On Tue, 30 Mar 2021 at 21:12, Ralf Quint <freedos...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Well, RSM is just all around one miserable excuse of a human being.
RMS, not RSM. He shares his initials with the mathematical concept root mean square. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_mean_square > The basic issue at hand isn't that much his "unpopular opinion" about how HE > thinks open source software should be handled, but a much more society > related issue, something he has been shown to be at odds with for a long time. Well, yes... > The key issue that got him kicked out of the FSF two years ago (as well as > forced out of MIT!) was to suggest that those underage victims of Eppstein "Epstein" not Eppstein. > that his chum Minsky had been playing with did so "willingly" That is not correct. It is not fair to attack the man based on an incorrect depiction of what he said. I am not defending him here; I am merely saying, if you want to talk about whether his views are unacceptable or not, then get them right. It not fair to damn someone for something they did not say. > Stallman said that “the most plausible scenario” was that Epstein’s victim > “presented herself to [Marvin Minsky] as entirely willing.” That is fair but it contradicts your previous sentence. > Stallman cast doubt over the use of the term “sexual assault” Person A is approached by Person B. Person B says that they want to have sex with person A. Stallman said that if Person B _appears to person A_ to consent – that is, if Person B *lies* and *says* that they consent -- then it is not assault. As far as Person A knows, it is consensual. Whether Person B did so based on coercion by a third party, and that coercion is unknown to Person A, or for some other reasons, if Person A doesn't know that the consent is a lie, then Person A has not committed an assault. IANAL but AFAICS that is a legitimate statement of the situation. I fully understand a lot of people find it unacceptable, but a lot of people find RMS in general unacceptable and the things he says and does unacceptable. That is RMS' problem. But AFAICS his statement of the facts here, _while being speculation_, is correct. > Stallman also described the distinction between a 17 or 18 year old victim as > a “minor” detail, and suggested that it was an “injustice” to refer to it as > a “sexual assault.” AIUI, it depends on jurisdiction. I was born in the UK although I no longer live there. The UK is made of several different countries, with different ages of consent. For centuries, young couples who were underage in England eloped to Scotland to marry; in Scotland they were of age. The nearest town was famous for this: see the intro to this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gretna_Green In England, a couple over 16 but under 18 need their parents' consent to marry. In Scotland, they don't. So, go to Scotland, get married, return to England, and it's done and the parents have no power to annul it. Similarly, and again, IANAL and this is only AIUI, if one partner in said married couple took nude photos of their partner, their legal spouse, then that would be to create child pr0ngraphy, and thus illegal. You can marry, you can have sex, but you can't take a photo of your husband or wife naked, or take a photo of you having sex. Summary: the law is an ass, and you cannot safely make blanket statements such as "she was underage" on the assumption this is true everywhere for any given age. At 17 you would be wrong across the whole of the UK, AIUI. > Someone who as a public person makes comments like this is just one of the > most despicable persons. He did not say what you claim. > There are no two ways about it. Yes there are. You are falsely misrepresenting him and his words and judging him according to things you only imagine he said. That is unfair and wrong. > And if someone doesn't understand this issue at hand is part of the > problem... It appears that someone here does not fully and properly understand this issue, and it is you, Ralf. -- Liam Proven – Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk – gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven – Skype: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 – ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053 _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
