Forwarded from: Ben Greenbaum <bgreenbaumat_private> Cc: rferrellat_private > Forwarded from: rferrellat_private (excerpt) > They're simply giving themselves a psychological boost at the > expense of others. > > Another word for this sort of behavior is terrorism, <snip> I have a lot of respect for Mr. Ferrell, but at this point I have to call shenanigans... Merriam-Webster defines terrorism as "the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion". The American HeritageŽ Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition defines it as "The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons." Nowhere could I find a definition of terrorism that included "annoying people by messing with their mp3 files." We need to be careful to be precise in our usage of emotionally loaded terms, lest our entire industry become equated with FUD. We need to refrain from calling things by names which they aren't. Bronchitis is bad. Bronchitis is not cancer. Viruses are bad. Viruses in general are not terrorism. Ben Greenbaum Director of Product Development - SIA/VDB SecurityFocus http://www.securityfocus.com - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon Apr 29 2002 - 06:05:28 PDT