Re: [dvd-discuss] Civil Disobedience and the DMCA

["D. C. Sessions" <dcs(at)lumbercartel.com>]

On Monday 03 September 2001 09:13, you wrote:

> In any case, getting back to the subject line, people engaged in civil
> disobedience as I understand it should be prepared to be prosecuted
> --- it's the willingness to accept a penalty for a crime that they
> regard as unjust which gives that kind of protest its moral force.
> From Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (note the
> title):
> 
>   In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law...  That would
>   lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly,
>   lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit
>   that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is
>   unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in
>   order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice,
>   is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

MLK was not original in this; his principles of civil disobedience are
derived in large part from Thoreau, who made the same point.
This is in contrast to Gandhi, whose approach was more along the
lines of playing chicken: people unprepared to be shot down
going up against people unwilling to accept the fallout from pulling
the trigger.

The key difference is that followers of Thoreau and King are
actually hoping to get arrested etc.

-- 
| I'm old enough that I don't have to pretend to be grown up.|
+----------- D. C. Sessions <dcs@lumbercartel.com> ----------+