Re: comments on Napster from Linux doodz

From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sat Sep 16 2000 - 20:01:44 MDT


"Michael S. Lorrey" wrote:
>
> Emlyn O'Regan wrote:
> >
> > http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2573456,00.html
> >
> > I think this is old news, but I never saw it here. Linus Torvalds amongst
> > others takes an anti-Napster position, and supports Metallica's lawsuit.
> >
>
> I actually think that what Larry Wall says is even better, though Linus of
> course has more chic amongst the more ignorant slackerati:
>
> "Larry Wall, developer of the Perl language, has a similar perspective. "Open
> source should be about giving away things voluntarily," he says. "When you force
> someone to give you something, it's no longer giving, it's stealing. Persons of
> leisurely moral growth often confuse giving with taking." "

Fine. But this doesn't seem to address the central questions about what
intellectual property is or is not, whether the curren understanding
serves or disservices us and what can be done about it.

We are playing around the periphery of the true issues largely.
Positions are being declared to shift the discussion for different
purposes. The central questions are largely ignored.

- samantha



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