🚀 go-pugleaf

risks@csl.sri.com writes:
> Adopted by the ACM Council on 16 Oct 1992

> 1. GENERAL MORAL IMPERATIVES.   As an ACM member I will
>    1.5 Honor property rights including copyrights and patents

> 4. COMPLIANCE WITH THE CODE.  As an ACM member, I will
>    4.1 Uphold and promote the principles of this code.
>    4.2 Treat violations of this code as inconsistent with membership
>        in the ACM.

Has this already been discussed here?  This seems a pretty vague
statement and I have serious doubts about whether I can in good
conscience accept it, given that I don't believe in patents, especially
software patents, nor in some applications and attempted applications of
copyright law to software.

Of course I'm willing to accept that I have an obligation to obey the
laws of my country.  That's my obligation as a citizen; membership in
the ACM doesn't have much to do with it.  But the fact that they
included this specifically makes me think that they mean to place a
higher requirement: for example, that I should accept someone else's
"intellectually property rights" as morally, not just legally,
justified.  I don't see how I can do that.

I also wonder if item 4.1 places a requirement on me to support and
promote these applications of patent and copyright law.

Does anyone who is a member of both the LPF and the ACM want to comment
on whether they think these positions are inconsistent?

                                        David desJardins