[OSM-talk] Russians at it again

[Nic Roets]

My opinion is that the Russian issue has nothing to do with freedom of speech.

I suspect that if you ask the average Russian if it is a good thing
that some of their citizens are submitting the locations of suspected
military installations to a database in the United Kingdom, they will
say no. Just think of all the misconceptions that must still exist
around Francis Gary Powers, the U2 flights and the spy satellites.

You can say that if their media was free, then these misconceptions
will disappear, but it's wrong. The US has one of the highest levels
of freedom of speech and a fairly decent school system. Yet it quite
easy to find fault with their thinking: My personal favourite is how
bad their tax system is, but I know many of the members on this list
will immediately think of the election of George W Bush.

--
Also note that the Russian issue is not limited to Russian law, i.e.
if there is a law against mapping military installations. In many
countries powers are not as clearly separated as they are in the West.

My advice to Russians is to be careful. If you want to show your
unhappiness with your government, OSM is the wrong battle.

I know. I have a very long list of reasons to be unhappy with my government.

On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 11:15 PM, Milo van der Linden <milo at dogodigi.net> wrote:
> My personal opinion:
>
> Let them.
>
> It is a good thing they are figuring out how to enjoy OpenStreetMap
> without putting themselves at risk *and* in the mean time try to prevent
> a total blockade of OpenStreetMap in Russia.
>
> People who cannot imagine how it is to have a government that has
> "issues" in interpreting freedom of speech
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech>, freedom of conscience
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_conscience>, freedom from fear
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_from_fear> and freedom from want
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_from_want> should not interfere in
> this particular topic. It makes me sad that having the luxury of all
> freedoms, seems to make some people incapable of understanding that this
> is NOT (yet) a common privilige in other parts of the world..
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Milo van der Linden
>
>
>
> Patrick Kilian wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> judging from
>> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/RU:ВикиПроект_Россия/Голосования/Государственная_тайна
>> (see http://tinyurl.com/2cx9v9h for english version) and
>> http://forum.openstreetmap.org/viewtopic.php?id=6905&p=3 (see
>> http://tinyurl.com/327ooaa) the Russian make a second attempt to
>> regulate what can be mapped in Russia...
>>
>>
>> Patrick "Petschge" Kilian
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> talk mailing list
>> talk at openstreetmap.org
>> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
>>
>
>
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