!@!Re: [Upd-discuss] Response from Sabine Nuss to Stallman Re: Paper:"Digital property" By Sabine Nuss, NY, NY, April 12-14, 2002

[Michael Hart]

On Thu, 20 Oct 2005, Richard M. Stallman wrote:

> I wrote:
>
>    > I was talking about different ways that capitalist societies can be
>    > organized.  Consider the US in the 1920s, the US in 1940, the US in
>    > 1960, the US in 1975, and the US today.  All capitalist, but quite
>    > different variants of capitalism, with different positions on
>    > many issues.  Copyright is one of the issues on which different
>    > variants of capitalism can take different positions.
>
> You responded
>
>    However, the position on copyright extensions has always been towards
>    longer and longer copyrights, with three power such extensions in the
>    last 100 years.
>
> That is true, and it doesn't conflict with what I said.

As a specific poing the conflict could not be greater.

Since you over-generalize on defense and over-specify on offense,
you can always pretend that any contradiction is irrelevant.

However, I think you lose the respect of your audience when you do,
and that is one reason I am trying to encourage you to do otherwise.

You have some good points to make, but I don't want them to be lost
due to tossing the babies out with the bathwater.

I can only presume I make errors in the same category, and I wish
people would help me better make my own points.


> There has been a general tendency, in the last few decades, to move towards 
> more unfair forms of capitalism, which give increased power to business.

Not only in the last few decades, and not only in the United States.

If you look at the development of the capitalist social and legal structures,
as well as:

The ME Generation
The "Greed Is Good" Generation
The MBA Generation

You'll see quite a few changes that have become worldwide, and had had
various roots in previous incarnations of capitalism.

However, I agree with you that in the last few decades of Reaganomics
the entire legal structure, social structure and taxation structure
have been HUGELY revamped to encourage Merger Mania, shifting taxes
from the rich to the poor, and letting bean-counters run the world.


> Increased copyright length and broader copyright power are examples of that.

However, this isn't the only instance of that sort of thing,
it's been with us since the very dawn of copyright. . . .

Copyright started in ways most of us refuse to address,
and thus can't see the forest for the trees. . . .


Michael S. Hart
Founder
Project Gutenberg