[ale] GAH

[Jason Day]

On Wed, Jul 07, 2004 at 05:06:29PM -0400, Vincent Fox wrote:
> I can go down to the nearest creek and dip my cup in and
> take a drink. Or I can pay $1 to get bottled water from a vending
> machine and already cold.

Yep.  And then you can do whatever you want with that $1 bottle of
water: drink it, give it away, share it with a friend, even sell it.
With a DRM-protected copy of a text, you can read it on an approved
reader.  You cannot transfer it to another device or medium.

> You and I may find this amusing but I find nothing unethical in
> charging money for something that may be free but someone is
> providing it in a convenient format and location. There's
> probably some few people who will pay for this, and why not?

I find it offensive, not amusing.  It's not the selling of a public
document that bothers me, whether it's the US Constitution, or the
Bible, or any other document in the public domain.  That's what public
domain means: anyone can take it and do anything with it, including sell
it.  If someone can repackage the Constitution in a format that's more
accessible, and convince people to give them money for it, great.  More
power to them.  But the very idea of using DRM to "protect" the very
document that defines the freedoms we all have is just morally
repugnant.

> It's a free country.
Well, it used to be.  I'm not so sure any more.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html

-- 
Jason Day                                       jasonday at
http://jasonday.home.att.net                    worldnet dot att dot net
 
"Of course I'm paranoid, everyone is trying to kill me."
    -- Weyoun-6, Star Trek: Deep Space 9