From: Peter C. McCluskey (pcm@rahul.net)
Date: Sat May 11 2002 - 09:40:09 MDT
lcorbin@tsoft.com (Lee Corbin) writes:
>It's very similar with today's fascination with "child abuse".
>You probably couldn't list very many societies and eras on the
>right hand side of the sheet. For one thing, stealing (and
>robbery) are conceptually quite clear. But people will debate
Quite clear? Can you describe a clear distinction between fair
use copying of copyrighted material and theft of that intellectual
property? The CEO of Turner Broadcasting recently claimed "Any time
you skip a commercial ... you're actually stealing the programming."
Did he fail to confuse anyone? How clear is it that the government
is stealing your land if it prevents you from playing loud music on
that land?
I'm sure you can come up with clear answers if having clear rules
is your only goal, but in that case it will be hard to tell whether
your answers are the ones which maximise economic efficiency or
whatever else people to whom you may be trying to appeal value.
-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Peter McCluskey | Free Jon Johansen! http://www.rahul.net/pcm |
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