[OT] Redefinition of Black Market [was Re: Screen-free Linux?]

[csj <csj@mindgate.net>]

On 17 Mar 2002 14:21:32 -0600
Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net> wrote:

> On Sat, 2002-03-16 at 18:09, csj wrote:
> > On 16 Mar 2002 14:19:36 -0600
> > Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net> wrote:
> > 
> > > On Fri, 2002-03-15 at 18:58, csj wrote:
> > > [snip]
> > > > sound-card plus speaker/headset setup". In other words: a
> > > > computer whose parts you can assemble from the black market.
> > > > Nothing specialist or
> > > 
> > > The black market?  Isn't that, like, ilegal-criminal?
> > > 
> > 
> > In some countries it's illegal for an adult to drink alcohol.
> > Illegal is simply what the government doesn't want you to do.
> 
> I don't see your point.  
> 
> The black market deals in _stolen_ goods, and property theft is 
> frowned upon in cultures as disparate as Holland (legalized drug
> use and prostitution) and Saudi Arabia.
> 
> "Tangible" (not Intellectual) property theft is _more_or_less_ 
> defined the same everywhere, and that's what your original post
> described: "a computer whose parts you can assemble from the black
> market".

You're obviously using a different definition of "black market". Note in
the definitions below that there's no explicit mention of the term
"stolen". In some (Third World) places the black market is the only
place you'll get anything, and the only people who frown on it is your
friendly neighbourhood taxman.

$ dict "black market"
2 definitions found

>From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English [gcide]:

  black market \black market\ n.
     1. the illicit buying and selling of goods, in violation of
        price controls, rationing, tax laws, prohibition of sale,
        etc.
        [PJC]
  
     2. a place where such illegal commerce is conducted, or the
        entire system of such illicit commerce considered as a
        whole; as, the black market accounts for twenty percent of
        the Ukrainian economy.
        [PJC]

>From WordNet (r) 1.7 [wn]:

  black market
       n 1: people who engage in illicit trade
       2: an illegal market in which goods or currencies are bought
          and sold in violation of rationing or controls
       v : deal in illegally, such as arms or liquor [syn: {run}]