🚀 go-pugleaf

In our last episode <4ou59d$pnl@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca>,
Broadcast on 5col.general,ab.general,alc.general,alt.aapg.general,asu.general.announce,at.general,at.tuwien.general,atl.general,aus.general,austin.general,az.general,ba.general,balt.general,bc.general,bermuda.general,bionet.general,bit.general,biz.general,
The lovely and talented borisg@unixg.ubc.ca (Boris Gimbarzevsky) wrote:

>Information is not property, 

This is true.  No one owns facts.

>and this is what the cable TV descrambler 
>legislation misunderstands.  

No, it doesn't misunderstand anything.  It certainly does misunderstand
the Berne convention, of which every civilized nation and even Canada
are signatories.  There is a property right in the particular expression
of facts.

>There is no scarcity of information.  Any 
>society which seeks to apply the same paradigm of material scarcity to 
>information is doomed to extinction.  

What?  There are no public lending libraries in Canada?


>US legislators seem to be 
>determined to do this through their approaches to patent law and
>"intellectual property" (application of this label to TV programs is even 
>more absurd an oxymoron than its application to "military intelligence", 
>the previous winner in this class).

Tell it to the moose, seal slapper.

-- 
=Lars Eighner===4103 Ave D (512)459-6693==Pawn to Queen Four==QSFx2==BMOC==
=eighner@io.com=Austin TX 78751-4617    ==Travels with Lizbeth==Bayou Boy==
=  http://www.io.com/~eighner/          =====American Prelude==Gay Cosmos==
="Yes, Lizbeth is well."=======Whispered in the Dark==Elements of Arousal==