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

[Charles Shapiro]

I was merely using Mr. Paine as a hint that copyright laws Need to
Change.  "When we are exposed to the same miseries BY a government,
which we might expect in a country WITHOUT government..."

When "Intellectual Property" laws become an IMPEDIMENT to innovation,
rather than a SPUR, it is time to change the laws.  Walt Disney
doesn't own my computer. Warner Brothers can't dictate how I use it.
Sony Inc. won't stop me from writing code.

-- CHS


On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 6:57 PM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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