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Bryan Murdock wrote: | The only argument that defeats this is Michael's argument that we don't | own knowledge, we just discover it, so why should we have control over | it?
Ahem, in Michael's defense, he also mentioned that temporary copyright exists to give a person temporary stewardship over that idea. This concept of stewardship also applies in property (we within the Church should recognize this). We don't "own" any of our physical property, it is only a temporary stewardship we have from the Lord. Does that mean we shouldn't have control over that stewardship? No -- we do have control, because that's what a stewardship is. "Thou shalt not steal" is still applicable even though my neighbor's Corvette is only "on loan" to him.
Anyways, don't try and read too much into this argument -- there are already parts of it I'm starting to question myself -- but I want to get it out as an extra angle. In general my opinions on copyright and DRM:
* Copyright is good, but only as a temporary mechanism. There must be some point where a work enters the public domain and expands the creative commons.
* Downloading music/movies/ebooks is bad iff the creator doesn't want it distributed. In that sense, P2P applications are not bad, some creators may choose/allow that as a distribution mechanism. But certain (indeed, most) *uses* of P2P are bad.
* DRM is amoral (not immoral) in that it enforces something good (copyright) at the expense of something else good (fair use). As such, we will always be able to criticize/praise DRM if we look hard enough while also ignoring hard enough.
* The DRM tradeoff may not be avoidable, and may be a sacrifice we should accept. (Many laws inadvertently prohibit something which can be good in order to promote a greater welfare, and we accept that.)
* All *existing* implementations of DRM I've seen are sufficiently flawed to preclude their use.
Jacob Fugal
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