[opensource-dev] oh give me a break

Soft Linden soft at lindenlab.com
Sun Mar 14 13:46:45 PDT 2010


On Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 1:14 PM, Carlo Wood <carlo at alinoe.com> wrote:
> What worries me is that before, correctly, it was stated: copybot
> is not illegal, copying something and then SELLING it is.

No. Copying non-permissive content has been against the ToS since 2006
or so, regardless of what one did with the content. The tool itself
wasn't previously against the rules.


> If some really good hacker does exactly that what everyone says:
> get content that simply can't be protected, then that doesn't mean
> he will start a business with it and make USD$ 100,000 per year
> with products of others.  And until someone does that (sell products
> of others), it's innocent childs play.  Therefore, copying stuff
> isn't that bad by itself imho

The profit motive is a common red herring in IP discussions. Except in
rare cases like Creative Commons licenses that explicitly spell out
allowance for non-commercial use, the profit motive has little to do
with whether copying is okay. Commercial distribution has more to do
with how easy and profitable prosecution is. Over a certain money
value, it's much easier to prosecute across state lines or from
another country, and the suit can cover its own costs.


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