Re: [Fsfe-uk] BBC slander

[Chris Croughton]

On Fri, Feb 06, 2004 at 10:23:55AM +0000, Neil Darlow wrote:

> Hi Paul,
> 
> On Friday 06 Feb 2004 9:56, P.L.Hayes wrote:
> > I was expecting at least one or two emails to fsfe-uk about yesterday's
> > scandal but perhaps no-one else has seen it:
> >
> > http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3457823.stm
> 
> It would be real news if GNU/Linux machines were doing the damage. In
> reality it's just the effect of another Windows virus.

Of course.  But it's one which has been targeted at a specific site and
therefore likely to get the blame put on Linux.  Being paranoid, I
rather suspect that this was the purpose of the virus, just like the
spam which includes innocent parties' addresses as 'From'.

However, that does not exonerate the BBC.  That article was "yellow
reporting" at its worst...

> It's typical of the press to malign the community instead of focussing on the 
> individual who created the virus, and his backers.

Of course.

> In this case the best response is to follow the advice of Bruce Perens or do 
> nothing at all. Don't inflame the issue.

I can't find any links now to that page from either the Technology or
the Business sections on the BBC news site (although the article is
still there to go directly).  Perhaps the BBC have pulled its links in
response to the complaints.

(When I said that the BBC seemed to be anti-Linux recently no one
believed me.  Ho-hum...)

Chris C