Re: Napster destroys Western Civilization

On Sat, 20 May 2000, Dodi Schultz <schultz[_at_]compuserve.com> wrote:
>
> For all the lawyers on the list: I previously conceded that infringing
> on my copyright is not -- in the *legal* sense of the word -- "theft,"
> since that term has a particular significance in law and would not
> apply to copyright infringement.
>
> And in reply to Terry Carroll <carroll[_at_]tjc.com> (hi, Terry, miss seeing
> you on CompuServe!):
>
> I also concede that "possession" has a similar particular significance
> in law, inapplicable to copyright.
>
> I think part of the problem, in a discussion like this, is that those
> of us who are not lawyers are inclined to use certain words in a
> *generally understood* (including ethical or moral) sense, while those
> trained in the law automatically see those same words in their narrow,
> restricted sense.
>
> So we end up using two different vocabularies.
>
> Thus: To me, an infringement on my copyright means that someone has
> *taken* something from me. In legal terms, that's not *theft,*
> because copyright is intangible. In lay language, taking something
> that rightly "belongs to" someone else, whether it's a tangible
> possession or a right that has been granted to that person by law
> (e.g., copyright), is stealing from that individual.
>
> No, I'm not saying that any of us need to adopt a new vocabulary.
> Only that being aware of those differences might be helpful. We
> might be in more agreement than we think.

Dodi -- a point well made regarding the vocabulary, one which I concur with. As best as I can recall at this point, the discord in this discussion was born out of a difference of opinion as to whether or not infringement was *morally* wrong.

Hence, while many have split hairs over the definitions of given words based on what they *legally* mean, the discussion at hand was "ethical" in nature and expands the definitions of those words beyond their exact *legal* meanings.

Regards,
Marty

Marty Hayes
<9ball[_at_]hostsite.net> Received on Mon May 22 2000 - 16:06:24 GMT