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Date:      Mon, 12 Mar 2001 00:01:55 -0700
From:      Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>
To:        Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>
Cc:        Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in>, "Victor R. Cardona" <vcardona@home.com>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Stallman stalls again
Message-ID:  <4.3.2.7.2.20010311235053.00e26140@localhost>
In-Reply-To: <15020.28993.192354.986367@guru.mired.org>
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At 11:48 PM 3/11/2001, Mike Meyer wrote:

>If you believe that, then you've already made up your mind, and
>discussing the issue is pointless. Creators publishing is the
>baby.

If you try to construe what I said that way you'll miss the point I
was trying to make. The notion of conferring rights on creators of
content is vitally important, since without it there's no incentive
for them to publish other than vanity.

>Right. Copyright *allows* the author to be compensated. It isn't the
>compensation. Nor does it allow the author to demand compensation for
>mere use. 

Not so. For all uses except for "fair use," it does.

>I use all the books I check out from the library, but
>neither the author nor the publisher gets more compensation for my use
>- though publishers are trying to change that.

In Europe, authors do receive compensation from libraries for the
use of their work. They even receive a share of the revenues from
the copying machine. Since I've written more than 1,000 published 
articles, I get a small but not insignificant amount of money each 
year from that pool of money. The Copyright Clearance Center sends
me a check each fall.

>Any mechanism that allows the author to be compensated if they publish
>will serve the same purpose. If you want, read "make available for the
>public to use" for "publish"; it amounts to the same thing. If the
>public can't get to the work, there's no way they can do something
>that copyright allows the author to demand compensation for. 

You don't have to release your work to the general public. You can
license it privately to a small number of individuals if you'd like.

>> Copyright applies to far more than just publishing. For example, it
>> also applies to public performance for profit, etc.
>
>This is a bit vague. A public performance itself isn't
>copyrightable. 

Sure it is. And the author of the work that's performed is entitled
to compensation too.

>> I think that unbridled theft of copyrighted material is shameful too. 
>
>So do I. It's clearly illegal and immoral. However, it is *not*
>causing a major economic dislocation, 

It is, actually. It's impacting the sales of albums and especially
those of "singles." 

>wherease the publishers mucking
>with fair use and related rights is threatening an entire profession.

Which one?

>> As I said near the beginning of this thread, we need to broker a new
>> peace -- not instigate or escalate a war.
>
>I agree. In particular, I think that the public would be better served
>by a peace that used some other mechanism to allow artists to be
>compensated for publishing. 

What would you propose? Something like ASCAP? From whom would it collect
funds?

--Brett


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