[ Thanks to Chao-Kuei
Hung for this link. ]
“Apple’s customers cannot exercise their rights over their own
physical properties — the iPhones for which they have paid Apple.
Apple forbids its customers to install software programs other than
those provided by Apple’s iTunes App Store. (g: ‘eff jailbreak’)
Imagine buying a house and being forbidden to put any furniture
into it except those explicitly allowed by the construction
company. If we can accept Apple’s control over its customers, we
can certainly also accept such invasion of human right by the
construction company.“Amazon’s Kindle e-book has a piece of software that not only
sends user’s information back to Amazon but also sends Amazon’s
commands to Kindle whenever the user connects to its online
bookstore WhisperNet. What commands have been sent? Instructions to
delete books (with a corresponding refund), for example, in the
name of Amazon’s respect for the publisher’s copyright. (g: ‘kindle
Orwell’) Imagine that the Big Brother collects everyone’s reading
habits and notes as well as deleting any books/articles/forwarded
emails that he deems ‘ungood’ and harmful to the society. If we can
accept Kindle’s remote removal of already-purchased books, we can
certainly also accept such invasion of human right and privacy by
the Big Brother. Speaking of Big Brother, the books deleted happen
to be George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and ‘Animal Farms’.”