|
If we're talking about banning copyright altogether, that seems to go well beyond Stallman's position. His objection to these kinds of restrictions seems to only extend to software. (e.g., "Game art is a different issue, because it isn't software.") You also seem to deeply misunderstand his position on copyright. Far from only functioning to "prevent individuals from creating or sharing their work", Stallman himself writes his essay "Misinterpreting Copyright" that he sees the function of copyright as a way to benefit end-users by incentivizing people to create and share their work. And with this I agree with Mr. Stallman - and apparently disagree with you - wholeheartedly. The point where our opinions diverge is whether this goal is served or hindered by closed-source software. RMS contends that software is a sort of special case. He gives all sorts of reasons which are largely valid complaints, but ultimately he has failed to see the forest for the trees. His complaints are only of much note to a small elite of hackers like ourselves - for the vast majority of the population, they simply do not outweigh the advantages that he agrees justify the existence of copyright in any other situation. As far as most people are concerned, the kind of software that is produced most plentifully when motivated by the profit incentive that copyright is designed to create has improved people's quality of life to an extent that public domain software can match only under what history has shown to be a very limited set of circumstances. Oftentimes those circumstances relegate it to a critical but, one must admit, supporting role - SQLite has done much for a lot of people, but it tends to do the most when it's sitting behind commercial software. And in those situations public domain (or even Free) software is a very good thing. But I don't get the impression that RMS particularly cares about that consideration - he's much more worried about his own desires as a hacker, and he's willing to tell other people that their desires as members of the technological laity are immoral in the service of those desires. Or perhaps he just doesn't see what he's doing. Either way he's never been opposed to copyright as you suggest. He's actually rather a fan of copyright. He just doesn't like it when it's keeping him out of the source code. Now if we wanted to discuss whether copyright protections last for an order of mangitude longer than they should (which they do), or whether laws governing the enforcement of copyright are draconian (which they are), that would be different. And, incidentally, that's another spot where I wholeheartedly agree with the Free Software Foundation's position. |
Frankly I'm at a loss as to your point, or how it is relevant. You seem to be jumping between various argumentative positions as they crumble away. It's clear you'd really like to discredit RMS, but beyond that I don't know what you're trying to achieve.
I'd rather not argue with you. I'm just here to explain the problem with your initial position and I've already done that.