around 100 people a day, and

surely grievously injure hundreds more. Every death or injury is a

sad thing, but the fact is that many happen every day, and we should

not let these few upset us disproportionally more than the others.

Let's make an effort not to get bent out of shape about them, so that

we can resist when people try to cite them as an excuse for tyranny.

(This was already cited as a reason to vote for CISPA. See

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/house-passes-privacy-killing-cybersecurity-bill-despite-white-house-veto-threat.)

As this week shows, chemical plants are the bigger danger. It is

straightforward to reduce the danger if only we had the political will

to do it. MIT people might be able to develop better monitoring

technology for preventing these explosions -- it is one area in which

"the Internet of things" might do good without violating any human

being's privacy.

--

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.