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Date:      Tue, 6 Mar 2001 13:04:58 -0600
From:      Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>
To:        Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>
Cc:        "Victor R. Cardona" <vcardona@home.com>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Stallman stalls again
Message-ID:  <15013.13530.718675.101675@guru.mired.org>
In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.2.20010306092612.00b79f00@localhost>
References:  <4.3.2.7.2.20010306011342.045fb360@localhost> <Pine.OSF.4.30.0103040637000.3518-100000@student.uq.edu.au> <4.3.2.7.2.20010305004222.00cfe2a0@localhost> <20010305134937.K80474@lpt.ens.fr> <4.3.2.7.2.20010305114235.046da630@localhost> <20010305200017.D80474@lpt.ens.fr> <4.3.2.7.2.20010305123951.04604b20@localhost> <20010305205030.G80474@lpt.ens.fr> <4.3.2.7.2.20010305125259.00cfdae0@localhost> <20010305142108.A17269@marx.marvic.chum> <4.3.2.7.2.20010306092612.00b79f00@localhost>

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Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> types:
> Fair use has always been a compromise. It allows some
> uses, and some enjoyment of the material, that authors
> really should be paid for but aren't. The authors are
> willing to forego that payment it because it's infeasible 
> (and ridiculously invasive) to enforce copyright at that 
> level. However, they're willing to give up that revenue
> so long as there's a good guarantee of enforcement of
> their rights in other areas. This is reasonable and fair.

By the same token, copyright is a compromise. You allow the authors to
get paid for some of the copies so they'll publish things they might
not otherwise bother to publish.

I like the "don't protect copyright if doing so is infeasible and
ridiculously invasive" idea. That means the emergence of cheap
computers not only makes digital media a reasonable distribution
mechanism, but also a media that shouldn't be protected.

The really amusing things is that publishers have pissed off one of
the most ardent group of copyright supporters outside of authors and
publishers. The have attacked not only fair use copies, but the
ability to use our property as we see fit by lending it out, giving
away the original, or even reading it aloud. If enacted, this would
pretty much kill libraries, so librarians are really, really PO'd
about it. See Marylaine Block's latest Ex Libris editorial, at <URL:
http://marylaine.com/exlibris/index.html >. That's in spite of
librarians recognizing and respecting intellectual property to the
point that the Code of Ethics of the American Library Association
<URL: http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/ethics.html > lists it explicitly.

	<mike
--
Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>			http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.

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