Re: Asimov Site

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Liam Busey wrote in message <39A6FC5F.1FD3@my-deja.com>...

>Survival of the fittest perhaps? Eat or be eaten. Once all their
>developers are consumed the CBM folk will be hungry. I'd suggest not
>turning your back on some of them.


Liam,
    Please don't take this the wrong way. I am aware that youu have
apologized for it, and as far as I am concerned, there is nothing to get
angry at here (you took it back, and we all say things in haste, from time
to time). But I would like to point something out here. I believe this
"feeling/attitude/whatever" could lend us new insight into the thinking
behind your statements, and those who generally side with you. It shows that
you are biased, but in this I am guilty too. I'll side with those who have
little respect for copyrights, even before I've thought it through, and this
is a bad thing. Just because the 'philosophy' of copyrights is evil, doesn't
mean that I have a holy duty to go out and pirate everything copyrighted
material in the known universe. Indeed, there are times when it is morally
wrong to violate a copyright, my fight is with those fools who think this is
because "the law" says so, it must be "wrong". They spout nonsense about how
can I never have enough wisdom to discern when it is ok to violate a
copyright, and when it is ethically wrong. As if I were a child. How does a
law change this? I still have the same choice to make, one of which is
pre-approved. These people must have very twisted perceptions of justice, to
apply their laws so inflexibly and without regard to whether a particular
law is only protecting something that should remain protected, or if it is
only a taxpayer financed monopoly that only tends to further injure the
common man, the consumer, the citizen.
    Anyway, I implore you to examine what you said. In it, we can see
someone who might think that only rabid anti-piracy efforts can keep the
poor hungry software developer (Lars Ulrich, Disney, MPAA) clothed and fed.
This simply isn't true. There are those pirates that do these things with
little respect for those that they are infringing against, and even I admit
there have been times where they have destroyed someone's livelyhood. But
how often has this happened? Can you name one? Without doing research, I can
only think of two software titles. We all need to slow down, and think more
clearly, so that we can see those who do the real harm. We'll see them on
both sides of the debate, to be sure. You aren't protecting those you care
for, by becoming a vigilante and murdering the innocent man, so to speak.
Nor are you, by implicitly trusting the "cops" to always be on the side of
justice.
    If you see someone pirating a smalltime shareware title, that you just
know is hurting the author, BY ALL MEANS, shut the ******** down. Make a
point of letting everyone know just what kind of lowlife he is. But if
someone is only giving a copy to a friend, of some game that no one knows
who even owns the rights anymore, where is the injury? You start off by
trying to prevent injury to authors, but soon find yourself only protecting
the laws themselves, and your good intentions have been turned astray.

John Oyler
http://aIIethernet.tripod.com/
jojo4@va.mediaone.net