Re: Syndicomm Scam

["Bill Buckels" <bbuckels@mts.net>]

"Eric Rucker" <bhtooefr@gmail.com> wrote:
> Specific non-Wikipedia citation that says that a Canadian can copy 
> something that has been abandoned...

Abandonment is subjective... I would argue that it is difficult to prove 
otherwise if fulfillment is unreasonable.

> So, there is a way, but not anywhere near as broad as you claim it to be.)

No, it's broader, diminutive tactics ("claim it to be") don't work here 
(that's bullying and we Canadians don't tolerate bullying either:)... it's a 
right that I have to a defense if I choose...

> For what it's worth, fair dealing appears to be more like the US concept 
> of fair use...

Fair Dealing provides me with defensible and timely access to published or 
unpublished works even if my use is research for profit... saying that Fair 
Dealing is like some US concept of Fair Use is analoguos saying that the 
Internet is like DOS 3.3 because both are accessed through a computer.

> ESPECIALLY not when the copyright owner has an authorized distributor 
> offering it for sale (and therefore the copyright owner being found).

That is only one part of the Fair Dealing multi-part defence... just because 
someone is authorized and someone else has a Copyright and thinks that 
because they can be found everything is OK doesn't mean my rights as a user 
to being fairly dealt with have not been ignored, (effectively abandoning 
the product).

Read "Right to Bear Arms" = "Right to Obtain Software Fairly" and you will 
have a clear picture what goes on outside. A somewhat less parochial and 
broader view of other countries that provide their citizens with defences 
against domestic and foreign vendors and corporations surely creates a more 
delightful perspective than stretching Copyright beyond the ambit of 
creative works and into the area of electronic gadgets, maintenance tools, 
and instruction manuals.

People like Mike W. and products like Orca are creative works, and I agree 
that they are beautiful, and should not be stolen... I didn't steal my Orca 
C... I bought it. I can afford to. Those products deserve a good home, but 
perhaps they also deserve a "means test".

The end-use is just as important. Someone here talked about how difficult it 
is for them to afford more than $10 for something that would provide them 
with a better quality of life. That is a very good defence in a Social 
Democracy like Canada where affordable and often free access to our 
Universities and Healthcare is a given, whereas in a Republic like the USA 
and some of the other Republics that are the world over, fear of 
consequences would condemn that individual to a lower-quality of life, and 
acting otherwise would be the equivalent in some Republics (whether they 
People's Republics or they belong to Congress and Business or a Coup 
Dictator who likes to wear medals and sell oil to the US) of up-to offering 
oneself to the axeman and having one's harvested organs transplanted into a 
rich Texan or Rockstar on vacation in India.

So the end-use, even on something that you or I consider intellectual 
property, will either trump your "Trump" in some places, or cost you limbs 
and heads and livers and kidneys in others.

Anyway I am just pulling your chain again, but Copyright ain't everything. 
Having said that I want to see Syndicomm around... and Orca of course. I 
also hope that Reactive Micro may someday be back. If not a website for 
downloads is only $10 bucks or less a year... but a guy can't download a 
scsi controller.

Bill