Re: Asimov Site

["**** ****" <***@***.com>]

Liam Busey wrote in message <39A8108F.E3C@my-deja.com>...

>Well John, thanks for the interesting post. If you have further
>questions or criticism feel free to share.
>
>Liam Busey

Liam,
    Actually I think we could get along pretty well. I just wish others
could too. I'm more or less for obeying the law, it's just some are so damn
stupid. I don't want anarchy, I want more intelligent laws.
    Even copyright could be a good thing, if it weren't so ludicrously
exaggerated. Fourteen years was good enough at the birth of our nation, and
lord knows an author would have had trouble making as much in that time
length as one would now in a year's time. I think that really, somewhere
along the lines of 15 years is both generous and reasonable. If it turned
out that it were only 25, I wouldn't complain too loudly. I'm also for the
idea that they only retain copyright for as long as they are willing to sell
it, this way, they can make as much money as they like, but no law allows
them to sit on it and keep anyone else from having it. There are no authors
that would starve for want of that 16th year of copyright revenue, but I'm
sure that corporations would buy as many congressman as it would take to see
that this never happens. And as for those whose primary concerns are Apple2
abandonware, it would work perfectly, I believe. Those who have taken it
upon themselves to pirate recent and/or commercially available a2 software
would still be in violation, and what's more, the fact that the author only
has so long to earn their money off of it, would only make the crime that
much more serious.
    But tell me, someone please tell me,  how the f*** do I do this? My vote
is all but worthless, even more so now that they shut voteauction.com down.
People make snide remarks about one issue voters, but by god, that may be
the best you can do. It is literally a miracle if you find a candidate for
public office that makes sense on even 40% of the issues of importance, and
5-8% is usually more realistic. This will never,ever happen. I may yet win a
$200 million lottery, but even this might not be enough bribe money to fix
things. Lord knows I would have even more more important things to worry
about than IP issues.
    Still, I honestly don't understand this. I mean, this sort of childish
bickering we should leave for the politicians during election year. Yes,
there are complete lowlifes that pirate simply for the sheer hell of it, and
so it is with the other side of this schism. How many morons on my filter
list are howling that "the law is the law" and burning me in effigy? :) I'm
glad that I don't have to see the garbage, btw. Those on both sides of the
issue really need to renounce those that make their side of the debate look
bad, and maybe after that, we'll find out there never really was much of a
debate. Just a shame that that approach can't work with the politicians
too...

You, and any other reasonable people who some might call a 'vogon', have my
promise to try to see things from your point of view, and to not dismiss you
arbitrarily.

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