Re: [Fsfe-uk] BBC slander

[ian]

On Fri, 2004-02-06 at 12:33, P.L.Hayes wrote:
> Thanks for all the info and links MJ, I did indeed complain to the editor and 
> got this response (as did everybody else):
> 
> Dear Sir 
> 
> Thanks for your e-mail.
> 
> I have noted the points you made - as well as the vigorous debate on
> Slashdot.org about this article.
> 
> Well, Stephen Evan's weekly "stateside" column is not a news story, but
> an analytical look at major events and business trends in the United
> States.
> 
> It is, of course, debatable whether MyDoom/Novarg/Shimgapi was written
> just to bring down the SCO website, or whether the installation of
> spamming tools on numerous computers was an additional - or even the
> main - motive.

Then make that clear. The piece clearly doesn't do this.

> That was not the point of Stephen's article.
> 
> In his piece he wanted to draw the attention of BBC News Online's
> audience - many of whom are unlikely to know the ins and outs of the
> Open Source debate - to the rapid spread of Linux as a commercial
> application, 

Really? Editor must be pretty crap then because this is hardly the key
focus of the piece to any independent reader.

> SCO's attempts to cash in on this fact, and the deep anger
> that SCO has caused within the Linux community through its legal
> actions.

Er maybe the last bit but the former bit is not exactly prominent.

> Stephen is not the first to draw the link between MyDoom and SCO's
> actions over Linux - plenty of others have done that before, including
> virus experts.

But they are not posting their views on a public forum with the BBC's
name on it. Plenty of people have slandered others in the pub, it
becomes more of an issue when someone puts it in writing in the name of
the BBC and posts it on the Internet.

> 
> Regards,
> 
> 
> Tim Weber 
> Business Editor 
> BBC News Interactive - www.bbc.co.uk/businessnews
> 
> I replied to this nonsense of course and so did a lot of others but there has 
> been no further response.

Don't expect one. Schools that complain about OFSTED don't often get
replies but it can make a difference if several do it independently. You
don't know what is happening behind the scenes.

> Just now I've looked at the ofcom site but they 
> don't actually make it clear whether they'll handle this sort of thing or not 
> so I've contacted them to ask if they do. I'll try the PCU first, as you 
> suggest. I'm going to make time to do something about this as part of a more 
> general 'attack' on the BBC for various other reasons. I'm not engaged in any 
> software development at the moment like most of you people are - I just do a 
> little work for GNU at the moment as far as free software is concerned. 
> Mostly I just use the stuff! :)

The good thing is that Linux is getting national air time. There is no
such thing as bad publicity in this sort of thing, the worst thing is to
be unknown and ignored :-)
-- 
ian <address@hidden>