Re: "Against Intellectual Property"

On Mon, 31 Jul 2000, Robert Cumbow <rcumbow[_at_]grahamdunn.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Jul 28, 2000, Pat Sloane <patsloane[_at_]aol.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 7/27/2000, Eric Eldred <eldred[_at_]eldritchpress.org> wrote:
> > >
> > > Those of you who are not Slashdot readers might not be aware of
> > > this link,
> > >
> > > http://danny.oz.au/free-software/advocacy/against_IP.html
> > >
> > > "Against Intellectual Property," chapter of a book,
> > > "Information Liberation," by Brian Martin.
> >
> > I presume Brian is going to put this book on the internet for free,
> > and doesn't need any income from it. It's nice to have people able
> > to do this, and I'n certainly not against philanthropy, including
> > yours. I don't believe, however, that it's necessarily good in the
> > long run to have books written only by those with independent incomes
> > who don't need to be paid for their work and prefer not to be paid
> > for their work. Rich diletanttes have plenty of opportunity to
> > publish now, with all those vanity presses. Or, as Henry Ford did,
> > they can even buy their own newspapers to disseminate their views.
> > I don't think it's ever been shown that rich people who don't need
> > to be paid for their writing necessarily write the best books. To
> > date, it rather appears that they don't.
> >
> > I think the inconsistency in your theses is that you want to maintain
> > a capitalist society (and even, I suspect, have the opportunity to
> > make a bit of nasty capitalist profit yourself), but you want one
> > class of workers -- authors -- denied compensation for their work.
> > Why involuntary servitude for authors, but not for, say, farmers,
> > doctors, publishers, or truck drivers? Sometimes you even seem to
> > be arguing that you yourself could make more money if authors were
> > to be compelled to take less. It's all very confusing, and I wish
> > you'd get these threads sorted out.
>
> I, too, believe that authors should be compensated for their work,
> and I doubt that anyone on this list disagrees. I have to protest,
> though, two bits of unreasoned stereotyping in Pat Sloane's posting.
> First, I see no correlation between being rich and having or not
> having talent. Second, I see nothing "nasty" about "capitalist
> profit," which is, after all, why we in capitalist countries have
> jobs, and why we enjoy a comparatively comfortable standard of living.

I think Pat's assumption that Brian was going to put this book online for free may have been a bad assumption. If you go to the link, you'll see that there is a hyperlink to a place where you can order (and PAY for) the book, which is published by Freedom Press.

With respect, Robert, to your offense at the phrase "nasty capitalist profit", I would presume (hopefully correctly) that Pat was saying that in a VERY tongue-in-cheek manner. Pat and Eric have been engaged in a lively debate over an author's right to profit from his/her work, with Pat coming down squarely on the side of pro-profit. Perhaps the above statement just didn't read right to you out of context.

Regards,
Marty

Marty Hayes
<9ball[_at_]hostsite.net> Received on Wed Aug 02 2000 - 15:59:14 GMT