<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="MS Exchange Server version 5.5.2658.24"> <TITLE>Re: [Mandrakeot] ESR gives up on Fedora</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> Simo Sorce wrote: > On Fri, 2007-02-23 at 21:34 +0100, Patrice Dumas wrote: > >> On Fri, Feb 23, 2007 at 03:22:45PM -0500, Alan Cox wrote: >> >>>> Because that also means that I control what is done with my code. You >>>> make it sound like all ideas should be in the public domain. >>>> >>> That is the natural order of things. "Information wants to be free" is pretty >>> sound economics. Copyright and friends exist[ed] to motivate people to >>> behave in a way that benefitted society. >>> >> It's completely off-topic, but still... >> >> I am not completely sure about that (at least for art). In France, there >> is a kind of property right which tie a piece of work to the author in a >> very specific way. It cannot be abandonned or transfered (although >> strangely it is possible to fake the author). It is called le 'droit >> moral'. It covers the right to divulgate to public or not, right to be >> recognized as the author, right to enforce respect on the piece of art >> and the right to remove the piece of art from the commercial circuit. >> The jurisprudence may limit in fact that right. >> > > And yet, amazingly, it is all just a convention between people, > information itself is abstract and you can't physically own it no matter > how hard you try. > > Law may declare the world is flat, that doesn't change the physical > nature of the world, it may decree the end of your life if you dissent > though ... > Physical ownership is as much a fiction as information ownership. There's no physical law that says that just because you gave a shopkeeper some green pieces of paper, I can't take your new iPod when you aren't looking [1]. It's just a convention that allows society to work. [1] Or even if you are looking. -- Do not meddle in the internals of kernels, for they are subtle and quick to panic. </BODY> </HTML>