On Fri, 25 Mar 2005, Chris Alvarez wrote: > Still, nobody has ever in the whole history of the world put a > semi-decent reason of why copyright take away someone's freedom. If > you get a product, you KNEW before getting involved in the transaccion > what the terms were.
Maybe we're talking past each other here. I don't disagree at all that currently, that's how copyright works--if somebody sells me a computer program (or other creative work), I know that unless they grant me a license that says otherwise, I am not allowed to make copies, derivative works, or publically display their work. But there is no denying the fact that this law restricts what I can do with something I've legitimately purchased. That's all I mean by "taking away my freedom." When I say "taking away my freedom" I simply mean "restricting what I can do with something I've legitimately purchased". Now, I agree with Stallman that Copyright shouldn't be entirely abolished (although I personally think that the computer industry would do just fine if it were). But I don't think that Copyright is a "natural right" or a property right, in that simply because I express some creative idea in a fixed medium, I morally have some right to prevent those to whom I sell my creative work from further copying that work. I believe that copyright laws should be primarily for the purpose of "promoting the progress of science and useful arts", which I read as primarily encouraging the creation of creative works, and as secondarily enriching the public domain. If copyright fails to "promote the progress of science and useful arts," I see no valid reason at all to grant said copyright, even if it is very useful (or profitable) to the author of the work. Can we agree on any (or most) of that? Or are we still on totally different pages :-) I like to start at what's common and try to work from there. ~ ross -------------------- BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
