RE: [xml-dev] Principles for an Ethical and Sustainable Internet - XML

["Len Bullard" <Len.Bullard@ses-i.com>]

And again, it is a difference that makes no difference to the offended.
What does no one a service is a panglossian approach to very real
problems.  Lawyers will work out the details of litigations.  Computer
scientists with a moral compass may wish to work on solutions to the
problems they created.

Your practical point of view is limited.  If you have an evaluation copy
of say "The Hunger Games" you likely have a watermarked id'd copy that
if it leaves your possession will be traced.   On the other hand, you
won't get it back and the people who steal it won't desist.  As the
value of a thing goes up, so does the profit for distributing copies of
it illegally.  That is the situation the entertainment industry finds
itself in.  The sea change is because the technology is improving, the
profits possible from even more expensive to produce media are
increasing.   First it was code and text, then pictures, then audio and
now movies.  Digital watermarking and fingerprinting aren't enough.   We
need a change from the leaders of the web communities with respect to
piracy.  Is that political or is it simply good manners, common sense
and respect?

The entertainment industry has had enough.  Several prominent musicians
and composers that were prominently touted in the London Olympics sent a
letter to your prime minister about enforcement.  Pirate sites are going
to be blacked out.  If an ISP serves them, they lose their license.
Customers of ad vendors are going to be humiliated publicly and if the
ad vendors are commercially licensed, they are going to be prosecuted.
Tim Bray wants to call it a "censorship code" because some government
might use it badly.  They might.  On the other hand, do they have a
choice given the same technology that enables the pirates was created by
the same people who will cry about censorship?  They may want to make
that choice a bit more wisely before their names go next to the names of
the companies that aid and profit by piracy... publicly, loudly and with
all the fanfare social media can muster.

At some point somewhere if not here in this oh so delicately cloistered
list of the easily offended because well they got theirs, you will be
looking at a very damaged internet and web of technology so unable to
function that we may as well go back to snail mail and UPS.  A pale
horse is riding in and hell will follow.

Thanks. I have what I needed.

len

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Kay [mailto:mike@saxonica.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 9:35 AM
To: Len Bullard
Cc: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
Subject: Re: [xml-dev] Principles for an Ethical and Sustainable
Internet - XML


I didn't say copyright infringement is right or that it's defensible. I 
said it was not theft. There are very good reasons why the law 
distinguishes different offences (and in particular, why it 
distinguishes civil from criminal offences), and it does no-one a 
service to pretend that all offenses are equivalent.

 From a practical point of view they are different as well. If some-one 
steals my laptop, it costs me money to replace it. If someone uses an 
evaluation license of my software for something that's outside the terms

of an evaluation license, they are getting a free ride, but nine times 
out of ten it's probably not costing me anything because if I asked them

to either desist or to pay up, they would choose to desist.

Michael Kay
Saxonica


On 29/08/2012 15:22, Len Bullard wrote:
> When you steal a man's livelihood and reputation, it hardly matters to
> him if you run over a dog speeding away from the scene of the crime.
>
> Let's put the Saxon libraries on an ad-supported site that sells
> pornography and fake pharmaceuticals.   We'll be sure to put your name
> on the hyperlinks  next to the pictures of the big breasts and the
fake
> Viagra.
>
> It's theft.  If the lawyers want a different venue, they can have one.
> But I do think it better to find ways to protect property than to
> destroy servers because weaseling is more important than property if
it
> wins a debate on the Internet.
>
> len
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Kay [mailto:mike@saxonica.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 8:38 AM
> To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
> Subject: Re: [xml-dev] Principles for an Ethical and Sustainable
> Internet - XML
>
>
> On 29/08/2012 13:54, Len Bullard wrote:
>> A difference that makes no difference.  Weasel speak.
>>
>>
> It makes a vast difference. It affects how and where cases are tried,
> what standards of proof are required, what evidence is acceptable in
> court, what the penalties are for wrongdoers, whether or not
prosecutors
>
> consider it in the public interest to prosecute, ... you name it.
>
> You might as well say there's no difference between speeding and
murder.
>
> Michael Kay
> Saxonica
>
>
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