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From: jclark@SRC.Honeywell.COM (Jeff Clark)
Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss
Subject: Re: Copywrongs
Message-ID: <28386@srcsip.UUCP>
Date: 18 Aug 89 16:17:27 GMT
References: <8908181535.AA08568@cheops.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Sender: news@src.honeywell.COM
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In-reply-to: RAMO%AC.DAL.CA@OHSTVMA.IRCC.OHIO-STATE.EDU's message of 18 Aug 89 14:18:00 GMT

In article <8908181535.AA08568@cheops.cis.ohio-state.edu> RAMO%AC.DAL.CA@OHSTVMA.IRCC.OHIO-STATE.EDU (Richard Outerbridge) writes:

   I have been a computer analyst and programmer for many years. I am
   paid to create information. Information which is needed by those who
   hire me.  Information which they can use to help them with their
   chosen activities. I am paid matter pellets in direct proportion to
   the time I spend in creating the information. If a third party
   approaches me and requests a copy of the same information I have
   already been paid to create, why should I demand money of this third
   party as well? Is this anything less than greed? The dream of getting
   something for nothing?

Unfortunately, you fail to see the obvious consequences of your freely giving
the information you have created to the third party.  Eventually, your
employers will discover that they are paying you a princely sum in "matter
pellets" to develop information that their competitors are able to obtain for
free.  Obviously, your employer's cost of doing business will be higher than
their competitor's costs.  Eventually your employers will be unable to compete
in the marketplace and, perhaps, go out of business --- leaving you
unemployed.

Alternatively, your employers might take the attitude, "Why should we pay Mr.
Outerbridge to develop this information which he then gives away freely to our
competitors?  Let us put Mr. Outerbridge in the unemployment line, and perhaps
one of our competitors will be foolish enough to hire him.  Then we can obtain
this information from Mr. Outerbridge for free, as our competitors are
currently doing."  Either way, you end up unemployed.

Now, perhaps you object that this is too self-centered a viewpoint: that it
does not take into account the "larger picture, the good of society", etc.
Why should your profession (the production of "information pellets") be
subjected to special rules which do not apply to those involved in the
production of "matter and energy pellets", simply because information pellets
are more easily duplicated (not *created*, just duplicated).  Do you think the
guys/gals working on the assembly line building those hard-to-duplicate Fords
and Chevys are doing it for the good of society?  No, they are trying to feed,
clothe, and house their families, send their kids to college, and maybe take a
vacation to the beach once a year.  Why should you (or I) be expected to do
any differently, just because we happen to be skilled at producing a different
kind of pellet?

Jeff Clark	Honeywell Systems and Research Center	Minneapolis, MN
inet: jclark@src.honeywell.com		tel: 612-782-7347
uucp: jclark@srcsip.UUCP		fax: 612-782-7438
DISCLAIMER: If you think I speak for my employer, you need serious help ...