Subj : Re: GNU Public Licences Revisited (again)
To   : comp.programming
From : David Golden
Date : Sun Aug 28 2005 09:34 pm

Gerry Quinn wrote:
 
> It's amusing how quickly these anti-IP types so quickly turn from
> their specious moralistic claims to the threat of force.
> 

But it is threat of force (legally applicable force is still force) that 
created the information distribution monopolies in the first place.

And there you go with "anti-IP", I assume that was just petty sniping
because I'd quite specifically pointed out in the very post you were
replying to that various I"P" rights are just too different for such
pro-/anti- blanket statements: It's just invalid to treat copyright and
trademark and patent and design and the various moral rights as things
you're either all-for or all-against.

> Not true.  Since Columcille copied the book azs secretively as any 
> pirate, he must have assumed that his act would be judged illegal if 
> discovered. 

Secrecy might simply indicate awareness that Finnian might interfere:
Even if Columcille felt he had every right to make the copy, secrecy
might still have allowed his work to progress without interference from
Finnian. Even if he thought that interference to be wrongful it might
still be better to avoid it, just as if you feel theft from you is
wrongful, it's still best to avoid being stolen from rather than invite
theft.

That's also assuming accounts wherein Columcille was particularly
surreptitious about it are the most accurate, there are retellings with
various slants.

Should probably mention an important side issue (dishonest to let
you continue to believe the copyright being opposed was just like
copyright-as-we-know-it, dunno if it would change your opinion of the
relative merits of the involved people's positions, of course...):

Finnian isn't usually reported to have been *author* of the book that
was copied. It is usually reported to have been a copy of a psalter or
gospel Finnian picked up on a trip abroad [1]. Imagining today's law
back in AD561, even in AD561 the book might well thus have been so old
as to be out of modern author-copyright and in the public domain.

So,  the "to every cow its calf to every book its copy" judgement in
Finnian's favour of the High King,  and compelling Columcille to
surrender his copy to Finnian, was not quite like a modern copyright.
More of an owner-copyright handing back to Finnian ownership in
perpetuity of any book copied from his ["his" by physical ownership,
not by authorship] book.

One might immediately ask, if nothing else, why was not Finnian in turn
required to return his copy to the one it was copied from, all the way
back to the original authors?  Well, perhaps that was another reason
for Columcille to feel somewhat miffed toward the High King.

> (In reality, of course, more important political issues were probably
>  dominant.)

There was no love lost between the two sides on a range of issues, but
reversing a poor copyright judgement  is usually given as one reason
for the battle.


[1] http://www.prca.org/books/portraits/columba.htm

.