[sldev] The criminalization of open source

Ordinal Malaprop ordinal.malaprop at fastmail.fm
Tue Dec 18 00:49:25 PST 2007


On Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:13:53 +0800, "Adam Frisby" <adam at gwala.net> said:
> > In fact, its no different than an artist or writer selling a CD or
> > DVD with megabytes of copyrighted content.
> >
> > Are you saying that artists and writers shouldn't be allowed to sell
> > eBooks or that games creators can't sue you if you rip textures from
> > the game CD for resale?
> >
> > And, by extension, that DVD copying for resale isn't really a crime
> > because the copying process is so cheap?
> >
> > Lawson
>
> That's not what he's saying at all - and you know it. Stop being a
> smartass.
>
> This is about removing functionality for the sake of appeasement to a
> unrealistic ideal, which frankly is just stupid.
>
> Regards,
>
> Adam
>

It isn't just about that though. When somebody says "if you don't want
people to copy it, you DON'T PUT IT ON THE INTERNET" the implication of
that is "these people should shut up", their goals have no validity,
reinforced by the dismissive references to the "toy economy". It's
either that or a tautology; clearly if you don't want people to copy
something you should lock it in a box and bury it, certainly not put it
on the internet.

You know, they won't shut up, all the people concerned that they're
wasting their time doing anything in SL if anybody can just rip them
off, and LL will continue to listen to them, because (a) there are lots
of them and (b) without content people don't come to SL or stay there -
and that means skins, dresses, artwork, poofers and so on. Without the
"toy economy" none of us would be here talking about it on this list.

"This measure is silly and pointless" is very different from "the whole
idea of protecting things on the net is silly and pointless (and so is
what you do)".


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