win95/98/ME and printers. An ethics issue comparable to DRM servers or not?

[Leo Mauler]

Your opinion is noted but it is not correct.  

Book burning is done to remove from society things which a large organization no longer wants the public to have access, things which are merely (or mostly) harmful to the large organization and not to society at large.  

Religious organizations and governments have been the chief culprits, but non-governmental organizations not run by any specific religion have also used the tactic.  For example, in the early part of the 20th Century Anthony Comstock's New York Society for the Suppression of Vice inscribed book-burning on its seal, as a worthy goal to be achieved.

Windows 98 printer drivers are inconvenient to HP, because Microsoft has yanked all the licenses for all printer driver components provided by Microsoft.  Strictly speaking the Windows 98 printer drivers themselves are currently illegal to own and operate because the only way to use them is to use them without permission (licensing) from Microsoft.  This is a problem for anyone who uses the printer drivers, but HP will still have the biggest financial and legal headache from their existence.

In Orwell's 1984, the euphemistically-called "memory hole" is used to burn any book or written text which is inconvenient to the regime.  Hence the reference to "book burning" when referring to HP's choice to "burn" all its Windows 98 printer drivers.

-- <someoneelse at nobody,org> wrote:

> It is in no way, even remotely similar, to book burning.
> 
> On Sun, Aug 3, 2008 at 16:02, Leo Mauler
> <webgiant at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > I'm still a little annoyed with HP for deleting
> > the drivers and commanding everyone not to give 
> > them away.  Smacks of book burning.