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Re: [ARSCLIST] Copyright Alert
At 03:27 PM 11/22/2004 -0500, Aaron Luis Levinson wrote:
Matt
Well I must respectfully disagree with you on that point.
As someone who makes their living off of IP I think that
the society has become far too cavalier in their attitude
toward rampant stealing and directly profiting from the hard work of others.
Of course society has. Given the absurdity of present law, material which
should be available, preferably in public domain, cannot be acquired
legally. The only viable solution is sharing - a.k.a. theft. Once one is
stealing what should be free, the argument of 'might as well a sheep as a
lamb' applies and reprehensible theft becomes natural.
Permit me an analogy to drugs. The argument that marijuana leads to cocaine
has a parallel here. Access to marijuana usually facilitates access to
harder drugs; the buyer knows the people and the methods for each, so
experimentation and habituation are facilitated. The same site from which
one can download a Laurel and Hardy feature also offers "The Incredibles".
While one is there, why not 'steal' the current release?
IP is vital to promote the sciences and the arts - so says the U.S.
Constitution and so I believe. But excess in pursuit of such protection
will obstruct progess in those fields; in that sense, the pirates are
achieving what the law frustrates.
Mike
--
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/