Thieves or...

Søren Krarup Olesen raptus at stofanet.dk
Mon Nov 4 21:17:44 CET 2002


DONALD:

 > It is possible because the creator of the work chose to release it to
 > the public domain. Anything can be given away free, if the owner
 > chooses to do so. (I don't understand why this isn't immediately
 > obvious.)

It's not easy to detect whether anything is public domain, if it isn't
explicitly written anywhere. Hence, I assume everything to be so unless
otherwise told.

 > Who cares how little value you place on your own work? You still have
 > no right to apply your pronouncements to the work of others.

Correct, but why do they put their precious work on the Internet then?
Do I find any of your manuscripts on the Internet, although it would be
so neatly protected by some default law. I guess not. (not to mention
the fact that I'd personally love to read them :-)

 >> From the rest, I gather you simply don't believe in copyrights.
 >> That's very
 > nice, I'm sure,

"Nice"?! Apart from that, yes, you are absolutely right. I believe in
the absolute opposite of copyrighting. The Internet should be IMHO a
huge free public library from which you can search for things and get
the info you need for low-cost or for free. Some "books" are good and
others deal with the same topic but are better etc.

 > [...] not simply ignore the law and declare that creators have no
 > right to control the distribution of their own work,

And again: What law exactly are we talking about here? If you wish to
control your work, stay out of the Internet. Another possibility is if
you wish to earn money from whatever you do via the net, but that's a
completely different ball game.

 > because to attempt doing so would violate some "philosophy behind the
 >  Internet" (whatever that means).

The term "violate a/some philosophy" is inappropriate, one cannot
"violate a philosophy", it doesn't make sense. I suppose, Don, that you
are too focused on law and order and regulations. As far as the Internet
is concerned it just doesn't work quite like that. Anyways, the
philosophy is simple: Share! I might add a few more long-haired hippie
phrases, but let's keep it simple. If you don't wanna share, bail out.

Søren




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