In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Beth Kevles says... > > >Hi -- > >Patent and copyright, which protect intellectual property, have been >part of US law since the founding of the United States. Section eight >of the Constitution reads: > >"The Congress shall have Power ..... To promote the Progress of Science >and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors >the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;" > >In other words, the purpose of intellectual property law is to encourage >people (authors, composers, inventors) to create intellectual property: >to write, compose and invent. > >When you decide to be a "pirate", you have decided to break a law or >laws that have been agreed upon by the society in which you live. If >you don't like the laws, your ethical choices are: > >Engage publicly in civil disobedience, knowing the consequences; or >Work to change the laws. > >Anything else is, basically, cheating, certainly illegal, and unethical. > >Calling what you do "piracy" may make it sound romantic, dashing or >daring, but really it's just petty and greedy. If you don't like >intellectual property laws, start writing to your congresspeople, to the >newspapers, organize or join a citizens lobby, and work to get the laws >changed. But don't just say that the laws don't apply to you.
Actually I don't think it's them who applied the term "piracy". At least initially. Although I have seen some silly advocacy that the rest of the world use 'neutral' terms for exploiting intellectual and creative property. Banty _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss