Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!lll-winken!bert.llnl.gov!howell
From: howell@bert.llnl.gov (Louis Howell)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: How much is information really worth?
Message-ID: <1990Sep12.190635@bert.llnl.gov>
Date: 13 Sep 90 02:06:35 GMT
References: <1990Sep10.095011@bert.llnl.gov> <29892:Sep1300:33:5290@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
Sender: usenet@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV
Reply-To: howell@bert.llnl.gov (Louis Howell)
Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lines: 39

In article <29892:Sep1300:33:5290@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>,
brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes:
|> In article <1990Sep10.095011@bert.llnl.gov> howell@bert.llnl.gov (Louis
Howell) writes:
|> > For an item that is on the market, even valuing the information at
|> > market value may not be appropriate.  To be specific, suppose some
|> > software company spends about $100,000 to write a great C compiler.
|> > They put it on the market for $1000, and it sells.  Now suppose some
|> > high school hacker manages to snarf a copy of this compiler for his
|> > own personal use.  He gets caught, and is charged with stealing it.
|> 
|> No. He hasn't stolen anything; he's only broken copyright law. Assuming
|> the company has registered the copyright, that's $50,000.
|> 
|> Our society values information quite highly.

A fine that large is intended to deter a publisher from illegally reproducing
a document, a fairly large-scale enterprize.  It isn't fair to apply similar
penalties to individuals just because technological advances make it possible
for them to do something only an organization could do before.  I'm asking
what a reasonable penalty SHOULD be.

Anyway, has he really broken copyright law?  He hasn't tried to sell it
or otherwise distribute it, publicly perform it, or anything like that.
If I steal a book, and use (read) it, all I've done is steal a book.  I
haven't broken its copyright.  What's the difference?  Does it make a
difference to the law if he steals a physical floppy disk or if he copies
it?  How about if he steals it but doesn't run it?  It strikes me as odd
that copyright law could apply to making copies only for your own use.
It seems like yet another unenforcable law, since violations are difficult
to detect.

--
Louis Howell

  "A few sums!" retorted Martens, with a trace of his old spirit.  "A major
navigational change, like the one needed to break us away from the comet
and put us on an orbit to Earth, involves about a hundred thousand separate
calculations.  Even the computer needs several minutes for the job."