Live data from Hacker News

Jailbreaking Is Not A Crime

jailbreakingisnotacrime.org

51–59 of 59 posts

Re: Jailbreaking Is Not A Crime

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it doesn't work. These 'people' that they are trying to convince still have the same knee-jerk emotional reactions to the words, only now to our disadvantage. As the parent says: for a bunch of smart guys, we keep doing stupid things. Stubbornly, with the excuse that it 'should work'. It doesn't. It's preaching to the quire.

The saying is "preaching to the choir"[0]. :) _____ [0] http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/choir#Noun

The saying is also "preaching to the quire"[0]. :)

_________

[0]http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quire#Noun_2

Re: Jailbreaking Is Not A Crime

#52
post #45

This is why geeks should be required to run things past an English major before talking to normal human beings. If we call a thing "jailbreaking", we're going to be battling negative perceptions forever. We're trying to explain to people who really don't care that they should take time out of their day to help legalize something called "jailbreaking". The RIAA, MPAA and ESA would struggle to dream up a more dubious n…

Good point. I suggest "unlocking". It's a common term when it comes to switching networks "Oh my contract is up, I want to move to another phone network, but my phone that I paid for is locked!" Situations like that (moving phone networks) are commonly understood, and you can easily explain how locking is designed not to protect you, but to try to force you to buy a new phone.

Since you can already separately unlock and jailbreak phones, that would make matters very confusing.

Re: Jailbreaking Is Not A Crime

#53
post #45

This is why geeks should be required to run things past an English major before talking to normal human beings. If we call a thing "jailbreaking", we're going to be battling negative perceptions forever. We're trying to explain to people who really don't care that they should take time out of their day to help legalize something called "jailbreaking". The RIAA, MPAA and ESA would struggle to dream up a more dubious n…

Good point. I suggest "unlocking". It's a common term when it comes to switching networks "Oh my contract is up, I want to move to another phone network, but my phone that I paid for is locked!" Situations like that (moving phone networks) are commonly understood, and you can easily explain how locking is designed not to protect you, but to try to force you to buy a new phone.

> "Oh my contract is up, I want to move to another phone network, but my phone that I paid for is locked!"

Except jailbreaking != sim unlocking.

Re: Jailbreaking Is Not A Crime

#54

This is a basic freedom issue. The freedom to run software I control on devices I own allows me to be free in how I share and protect my own private information. Apple and Microsoft are trending toward making it more difficult and less legal to run alternative operating systems or unapproved 3rd party software on their platforms. It has to be fought tooth and nail. Fight it legally, and fight it with your pocketbook.

You also have the freedom to curtail your freedom when you sign a contract.

In many countries, the law states that many things cannot be signed away or agreed to, no matter how much you want to.

Re: Jailbreaking Is Not A Crime

#55

This is why geeks should be required to run things past an English major before talking to normal human beings. If we call a thing "jailbreaking", we're going to be battling negative perceptions forever. We're trying to explain to people who really don't care that they should take time out of their day to help legalize something called "jailbreaking". The RIAA, MPAA and ESA would struggle to dream up a more dubious n…

> before talking to normal human beings

This scared me and makes me feel as if we believe 'normal human beings' are party members from 1984.

> The sacred principles of Ingsoc. Newspeak, doublethink, the mutability of the past. He felt as though he were wandering in the forests of the sea bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was the monster. He was alone. The past was dead, the future was unimaginable. What certainty had he that a single human creature now living was on his side? And what way of knowing that the dominion of the Party would not endure for ever? Like an answer, the three slogans on the white face of the Ministry of Truth came back to him: War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

Re: Jailbreaking Is Not A Crime

#56
post #18

This is why geeks should be required to run things past an English major before talking to normal human beings. If we call a thing "jailbreaking", we're going to be battling negative perceptions forever. We're trying to explain to people who really don't care that they should take time out of their day to help legalize something called "jailbreaking". The RIAA, MPAA and ESA would struggle to dream up a more dubious n…

I'm not sure it's as bad as you think. The cell phone industry and the carriers are the ones who built the jail, and the inmate is you . It is probably worth making sure that nuance is communicated, but it's a powerful image. If you're not a criminal, why are you in jail?

> It is probably worth making sure that nuance is communicated

We live in an entirely nuance-free culture. We have an electoral campaign where candidates are being attacked for speaking basic French. Where an electorally significant percentage of the population believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11 and that Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim.

When the US government is unable to successfully impart basic factual knowledge, basing a political campaign on anything with the slightest element of ambiguity or nuance is madness.

Re: Jailbreaking Is Not A Crime

#57
post #55

This is why geeks should be required to run things past an English major before talking to normal human beings. If we call a thing "jailbreaking", we're going to be battling negative perceptions forever. We're trying to explain to people who really don't care that they should take time out of their day to help legalize something called "jailbreaking". The RIAA, MPAA and ESA would struggle to dream up a more dubious n…

> before talking to normal human beings This scared me and makes me feel as if we believe 'normal human beings' are party members from 1984. > The sacred principles of Ingsoc. Newspeak, doublethink, the mutability of the past. He felt as though he were wandering in the forests of the sea bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was the monster. He was alone. The past was dead, the future was unimaginable. W…

Collateral damage. Extraordinary rendition. Enhanced interrogation techniques. Surge. Undocumented workers. Obamacare. Death panels. Mis-speaking. Freedom fries.

We've actively regressed since McCarthy. The modern political vocabulary is dominated by doublespeak and thought-terminating cliche[1]. Most of the fundamental battle lines in American politics have long since been distilled into meaningless soundbite slogans, devoid of any real semantics.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_Reform_and_the_Psycholo...

Re: Jailbreaking Is Not A Crime

#58
post #45

This is why geeks should be required to run things past an English major before talking to normal human beings. If we call a thing "jailbreaking", we're going to be battling negative perceptions forever. We're trying to explain to people who really don't care that they should take time out of their day to help legalize something called "jailbreaking". The RIAA, MPAA and ESA would struggle to dream up a more dubious n…

Good point. I suggest "unlocking". It's a common term when it comes to switching networks "Oh my contract is up, I want to move to another phone network, but my phone that I paid for is locked!" Situations like that (moving phone networks) are commonly understood, and you can easily explain how locking is designed not to protect you, but to try to force you to buy a new phone.

The rhetorical shift needs to be greater, conjuring up different images than cages and locks. People put locks on things they own, they don't necessarily want to support people who can bypass them. I think things need to go in the direction of "completion" or "empowering"--bad choices themselves but grafting onto that connotation allows you to change the way the argument is structured as well. You are giving yourself a more complete access to your device by jailbreaking, rather than rebelling against an authority.

Re: Jailbreaking Is Not A Crime

#59
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> before talking to normal human beings This scared me and makes me feel as if we believe 'normal human beings' are party members from 1984. > The sacred principles of Ingsoc. Newspeak, doublethink, the mutability of the past. He felt as though he were wandering in the forests of the sea bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was the monster. He was alone. The past was dead, the future was unimaginable. W…

Collateral damage. Extraordinary rendition. Enhanced interrogation techniques. Surge. Undocumented workers. Obamacare. Death panels. Mis-speaking. Freedom fries. We've actively regressed since McCarthy. The modern political vocabulary is dominated by doublespeak and thought-terminating cliche[1]. Most of the fundamental battle lines in American politics have long since been distilled into meaningless soundbite slogan…

I think there has been a lot of regression on the side of us progressives who are so afraid of being rhetoricians that we actively scuttle our own causes with poor choices of language. There are very few politicians on the left trying to best these trends with wit and brevity.
Post reply on HN