[WEB4LIB] Re: "Piracy is Progressive Taxation"

[Karen G. Schneider]

Lee brought up what is truly core.  I have given away quite a bit, and
written freely many times as well. But I want control over my content,
and I want others to behave ethically with respect to my work.  I may
not live off my writing, but I am spiritually fed by my own creations.  

In a larger sense, we do not "sell" lii.org records, but we are funded
to produce the unique content it represents. We have had instances where
our records are purloined (and it happens to all of us--I cited Steve at
Infomine in an article about Web theft, and I'm sure IPL, MEL, etc.
could chime in).   It would be hard to remain funded if there were a
million mirror sites for lii.org scattered around the Web. 

Frankly, copyright law needs to be stronger, but not to benefit the big
database licensors, but on behalf of the smaller artisan.  Many of us
give up our rights to our words the minute they are published.  I was
reading a book about the Free Speech Movement last night, and one of the
essay authors noted that Mario Savio was surprised and upset to learn
that by publishing some of his speeches he had lost rights to them.  

Thanks, Lee.  Very eloquent.  (I have yet to refuse money when offered,
though ;> )

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Karen G. Schneider kgs at lii.org  http://lii.org 
Director,    Librarians' Index to the Internet
lii.org  New This Week:     http://lii.org/ntw 
      lii.org: Information You Can Trust!
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