Posts by Don Christie
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I think Stallman is correct, the term creator should be restricted to God like entities. At best we are talking about painters, writers, programmers, authors and so on. Craftsmen.
Who says they cannot have "fair return" on the fruits of their labours with short Copyrigh terms? If you combine a "life plus" rule where does it end? Where will the next renaissance come from?
Sorry, but there comes a point where the community good does trump individual "fairness". The Copyright holders are taking us well beyond that point. You can tell this because they would like to lock away 13 year olds for listening to MP3s.
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Heh, Democrat congressman, Barney Frank, offers to talk "uncharacteristically nicely" to his Rep colleagues so that they can put country before their hurt feelings.
This would be funny, if not so damned serious. Wouldn't it?
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Good post Matthew.
70, 80, 90 years, or more, that's fair, seems to be the argument.
Yes, sounds very fair to publishers, but it is not fair to authors, on the whole. Some authors favour a reduction in Copyright term to less than 10 years. This frees them of restrictive contracts with publishers (who often end up "owning" the Copyright) and allows them to explore different distribution and revenue models once the publisher has stopped printing.
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I agree with Sage and RB in that I thought McCain had the better of the debate purely in terms of technique.
He did as well as any politician with 26 years experience and one failed presidential bid behind him would do. Nothing special, very professional.
Where McCain clearly tripped up, several times, was in saying "Senator Obama doesn't understand..." when, even if you disagreed with Obama, he quite obviously did understand.
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Matthew Poole on another thread was doing a pretty good job discussing how publishers are in essential breach of the "Copyright Bargain". That is the point reached where governments agree to suspend certain freedoms that readers might have (access to knowledge, for example) in the understanding that publishers may need some encouragement to cover the costs of producing that knowledge. It is an unnatural bargain, made more unnatural by the Internet and distributed production technology.
Section two of Richard Stallman's book, freely available here, has a number of essays discussing Copyright.
To me, "The Right to Read" chapter is the most chilling of his essays as in many ways we are now very close to the future he describes. (Plot spoiler, it follows the standard, now patented, narrative device and has a happy ending...boy meets girl, gives girl password to his computer, merriment ensues).
Finally, before we get too far into this discussion, can we have some clarity around terms.
These people are pirates. They kill people on the high seas.
Our 13 year old children are not pirates. They listen to MP3s.
Please stop equating the two.
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Um, Public Address. Thanks.
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If stringing together random snippets of English counts as talking.
Have a dig around for older, pre-VP, interviews. A different Palin emerges.
Whilst the current crop of interviews make Palin look like an idiot the debates will be different. She won't even be asked ... "give me some examples of...". She will be able to make statements about JM being a maverick, about earmarks about Obama teaching sex to children and essentially remain unchallenged, unless Biden wants to look like a bully boy.
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I'm looking forward to a Biden annihilation of Palin
That will not happen. Whatever Palin's credentials she isn't that stupid (really) and she can talk. Those debates aren't about accuracy or grasp facts. Just look how often McCain stretched the truth WRT Obama. He didn't give two hoots whether he was right or wrong. A tie in the Palin / Biden debate will be news (so no doubt the news media will welcome that) and it will be seen as defeat for Biden/Obama, just as a tie is victory for Obama.
Look for yet another "Palin" bounce which, one hopes, will happen far enough away from the election not to matter.
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Some more Letterman.
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but giving an interview (and being put on the cover) is a "close association"?
Three times in nine months, yes, that is.
I also have a good opinion of John Key and share your views on Wishart. But I think it is worth pointing out to the former that associating with the latter is not consistent with his own message or image. To quote David Letterman, something stinks.