JD Austin said:
>
> Your first mistake was contacting cox, unless you didn't admit it.
The first mistake was infringing on someones copyright without a license.
Granted, there are tales of letters sent based on filenames similar or the
same as a movie that had nothing to do with infringing anything. That is
stupidity on the MPAA or whoever to send the letter without real research.
This does not excuse actual infringment.
I am adimant about this point mainly for this reason: The GPL and most, if
not all, Free Software and Open Source Software licenses derive their
enforcement power and respect from the strength of copyright law. Period.
Without copyright, these licenses would not be enforcable. The FS/OSS
community and goals depend on the enforcability of these licenses.
If I (we) expect others to respect and follow these licenses, I (we) must
respect and follow the copyrights and licenses of others. Period. Is it
inconvenient that I cannot copy someone else's work because of their
copyright and license? Sure. Is it inconvenient for SCO that they
cannot just appropriate Linux as their code to use as they will? Sure.
Are the current pratices and business models of many industries,
especially the entertainment industry, brain dead? Yes. BUT I (we) must
respect their right to control their copyrighted work just as I expect
them to respect mine.
I suggest that all PLUGgers and FS/OSS users should not be copyright
infringers. It hurts FS/OSS goals.
Alan
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