[ale] [OT] rant - decadence in society - DRM

[Jim Kinney]

Brilliant prose from a brilliant person from a time period when no
government had ever yet done any measurable good for any portion of their
governed that approached a majority.
I wish Franklin and Jefferson could have seen humans walking on the moon.
On Mar 23, 2011 2:57 PM, "Charles Shapiro" <hooterpincher at gmail.com> wrote:
> For a more sensible response: I am sorry, but I strongly disagree with
> Ron's contentions about Intellectual Property.
>
> Intellectual Property is nonsense. If you steal my real property, you
> deprive me of the use of it. Steal my bicycle, and I can't use it to
> go down to the store. If you make a copy of my book (or my song, or
> my software...), I can still read (or play, or use) my copy. More to
> the point, I can still SELL my copy. You could (possibly) argue that
> publishing your copy of my book may deprive me of some revenues which
> I might otherwise have acquired from selling copies of my book, but
> that money a phantasm. It is not the same as the money I keep in my
> wallet or my bank account. "Intellectual Property" laws are hacks to
> encourage people to write neat stuff. Once they start getting
> _in_the_way_ of creating stuff, they're obviously a Bad Idea.
> Confusing this putative "Intellectual Property" with real property is
> a sure way to misunderstand every moral and legal issue associated
> with creative work.
>
> The Original Ranter maybe said it best:
>
> Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best
> state is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable one;
> for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a
> government, which we might expect in a country without government, our
> calamities is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by
> which we suffer! Government, like dress, is the badge of lost
> innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers
> of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and
> irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not
> being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his
> property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he
> is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case
> advises him out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security
> being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows
> that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us,
> with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all
> others.
>
> (Tom Paine, 1776)
>
> -- CHS
>
> On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 2:35 PM, Jerald Sheets <questy at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Mar 23, 2011, at 2:24 PM, Charles Shapiro wrote:
>>
>>> And YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!!
>>
>> "Residential Vegetation Management Zone"
>>
>>
>>
>> #!/jerald
>> Linux User #183003
>> Ubuntu User #32648
>> Public GPG Key:  http://questy.org/js.asc
>>
>> -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
>> Version: 3.1
>> GIT/MU d-@ s++(++)>+++:> a+ C++++(+++)$>++ UBLAVHSC++(on)$>++++
P++(+++)$>++++ L++(++++)$>+++ !E---(---)>--- W+(++)$>+++ N(+)$>++ !o !K--
w(--)>--- O()@> M++(++)$>++ V()>- PS+++()@>-- PE(++)@>+ Y+(+)@>+
PGP++(++)$>+++ t+(++)@>+++ 5(+)@>+ X+(++)@>+++ R+(+)@>++ tv-(+)$>++
b+++(++)$>++ DI++++(++)>+++ D++(++)@>++ G++(++)@>++ e++(++)$>++ h(-)$>-
r+++(+++)@>+++ y+(+++)>++++@
>> ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
>>
>>
>>
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>
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