Begin forwarded message:
> From: Wojtek Sokolowski <wojtek.sokolowski at gmail.com>
> Date: August 19, 2009 2:36:38 PM EDT
> To: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> Subject: problems sending message
>
> Doug,
>
> I attempted to send the attached message in response to your posting
> on lbo-talk. To my surprise, however, yahoo service prevented me from
> doing so - first I was asked to enter a series of numbers to "verify"
> the message and then another message was displayed that yahoo detected
> "suspicious activity" and did not send the message at all. I do not
> want to sound paranoid, but that smacks of censorship of the contents.
> I suspect that Yahoo monitors the contents of emails, because my
> account linked to lbo-talk receive an unusual number of anti-Obama
> ads, which hardly appear on my other yahoo accounts.
>
> In any case, I am sending the message to you asking if you could post
> it. meanwhile I will look for an alternative to yahoo, and
> re-register with lbo-talk.
>
> --- On Wed, 8/19/09, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
>
>> Re: that political angle. Excuse my cynicism, but I think a
>> lot of people who kvetch about paying to download stuff from
>> iTunes or paying for software are more exercised by the
>> paying part than the political part. They want stuff for
>> free. Yeah, I like stuff for free, too, but really, don't
>
>
> [WS:] I do not want to speak for others, but I do not object to the
> fact of paying but to the conditions of sale. In pre-digital times,
> you paid money and you got a product which was yours. You could use
> it, resell it to someone else, or perhaps re-purpose it to prop up a
> crooked table in your kitchen.
>
> The digital "revolution" altered not just the medium but most
> importantly the terms of sale, which is seldom noticed. You no longer
> buy a product, but a conditional and revokable permission to use a
> product in a highly constrained and prescribed way. At the same time,
> the price you have to pay for that permission is much higher than the
> price you used to pay for the product in the pre-digital times.
>
> In short, you have to pay much more for less, and your rights are a
> buyer are severely curtailed. That would pissed everyone off, and
> justifiably so, no?
>
> BTW, I do not mind paying reasonable prices for software and I have
> purchased many software products developed by independent developers.
> I do object however, to paying exorbitant monopoly prices to
> monopolists like Microsoft and kindred businesses, only to be
> subjected to planned obsolescence and paying the ransom again and
> again.
>
> Wojtek