Re: A Question of Ethics (was: Overriding Acrobat User Settings)

Subject: Re: A Question of Ethics (was: Overriding Acrobat User Settings)
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 10:44:49 -0700

Andrew Plato wrote:


The point is - you are no different than a company. You're protecting
yourself, they are protecting themselves. Just because they're bigger and
have more resources than you does not mean it is okay to steal their work
or technologies.


I'm not so sure on this point. That's like saying that a country's debt is equivalent to an individual's - a popular myth of our time, but one that doesn't hold up under scrutiny. Except in extreme cases, countries aren't going to be foreclosed on the way an individual would.

Copyright is being challenged by new technlogies, but it's also being challenged because people do see a difference between companies and individuals. In our society, the right to creators to what they make allows them to earn a living. However, when a company has the same rights, it can use them to create a monopoly, or for price-gouging. At times, too, a company doesn't even help with the creation - it just redistributes. This perceived difference is why people who wouldn't think of ripping off friends don't think twice about ripping off companies.

Sure, theft is theft. And, even though I'm involved with the open source community, I don't condone piracy - it's up to the creators to decide whether their software is freely available, and everyone else should respect their decision. However, ethically, I would draw a distinction between stealing from Microsoft and stealing from a starving artist. Both acts are wrong, but, since Microsoft won't be hurt as much as the artist, I suggest that it would be less wrong to steal from Microsoft than from the starving artist - although personally I would avoid both.


And if that means shutting this guy up - then right on.
Free speech does not mean you can steal somebody's or some corporation's
hard work and blab it to the world.


You're missing several points.

First, the programmer who was arrested was not directly involved with the development of the de-encryption software. This is a point that the FBI has deliberately obscured, and the mainstream press has not bothered to probe enough to find out what was actually happening.

Second, the programmer's speech and research work are in the tradition of "white hat" cracking. In other words, neither he nor his company were actually using the software for illegal purposes; they were pointing out the flaws, and thereby opening the way for improvements. The company was not even selling the software to all comers. But it's worth noting that one of the major clients of the company he works for is the FBI.

Third, the software did have a legitimate purpose. Legally, you're allowed to make backup copies of software, but encryption prevents that. It could be argued that the company's de-encryption efforts simply restore the consumer rights that Adobe had taken away.



--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com

Stillborn love, passionate dreams, pitiful greed
And the silver tongues of the tinker girls
Who throw the book of life at you
But don't know how to read."
-Richard Thompson, "Gypsy Love Songs"


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Re: A Question of Ethics (was: Overriding Acrobat User Settings): From: Andrew Plato

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