[Rumori] more on street piracy (and w/respect to south america)

[Vicki Bennett]

That Lessig is so good, he should become a lawyer!

On 23 Jan 2004, at 17:16, Brian Flemming wrote:

> Reminded me of this recent column by Lessig...
>
> A Taste of Our Own Poison
> By Lawrence Lessig
>
> When America was poor, its citizens "stole." We took the intellectual 
> property of Dickens and other foreign artists without paying for it. 
> We didn't call it stealing, but they did. We called it a sensible way 
> for a developing nation to develop. Eventually, we saw it was better 
> to protect their rights as well as ours - better because we had rights 
> to protect elsewhere, too. But we only imposed this burden on 
> ourselves when it made sense to do so. Until 1891, we were a pirate 
> nation.
>
> Things have changed. Now that we're the world's leading exporter of 
> intellectual property, we're also the most self-righteous about the 
> importance of protecting it globally. Indeed, we can be vicious in our 
> self-righteousness - threatening trade wars with developing nations 
> for the crime of being just like us. Recently, through a series of 
> trade agreements, we have demanded stricter protection for 
> intellectual property internationally than US law would allow 
> domestically. (Fair use, for example, is mandated by our constitution 
> but invisible in these agreements.)
>
> This push to protect intellectual property is defended as just one 
> aspect of free trade - the aspect that benefits Hollywood. Since Adam 
> Smith penned The Wealth of Nations, we've understood that borders are 
> best when opened and when property from one country is respected in 
> another. Free trade so enabled is the promised elixir for the woes of 
> developing nations. Open your borders, protect property rights, and 
> prosperity, the Smithies say, will quickly follow.
>
> MORE
> http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.01/view.html?pg=5
>