[WEB4LIB] RE:do what's right -- was - RE: The word "listserv" copyrighted?

[Raymond Wood]

> >The easiest and best thing to do is to do that which is
> >right.  I assume you respect private property of other sorts,
> >and wouldn't drive my car away without permission, even if I
> >left the keys in the ignition and the car unlocked.  Why not
> >do the same with the LSoft folks and their intellectual
> >property?  dan
> >-- 
> >Dan Lester

On Tue, May 28, 2002 at 07:12:30AM -0700, GRAY, PAUL imagined:
> You mean to tell me that my having the ability to find and
> download something from the Internet doesn't give me the
> inalienable human right to copy ANYTHING I want and use it
> ANYWAY I like?
> 
> Next thing you will tell me I actually need to buy a cd if I
> want to listen to music and I cant copy a news article from
> CNN and turn it in as a research paper.
> 
> What IS this world coming to.
> 
> PHG

A mistake I see sometimes is when people assume that the mock
sentiments you express above are based on a 'Free Software'
point of view.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact Free Software, based as it is on the GNU Public License
(GPL) license, uses the mechanisms of copyright to ensure that
software remains free -- hence the term 'copyleft' for GPL'd
software.

It is software *patents*, and not copyright issues, that
represent a major threat to the future of Free Software (and
Software Freedom :)

My $0.02,
Raymond
-- 
"You deserve to be able to cooperate openly and freely with other
people who use software.  You deserve free software."
 -Richard M. Stallman, Free Software Foundation, http://www.fsf.org