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Re: [LUG] Micro$oft



psutton wrote:

I think we should support anti
piracy legislation BUT try and suggest something that will still benefit all
of us.

The FSF aren't keen on the term piracy. Creates the wrong
impression, in piracy people got killed, during the stealing of
something from someone else, making the other person poorer.
It's a bit different from licence infringements, that merely
fail to make the licence holder more money.

If we are seen as against this legislation 100% we seen as condoning piracy,
which will just work against us,  so we need something in the middle of the
two, be anti piracy but pro free choice and expression.

Legislation that seeks to place mandatory controls on copying
requires you abandon your current rights under copyright to fair
use (and backup). Isn't it enough to point out that this
legislation assaults your existing freedoms? Imagine you
couldn't copy your CD's to MP3, have you bought the rights to
listen to the song, or merely to own the CD? What about when CD
players are no longer made?

I happen to think it is technically unworkable to restrict
copying as well.

Those old enough to remember will recognise the industry screams
about licence infringements, and how blank audio tapes should be
taxed and the proceeds passed to the recording industry etc. If
we believed what they said last time, they wouldn't be here now
to protest. At the time technical solutions were proposed and
abandoned.

It is worth remembering that copyright was created to protect
the author not the publishing industry, indeed the whole
publishing industry is an unintended spin off of copyright laws.

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