

Martin Fowler: An Open Letter to Pearson about SOPA/PIPA - juandg
http://martinfowler.com/articles/pearson-sopa.html

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famousactress
Glad to see more high-profile open letters, but I'd really rather see all of
these come with ultimatums. Nowhere in the letter does Fowler say that he
feels strongly enough about this not to publish with Pearson in the future.

Companies are supporting the legislation in hopes of helping their bottom
line. Letter's like this ought to _threaten_ that bottom line.

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skybrian
Do you make ultimatums when you talk to your friends? If so, do you have any
friends?

Actually, ultimatums are a great way to get people to flip the bozo bit and
stop listening to you. By attempting to use force, you imply that the listener
won't listen to reason, without having even tried.

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famousactress
Colluding friends and businesses that you make money from and for is a
dangerous mistake. Also, yes.. when I'm serious about something I make
ultimatums. "Dude, if you're gonna keep smoking meth then I frankly can't hang
out with you anymore."

Incidentally, I've got lots of friends and none of them do meth (at least, in
front of me).

Enough with friends, back to businesses. Businesses that flip the bozo bit
when getting ultimatums about their income won't last long. GoDaddy is
probably the most arrogantly run business I can think of at the moment, and
putting money where mouths are even gave them pause.

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skybrian
They are different situations. Here we're talking about an author who
presumably has had a good relationship with a publisher for years, versus a
situation like GoDaddy where customer relationships are almost entirely
impersonal (and automated).

Despite the metaphors we use sometimes, businesses are not entirely machines.
Writing a letter in the first place implies you're attempting to reach a human
being who can do something about it. With GoDaddy, writing letters barely even
makes sense. They presumably changed because people actually started moving
their domains, not because they wrote letters threatening to do so.

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AdamFernandez
These are very thoughtful and concise arguments about why this legislation is
flawed. I'm hoping to hear similar arguments made by Alexis Ohanian and Dan
Kaminsky while addressing Congress on January 18th.

