Re: Stallman Admits to Copyright Infringement
On Tue, May 16, 2000 at 12:58:59PM +0200, Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:
> On Tuesday 16 May 2000, at 10 h 18, the keyboard of Jules Bean
> <jmlb2@hermes.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> > I have a friend who regularly breaks the speed limit in his car,
> > which is illegal in this country. Am I to think his values
> > worthless and his contributions to programming worthless?
>
> Do *not* compare breaking the speed limit with illegally copying
> music. The first offender may kill innocent people because of his
> stupid and criminal behaviour. The second one just diverts money to
> another pocket.
more importantly, one (speeding) is a crime, and the other (copyright
infringement) is not. there's a difference between criminal law and
civil law and while a person may have a judgement go against him/her in
a civil case, that does NOT make them a criminal.
also, most (as in almost all) cases of copyright infringement don't
divert any money at all. most cases are private sharing between friends
with no economic impact at all.
disclaimer: IANAL. laws may vary in your country/state.
i refuse to buy into the music/software/etc industries labelling of
people who copy as pirates and criminals - in most cases, they are NOT
criminals....and in any case, labelling them as if they were murderers
and rapists who loot and burn ships is entirely inappropriate. copying
software (or music) is nowhere near as bad as the crime of piracy.
i recall reading of a copyright infringement case in Perth, Western
Australia a few years back where the judgement went against the
defendant. after the case, the plaintiff crowed about it to the media
and referred to the defendant as a "pirate". the defendant sued for
defamation and won. IIRC, the damages he won were more than what he was
ordered to pay for losing the copyright case.
i'd really like to see this happen more often - if only to make the
industry droids think twice before using the word piracy....a word
deliberately chosen to set the agenda for debate and make copying seem
much worse and far more serious than it really is.
craig
--
craig sanders
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