> > Intellectual property is _property_, just as material objects are. > > Redistribution of copyrighted intellectual property with the express > > permission of the rights holder is _theft_, pure and simple. > > s/with/without/
This statement completely ignores the rights of the user of the "property" under fair-use laws. It's perfectly acceptable to copy at least a portion of material for the purposes of review, research etc - some of these rights are explicitly (and illegally) prohibited by EULAs and click-wrap licenses. And "redistribution", for example, to family and friends is perfectly legal as long as no money changes hands. Some companies are trying to control 100% of the information that they distrubute even though there is neither law nor any sort of historical precedent that gives them the right to do this. The main argument seems to be that digital systems permit perfect copying where such copying was not possible in the past, therefore the old laws are broken and need to be fixed, using technical means. Few thinking people will subscribe to this view of the world, especially when copyright extensions make a mockery of the supposed purpose of copyright laws and, as an aside, threaten democracy by putting control of information into a very small number of individual's hands. Whether or not "Intellectual Property Law" as an idea has it's place is debatable, but, given that it exists, there are restrictions on the exercise of the rights given to holders of such "property" just as there are on real property such as land (eg right-of-way laws). There is no blanket "you must not copy this under any circumstances" law anywhere in the world that I know of (except, perhaps, the DMCA and it's bastard offspring), and enforcing copy protection is just helping what amounts to an barely legal cartel of information hoarding by a very small number of companies. (Sadly I don't have time to back this up with references but maybe I will get around to it some time!) Just my 0.02c :) cheers Mark -- Mark Lillywhite <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Rubber Chicken Consortium _______________________________________________ plucker-dev mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.rubberchicken.org/mailman/listinfo/plucker-dev
