Day of the foolish lawyers

Submitted: Monday, April 12, 1999 17:01

Today, like usual, I've been reading quite a lot of Slashdot, but today it seems there is an especially high occurance of idiotic lawyer-created nonsense.

First, the case of Microsoft threatening linux.de in Germany for using the phrase, "Where do you want to go tomorrow?" If you're reading this within the temporal proximity of this writing, you'll see my response at the top of every page here. :)

So after putting up that little blurb, I have to rush off to class. When I return, what do I find? Some idiotic parents are sueing a bunch of entertainment companies because some psycho kid went on a shooting spree. They believe that watching _Basketball Diaries_, playing Doom and Quake, and looking at porno sites caused him to murder.

<hyperbole>I think they're the ones that need to be murdered.</hyperbole> I mean, seriously, these are the kind of pond scum that drag America down. Someone goes on a shooting spree, and what do we do? Gee, let's take the opportunity to see if we can leach a few million off a few companies, waste taxpayer money on court costs, and blame anyone but the person who actually did it.

I was never fully clear on who the plantiff. A casual reading of the article led me to believe it was the murders parents, but some posts said it was actually the victims' parents. Either way, any sympathy I would otherwise have for these people is reduced to zero.

Well, anyway, I've gotta go grab a bite to eat and work on my Java program, which is due tomorrow. On with life.