Copyright

[Stefan Diös]

Many people have already expressed much of my views on this matter, but
still I
feel compelled to contribute. Sorry about the long message. I have
shortened it
considerably.

In recent years, I have been increasingly distraught by some sort of new,
"technological greed" that seems to be popping up everywhere. It's like some
people believe that just because they own a computer, they have a right to get
everything else in the world for free. Obviously, many young (?) people don't
understand what the copyright law is about, or if they do, they somehow decide
they have a supreme right to put themselves above it. Which, of course, is
worse.

On this list, I've been amazed to see people continuously advertising fully
scanned Disney stories for anyone to read or download. An illustrated fan site
is one thing, and should be applauded if it's well maintained, yet I
thought it
should be obvious to anyone that complete stories are way too much. I've been
wondering how they can to this and why somebody doesn't stop them, or even
politely tell them this is a thoughtless thing to do. Did I speak up myself?
No, because I'm lazy (and perhaps cowardly), and because I didn't want to be
the first to rouse a sleeping bear.

And their arguments, now that it's happened? "We don't make a profit from
this." Aha, fine. Tomorrow I'll walk into the jewellers' and take a diamond
bracelet. I'm not gonna sell it, so I'm not making a profit from it. I'm
giving
it to my girlfriend, who wouldn't have bought it otherwise, and the store has
lots of other bracelets anyway, so nobody loses anything. Yes, this situation
is different, but the argument is the same. And how about this: "The Internet
is a free medium. Nobody can stop us, so we can do whatever we want." (Or
similar.) Well, this is very, very naïve at best. I don't want to think bad of
any true Duck fan, and I'm sure they have been acting with the very best
intentions, so I'll presume that the people involved here are just that...
naïve. Otherwise, it wouldn't be hard to think of several other, less
flattering attributes for people with this kind of opinions. "Dangerous" would
be one of the more neutral.

Now, I can understand that modern technology allows for some sort of
"information revolution", and even though I'm not much of a revolutionary guy
myself, I can certainly appreciate much of that. But, as has been pointed out,
and needs to be pointed out again: Information and art is not the same
thing, I
repeat NOT the same thing. Granted, the boundaries may be blurry at times, but
most of the time it should be pretty clear-cut what one could do or not.

And publishing complete Disney comic stories is a very clear "not". I think
it's outrageous! Guys, please keep your fan sites! They are beautiful and
informative and do a world of good for budding Duck fans all over the
planet; a
true sign of what dedicated fandom can achieve. But also, for all our sakes,
please keep them clean!!! Make use of the illustration and quotation rights as
much as you dare, but if you really MUST scan a whole story for some friend
who
really, really can't get his hands on the actual magazine... put it on a
secret
page that only a few select people can reach, and DON'T advertise it on a
public forum like this! Please. I'm not saying this to express any sympathy
with the Disney company or its ways to enforce its will, nor am I going to
squeal. I'm just speaking out of what I thought should be common sense for
anybody, and out of concern that all the good things you do may be damaged.

Finally: John Garvin's vision of the future really scares me. I'm not prophet
enough to tell whether it will come true or not, but I believe, for reasons
stated many times recently by wise contributors to this list, that we all
would
do well to try to prevent it for as long as we could. Ah well, so far, so bad.
But when John says things like:


>
>  It is a human 
> right to break a bad law. If enough people do it, the laws get swept away.



I even get scared of the man himself. From such convictions stem movements
that
I don't want to discuss on this list, or anywhere else, for that matter. I
can't believe that John deep down inside really means that, and wants to
preach
the message to others. Hopefully, he just enjoys some rhetoric drama. Why,
some
of the other things he says actually makes good sense to me! But if he does
mean what he says above... well, I can only hope that none of his friends ever
get into their heads that any law protecting my personal safety is a bad one.

Boy, I never thought I could feel so queasy from reading a discussion about
one
of my favorite fun subjects. I hope I can relax with a good Duck story. On
paper and paid for.


Stefan Dios
Malmo, Sweden