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From: peter@sugar.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Software Development And Piracy (Spurred By FTL replies)
Message-ID: <3135@sugar.uu.net>
Date: 22 Dec 88 03:16:25 GMT
References: <5531@cbmvax.UUCP> <2855@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu>
Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston, TX
Lines: 29

In article <2855@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu>, lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee) writes:
> No, wait.  They actually *do* sign a contract in a
> parallel imaginary libertarian world.  And any obligations they
> undertake in that world carry over to ours.  Am I getting it?  I must
> admit, I didn't appreciate the true subtlety of the argument.

Congratulations. You just invented L. Neil Smith.

No, it's not quite that subtle. Your argument seems basically to be that
from a libertarian standpoint copyrights are a distortion of the market.
I decided to grant you Libertaria (a society designed by libertarians), and
explained how *if this was Libertaria* things wouldn't be very different.
They'd just be a little less convenient and there'd be less piracy. Thus,
it's not morally wrong (from a libertarian viewpoint) for there to be such
a thing as intellectual property rights.

Got that?

Now then, this isn't Libertaria. Instead of a complex licensing scheme we
have copyright laws. The mechanism is less flexible and more convenient than
the licensing contracts that would exist in Libertaria. But, since intellectual
property rights are moral (see above), it's perfectly ethical for libertarians
and others of like mind to accept and support the concept of copyrights. Since
copyrights lead to a desirable state -- more software gets written -- it is
therefore immoral or unethical to pirate software.

There. Nestor Makhno might not agree, but I think it holds water.
-- 
Peter "Have you hugged your wolf today" da Silva  `-_-'  peter@sugar.uu.net