Re: Design principles and ethics

[Bas Wijnen]

On Wed, May 03, 2006 at 10:38:36PM +0200, Pierre THIERRY wrote:
> Scribit Bas Wijnen dies 03/05/2006 hora 22:12:
> > > Did you notice we don't call it copyfee but copyright? This has
> > > absolutely nothing to do with the cost of copying.
> > It does.
> 
> No, it doesn't. I insist.
> 
> > Copyright was only possible because copying was an expensive
> > operation. The cheaper it became, the harder to enforce it.
> 
> Correction: Copyright was only possible to enforce because copying was
> an expensive operation.

Ok.

> This doesn't mean it is about cost in the first place.

It isn't about cost.  But it does have to do with it.

> > Now that in many cases the cost is 0, it is completely unenforcable.
> 
> FWIW, cost is never 0.

Hey, I'm a physicist, not a mathematician.  We have error margins. ;-)

> Network and computers cost money. There has
> always been an infrastructure cost and a cost per copy. Now there only
> remains the infrastructure cost.

Ok.  But in many cases, the infrastructure will be paid for regardless of the
copying.  In such a case, IMO, it is reasonable to not consider the cost part
of the cost of copying.  Of course in other cases the infrastructure may only
be there because of this kind of copying, in which case things are different.
:-)

> Saying it has *no* cost is delusional. Tell it to the people that cannot
> afford a computer.

There are enough people who have a computer (and internet connection) anyway,
irrespective of copying, that the cost is very near 0 for the purpose of
seeing if copyright still works.  And it doesn't.

I agree that this doesn't mean that everyone automatically can copy things for
0 cost.

Thanks,
Bas

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