MESSAGE
| DATE | 2002-10-01 |
| FROM | Ruben I Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Fwd: RE: [hangout] Congressional Letter to Send to Weiners Office [rub en@mrbrklyn.com] [Lamar.Robertson@mail.house.gov]
|
On 2002.10.01 11:24 "Robertson, Lamar" wrote:
If you want a statement inserted into the hearing record, you can just
e-mail it to me by COB tomorrow and i'll have it inserted.
lamar
-----Original Message-----
From: Ruben I Safir [mailto:ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com]
Sent: Friday, September 27, 2002 7:06 PM
To: Don Marti; Robertson, Lamar; Seth Johnson; William Abernathy
Subject: Fwd: [hangout] Congressional Letter to Send to Weiners Office
[ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com]
Dear Congressman Weiner:
I'd like to implore you to re-access your position in regards to the
Berman Bill and general digital rights issues which were presented
to the Sub-Committee to the house on Intellectual Property. The issue
of digital information on computer privacy and security, and individual
rights wieghs heavely on our.
The leader of the House Sub-committee has asked if all the peer
to peer downloading of copyrighted files is not larceny. This is a
loaded question which clearly showed the gentleman from North Carolina,
House representative Conner, is bias and uninformed about the issues of
copyright and computer communications in the 21st century.
The peer to peer transfer of information is not larceny, theft or
stealing. It might be, under very narrow circumstances, a copyright
violation, which is a civil matter under jurisdiction of the Federal
Government, and robbery, which is a criminal matter which falls under
the states jurisdiction as part of their sovereign rights to police their
their states.
Larceny is as follows:
Larceny Lar"ce*ny, n.; pl. Larcenies. F. larcin, OE.
larrecin, L. latrocinium, fr. latro robber, mercenary, hired
servant; cf. Gr. (?) hired servant. Cf. Latrociny. (Law)
The unlawful taking and carrying away of things personal with
intent to deprive the right owner of the same; theft. Cf.
Embezzlement.
Peer to Peer tranfer of files can never be larceny even of copyrighted
material. Copyright violation never deprives the owner. Peer to Peer
transfer of files never prevents the marketing of Music by the recording
industry.
Furthermore, since files on computers are owned by the individual who owns
the system, larceny can never be propery invoked in this discussion.
As Congressman Berman admitted during the hearings which took place on
September 26th, 2002, the copying of a copyrighted file from one person
to another is not inherently illegal. Furthermore, it is clearly not
immoral. It is both proper, normal and expected that individual citizens
will copy information under copyright, from one individual to another. In
fact, it's nearly impossible for citizens to participate in normal social
interaction and not involve copyrighted material, because under US Law,
every message, graphic, movie, or other work is copyrighted by default.
In fact, the entire 20th Century, every news reel, cartoon, article,
movie, writing, sculpture and work of art is under strict copyright.
Therefor, it's unimaginable to expect the public to not share copyrighted
works without infringement under a strict interpretation of Copyright Law.
We therefore are offended at the assertion that peer to peer file sharing
is theft. And we insist that you represent the publics interest in
matters of copyright and private property.
It was stated in the hearings that when someone makes files available
for sharing, that they have violated their own privacy. This can
not be the case. Individuals right to privacy includes the right to
decide individually exactly how much of their private information
they wish to share. This is not a violation of their own privacy,
but a conscious exercising of our privacy and make a decision how
much of their personal information they wish to expose to the public.
These rights are protected under the 4th amendment.
Our computers, the information on them, the media and information
we acquire are all personal property in our homes. We expect full
protection of our property from Congress and reject the very premise
of the Berman Bill, that anyone, government, individual, or business,
should be allowed to take any action which violates our home, our
computers or our use of materials protected by Copyright or Patent law
without a Court Ordered Warrent and due evidence of a crime.
The public reserves real property rights of our media and our computers.
We accept nothing less. We reject in the strongest terms possible that
our systems, which are our press, our newspapers, our communications
portal, our radios, our video systems, and our television receivers.
They should be never be hacked, wire tapped, or filtered in any way in
order to sustain any copyright protection. Our real property rights
under the 4th amendment trumps any copyright issues.
--
__________________________
Brooklyn Linux Solutions
__________________________
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS http://www.nyfairuse.org
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http://www.nylxs.com/radio - Free Software Radio Show and Archives
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http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.nyfairuse.org - The foundation of Democracy
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive or stories and
articles from around the net
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/mp3/dr.mp3 - Imagine my surprise when I saw you...
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1-718-382-5752
____________________________
New Yorker Free Software Users Scene
Fair Use -
because it's either fair use or useless....
--
__________________________
Brooklyn Linux Solutions
__________________________
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS http://www.nyfairuse.org
http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Consulting
http://www.nylxs.com/radio - Free Software Radio Show and Archives
http://www.brooklynonline.com - For the love of Brooklyn
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.nyfairuse.org - The foundation of Democracy
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive or stories and
articles from around the net
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/mp3/dr.mp3 - Imagine my surprise when I saw you...
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/downtown.html - See the New Downtown Brooklyn....
1-718-382-5752
--
__________________________
Brooklyn Linux Solutions
__________________________
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS http://www.nyfairuse.org
http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Consulting
http://www.nylxs.com/radio - Free Software Radio Show and Archives
http://www.brooklynonline.com - For the love of Brooklyn
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.nyfairuse.org - The foundation of Democracy
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive or stories and articles from around the net
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/mp3/dr.mp3 - Imagine my surprise when I saw you...
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/downtown.html - See the New Downtown Brooklyn....
1-718-382-5752
____________________________
New Yorker Free Software Users Scene
Fair Use -
because it's either fair use or useless....
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