On Monday 16 July 2007, Richard Davey wrote: > Since humans have existed this has been the case. For someone to have > that attitude shouldn't be unexpected. But even if you can come up > with an alternative that works out for everyone, I should still have > my right to not go along with it, and restrict my works as much as I > want (this is hypothetical, I don't actually have anything to restrict > btw) - otherwise who is forcing who? Why? The "right to control copying" is an artificial right, created by the government for the purpose of "promoting the progress of Science and the Useful Arts". If the government decided that some other means than the current system was a better method of promoting progress, then you would have no more legal right to object than those who think the current system is broken do now. There is no natural or god-given right to control the flow of information. It is an artificial expedient, currently enshrined into law. No more, no less. When you start buying into the "it's my moral right to control it because I wrote it" emotional argument (which is what you are making), then you cheapen the work itself as well as the society. You are making the Valenti argument, which is contrary to what the Constitution says as well as, many have argued quite convincingly, social benefit (which is the reason copyright exists, in theory). Once again, I am not defending copyright infringement. I am objecting to a mis-framing of the argument along lines that are simply wrong. -- Larry Garfield AIM: LOLG42 larry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ICQ: 6817012 "If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it." -- Thomas Jefferson -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
