I'm seeing more and more comments like this one over at Slashdot that are finally calling out people who have "Slashdot Syndrome". Hopefully the following quote from that comment will help explain what that means:

I'm surprised, but then, not too surprised, at the number of posts here that castigate Apple as "evil" for doing this. They are in keeping with the widespread notion that "belief" in open souce/free software gives you a right to steal with impunity. I doubt that's what Stallman had in mind.

People who write comments at Slashdot really do seem to be irrationally anti-capitalist at times. They seem to think that the U.S. Constitution is some strange trump card that can beat any bad contracts someone's willingly signed. "Oh, sure, he signed a contract that said he wouldn't steal industry secrets and deliver them to competitors, but don't forget Freedom of Speech!!!"

Come on guys, you don't have a right to access content that's released on each DVD free of charge -- the DVDs' creators have a right to offer that content in some restricted way that best suits them. Nor can you do anything you danged well please at work -- you're there by choice, not by right. Stop harping about right to privacy with regards to web surfing habits.

It's all a little reminiscent of Atlas Shrugged. You don't get to ride everyone's gains and progress as some sort of entitlement. Cracking isn't innovation, and looting innovation is as despicable as any other sort of [nonviolent] robbery.

This is not to say that every capitalist behaves rationally either. Why would a [fictional] company that only produces DVDs shut down an attempt to create, say, a [fictional] free (or even "Free as in GPL") DVD player on Linux if there wasn't a commercial player available? Now that is silly, at least in principle. One must simply remember that it is a free country here in the U.S. and it's everyone's right to behave as inanely as they wish, within certain regulations.

You may be given certain rights, but you're also free for the most part to sign them away in a legal contract. And you're also free to ask that people willingly sign a contract you wrote up, no matter how irrational. Watch Judge Judy, guys. No, really. It's that simple.