Re: The Seven Types Of Pirate

On Tue, October 12, 2010 9:00 pm, Barry wrote:

> I grew up with the idea that sharing books is a good thing and
> unwillingness to share books is a bad and selfish thing.  Most people grow
> up with that same idea.

This is my belief as well. I don't know if /most/ people grew up with the
idea, but based upon their writings I have reason to believe that Thomas
Jefferson and St. Thomas Aquinas did.

My belief does not match the laws of my country. For the most part I
believe that current copyright law with its insanely long protection
period promotes selfishness and self-obsession, and is inimical to the
long term interests of society.

But I don't get to decide which laws I choose to obey based on my beliefs.

This is one of the reasons I try to insist that discussion of copyright
law (which is, BTW, off-topic for this list) focus on law, and not
someone's sense of morality or moral outrage. Those people who equate
copyright infringement with rape and pillage (piracy? come on...) are as
deluded as those who think it's OK to share everything because
"information wants to be free." Those who insist there is a "moral"
imperative to copyright are just religious extremists, of much the same
stripe as any other religious extremists.

Indeed I wonder if the screaming moralists aren't inadvertently supporting
the very "pirates" they condemn. If draconian, even criminal, responses to
copyright infringement are justifiable based on their moral view, isn't
copyright infringement itself justifiable based upon those holding
opposite views?

Copyright is a legal invention and should only be discussed in a legal
context. People who can't discuss it legally shouldn't be discussing it at
all.


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