Quote van David McNett in een
draadje op Anandtech:
Nugget94M schreef op Thursday, August 02, 2001 8:11 AM het volgende:
As I told the folks in #distributed yesterday morning, I've been waiting with
great trepidation to see Ms. Bowman's article. It was quite clear to me that
she was more interested in making sure my quotes supported her spin on this
situation than she was in genuinely determining what distributed.net's
position is in the matter.
Jeez, guys, she didn't even spell my name correctly. Please take those
"quotes" with a grain of salt.
As I've stated here and elsewhere -- I have no idea if Mr. McOwen is guilty or
not. I have no idea if the claimed damages are reasonable or not. I have no
idea how the State of Georgia has arrived at that figure.
And do you know what? Neither do you. Really.
I've read the threads here on AnadTech and the speculation to information ratio
is off the charts. It's not even clear to me that the oft-quoted "$0.59/second"
figure is directly tied to the claims made by the AG's office. McOwen's first
post is at best ambiguous on this point, referring to what is perhaps pending
legislation in Georgia involving spam emails.
If you do the math, they're obviously not claiming that a running dnetc costs
$0.59/second (A claim I've seen repeated here and on slashdot) -- at $0.59/second
you'd only need one copy of dnetc running for a just over a week to exceed the
total damages claimed.
I'm just as reluctant to immediately assume that McOwen is blameless as I am
to assume that the claims made against him are entirely legitimate. This,
I think, is the only fair perspective to have in this relative vacuum of
facts.
My caution in weighing in on this situation is because we don't know enough to
form a valid opinion, not because I'm ignorant of the invective that's taking
place here and elsewhere.
I'm encouraged by Mr. Covington's quote in the article that he'd likely permit
dnetc to exist, but I don't see how that excuses a participant from seeking
permission prior to installing the client. It seems likely (although none
of us really know for sure) that McOwen did install the client without first
obtaining permission, and if that's accurate he is not entirely blameless.
Whether or not the penalties are justified, I don't want distributed.net to
be seen endorsing what was in effect an unauthorized install which was in
violation of our terms of service and a generally bad idea.
I hope that the Judicial system in Georgia, having access to the facts of the
case, will arrive at a verdict which is appropriate and just, whatever that
may be.
distributed.net is taking nothing more than a cautious stance in this situation,
since we simply don't know anywhere close to enough about the case to have
an informed opinion.
If you still think I'm being an unreasonable prick who "just doesn't get it",
feel free to mail me, rant at me here, or call me.
-David McNett, with two t's
nugget@distributed.net
Trek maar je eigen conclusies!