is copyright evil? (Re: about warez.at)

[Tomasz Wegrzanowski]

Sorry for all references to Communism, but that's the successful
fight against the system I know best.

On Sat, Oct 20, 2001 at 02:18:11PM +0200, Alessandro Rubini wrote:
> > And copyright is evil law that should be abolished..
> 
> As already noted, this opinion may not be shared by everyone here :)

And that's not an exception that's a rule, most people talk
about reforming not abolishing, because it seems more likely.

For example, in 70s/80s, most of KOR, Solidarity and other opposition talked
about "reforming" socialism and those who said it should be abolished
were in extreme minority, just like now with copyright/patent/etc. laws.,
and weren't being taken seriously by many.

> > If no-one obeys copyright, all software is free.
> 
> It's gratis, but not libre. Abolishing copyright doesn't create libre
> software, to that you also need to make availability of source code
> compulsory.
> 
> Computer software, unlike every[1] other item protected by copyright,
> is not self-evident, so having no copyright would be absolutely
> useless for the common good. Whether or not copyright fosters
> production by potential authors is irrelevant here.
> 
> When you read a book, you have all information. When you listen to
> music you have all information. When you run a program you have no
> information at all. Recreating "source code" for books and music once
> you have a "runnable" copy is a very little effort. For computer
> programs it's impossible. Without copyright you'd be able to exploit
> the four freedoms for every authoral work but software.

If there were no copyright, nobody would have any bussiness in
hiding source code, therefore nobody would hide it.

> Moreover, we need copyright to enforce copyleft. Without copyright, we
> can't ensure our software is not proprietarized.

That's just a trick. Without copyright laws, we wouldn't need copyleft,
because nobody would have any bussiness in hiding source.

> [1] I may forget some item, but "most" applies even if I am wrong

Some ? What about music and films ?
I think the situation is exactly opposite. With the exception of books,
everything else has its source hidden.