31–40 of 61 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is ability to charge money for any labor a human right?
It is a human right to only work voluntarily. The alternative is slavery. So yes, it is.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
is that really a problem with itunes? if your house burned down, you'd lose all of the movies you had on DVD. at least with itunes movies, you can legally make backups of the files.
Sure , but houses rarely burn down. Computers crash a lot . In fact, I'd venture to say that most (or maybe close to most?) computers end up in some state where their owners either can't or think they can't retrieve data from them. Based on the likelihood of this happening to their customers, it'd be decent to let users re-download media you know they've already paid for and been given access to...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is ability to charge money for any labor a human right?
It is a human right to only work voluntarily. The alternative is slavery. So yes, it is.
I know this isn't strictly relevant, but I really believe that thanks to technology improvements, we need to work on dispelling the idea that everybody has to work. Unemployment should gradually stop being a horrible fate worthy of pity or derision, but rather a viable career path. One of these days...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is a human right to only work voluntarily. The alternative is slavery. So yes, it is.
Well no, the alternative is to not work at all. And I know plenty of people (heh, Berkeley) who get along fine without working. Some of them are probably happier than plenty of employed people. I know this isn't strictly relevant, but I really believe that thanks to technology improvements, we need to work on dispelling the idea that everybody has to work. Unemployment should gradually stop being a horrible fate wort…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is a human right to only work voluntarily. The alternative is slavery. So yes, it is.
Yes - but the real point is about those 'artists' who work voluntarily on projects of their own choosing for (at best) speculative financial return. Sometimes they might get nothing for their efforts, and this has to be accepted.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only thing I don't understand completely is his actual stance on copyright. He says he's okay with the notion, since he and many other artists benefit from it. But he quite clearly doesn't think piracy hurts artists, and doesn't seem to think that downloading poses a threat (or at least not enough of a threat to warrant taking down websites). I agree with the latter, but I'm not sure how Coulton finds the latter…
Copyright does quite a lot more things than just enabling restrictions on distribution. There's the right to be credited, some limits on derivative works, and limitations to commercial violations. I suppose not every musician would be pleased to find their music used as the soundtrack of a porn movie without their knowledge, for example.
For example is someone took something I wrote and published it under his own name, that would be fraud.
Or if someone used my song for the soundtrack of a porn without making it clear that I wasn't involved, I would argue defamation because they led the public to believe that I was involved in pornography.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is a human right to only work voluntarily. The alternative is slavery. So yes, it is.
Well no, the alternative is to not work at all. And I know plenty of people (heh, Berkeley) who get along fine without working. Some of them are probably happier than plenty of employed people. I know this isn't strictly relevant, but I really believe that thanks to technology improvements, we need to work on dispelling the idea that everybody has to work. Unemployment should gradually stop being a horrible fate wort…
Until we get self sufficient factory farms and power plants (so let us think futuristic here, say 50 years) where robots generate carbon through some means, pattern it into amino acids, and use 3d printing technology to generate plant and muscle matter that is most tasty and nutritious for us to eat, whenever we want. And simultaneously, your power is generated by robots controlling massive solar arrays surrounding the planet siphoning off the suns energy output to power the entire planet, and no human is involved there.
All that is there is an upfront cost. And after singularity, we don't even need to worry about developing the new technologies or knowing how to repair what is already there.
But who do you pay to get there? Who gets the right to say "everything you eat and everything you do is powered by my creation". That is another great question to ponder.
But we will never have a capitalist system where people can consume without producing and expect to be a viable economy. It is actually the reason America is failing so badly right now - as a nation, percentage wise, very few of us actually "produce" anything. Too many are middle men trying to leech off the system through a mirth of means (including myself, as a college student at this time I eat food and make nothing useful yet).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well no, the alternative is to not work at all. And I know plenty of people (heh, Berkeley) who get along fine without working. Some of them are probably happier than plenty of employed people. I know this isn't strictly relevant, but I really believe that thanks to technology improvements, we need to work on dispelling the idea that everybody has to work. Unemployment should gradually stop being a horrible fate wort…
The point is that nobody can be compelled to preform labor. Both sides have the right to negotiate.
In fact, if the person was forced to work against their will and paid for it, that's still effectively slavery.
Megaupload was also used for legal activities. Awesome. I bet the mafia also did some stuff that was legal. Let's consider the "complexity" this introduces into the act of putting mobsters in jail. Insightful.
Piracy is victimless. So is me breaking into your house while you're not home, watching TV for a while, and then leaving. I mean, you're not even using your TV while you're not home! I mean, if I break into your house and watch your TV, it's not like I would have paid to watch your TV if I hadn't broken into your house. I mean, you're not losing anything! How dare you prevent me from doing what I want with your shit.
What, just because you spend $100M making a movie, you think you "own" the right to charge for that movie?
The end.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The point is that nobody can be compelled to preform labor. Both sides have the right to negotiate.
I think you were originally downvoted because slavery isn't slavery because the person isn't being paid, but because the person is being forced to work against their will. In fact, if the person was forced to work against their will and paid for it, that's still effectively slavery.
I'm not saying anything about pay. Of course if all work is voluntary, then the ability to only work for pay is implied.