I know I'm supposed to obey all the rules in a discussion that everyone
else arbitrarily assign to me, but my "give a damn" is busted, so there
you have it.
I didn't bring Satan into this -- he's already in it and would be
whether I said it or not. It's a _very_ simple idea:
1. When you create something, you own that creation. (If not you, then
who should? The state? Society? Sounds like a communistic idea to me.)
2. It is not immoral to retain control of your creations, regardless of
how rich you are, or how much others may feel "entitled" it, or any
other reason.
3. Taking something that does not belong to you is _wrong_. It always
has been, always will be.
It has always been the adversary's goal to undermine righteousness. If
he can convince you that "it doesn't hurt anybody" or "they owner is
motivated by greed, therfore I am justified in stealing it" or, "it's
not a lot of money, so it won't matter" or any other excuse, then he has
made it OK, in your mind, to steal. He does the same thing w/ chastity,
honesty, and any other good thing.
Which is why laws and methods and schemes that attempt to protect what
is right are a good thing. Copyright attempts to prevent theft -- it is
_always_ theft when you take something you don't own. DRM attempts to
prevent theft of benefit. These are good things. When you create your
own works, these same laws will allow you to distribute your works in
any way you see fit.
But the crux of the issue will always be that stealing is wrong. The
adversary will try to convince you that it isn't.
Dave
>>> Michael Halcrow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 01/23/04 1:32 PM >>>
On Fri, Jan 23, 2004 at 12:06:08PM -0700, District Webmaster wrote:
> wrong to take what does not belong to you, but now that very basic of
> beliefs is under attack -- by suggesting that it's wrong for you to
> control what you create. (Ah yes, the adversary is very clever
> indeed.)
You can't control information; you can only control people. And don't
bring Satan into this, it really doesn't help your argument.
Mike
.___________________________________________________________________.
Michael A. Halcrow
Security Software Engineer, IBM Linux Technology Center
GnuPG Fingerprint: 05B5 08A8 713A 64C1 D35D 2371 2D3C FDDA 3EB6 601D
The hokey pokey... What if that's really what it's all about?
____________________
BYU Unix Users Group
http://uug.byu.edu/
___________________________________________________________________
List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
