Case A. Person X stands in the middle of a sidewalk, halfway between two streets, and notices that the street is free of traffic. "Wow," says person X. "I sure would like to cross the street here!" He does so, committing jaywalking. Upon reaching the other side, he announces, "Ha! I have reached the other side without the use of the crosswalk! I am now a criminal!"

Case B. Professor Y is giving a lecture on systems programming, and displays materials that constitute a circumvention device under the DMCA. He clearly states, "What I'm about to do is illegal," shows the PowerPoint slide containing the offending code, and then boasts about how he too is now a criminal.

Two things unite person X and professor Y. Both have committed crimes, and nobody cares. I call this the "Look At Me! I'm Breaking the Law!" problem. To feel important, some people will openly state that they enjoy breaking laws and don't intend to get caught.

Case A above doesn't happen. People don't put stickers on their car bumpers to promote the fact that they enjoy jaywalking. However, you'd be hard-pressed to find a Slashbot without a DeCSS t-shirt; a hardcore stoner without something saying "If you're not wasted, the day is"; or an underage drinker in college without his collection of empty liquor bottles.

What prompts these outbursts? In the case of computer issues, geeks want to be martyrs. Some Napster users who lost access under the infamous Metallica-related ban considered themselves "martyrs" despite the fact that nobody was directly charged with a crime other than Napster, Inc. Besides, the "banned" users underwent nearly no hardship as a result of losing a free account on a single music-sharing service. DeCSS hosting web users feel martyred when their web sites are shut down by The Man, despite the fact that they're only celebrating being recognized.

If you want to break the law, fine by me. Just don't go around like you're king of the world for violating copyright or any other law.

It is definitely stupid when people break the law just for the sake of bragging about it.

DeCSS and Napster are NOT such things. These are two prime examples of the erosion of consumer rights and civil liberties. While you might love to sit there and say "snort snort! he's using napster! he's breaking copyright law!" It is FAR from that clear-cut. I use DeCSS and have a DeCSS shirt. I've ripped all of my DVDs into divx avis for use on my computers without DVD drives, and also so I can watch them without digging them up. Same thing with my audio cds. I haven't listened to a CD in two years. Why would I dig through 200+ cds to find what I want to listen to, when I can make mixes of any size on the fly with my music ripped to my hard drive? I wouldn't. While movie ripping is not yet so ubiquitous for personal use, the music industry have made it clear they want to prevent us from ripping the music we purchase to our hard drives for use in ways explicitly allowed as "fair use rights". Is it bragging about being criminal because I want to rip my cds to my hard drive, and burn them in compressed format?

It isn't criminal to fight for your rights is it? Nor is it criminal to fight to overthrow stupid laws. For instance marijuana laws. While some people might go around bragging about smoking pot because it's illegal, there's a large movement to make marijuana legal again, citing many studies showing it's lack of addiction, and lack of harmful effects. Especially compared to arguably worse things like nicotine and alcohol.

People fighting for their rights is not a problem, it's the very basis of the united states of america.

"When the government is afraid of the people, that's liberty."

So stop being so cowardly and try speaking up about stupid laws now and then. Who knows, you might make this country a better place...!

In response to generic-man above, I have to voice my disagreement. Oftentimes, people choose to wear things which show their political beliefs, which they can legitimately take pride in. I think many of your examples seem purely to discredit those of Libertarian/libertarian philosophy. Yeah, they may be proud to break the law, but these people also take pleasure in proving the dominant paradigm's futility at enforcing laws with no viable function, and hence, exposing the irony of a defective law'n'order system.

I, and many others, would argue that when people as diverse as a CS college professor, stoners, slashbots and teenage drinkers all take pride in defeating the law, perhaps the law, as an instrument of maintaining a stable, safe, healthy and free society, should be reevaluated. In the 21st century, are there industrialized, successful societies without DMCA-like laws, 21-and-up drinking laws, and the active prohibition of marijuana? Yes, there are, and it is a reasonable point of view to advocate such a society vocally. Some would say that since their tax dollars are being wasted in an attempt to enforce these laws, it is their duty to oppose them, from a purely financial perspective.

Additionally, the issue with the DeCSS t-shirt is different in some respects. A very small proportion knows of the Motion Picture Association of America's greedy scheme to remove fair-use rights from DVD media, and "terminate with extreme prejudice" (in a legal sense) those who would oppose them. Wearing an illegal t-shirt helps raise awareness of an issue squelched by the mainstream media's conflicting interests. The t-shirt's very existence helps to prove the innate absurdities of the current law.

What I wonder about is whether or not such pride in violating the law has precedent in American society. My mind leaps to a certain Boston Tea Party. But does this phenomenon occur on such a scale during times before non-revolutionary change? Worth thinking about...

That, generic-man, is why I think it's all right to say "Look at me! I'm breaking the law!"

Hongpong grumbles at having typed too slowly to get the second w/u. However, it is still a fine node, and shall remain unless someone Important determines otherwise.