Re: Why DRM exists [was Re: Flame Linus to a crisp!]

Larry McVoy
2003-04-27T23:41:35Z

On Sun, Apr 27, 2003 at 11:51:58PM +0100, Matthew Kirkwood wrote:
> On Sun, 27 Apr 2003, Larry McVoy wrote:
>
> Please excuse the aggressive trimming, but I don't think I'm
> affecting the intent of your works.

I agree, what you did is fine, great in fact. Thanks.

> > 1) Corporations are threatened when people copy their content and/or
> > products.
>
> I think that the word "copy" may be a significant cause
> of artificial disagreement here. I, for one, find it just
> as misleading as "free" (is it as-in-beer or as-in-speech?).
>
> Larry -- would you be willing, in future postings of this
> nature, to distinguish "duplicate" and "reimplement"?

A very good point, you're right. And it's worse because I use "copying"
to mean two different things depending on context.

To clarify: in general, when I'm talking about copying, what I mean depends
on whether I'm talking about content or software programs. For content,
copying means the act of generating a new copy of the content (copying
mp3 files via Napster like services, for example). For programs, which
is usually what I'm talking about, I mean the act of sitting down and
trying to make a new program which does the same thing as the old program.

I think some people may think that I mean redistribution when I say
copying and I almost never am talking about that.
--
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Larry McVoy lm at bitmover.com http://www.bitmover.com/lm