I am reluctant to enter into this discussion, since I am conflicted
about the issues.
Were I 40 years younger, I would completely agree with Tom Piwowar that
we all need to be honest as well as obeying the law -- all the stuff
taught in Civics course in High School (never mind that my high school
adviser told me that the civics course was for those not going to college).
But over the years I have seen many changes. Today, employers don't
care at all about expertise nor loyalty from their employers nor do they
care much about the desire of the customer unless it affects the bottom
line of their company. Achieving a monopoly is paramount to them.
As a person whose interests spans both engineering and artistic
endeavors, I see copyright and patent law from more than one
perspective. On the one hand corporations argue that they are
protecting the innovation of the musician, the artist, the producers of
radio & video materials, and the writer from exploitation by others. On
the other hand, they prohibit many of these from actually engaging in
copyright or patent protection.
(As an example: many large engineering firms require all employees to
assign in advance all copyright or patent rights to their employer from
anywhere to ten years to life -- even if they quit the company and find
another job -- regardless of whether or not these relate to the work of
the employee. Thus, an engineer in said company would loose all profit
for a literary novel he/she might write & publish after quitting the job
that has no technical information whatsoever in it.)
(A second example: simply read
http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~carroll/barroll/ My web page is a result of
much effort regarding a composer of music. After his death, music
publishers copyrighted his music without regard to his wishes or those
of his family. Their purpose was to prevent other publishers from
making a profit by republishing Barroll's music. Today, the composer is
largely unknown and his estate receives no royalties because of these
copyrights.)
In face of this one-sided perversion of copyright and patent law, about
which the individual can't do much, what is to be done? I no longer
believe that all law regarding copyright and patents should be obeyed by
the individual for his own personal use where no harm is accrued to the
patent or copyright holder. If there is a real harm, then of course I
will honor the law and denounce those who break it.
But first think: the Supreme Court says that an individual has a right
to make an archival copy of anything in his possession: the current law
makes it illegal to exercise that right by using someone else's software
to do so. Is this latter law what we should obey?
Tom Piwowar wrote:
Have we gotten to the point where every crime is just another a business
decision? If the benefit exceeds the fine or the probability of getting
caught is not high then is there anything you would not do?
************************************************************************
* ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <==
* ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <==
* Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name
* Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST
* Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L
* New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress
* Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
************************************************************************
* List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/
* RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml
* Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived
************************************************************************
