Re: Napster destroys Western Civilization

On Tue, 16 May 2000, Robert Cumbow <rcumbow[_at_]grahamdunn.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, 11 May 2000, Marty Hayes <9ball[_at_]hostsite.net> originally wrote:
> >
> > [...] there is no *natural* right to anything
> > [...] any *right* we have is conferred by law.
>
> I wrote to disagree, saying that the USA is founded on natural
> rights that either may or may not be limited by law, as the people
> see fit. Unaccountably, 9Ball interprets this as meaning that
> there is a natural right to shoot someone and Congress shall make
> no law preventing someone from doing so. I have carefully reviewed
> my posting and find nothing that even remotely suggests such a
> conclusion. To the best of my knowledge no one has ever asserted
> that shooting someone was among the fundamental rights that inhere
> in and are retained by the people. The people, in constituting
> both the federal and the state governments of our country, have
> most emphatically enabled their elected representatives to enact
> legislation protecting them from being shot at by one another,
> and to the best of my knowledge every state has criminal statutes
> prohibiting this activity.
>
> Let me try to make myself perfectly clear: I am not saying that
> every imaginable activity is a fundamental right that cannot be
> legislated against. I AM saying that those rights we in the US
> recognize as fundamental (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness,
> speech, religion, assembly, association, jury trial, protection
> against self-incrimination and unreasonable search and seizure,
> etc.) are held to be inherent in the people. We do not have
> those rights by benefit of law. Rather, we enacted our
> Constitution and its several amendments in part to ensure that
> the law would do nothing to impair those rights.
>
> I don't know whether 9Ball is an American or not, but I encourage
> him to read carefully the Bill of Rights. I am continually amazed
> at how many Americans are unaware that our Constitution is a grant
> of rights from the people to the government, not the other way
> around.

Robert: Let me clarify for you:

Yes, I am an American.
Yes, I have read the Bill of Rights.
And no, I do not believe that the "right to copy" is an inherent, natural right of the people, which is what I initially responded to.

Nor did I say that it was my interpretation that it is a natural right to shoot someone; rather, I asked if that was YOUR interpretation, based on your statements.

Without further embellishment, I hope these points are exceedingly clear now.

Regards,
Marty

Marty Hayes
<9ball[_at_]hostsite.net> Received on Wed May 17 2000 - 13:14:20 GMT