Re: Intellectual property & copyright

[Leslie Bialler lb136@xxxxxxxx]

Patricia M Godfrey wrote:

> Well, I got my open source gurus mixed up. Eric Raymond, whom I heard
> last night, is in favor of open source software, but doesn't mind people
> making money.

A sensible fellow, that Eric Raymond!


> It's Richard Stahlman who is at odds with the current
> notion of copyright.

Does Mr. Stahlman, then, object to the idea of making money? Perhaps,
though, he supports himself by giving lectures, for a fee, on the problems
of the current notion of copyright. That's what makes America great
though--people can make a living denouncing the evils of global capitalism
and earn enough to retire comfortably.


> Another man wrote to the Linux Journal,
> maintaining that someday people will be as horrified at the idea of
> intellectual property as we now are at the idea of slavery. (That seems
> extreme to me.)

Yes, quite so. To compare something lovingly created by the human mind with
the baseness that allowed slavery to flourish is more than extreme. It is a
demonstration of intellectual bankruptcy at best and sociopathology at
worst.


--
Leslie Bialler, Columbia University Press
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