From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sat Jun 30 2001 - 04:51:56 MDT
Felix Ungman wrote:
>
>
> It is possible to write a contract that states that you may listen to my latest symphony in return for one dollar, but not replicate what you heard (or pay damages of $1000). I may choose to have anyone sign that contract before listening to it. Or I have the power to keep the symphony for myself - unheard by noone but me. So far we have to rely on legal means to defend this kind of "property". And in most jurisdictions copyright is a default agreement in situations like these.
And of course there are different types of property and some
things arguably are not the exclusive property of any person or
should not be. For instance, a mathematical theorem or
technique, and perhaps, most software. Also the above doesn't
make a lot of room for fair use in literary works (and even
musical ones). And how long does the copyright hold for?
Should it be the same across the board, variable?
>
> Copyright laws is also related to personal integrity. You shouldn't be allowed to take my symphony and call it your own, nor distort it and claim it's still a work of mine.
>
But there are huge questions in there of exactly what "my"
should and should not apply to and to what degree it should
apply and for how long.
> >At any rate, common good, individual good, ethics, justice, etc. have
> >nothing to do with my position in the intellectual property debate. I
> >have the opinion that open content materials have a selective
> >advantage and we have three ways to respond-- adapt; fail to adapt;
> >rely on government to postpone the time when we will have to either
> >adapt or fail.
>
> Regardless what happens to IP, we'll surely see an adaption toward stronger technical protection of software and media content. We've seen it already with sattelite/digital TV. There's no longer an obstacle to require online registration for software (in fact it's becoming integrated in the download/install/upgrade process). The bandwidth is now sufficently high to make make you want to prefer streaming internet media (instead of download).
>
We will see an attempt at stronger technical protection. It
will hopefully fail, especially in the realm of softwared. The
future is riding on it failing.
- samantha
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