Re: Stallman Admits to Copyright Infringement
On Tue, May 16, 2000 at 01:44:46AM -0500, Paul Serice wrote:
> It bothers me to no end. I would like to see Debian take active
> measures to distance itself from these statements.
I'm of mixed opinion about them.
> Unless you are one of the Debian anarchists, I think it will be
> eye-opening to see just how little Stallman respects the rights of
> others. I know it was for me.
Oh please. If I disagree with you, I am typecast as "one of the Debian
anarchists"? I respect Copyrights. Software and music alike. I will
admit that many people using things such as napster are doing it so they
don't have to buy CDs. However, I know a few people who have listened to
a few mp3s off the net (by napster, by DCC from a friend, or by icecast
and similar) and then went out to buy the CD with that song on it.
With the exception of about 15% of my mp3s, I own CDs for all of them.
That 15% is not illegal for me to have downloaded. Consider that before
you typecast me because I use napster. My newest CD, The Crystal Method's
Vegas would have never been in my cdrom as it is now if not for icecast
and napster.
That said, there is a problem with mp3s on the Internet. I would say
10-15% of all uses of mp3 audio are probably illegal trading. (before you
DARE claim the number any higher than that you'd damned well better do
your homework regarding commercial and industrial applications of the
technology..)
This number, while seemingly small, is actually rather high compared to
other media formats. It's a problem that needs to be addressed, but not
with bullying and attempts to ban the technology so you can replace it
with a closed (and therefore seemingly "safe" from tampering) format.
Another way needs to be found.
> Judge for yourself. Its the "Value Your Freedom" Wired interview. The
> exact section is Part 3 starting at about the second minute.
>
> http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,35143,00.html#hackers
>
>
> Here is the relevant portion in the context of a discussion of piracy,
> the interviewer asked:
>
> Q: What do you think about people who love music sharing files with
> their neighbors?
>
> A: I do that. I do that. I will let anybody borrow and copy my records
> and tapes. I love music, and therefore I loathe the music industry.
"records and tapes"? What are those? They at all like CDs and mp3s? ;>
> As "loathsome" as the music industry may be, at least it respects
> Stallman's copyrights (which is more than Stallman can say).
Second debate in my mind.. I was still working on the first one, "Do I
support Richard's statements?" and now you give me another: "Is Paul
trolling or not?"
I myself have offered to lend copies of my music to other people. I can
guess that while it was in their posession they may have made copies. I
have made copies of my own music. I have borrowed music (and copies of
music) from other people in the past before I had my own legal copy.
Of course, several years ago when I called to order a copy of a Fidonet
front-end mailer and its compainion mail tosser, I found that I could
download the latest version of the mailer from their system, but I would
have to wait for the disk to arrive in the mail before I could use the
tosser because the tosser was very easy to use illegally if they made it
public like that. I must be a bad person for downloading a copy from
someone else in town who already had it to avoid having to wait for the
floppies after my order was placed.
So maybe I am one of your "anarchists".. Not much attention paid to the
exact letter of Copyright law, but instead choosing to do the unthinkable
and follow what I consider the spirit.
I think I'll leave it to other people to decide how terrible a person
Richard is or isn't for letting people copy ancient analog relics. ;>
--
Joseph Carter <knghtbrd@debian.org> GnuPG key 1024D/DCF9DAB3
Debian GNU/Linux (http://www.debian.org/) 20F6 2261 F185 7A3E 79FC
The QuakeForge Project (http://quakeforge.net/) 44F9 8FF7 D7A3 DCF9 DAB3
First off - Quake is simply incredible. It lets you repeatedly kill your
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-- Signal 11, in a slashdot comment
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