On 2006-08-17 17:45, Nadav Har'El wrote: > On Thu, Aug 17, 2006, Eran Tromer wrote about "Re: DMCA ן?½??ן?½??ן?½?¨ן?½?¥ > - ן?½?¢ן?½??ן?½?¨ן?½?? ן?½??ן?½?¦???????¨": >> A "buffet" is organized by the free market is necessarily based on the >> exclusion from service of people who didn't pay for it. So it requires >> legal and technological limitations on distribution of copyrighted >> works, and these limitations have a huge impact in limiting people's >> rights and actions. > > I don't understand how you and Ely can hold this belief
The belief that the above paragraph is correct? It's fairly obvious, and you've said nothing to contradict it. > "huge impact in limiting people's rights and actions": the government is > forcing even poor people to pay (it is not a regressive tax), is spying on > your TV buying habits, marriages and similar things, arguing with citizens > whether device X "is a TV" or not, sending threatening letters and sending > collectors to collect these debts by force. Those are completely different limitations. In principle, you might as well take a 1% "content tax" out of normal income tax; no extra probing and collectors needed. Anyway, I think it would be a *very* good deal to get a debt collection letter twice a year and someone noticing I'm married if, in exchange, I get all the world's content to use it as I wish. > If a business needs to be created, anyone can create > it, and we don't need the government, with its virtually infinite > enforcement power, to create businesses and force them down our throat. You're ignoring my argument about the government is the only body in position to create such a business without restricting people's freedom and creativity by instating copyright laws and employing DRM. > If the government wants to abolish copyright, fine. Let's try that. They > tried it in the USSR, and as far as I hear it wasn't a disaster You mean the USSR had no copyrights but an alternative mechanism to fairly compensate authors based on the the citizens' preference and consumption habits? Fascinating, can you tell me more? >> Conversely, if the "buffet" is organized by the government and payment >> is mandatory, then you can abolish copyright and let everyone copy and >> create derivative works as they wish -- a huge social and economical >> benefit. > > What you're describing sounds like no copyright at all, period. Of course, that's my point. > Yes, the > government is pretending to be charging N shekels a year for replacing > the copyright scheme, but an individual creators do not have any rights > or any recourse if they don't think they are getting enough of this money. *That* would be a bad idea indeed. There has to be a mechanism for fair distribution of the collected money -- again, based on the the citizens' preference and consumption habits. This is obviously the hard (and perhaps infeasible) part of this approach. But imagine the consequences if we came up with a a nice, fair way to do it! Just to clarify: I'm not advocating any such plan, because I don't have a full proposal or anything remotely like it. But I do think it's important to recognize the drawbacks of the copyright regime and that alternatives are imaginable and perhaps superior. It keeps us in perspective about our real goals, as a legislating society. > By the way, since the government is only collecting money here for others, > and not using the money directly, what incentive do they have to maintain > a sane amount? The same thing that keeps the government from weakening copyright laws (or rather, makes the government strengthen those laws at a staggering rate) right now. >> Have *you*? Did you hear any of the cultural variety Eli is seeking?, >> With few exceptions, Israeli radio is 30% advertisement for junk and >> 70% advertisement for ringtones. > > If you want to pay, you can get (e.g., in cable) ad-free radio stations > with a wide variety of musical generes. But if you don't want to pay, or > can't pay, you can still listen to music, albeit with less variaty and with > advertisements. Yep. That's exactly the point you were originally arguing against. :-) Eran --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
