On Sun, Nov 24, 2002, Tal Achituv wrote about "OT: right or wrong to copy proprietary
software":
> I need to write an essay about "is it right or wrong to copy proprietary
> software"
>
> Can some of you please point me to good resources on the subject?
Several people have told you to look for resources about "stealing",
but in fact this is incorrect: I am not aware of any country where illegally
copying copyrighted software is considered "theft". Illegal, yes, theft
no. There are hundreds of crimes in the law book, but not all of them are
called "theft".
What you're probably looking for is some background on the subject of
copyright. It seems you're interested in the laws (what are people allowed
to copy) and their history, and also in the moral justification for these
laws (not just what is allowed and what is not, but also what is right
and what is wrong).
The "Universita Hameshuderet" is running now (Wednesdays, 8:30pm, Galaz) a
lecture series on intellectual property (copyright and patents), which seems
interesting and relevant. Two relevant lectures have already passed (about
the moral aspects of copyright, what "entitles" someone a copyright and why,
and the financial aspects of copyright), but I suppose the future lectures
might be interesting too. In the future it might also be possible to get
that lecture series in book form, but I don't know when or how.
Lawrence Lessig gave in O'Reilly's Open Source Conference (July 2002) a
very interesting presentation about the history of copyright and patent
law, from the perspective of a free-software person (so that his conclusions
would obviously be different from those that, say, Bill Gates, might have
in giving a lecture on the same subject). You can find the mp3, presentation,
and transcript in
http://randomfoo.net/oscon/2002/lessig/
Good luck, and I'll be looking forward to reading what you write.
--
Nadav Har'El | Sunday, Nov 24 2002, 19 Kislev 5763
[EMAIL PROTECTED] |-----------------------------------------
Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |Software is like sex, it is better when
http://nadav.harel.org.il |it's free -- Linus Torvalds
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