Ethics and Piracy

[Agathon]

The only place I can find a notion of authors natural rights was Diderot who argued along the same grounds as you do. However, others used the same principles to argue for complete freedom of information - in other words it is not a well worked out position.

Modern copyright law does not recognize these arguments, it is all utilitarian (hence the debates over "fair use").

[General Ludd]

Artists didn't use to make money buy selling a mass-produced product. They made money by commission, or by performing.

[Agathon]

Yep. And the vast majority of the world's greatest artworks were produced without the protection of any copyright law.

[Agathon]

Ming! I know you are online. Come hither and defend your false views!!

edit: I guess you are watching Arnold.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by General Ludd
Artists didn't use to make money buy selling a mass-produced product. They made money by commission, or by performing.

We all know that shareware makes its developers money hand over fist.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
We all know that shareware makes its developers money hand over fist.

For that to be even remotely relevant to the post you quoted shareware would 1) have to be comissioned, in which case it would make money. (Counter-strike, anyone?) or 2) Written from scratch on each computer it's installed on. Which is silly.

[DinoDoc]

Piracy occurs in more areas than music.

[debeest]

Originally posted by asleepathewheel
you quoted Aeson, not me, he is far more eloquent than I.

Oops. My hat's off to you both, then. Yours has been among the most intelligent discussion on this thread too.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Piracy occurs in more areas than music.

Do you have a point, or are you just typing out random sentences?

[DinoDoc]

Only that your point is hardly applicable to artists today.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Only that your point is hardly applicable to artists today.

Are you forgeting to read the posts that you're trolling again, or did you just conveniently 'miss' my example of commisioned shareware that made it's developers alot money (and fame)?

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by General Ludd


Are you forgeting to read the posts that you're trolling again, or did you just conveniently 'miss' my example of commisioned shareware that made it's developers alot money (and fame)?

Counterstrike wasn't commissioned. Valve only caught on to the popularity of the mod that already existed. I fail to see how you can extrapolate this into something that looks like a general trend.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Counterstrike wasn't commissioned. Valve only caught on to the popularity of the mod that already existed. I fail to see how you can extrapolate this into something that looks like a general trend.

Valve gave Counter-Strike, and other in-development mods (Fire Arms and Day of Defeat, maybe others) support and money to continue developing their mods for free distribution. Sounds like a comision to me.

And I'm not 'extrapolating it into a general trend' I'm doing the exact opposite: I'm offering it as an alternative to the norm.

[Kuciwalker]

Valve gave Counter-Strike, and other in-development mods (Fire Arms and Day of Defeat, maybe others) support and money to continue developing their mods for free distribution. Sounds like a comision to me.

It's not. A commission is when you pay someone to make something in the first place.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Kucinich

It's not. A commission is when you pay someone to make something in the first place.

And that's what they did. They said "hey, here's some money. Finish that beta you've got and don't stop - keep working on it and expanding it"