Originally posted 2006/10/26.

Some VERY interesting dialogue that was on Slashdot this week (all quotes from others, no commentary from me right now):

Commentator1: "...the MPAA hasn't provided legitimate alternatives for what consumers want..."

Commentator2: "...this statement is almost laughable. What's the purpose of it? To justify theft? That's a very, very slippery slope indeed..."

Commentator3: "Here" (referring to Commentator2's statement) " is the misconception, copyright violations are not theft. Copyright ownership is not an absolute right like property ownership is. Copyright is a comprimise struck by society with artists and writers. The purpose of compulsory licensing was to modify the compromise to maintain it's fairness. The MPAA and RIAA have no absolute right to control their members' creations. Neither do their members for that matter. If the MPAA does not live up to it's side of the compromise, we the people reserve the right to renegotiate. No slippery slope, no theft. If we give in to the MPAA and RIAA or any of those extremists that say intellectual propery is the same as real property, then we are giving up our rights and heading down a slippery slope."

"He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine;
as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.  That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them,
like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property. Society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them, as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility, but this may or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from anybody... '
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Isaac McPherson, 1813"

No slippery slope, no theft. If we give in to the MPAA and RIAA or any of those extremists that say intellectual propery is the same as real property, then we are giving up our rights and heading down a slippery slope."
<br />
<br />
<b>" He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine;
<br />
<br />
as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
<br />
<br />
 That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them,
<br />
<br />
like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property.
<br />
<br />
 Society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them, as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility, but this may or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from anybody... ' </b>
<br />
<br />
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Isaac McPherson, 1813"
<br />