[mythtv-users] A new theme on the way...

[Christopher Meredith]

On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 2:09 PM, Michael Lynch <lynchmv at gmail.com> wrote:
>> It's not an issue of ethics. It's an issue of fairness. If you're not
>> protecting a proprietary interest and I'm not intruding upon a
>> proprietary interest, what does it matter what I or anyone else does
>> with it? It is fundamentally unfair to tell someone they can have
>> something for "free," but they can't enjoy it as they please. It would
>> be completely unreasonable for me to write a book and give it away
>> with the condition that no one may read it in artificial light. If I
>> give away a book, I would intuitively understand that the recipients
>> to whom I make it available can do anything they want with it. They
>> can write in it, mark it up, take out pages, even burn it if they
>> want. That's what goes along with publicizing something. If I was so
>> artistically sensitive that I could not bear the thought of someone
>> "disrespecting" my unique artistic vision, it would be up to me to
>> keep it to myself.
>
> /me takes the book, rewrites the end because I don't think the villain
> should have died (despite it making the book awesome) and
> redistributes the book, in a less than awesome state.

That's a significantly different scenario than modifying free (as in
beer) software for your own personal use. Nevertheless, I think that
should be a viable option. Let the market decide what is awesome and
what is not. I am researching a writing a thesis for an advanced
copyright seminar arguing that modern incarnations of copyright law
harm creative development more than they promote it. The question is
always one of balance between the interests of the creators and the
interests of the public in having a rich public domain upon which to
build. Telling people they can't even enjoy something in the way they
choose, especially where no proprietary interest is at stake, has no
public benefit whatsoever and is therefore an abuse of the rationale
of copyright protection.