[Buddha-l] NYT article apropos our recent discussion of redwoods, meat and values.

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Op 19-07-11 11:58, Richard Hayes schreef:
> On another matter of practical reason, do any of you have any 
> unfounded emotion-based convictions to share on the matter of whether 
> it is acceptable to download books from a website registered on the 
> Polynesian Island state of Niue? The site http://library.nu/ has some 
> 65000 electronic reproductions of books, including quite a number of 
> academic titles that are too expensive for anyone living on an 
> academic salary to buy. The claim is that the site is legal (because 
> apparently almost everything is legal in Niue). But is it moral? For 
> that matter, is commercial publishing moral? Is placing any 
> restrictions on the dissemination of intellectual property moral? 
> Should all writing be available for free on the Internet?
> Just wondering.
>
Well Wonderperson, I personally am a great believer in dAna and I am not 
very much inspired by the copyright industry. There are all sorts of 
institutions who calculate the downloads and claim that this is exactly 
the loss of the authors and distributors, ignoring the fact that most 
people who download the copy could never afford the original (which 
sometimes for mysterious reasons can amount to $400,- and more). And 
since the authors are generally wrting their work by using copyright 
free material I think it is not logical that they should be rewarded for 
the rest of their lifetime for gathering all those im- and explicit 
quotes. Capitalism and ownership are good for greengrocers, but not for 
philosophers. You can quote me on this, it is free.

INFINITELY SECONDHAND
(as Huxley used to call himself)