[sclug] Payments and "rights"

[Dickon Hood]

On Sun, Mar 16, 2008 at 21:22:20 +0000, mail at europa.demon.co.uk wrote:
: On Sunday 16 March 2008 17:01:35 you wrote:
: > On Sun, Mar 16, 2008 at 01:40:47 +0000, mail at europa.demon.co.uk wrote:
: > : As a "rodney" (please retract that if we are to continue any discussion)
: > : I understand "licensing" perfectly well, I simply consider it morally and
: > : ethically wrong, and I can inform you that copyright is not required for
: > : Free Software, it is merely a mechanism (the "copyright hack" to turn it
: > : into copyleft) which we use under the current legal system that
: > : recognises copyright to enable Free Software in the society we live in
: > : today.

: > That software -- or, as you've stated *anything* copyrightable --
: > television programme, film, book, or recording, was not produced for
: > nothing: it takes resources to produce all of these things.

: > Is it not morally and ethically right to allow the entity which spent
: > those resources some mechanism to recover those costs?  Surely it isn't
: > ethical to deny a writer or a filmmaker the fruits of their labour?

: There is no absolute right to expect payment because you've worked
: hard... The question is what the market value of the work done might be.
: And if you produced something which was not of value... hope you have a
: second job!

That's quite true, however my software, by dint of being useful, has a
value to someone, and they're willing to pay me for it.  I can enforce
that payment by means of copyright.  What I don't understand is why you
have an issue with that.

Clearly my software has value, or people wouldn't pay for it.

: There is more I might say, I'm sorry, I'm momentarily distracted, I must
: catch a plane tomorrow morning, the economics of the whole thing is
: however fascinating and I'm in the process of writing about that.

: > There wouldn't be much left of the entertainment industries left if not.

: People have a certain amount of disposable income to spend on
: entertainment (much much less than the full retail price per instance x
: infringing copy made under current law.. do you doubt me?).

I don't doubt you.

: Do you think that in a free market, that clever entrepreneurs would not
: find a way to exploit what is available, and make money in the process?

They may well do, however that's not quite fair.  Writers, music-makers,
actors, and software engineers, in the main aren't clever entrepreneurs:
they depend on others doing the business side of things.  Mike Oldfield
gave an interview to the BBC recently (plugging some new album or other)
saying that he didn't have a clue about the finances to begin with, and
made a loss on the original Tubular Bells.

I don't doubt some clever entrepreneurs would make quite a lot of money
out of other people's creations.  Bill Gates has done quite well out of
QDOS, for example.

: It's so funny to me when people think I'm communist, when I'm proposing
: to abolish anti-competitive monopolies, and let the market find a
: solution!

There already is a solution, and it works.  I don't see the need to fiddle
with it, except to possibly reduce some of the terms.

: But I'm a bit tired tonight, I will write later in the week.

Enjoy.

-- 
Dickon Hood

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