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Date:      18 Sep 2001 09:09:20 -0700
From:      swear@blarg.net (Gary W. Swearingen)
To:        Stephen McKay <mckay@thehub.com.au>
Cc:        Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: RMS: A threat to society?
Message-ID:  <ag66ag5vm7.6ag@localhost.localdomain>
In-Reply-To: <200109181401.f8IE14h29150@dungeon.home>
References:  <4.3.2.7.2.20010913023437.045fae70@localhost> <4.3.2.7.2.20010913002733.05261930@localhost> <4.3.2.7.2.20010912203732.0492cc80@localhost> <20010912225151.58FCD37B40B@hub.freebsd.org> <20010912215547.98067.qmail@web20806.mail.yahoo.com> <01091219512600.11358@proxy.the-i-pa.com> <20010912225428.A9675@citusc17.usc.edu> <4.3.2.7.2.20010913021952.045974f0@localhost> <4.3.2.7.2.20010913185102.0497c9e0@localhost> <15266.22869.722204.601040@guru.mired.org> <3BA3248D.5E47FDC9@mindspring.com> <200109181401.f8IE14h29150@dungeon.home>

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Stephen McKay <mckay@thehub.com.au> writes:

> On Saturday, 15th September 2001, Terry Lambert wrote:
> 
> >his disdain
> >for the rule of law (in his case, intellectual property law),
> >and so on.
> 
> Well, he certainly opposes intellectual property law, loudly and
> frequently.  But he doesn't break it, he uses it against people
> who support it.  That's "disdain" I suppose, but I think you
> were implying criminality.

http://www.progressive-comp.com/Lists/?l=berlin-design&m=93118897023514&w=2

Read the above post of his to an ML and tell us he doesn't have disdain
for the rule of law (contract law in this case) and for fairness.  And I
see such disdain reasonably considered a disdain for people in general
and take it personally.  Zeal is a wonderful thing, but when it leads
someone to behaviour that is, to put a book in a word, unfair, people
should complain.

As for criminality, I'm not sure that was implied.  I'm fairly sure that
including knowingly unenforcible clauses in license contracts is subject
to legal sanction; probably not under criminal law, but I think that was
your inference, not Terry's implication.

As for IP law, Stallman clearly embraces the concept, in practice if not
in law.  Eliminate IP law and the closed-source developers, supported by
the judicial system, would just revert to contract law, as would Stallman
in his holy war to keep "free" software from being used by closed-source
software developers.

To be fair, Stallman's usual message reflects not a distain for the rule
of law; just for particular laws.  I'm sure we all have disdain for
particular laws, but respect for the "rule" of even those laws.

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