Re: Richard Stallman what a tosser, was Why open source software is better

[Aaron R. Kulkis]

Nick Condon wrote:
> 
> Jay Maynard wrote:
> 
> >On 23 Mar 2001 14:59:13 GMT, Nick Condon
> ><nickco3@yahoo.DONT-SPAM-ME.co.uk> wrote:
> >>Copyright in the United States is supposed to exist for the sake of
> >>users; benefits for publishers and even for authors are not given for
> >>the sake of those parties, but only as an inducement to change their
> >>behavior. As the Supreme Court said in Fox Film Corp. v. Doyal: "The
> >>sole interest of the United States and the primary object in conferring
> >>the [copyright] monopoly lie in the general benefits derived by the
> >>public from the labors of authors.
> >>That doesn't sound like property to me.
> >
> >It passes the duck test (if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a
> >duck, it's a duck): it can be bought and sold like property, and is
> >considered an asset with a monetary value like property, so it's
> >property.
> 
> Let's stretch this analogy as far as it will go. Copyrights are cows that
> the government orders to quack like a duck and walk like duck because it
> understands ducks and likes dealing with ducks, but it doesn't really
> understand cows.
> 
> Allow me to translate this into what we're really talking about: Copyright
> law is imposed by the government which uses an over-streched analogy with
> physical property (it's a cow that is *ordered* to quack like a duck).
> 

Intellectual property is NOT the same thing as information.

Intellectual property is the PRESENTATION of information.

For example, you cannot copyright the data on a periodic table of the elements,
but you CAN copyright your formatting of it.


> The concept of property runs much deeper than mere legality; tribal
> societies understand it, 3 year old kids understand it. Those concepts of
> property arise to avoid disputes. If I cook spagetti, I object if someone
> else eats it, because then I cannot eat it. His action hurts me exactly as
> much as it benefits him; only one of can eat the spagetti. So that we are
> not endlessly fighting over spagetti, we observe simple rules to decide
> which one of us gets it.
> 
> Our system of economics is not well equipped to deal with information.
> Economics is fundamentally about managing scarcity (for without scarcity
> there is no need to economise). But information isn't scarce. It can be
> endlessly copied with depriving anyone else. So the solution they came up
> with is for the government to artificially impose scarcity through
> copyright laws .i.e to order the cow to quack. That's madness.
> 
> --
> Nick


-- 
Aaron R. Kulkis
Unix Systems Engineer
DNRC Minister of all I survey
ICQ # 3056642

K: Truth in advertising:
        Left Wing Extremists Charles Schumer and Donna Shelala,
        Black Seperatist Anti-Semite Louis Farrakan,
        Special Interest Sierra Club,
        Anarchist Members of the ACLU
        Left Wing Corporate Extremist Ted Turner
        The Drunken Woman Killer Ted Kennedy
        Grass Roots Pro-Gun movement,


J: Other knee_jerk reactionaries: billh, david casey, redc1c4,
   The retarded sisters: Raunchy (rauni) and Anencephielle (Enielle),
   also known as old hags who've hit the wall....

I: Loren Petrich's 2-week stubborn refusal to respond to the
   challenge to describe even one philosophical difference
   between himself and the communists demonstrates that, in fact,
   Loren Petrich is a COMMUNIST ***hole

H: "Having found not one single carbon monoxide leak on the entire
    premises, it is my belief, and Willard concurs, that the reason
    you folks feel listless and disoriented is simply because
    you are lazy, stupid people"

G:  Knackos...you're a retard.


F: Unit_4's "Kook hunt" reminds me of "Jimmy Baker's" harangues against
   adultery while concurrently committing adultery with Tammy Hahn.

E: Jet is not worthy of the time to compose a response until
   her behavior improves.

D: Jet Silverman now follows me from newgroup to newsgroup
   ...despite (C) above.
 
C: Jet Silverman claims to have killfiled me.

B: Jet Silverman plays the fool and spews out nonsense as a
   method of sidetracking discussions which are headed in a
   direction that she doesn't like.

A:  The wise man is mocked by fools.