Re: It's now illegal to turn on your computer

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Author: Joshua Zeidner
Date:  
To: Main PLUG discussion list
Subject: Re: It's now illegal to turn on your computer
On 12/30/07, Craig White <> wrote:
> On Sun, 2007-12-30 at 21:22 -0700, Joshua Zeidner wrote:
> > On 12/30/07, Alan Dayley <> wrote:
> > > Joshua Zeidner wrote:
> > > --[clip good stuff]--
> > > > I haven't been appreciating Lawrence Lessig as of late, he appears
> > > > to have sold out to some kind of academic or corporate interest. A
> > > > lot of relevant issues have been propping up, and Lessig hasn't said a
> > > > word, instead he now concentrates on some kind of vague crusade
> > > > against 'corruption'. And he's supposed to be the vanguard of
> > > > copyright issues on the net.
> > > >
> > > > -jmz
> > >
> > > Lessig is still doing good things, he is just backing away from being
> > > the "Free Culture poster child." I think it is wise for him to do so.
> > > The movement has to learn to go on without him. Better now when they
> > > can still get advice from him than after he is dead, or worse.
> > >
> > > Alan
> >
> > Fair enough, Alan. At this point, I think the Free Culture
> > advocates should have the basic issues pinned down: DRM, Cryptography
> > rights, etc. There is clearly a right-wing and left-wing emerging as
> > well.
> >
> > left-wing: all information and data is free to reproduce and has no
> > ownership properties associated with it. There are no natural rights
> > to impose technological or legal restrictions on users or consumers.
> >
> > right-wing: it is the responsiblity of the citizen and consumer to
> > protect the 'natural' rights of the publisher with respects to
> > copyright, patent, etc.
> >
> > I think that the issues tend to really heat up when it is examined
> > /quantitatively/. As most in the software world have experienced any
> > idea you may have is probably already being worked on by someone,
> > somewhere. Claiming right of patent or copyright is almost an act of
> > selfishness these days. Because ultimately, whatever laws we put in
> > place are presumably for the greater good, and that groups like the
> > RIAA ultimately take the stance that what they are arguing for is a
> > more productive and efficient society. After all enforcing property
> > rights does have a positive effect in some milieu.
> ----
> forgetting the politics for a moment (and this is admittedly difficult
> to do), the fact is that you can buy an awful lot of movies for a lot
> less than you can buy most any CD. This is despite the fact that the
> movie has to cost factors more to create and factors more to bring to
> market (cd vs dvd).
>
> The music industry is corrupt and few musicians get to reap the
> financial rewards anyway...just ask John Fogerty
>
> Craig
>


While that is true according to most consensus, that has no bearing
on either legislation or judicial ruling. We can't shape the law
according to what groups we view as corrupt.

Some think these arguments to be rather specious, but the fact is
that if we are all going to be making our bread in butter in the world
of information, these issues are central. While most in the OSS world
find themselves on the left side of the fence deliniated above, you
cannot ignore the need for some level of province. Without fences,
there are no crops.

-jmz
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