Re: droit de suite

On Wed, 12 Apr 2000, Jeroen Hellingman <jehe[_at_]kabelfoon.nl> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 11 Apr 2000, Marty Hayes <9ball[_at_]hostsite.net> wrote:
> >
> > It appears it doesn't matter to you that the activities in question
> > may not right *ethically*... it only matters that you won't be held
> > legally responsible. If that's your position as a lawyer, then I am
> > truly saddened. What saddens me even more is your interpretation of
> > the questions that were asked.
> [...]
> > All I can say is, no wonder the world is the way it is today. No
> > respect for anyone else or for what is *right* anymore.
>
> Talking about ethics, to be honest, I have no feeling at all that
> copying a work of which the author is long dead, or which has been
> out of print is wrong -- maybe my ethics is wrong, but that is an
> completely different issue.
>
> I only comply with copyright acts because of the harsh penalties they
> threaten with -- not because I think it is wrong -- and I think that
> is true for a lot of people. I actually believe that copying a work
> is not wrong at all, but that copyright is wrong in that it forbids
> me to do something I would like to do, and threatens me with the
> terror of harsh penalties and the power of a large police force and
> iron bars.
>
> Yes, I try to do what is *right*, and hope one day copyright can be
> the subject of a referendum -- to make it agree with what many
> people really feel is *ethical*.

Well, Jeroen, therein lies the difference between you and Colin (who wrote the comments that prompted my statements above). You personally don't believe copying is wrong ethically, but because the law currently prohibits copying without permission (except within limited instances), you follow the law and focus your energies on changing that law for the better.

That is a much different position than what I understood Colin's to be, which I read as "what difference does it make if it's wrong (legally) -- as long as you don't get caught, no problem, and if you do get caught, you'll be able to get out of being held responsible, so feel free to do whatever you please with little or no regard for the law. Law-schmaw!" Taking that a step further, that may be indeed be Colin's personal view, but the active role of suggesting to others that it's "no big deal" if others also have total disregard for the law is something that I find disturbing.

So there is no misunderstanding, it wasn't my intent to suggest that *the act of copying* itself is ethically wrong. Rather, it is such an overt, blatant disregard for the law that I find ethically questionable.

Marty Hayes
<9ball[_at_]hostsite.net> Received on Fri Apr 14 2000 - 04:12:21 GMT