--- Erik Moeller <erik_moeller(a)gmx.de> wrote:
And just to be a little more provocative, the same
goes for fair use
(I don't know what Jimbo's mom has to say about that, though): By
endorsing fair use, we defend this principle. By rejecting it, we
give
the opponents of fair use an opportunity to say:
"Oh well, look at
Wikipedia, they have built a free encyclopedia of 3 million articles
without stealing any content with that so called fair use thing. So
why
not get rid of it altogether?"
I can turn that one around. Suppose we freely use fair use materials.
"I have heard from my dear constituents, the media conglomerates, that
the Wikipedia people have built a free encyclopedia of 3 million
articles, much of it stolen as so-called 'fair use'. We need to put an
end to this immediately."
As you might have guessed, I don't see the two topics of filtering and
fair use as analogous at all. If we don't filter, and schools
eventually block us, we'll get a tremendous boost of positive publicity
out of it, and the school blockers will look like the idiots they are.
On the other hand, if we allow fair-use materials, and fair-use is
eventually limited by law or court interpretation, then we don't get
anything positive out of it, indeed quite the opposite.
Axel
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM).
http://calendar.yahoo.com