Discussion of all things related to Public Domain

["Erik Sliman" <Erik.Sliman AT OpenStandards.net>]

Very ONTOPIC!  Great quotes!

If only it were JUST a song lyric, or the basis of some good fiction.
Unfortunately, the criminalization of natural behavior is inevitable when
everyone is content so long as it's hitting the guy on the other side of
town.

Someone who holds a high standard of morality that defies human nature
(i.e., faith in Jesus Christ) should not be deceived into thinking we can
change our nature through the law.  This, to anyone who has read and
believes the New Testament, is impossible.

Therefore, even those with the highest standards should be against using the
law to throw the stones, lest one day the stones come back to hit the stone
throwers, or those too apathetic to oppose the stone throwing.

Of course, knowing that the stone makers are funded to craft stones that
force the people to give up income and control of ideas to the information
captivators doesn't give this trend a more palatable texture.  Is the love
of money truly the root of all evil?

Erik
"More than just a number, I am a human being!"


-----Original Message-----
From: Ram Samudrala [mailto:ram AT zen.compbio.washington.edu]
Sent: Monday, May 27, 2002 1:28 AM
To: Erik.Sliman AT OpenStandards.net
Cc: tompoe AT renonevada.net; DMCA_discuss AT lists.microshaft.org;
'CommStudios'
Subject: Re: [DMCA_Discuss] BBC E-mail: Amnesty for Russia's net pirates


A bit offtopic, but I recommend checking out Frank Zappa's Joe's
Garage. I quote:

   Based on the principle that if we were all crooks, we could at last
   be uniform to some degree in the eyes of THE LAW...  Once we had
   all broken some kind of law, we'd all be in the same big happy
   club.  ---Frank Zappa

   TOTAL CRIMINALIZATION was the greatest idea of its time and was
   vastly popular except with those people who didn't want to be
   crooks or outlaws.  So, of course, they had to be TRICKED INTO
   IT... which is one of the reasons why MUSIC was eventually made
   ILLEGAL.  ---Frank Zappa

 As John Perry Barlow wrote:

 "The greatest constraint on your future liberties may come not from
 government but from corporate legal departments laboring to protect
 by force what can no longer be protected by practical efficiency or
 general social consent."  --John Perry Barlow, The Economy of Ideas

--Ram

Erik Sliman wrote:
>
>The problem with this theory (homemade computer that can "circumvent") is
>that they can felonize citizens for such activity.  It used to be in the
>1970s that a felon was thought of as murderer, rapist, bank robber, or high
>level violent criminal.   Does anyone remember those days?

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