!@!Re: [Upd-discuss] a longer term strategy for promoting the public domain? (fwd)

[Michael Hart]

On Wed, 25 Aug 2004, Lars Aronsson wrote:

> Richard Stallman wrote:
>
>> The article
>> http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=554102 is
>> worth looking at.  It exemplifies another propaganda campaign to label
>> unauthorized copies (which may be perfect copies) as "counterfeit",
>
> Besides BSA and RIAA, there is a jungle of industry organizations
> addressing the "counterfeit" issue.  Some pointers are:
>
> - Global Anti-Counterfeit Group, www.gacg.org
> - Anti-Counterfeit Group (British), www.a-cg.com
> - Alliance Against Counterfeiting & Piracy, www.aacp.org.uk
> - ABAC / BAAN, Belgian Anti-Counterfeiting Group
> - ACFE - Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, www.acfe.org.uk
> - ACGI - Indian Anti-Counterfeiting Group
> - DACG - Danish Anti-Counterfeiting Group
> - FACG - Finnish Anti-Counterfeiting Group, www.facg.net
> - SACG - Swedish Anti-Counterfeiting Group, www.grundengozzo.a.se
>
> When trying to map these organizations, one cannot help but thinking
> of the medieval guilds and trade organizations that dominated life in
> every city in Europe.  Important purposes were to eat and drink
> together and to find new ways to keep non-members out of the trade.
> It doesn't take a powerful king and aristocratic hierarchy to keep
> society in a feudal state, because trade organizations will take care
> of this in a perfectly organic way.  Their rules will make it into the
> laws of cities and countries.  Laws against quackery (the Swedish one
> dates back to 1675) come from this background, not from concern about
> the public health.  Anybody can have a good health, the difficult part
> is to fend off competition from a profitable business.

Yes, you are absolutely correct!!!

Big business is nothing more than a reinstatement of the feudal system.

> The users of copyrighted items are never counted among these "stakeholders". 
> Perhaps because they don't invite politicians to lunch.

I've met them at "lunch" and they still won't/can't talk about copyright.

Michael S. Hart
Project Gutenberg