Re: [Fsfe-uk] re: distribution without copyright

[Chris Croughton]

On Tue, Nov 23, 2004 at 07:37:39PM +0000, Lee Braiden wrote:

> Chris Croughton wrote:
> 
> >On Tue, Nov 23, 2004 at 05:34:31PM +0000, Lee Braiden wrote:
> >
> >>But that making the very big assumption that you *do have* a copy.  If 
> >>someone *else* has a copy, they are not even required to supply it to 
> >>you, never mind supply it in tact.
> >
> >Very true -- no one is ever required to supply their thoughts to you in
> >any form.
> >
> You misunderstand.  I'm not talking about the creator of a work giving 
> you a copy.  For all intents and purposes in this discussion, we can 
> assume that a work which is not kept private is intended to be 
> distributed by the author.

OK.

> It is the *distributor(s)* that I'm discussing.  With no copyright law, 
> *they* have no need to supply an intact copy of what you ask them to 
> distribute; no need to keep your name on it; nothing preventing them 
> from profiting from your work as soon as you try to give it to 
> *anyone*.  In effect, it could become impossible to publish anything, 
> never mind  supplying it to most people who want it along with the 
> sourcecode, or making a living from it.

You know, I've heard of this thing called the internet.  It's wonderful,
I don't have to ask a distributor for a copy of the source, I just use a
search engine and it's usually in the first few entries.  Assuming that
the author wants their source out there, all they have to do is put it
on a website and post the information in relevant newsgroups, and soon
lots of similar-minded people will host copies as well.  And ISP trying
to charge for the source, or pass on adulterated or partial versions,
would soon find themselves with a bad reputation.

If you want to get precedence, then make the posts first including an
MD5 or whatever checksum, let that propagate and then it will be obvious
which copies are yours and whether they have been tampered with (GPG/PGP
is another option for doing the same thing).

The distribution system is no longer controlled by a few publishers, it
is very widely distributed.  Do you really think that Sourceforge, for
instance, would grab everyone's source as their own if there were no
copyright?  How on earth did the world survive without it for so long?
How did musicians ever make a living before their works were protected?

I think that abolishing copyright outright would cause problems, just as
abolishing the speed limit would, because people have got used to the
idea and will mostly react with excess.  But that's not the same as
either of them being necessary (for instance, the speed limit could be
replaced by having tougher penalties on actual damage caused, copyright
by fraud laws).

Chris C