[alicebot-aiethics] Academic Ethics

[Bryan L. Fordham]

Richard Wallace wrote:
> 
> David Touretzky has made me re-examine my position on issues like DeCCS.
> Before, it always seemed like a clear case of Free Speech vs. censorship,
> and I came down on the side of free speech.  Now I'm not so sure if it isn't
> a question of Hollywood Lawyers vs. the Kids who want to Rip them Off.

The way things are now with DVDs, I can buy a DVD at Best Buy legally,
carry the DVD (and the receipt for it) to France, pop it into a DVD
player purchased in France, and because of the country codes it's not
supposed to play.

Who's ripping off whom?

I can copy something without being able to read it.  Give me a book of
Chinese characters and I can copy it, whether or not I actually know
Chinese.  Playing it is a different matter.  And I can play a pirated
DVD on a "normal" player just as easily as on a computer with DeCSS.

The whole problem is that the movie industry wishes to control the
hardware.  In my mind it's not even a free speech question.  It's about
fair use of something you bought legally.

They said the same things about VCRs, and there were court cases about
that as well.
-- 
Bryan L. Fordham

Community Declaration against the DMCA:
http://www.dibona.com/dmca/signup/index.shtml

Thus spake the Master Programmer: 
"When you have learned to snatch the error code from the trap frame, it
will be 
time for you to leave." 
-- The Tao of Programming