[CLUE-Talk] Author, Consumer, and Computer Owner Protection and Security (ACCOPS) Act of 2003

[Jed S. Baer]

On Sun, 27 Jul 2003 10:21:48 -0600
Jeffery Cann <fabian at jefferycann.com> wrote:

> On Sunday 27 July 2003 09:07, Jed S. Baer wrote:
> > Well, if they're providingng/downloading unlicensed/payed-for copies
> > of copyrighted material, then they're already criminals, no?
> 
> I disagree.  I think if it purely as an act civil disobedience to an
> unjust law (copyrights).  The current copyright laws only favor the
> holder.  The original intent was to give the holder a specified and
> terminated period of time (14 years + 14 year extension) in which to
> capitalize on the original idea.  Then, the idea was supposed to be
> released into the world (USA, anyway) and everyone could then benefit.

No arguments philosophically. But, really, part of the point I wanted to
make was that the law is also senseless because it's redundant. There are
gobs of similar laws on the books. The DMCA, for example, is redundant, in
whole or part, with other laws regarding IP and copyright.

And, (to be pedantic) by definition, anyone sharing copyrighted works _is_
already a criminal -- by a strict legal definition. That's part of what is
nonesensical about it (and many other laws). Respect for the law
dimishises as it becomes both more repressive and as its breadth
increases. Remember the quote from Ayn Rand which was posted here a while
back, about how the "game" is played -- make so many laws, that the
average citizen hasn't any way of knowing whether something they want to
do might violate some obscure law?

Some time ago, Cringley (PBS geek columnist) made the point that everyone
who is using P2P networks to share music/movies should write their
representatives a letter saying "I'm a criminal". Well, how many
Napster/Kazaa/Gnutella users think of themselves as the latter day
equivalent of Rosa Parks?

jed
-- 
... it is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday
facilitate a police state. -- Bruce Schneier