Re: Copying and distributing Debian
In article <[🔎] 20020813102341.GK9338@engmail.uwaterloo.ca> you write:
> First, please do not say "piracy" since that does not convey the
>proper meaning. Due to historical artifacts, what you really mean is
>"copyright infringement" and not "looting and pillaging on the high
>seas" nor "publishers exploiting authors." (Note the irony in the
>second usage as compared to the modern one.)
While I agree with you that "copyright infringement" is a better term
in this case, I disagree that "piracy" is incorrect. To cite the OED:
# 2. fig. The appropriation and reproduction of an invention or work
# of another for one's own profit, without authority; infringement of
# the rights conferred by a patent or copyright.
#
# 1771 LUCKOMBE Hist. Print. 76 They..would suffer by this act of
# piracy, since it was likely to prove a very bad edition. 1808
# Med. Jrnl. XIX. 520 He is charged with `Literary Piracy', and an
# `unprincipled suppression of the source from whence he drew his
# information'. 1855 BREWSTER Newton I. iv. 71 With the view of securing
# his invention of the telescope from foreign piracy.
While the first source cited by the OED supports your statement about
publishers and authors, the others make it clear that the term is used
(as given in the definition) to cover a much wider spectrum of
infringements of so called IPR.
(I would, OTOH applaud you for at least recognising the alternative
(and long standing) meaning, which RMS ignores entirely.)
Jonathan.
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