www/philosophy words-to-avoid.html

[Richard M. Stallman]

CVSROOT:        /webcvs/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Richard M. Stallman <rms>       09/10/27 11:46:00

Modified files:
        philosophy     : words-to-avoid.html 

Log message:
        Clarify and improve "Consumer".

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.111&r2=1.112

Patches:
Index: words-to-avoid.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /webcvs/www/www/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html,v
retrieving revision 1.111
retrieving revision 1.112
diff -u -b -r1.111 -r1.112
--- words-to-avoid.html 5 Oct 2009 19:42:32 -0000       1.111
+++ words-to-avoid.html 27 Oct 2009 11:45:55 -0000      1.112
@@ -180,29 +180,29 @@
 <h4 id="Consumer">&ldquo;Consumer&rdquo;</h4>
 <p>
 The term &ldquo;consumer,&rdquo; when used to refer to computer users,
-is loaded with assumptions we should reject.</p>
+is loaded with assumptions we should reject.  Playing a digital
+recording, or running a program, does not consume it.
 <p>
-The terms &ldquo;producer&rdquo; and
-&ldquo;consumer&rdquo; come from economic theory, and presuppose
-the assumptions and narrow prespective of economic theory.
-That warps your thinking.</p>
+The terms &ldquo;producer&rdquo; and &ldquo;consumer&rdquo; come from
+economic theory, and bring with them its narrow prespective and
+misguided assumotions.  They tend to warp your thinking.</p>
 <p>
 In addition, describing the users of software as &ldquo;consumers&rdquo;
-presumes a narrow role for them.  It treats them like cattle that
+presumes a narrow role for them: it regards them as cattle that
 passively graze on what others make available to them.</p>
 <p>
 This kind of thinking leads to travesties like the CBDTPA
 &ldquo;Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act&rdquo;
 which would require copying restriction facilities in every digital
-device.  If all the users do is &ldquo;consume&rdquo;, then why should
+device.  If all the users do is &ldquo;consume,&rdquo; then why should
 they mind?</p>
 <p>
-The narrow economic conception of users as &ldquo;consumers&rdquo; tends
-to go hand in hand with the idea that published works are
+The shallow economic conception of users as &ldquo;consumers&rdquo; tends
+to go hand in hand with the idea that published works are mere
 &ldquo;content.&rdquo;</p>
 <p>
-To describe people who are not limited to passive consumption on their
-computers, we suggest terms such as &ldquo;individuals&rdquo; and
+To describe people who are not limited to passive use of works, we
+suggest terms such as &ldquo;individuals&rdquo; and
 &ldquo;citizens&rdquo;.</p>
 
 
@@ -686,7 +686,7 @@
 <p>
 Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2009/10/05 19:42:32 $
+$Date: 2009/10/27 11:45:55 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>