[Fsfe-ie] Letter about EUCD implementation

Conor Daly conor.daly at oceanfree.net
Sun Dec 14 23:18:37 CET 2003


On Sun, Dec 14, 2003 at 01:40:45AM +0000 or so it is rumoured hereabouts, 
Ian Clarke thought:
> 
> Obviously one answer is that copyright is not a "natural right", it is a 
> privilege granted to authors by the government for the purpose of 
> encouraging creativity.  The quid pro quo is that the public gets rights 
> in return.  If the copyright owner is now to deny users these rights, 
> why should they continue to benefit from their part of the copyright deal?

They should lose the benefit of their part of the deal by losing the sale
of another copy.  If we can't legally use it and therefore don't buy it in
the first place, they lose out.
 
> Another question that could be asked in response to "what gives you the 
> right to crack my content protection?" is "what gives you the right to 
> tell me what I can and cannot do with my own computer?".

The right to restrict what you or I do with our own computer is already
there and accepted for example in laws against; archiving child
pornography, attacking computer networks, crypto cracking.  All the EUCD
wants to do is include protection defeating activities in the list.

The objection to the "right to crack" question is that it will
"financially damage me so I have the right to prevent that".  Financial
damage is always a good complaint to bring to the court since reparation
for misdeeds is usually granted in financial terms.  Of course we can
respond to that with "so sue me for the loss.  If I'm breaching 'fair use'
then you'll get your losses, if not, I had the right under 'fair use'
anyway.".  

> I know you were just playing devil's advocate, but I couldn't resist ;-)

Trouble is, someone out there will come across this post via Google and
will think I'm really like that!  <waves> HELLO OUT THERE!  I'M A NICE GUY
REALLY!! </waves>
 
Conor
-- 
Conor Daly <conor.daly at oceanfree.net>

Domestic Sysadmin :-)
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