Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!looking!brad From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Piracy Keywords: copy protection piracy Message-ID: <1707@looking.UUCP> Date: 1 Jun 88 19:51:23 GMT References: <9160@cisunx.UUCP> <1801@uhccux.UUCP> <807@netxcom.UUCP> <1641@looking.UUCP> <174@proxftl.UUCP> <1654@looking.UUCP> <895@actnyc.UUCP> <501@novavax.UUCP> Reply-To: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd. Lines: 33 In article <501@novavax.UUCP> maddoxt@novavax.UUCP (Thomas Maddox) writes: >My sense is that we do not yet understand *information as >property* fully enough to make absolute pronouncements; I don't think it's so much "information as property" as it is "creations as property." I do think that a person's creations are the truest form of property, and should be under the creator's ownership and total control. Some creations happen to be purely instantiated as information, and that brings up the question of how one can tell the difference between created and copied information, but it doesn't concern the issue of whether you should own your creations. (Other than the creations of your gonads, which are deemed to own themselves, eventually.) > (As an aside, I believe most of us are committed in some way >to the free flow of information; we feel that a culture which >generates such a flow is a more open and civilized culture than one >which does not. Thus, we may be caught on the point where the right >to personal property conflicts with this more general principle that >dissemination of information is a good thing.) > As an aside, it is worth noting that most people believe that the private ownership of plain old material property and value is most conducive to the free and increased flow of such property. The economies of propertied states seem to be far more productive and wealthier per capita than non-propertied states. So it may well be that the best thing for the free flow of information is encouraging the ownership of information. It gives people a motive to encourage the flow of valuable information. -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473