On Fri, Mar 11, 2005 at 09:58:54AM +0800, Rafael 'Dido' Sevilla wrote: > It's a question of the government's balancing the public's sacrificing > its right to free speech to give incentives to the people who create > music, novels, computer software, and other similar things. An author > does not have a natural right to her creations as you seem to think. > The copyright is created only by law.
It is created by law, yes, but I think we all agree that if I write a book, paint a picture, write a program, whatever, I should have the exclusive right to make money from that creation in whatever way I see fit. In the past, the only way to make money from a creation was selling copies- hence "copy right". We've taken copyright to new places, now, and I might use it to protect my work regardless of my capability or will to make money from it. > > Copyright is more just like your deed to property -- what is yours is > > yours, and shall be the owner UNTIL you 'consciously yield' your rights > > to that property. > > It isn't. Have you got a text of some copyright law that states this? > I've never seen one that puts it quite that way. It's called the Berne convention. Everything that you write/paint/record/code is automatically copyrighted by you (if it's copyrightable) unless you explicitly put it into the public domain or transfer the copyright. > Agreed. Unauthorized copying shouldn't be done, because the laws that > prevent it generally serve their purpose, and violating them causes more > problems than they solve in most cases. Absolutely. But it can go way to far, as with the DMCA. Michael -- Michael Darrin Chaney [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.michaelchaney.com/ -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
