The Price of Patriotism
In "Net News Rocks" (November 12, 2001) Doug Barney writes, "But once this crisis is over, we must fight to regain those freedoms and the privacy we've lost."

How would Barney define the beginning and end of the crisis? Did it start when the World Trade Center was hit? I think the crisis has been with us a long time and is now a permanent part of our way of life. It won't be over as long as there are people who hate the United States.

I hate to lose freedoms, but I don't mind that my luggage was searched completely at the airport. I don't like that the government can read my electronic communications, but I know it happens for a reason. My safety is more of a concern to me than whether the government knows my niece is coming for Thanksgiving.

Barbara A. Swanson
Vice President
Applied Earth Sciences
barb1@appliedearth.com


In "Net News Rocks," Barney seems to have missed the point regarding the Patriot Act.

I work in New York. I remember the fear, uncertainty and deep sense of loss on September 11.

I waited in horror for more planes to crash on November 12, convinced that the tragedy of Flight 587 was a terrorist attack. I applaud our emergency workers, firefighters and police officers for their heroism, our soldiers for their bravery, our government for its swift action and our people for their resolve. But when I read about the Patriot Act, I feared for our freedom.

If we accept governmental eavesdropping and other steps to curtail our rights to privacy, we've lost the war. Aren't we fighting to maintain our way of life? Terrorism isn't just bombs and bodies--it's the outcome of horrible acts: fear-inspired legislation, knee-jerk reactionary laws and a citizenry too frightened to realize it's clenched in terror's subtle grip. When the smoke clears and this war ends, only our enduring freedom will grant us true victory.

It's no easy matter to get rid of something like the Patriot Act once it becomes entrenched. Look at how long the Volstead Act lasted, despite giving rise to the modern Mafia, speakeasies and a horde of social ills. Remember how long the witch hunts of McCarthyism persisted--long enough to be called an era.

My favorite Benjamin Franklin quote sums it up: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Joseph F. Dalessio
Network Administrator
Company name withheld upon request
jdalessio@fordal.com

Land of the Free
Sean Doherty's "The Law and Open-Source Software" (October 29, 2001) would have been more accurately titled "The Law and Free Software." Doherty claims that free software is like free lunch and that neither exists.

Free lunches do exist, though they're generally less widespread than free software, with some 20 million installed copies of the GNU/Linux OS.

Doherty's worst mistake is comparing free software to free lunch because they're not similar. Free lunch means lunch for zero price, but free software refers to freedom, not price. It means users have certain crucial freedoms in using the software, whatever price they may have paid. Copies of free software are sold in stores, while copies of nonfree software are often distributed at no charge.

In the Free Software Movement, we have been working for computer users' freedom for 18 years. The practical advantages of GNU/Linux are the practical result of living in a free society, but freedom is important even aside from the practical benefits it may bring.

I designed the GNU GPL (General Public License) to protect codes' freedom for all users. The GPL says anyone who includes GPL-covered code in another program and distributes it must make that whole program free software and thus respect its users' freedom.

Richard Stallman
President
Free Software Foundation
rms@gnu.org

Corrections
In "No Desktop is An Island" (November 12, 2001), we should have said that InfoExpress' CyberArmor Suite 1.1 won our Editor's Choice award last year.

Radware's Application Switch II (New & Improved, November 12, 2001) ships with 128 MB of RAM (upgradeable to 256 MB) and is capable of unlimited TCP sessions per second.