[ale] [OT] rant - decadence in society - DRM

[Charles Shapiro]

For a more sensible response: I am sorry, but I strongly disagree with
Ron's contentions about Intellectual Property.

Intellectual Property is nonsense. If you steal my real property, you
deprive me of the use of it.  Steal my bicycle, and I can't use it to
go down to the store.  If you make a copy of my book (or my song, or
my software...), I can still read (or play, or use) my copy.  More to
the point, I can still SELL my copy. You could (possibly) argue that
publishing your copy of my book may deprive me of some revenues which
I might otherwise have acquired from selling copies of my book, but
that money a phantasm. It is not the same as the money I keep in my
wallet or my bank account.   "Intellectual Property" laws are hacks to
encourage people to write neat stuff.  Once they start getting
_in_the_way_ of creating stuff, they're obviously a Bad Idea.
Confusing this putative "Intellectual Property" with real property is
a sure way to misunderstand every moral and legal issue associated
with creative work.

The Original Ranter maybe said it best:

Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best
state is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable one;
for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a
government, which we might expect in a country without government, our
calamities is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by
which we suffer! Government, like dress, is the badge of lost
innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers
of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and
irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not
being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his
property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he
is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case
advises him out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security
being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows
that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us,
with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all
others.

(Tom Paine, 1776)

-- CHS

On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 2:35 PM, Jerald Sheets <questy at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mar 23, 2011, at 2:24 PM, Charles Shapiro wrote:
>
>> And YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!!
>
> "Residential Vegetation Management Zone"
>
>
>
> #!/jerald
> Linux User #183003
> Ubuntu User #32648
> Public GPG Key:  http://questy.org/js.asc
>
> -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
> Version: 3.1
> GIT/MU d-@ s++(++)>+++:> a+ C++++(+++)$>++ UBLAVHSC++(on)$>++++ P++(+++)$>++++ L++(++++)$>+++ !E---(---)>--- W+(++)$>+++ N(+)$>++ !o !K-- w(--)>--- O()@> M++(++)$>++ V()>- PS+++()@>-- PE(++)@>+ Y+(+)@>+ PGP++(++)$>+++ t+(++)@>+++ 5(+)@>+ X+(++)@>+++ R+(+)@>++ tv-(+)$>++ b+++(++)$>++ DI++++(++)>+++ D++(++)@>++ G++(++)@>++ e++(++)$>++ h(-)$>- r+++(+++)@>+++ y+(+++)>++++@
> ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
>
>
>
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