Re: You know all those awsome unknown musicians..


"Susan" <sjd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OHmOh.19429$A53.8529@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have a few gripes, but they are political. I'll refrain from
evagelizing, but if you want to read something that made me almost fall
out of my chair, see
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article543318.ece

Sorry for not including a description to the link I posted. I'll quote
one paragraph from the article, which I believe is fair use. The article
was about a legal injunction preventing people who bought a Harry Potter
book, which the bookstore mistakenly sold before the official
publication date, from reading the book they bought.

"British lawyers described the injunction as 'unfair and excessive' but
added that the reader did not have a right in law to read the book.
Korieh Duodu, a media lawyer for David Price Solicitors and Advocates,
said: 'I have never heard of such a wide-ranging order. One sympathises
with the reader from a non-legal point of view, but property rights
often trump civil liberties. There is no human right to read.'"

So, perhaps my being a fan of Richard M. Stallman isn't so whacky. He
believes that there is a human right to read. http://www.stallman.org/

Okay, now that my politics are a little out, I also like POCLAD -
http://www.poclad.org/

So there it is, in case anyone was interested. I'm not looking for a
political argument. I'm not very good at it and I lose.

Take care,

-Susan
Hi Susan, I found your Harry Potter article hysterical. I guess it's nice
to see there are some idiots who don't live in the US. ;-) OTOH, I read
the first paragraph of your poclad site which reads: "Giant corporations
govern, even though they are mentioned nowhere in our Constitution or Bill
of Rights. So when corporations govern, democracy is nowhere to be found.
There is something else: when people live in a culture defined by corporate
values, common sense evaporates. We stop trusting our own eyes, ears, and
feelings. Our minds become colonized."

When the second sentence they post is nonsense it makes it hard to take them
seriously. "Giant corporations govern, even though they are mentioned
nowhere in our Constitution." Well, it's an opinion that could possibly be
supported by facts to be offered. The next sentence, which starts with "So"
should be an extrapolation of the first sentence. It simply is not. It is
another opinion that I don't see any relationship for. If you want to be
taken seriously, your arguments have to make sense. Understand that I am
not against your group, I'm just saying you say nothing here that will
convince anyone who doesn't already agree with you unquestioningly.

Now as to the Stallman guy, at first glance the statement: "The article
quotes a lawyer as saying, "There is no human right to read." Any official,
judge, or legislator who is not outraged by this position does not deserve
to be in office." sounds very reasonable. Until you understand that they
are really talking about the rights of an author to control his own work.
No, there is no "right to read" something that is the property of someone
else. Just as you have no right to play a song written by someone else
without the composer's permission. As a buzz word "right to read" sounds
great. It just isn't factual. If you took away intellectual property
rights, authors and composers wouldn't have any way to make a living.

Gerry


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