Re: part book, part software

on 3 Oct 2000 Joseph P.Riolo <riolo[_at_]voicenet.com> wrote:

> On Fri, 29 Sep 2000, Eric Eldred wrote:
> > It appears that this is another case where technology
> > and recent legislation has made traditional interpretation
> > of copyright law difficult. What do you think should be
> > the right interpretation, and the right public policy?
>
> The difficulty in answering your question lies in the
> word "right". What is "right"? How do you decide which
> interpretation, policy, etc. is "right"? Do you use
> the Ten Commandments to decide which is right? (Is copying
> any piece of work without permission the same thing as
> stealing and therefore, breaking the 7th (Catholic)
> or 8th (Protestant) Commandment?) Do you use the
> pragmatic principles to decide which is right? (If
> technology generates more money, leave it alone. If
> it does not, why bother.) Do you use the majority to
> decide which is right? (If the majority wants it, then,
> it must be right.) Do you use your emotions to decide which
> is right? (This work is MINE! and MINE ALONE! Therefore,
> I can decide what you can and cannot do with MY and MY
> ALONE works.) Do you use history to decide which is
> right? (Thus said ... (pick a person, event, or trend).
> Therefore, it is right.)

I am told that the Congressional vote in favor of the Sonny Bono amendment was unanimous.

Albert Henderson
Editor, PUBLISHING RESEARCH QUARTERLY 1994-2000 <70244.1532[_at_]compuserve.com> Received on Thu Oct 05 2000 - 19:14:34 GMT