From: ChuckKuecker (ckuecker@mcs.net)
Date: Wed May 06 1998 - 07:33:39 MDT
At 21:42 5/5/98 -0700, you wrote:
>That's two different and unrelated questions. Sure, you have a right
>to profit from your work just as Mark McGuire has a right to profit
>from hitting home runs. But does that mean he should be able to
>profit from runs he hit 5 years ago, or prevent other batters from
>studying his swing? If you made such a bad deal with your publisher
>that someone copying your work can cut into your profits, whose
>fault is that? I say it's yours; the costs of exclusion are borne
>by every other business, why should /I/ bear the costs of exclusion
>for /yours/?
>
Different propositon here. If I build a house, I can sell it once. If I hit
a baseball, I can only make each hit once.
If I develop a unique product, I can sell it many times.
>> If I create a logo for my enterprise, should someone else be
>> permitted to use it to sell their products?
>
>That's a trademark, not a copyright or patent; an entirely unrelated
>issue. Using someone else's identity is willful fraud, and I have
>no problem with enforcing a tort in that case.
>
Okay, definition accepted. But use of a copied product as your own is also
fraud for the exact same reason.
>> I have no objection to others using my ideas to act as a springboard for
>> them to reach even greater heights. I only object to others using my
>> creations to deny me a chance to make a living by undercutting me with
>> duplicates of what I made.
>
>Then don't use business practices that encourage that. The present
>system is based on the assumption of copyright; without it, different
>business models would evolve. This is a good thing.
>
In today's world, I have no choice but to play by the rules of today's game.
Should your utopia become a reality, i will gladly adapt my views to
maximize my comfort level there.
>> Copying, however, is cheating. By your arguments, if I copy your doctoral
>> thesis, I should be able to claim the degree just as if I had done all the
>> research. After all, it's not 'theft'.
>
>Well, you could publish my thesis, but I presume that a college who
>granted degrees to people for using a Xerox machine would not have
>a very good reputation.
>
Yes, but how do you prevent people from claiming to be the original author
without some law or rule acknowleging the original maker?
Chuck Kuecker
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:49:03 MST