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Letters:

Lack of trust in military

Frank Huang's letter to the editor (Letters, May 2, Page 8) offers us hope that at least some in the military know their mission. However, based on the military's behavior over the past two years, we still have reasons for concern.

First, after President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was elected, a large number of military officers immediately applied for early retirement. Perhaps they were afraid that after years of taking the taxpayer's money, they might actually have to perform the duties for which they were trained. Or maybe they just took the KMT's TV ads, which pro-mised imminent war if Chen were elected, a bit too seriously.

Second, shortly after Chen's election, the military announced a policy of "opposing both communism and independence." The legitimacy in opposing communism -- meaning China -- goes without saying. Who else would they need to defend the country against? They used the word "communism," as opposed to China, because they wanted to sound "neutral." But, everyone knows exactly what they mean.

However, the opposition to what the military labeled "independence," which in essence requires no more than some constitutional amendments to change the national flag, name and territorial claims, indicates a troublesome fact. At least some in the military think they are an independent entity rather than public servants.

Third, a number of high-ranking military officers have retired and gone to live in China. And there has been at least one retired officer who left for China to work for the People's Liberation Army.

Fourth, the Ministry of Na-tional Defense has clearly been uncooperative in the investigation of Yin Ching-feng's (尹清楓) murder.

Fifth, Minister of National Defense Tang Yao-ming's (湯曜明) own words show his lack of commitment to the people of Taiwan. On March 6 he was asked by a KMT legislator whether he would serve as defense minister if the country were to change its name to "Republic of Taiwan." Tang said he would be unwilling to do so. Obviously this simple name change would mean a lot to him. It reveals that his true loyalty lies with some abstract concept of China, rather than with the citizens who pay his wages.

Recently I received an envelope from a military officer with two slogans printed on the back -- "Fight to implement the Three Principles of the People" and "Fight to save our fellow countryman on the mainland." Are such slogans merely things left over from the past? Perhaps, but I have my doubts.

One local newspaper has voiced the opinion that the ROC should "bide its time and then move in [to China] when things get chaotic there." Given the possibility of China becoming politically unstable, such ideas, combined with military officers who still share such thinking, could be very dangerous.

Douglas Gildow
Taipei County

Living with less water

I lived in Hong Kong for several years in the early 1980s. I remember that Guangdong Pro-vince, on which Hong Kong

relies for its supply of water, one year had a drought that stretched from spring through the summer. In the autumn, the HK government introduced water rationing measures: Every day, from 10am to 4pm and then from 12am to 4am, the supply of water to homes, government buildings and most businesses was cut. This rationing lasted until the following April, when the "plum rains" season arrived.

For the first couple of weeks, there was much grumbling from everyone -- we had to adjust to a new way of life, getting used to storing water and using it sparingly and waiting to take showers and do housecleaning tasks at certain hours. But after a month, one hardly noticed the inconvenience. I also remember that the government used every possible form of media, from newspapers to TV and radio, in Chinese and in English, to publicize the necessity of saving water and how to do it.

To my surprise, I have not seen any similar measures taken in Taiwan, whether in Taipei City, or in the rest of the nation. Everyone keeps talking about the drought, which has lasted for about a year now, but what has been done to face it, except for rationing water to rice paddies?

Elisabeth Cazer
Taipei

DMCA no panacea

I would like to point out some misconceptions about copyrights in Kevin Shih's (石孝綸) article ("Developing a digital-content industry," May 2, page 8), in particular about the US' Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Shih seemed to imply that DMCA, which outlaws the act of bypassing the access control mechanisms that "protect" content in digital products, is good for the content industry, and Taiwan should enact a similar measure. Actually, DMCA is controversial because it restricts owners of digital goods from the rights of fair use. It can even be harmful to the content industry.

Fair use refers to consumers' rights to make legitimate and legal copies of the products they bought. If I own a VHS tape, I can make backup copies, lend or sell the original, make excerpts from it for my research, etc. If I were to own a digitally protected DVD, the DMCA would have prevented me from doing the above. As a result, people may prefer VHS tapes over DMCA-protected DVDs even if the DVDs are better in quality.

One should also be aware that many widely available digital goods are free. Some of them are very successful and need no digital rights protection at all. The source code for Linux is free. The free Open Directory (http://dmoz.org), a comprehensive Web directory edited by volunteers, is another example. Free content goods like these generate business. Just look at the many companies making a living by providing customer services for Linux systems.

Whether a content product is successful depends mostly on its business model. It remains to be seen if a "digital content indus-try" can be cultivated in Taiwan by governmental initiatives. Emphasizing digital rights management, not to mention a DMCA in Taiwan, is simply harmful and a waste of time.

Chuang Tyng-Ruey
Taipei
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