Re: "My dad is a pirate."

[Banty]

In article <47b59805$0$309$b45e6eb0@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu>, Beth Kevles
says...
>
>
>Hi --
>
>Patent and copyright, which protect intellectual property, have been
>part of US law since the founding of the United States.  Section eight
>of the Constitution reads:
>
>"The Congress shall have Power ..... To promote the Progress of Science
>and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors
>the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;"
>
>In other words, the purpose of intellectual property law is to encourage
>people (authors, composers, inventors) to create intellectual property:
>to write, compose and invent.
>
>When you decide to be a "pirate", you have decided to break a law or
>laws that have been agreed upon by the society in which you live.  If
>you don't like the laws, your ethical choices are:
>
>Engage publicly in civil disobedience, knowing the consequences; or
>Work to change the laws.
>
>Anything else is, basically, cheating, certainly illegal, and unethical.
>
>Calling what you do "piracy" may make it sound romantic, dashing or
>daring, but really it's just petty and greedy.  If you don't like
>intellectual property laws, start writing to your congresspeople, to the
>newspapers, organize or join a citizens lobby, and work to get the laws
>changed.  But don't just say that the laws don't apply to you.

Actually I don't think it's them who applied the term "piracy".  At least
initially.

Although I have seen some silly advocacy that the rest of the world use
'neutral' terms for exploiting intellectual and creative property.

Banty