On Wed, Feb 15, 2006 at 04:22:34PM +0000, John P. Looney wrote:
> > I could make the very same argument about kicking; If you were getting
> > beaten up by the man, and I step in and give you a light kicking
> > instead, sure amn't I saving you a beating? And hey, what harm is it if
> > I make a little money for myself while I'm at it, it's all good right?
> > I'm totally anti-beating after all, and hell if you want to chance the
> > beating - go right ahead.
>> That sounds like a surgeon, to me - someone who will do a little harm for
> long term good. Sometimes doing no evil is more evil than doing good, with a
> little evil. Contientious objectors vs. people who do something.
That may be, and sometimes it is. Personally I don't think for a minute
that this is one of of those cirumstance because the biggest gain out of
the whole thing is more money for Google. It's not like the Chinese were
being deprived of search services.
It's not like on balance the harm is lessened (such as when a surgeon
operates). This argument only works when you consider not getting a good
Google user experience a harm in any way equatable to being denied
freedom of speech, access to knowledge and so on.
--
Colm MacCárthaigh Public Key: colm+pgp at stdlib.net
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