Subj : Re: GNU Public Licences Revisited (again) To : comp.programming From : Gerry Quinn Date : Sun Sep 18 2005 12:33 pm In article , david.golden@oceanfree.net says... > > > > That is garbage. It is like saying, apropos of nothing: > > > > <"I have never been attracted to girls older than thirteen" - Vladimir > > Nabokov> > > > > <"Human brains are the part I like to eat most" - Thomas Harris> > > > Both of those contain "I", now, don't they? And neither offer advice > particularly, except indirectly perhaps. It may well be that Sid Meier would prefer to be thought an erotomaniac or a cannibal than to be associated with the political views you propound. Whether or not this is the case is beside the point, however. One could presumably choose other quotations from invented characters that are couched in terms of advice - something like, for example: < "Those addicted to eating the flesh of their fellow humans should be aware that the brain is by far the tastiest part" - Thomas Harris. > That is couched in terms of advice - but the important point is that it misuses the name of Thomas Harris in order to make an implied claim of his endorsement for a program he may well find disgusting. [The examples are invented - I chose well-known examples of outrageous fictional characters in order that no-one will misunderstand the attribution, but I have neither work to hand.] > Whereas "Beware of he who > would deny you access information, for in his heart he dreams himself > your master" is a useful general guideline, like "beware the stranger > offering you sweets if you're a little girl" or "If you're eating > somebody, the brain is particularly tasty*" - it's good advice > regardless of who says it. > > (* though we now know that scoffing brains isn't without risk, of > course). > > Here's the full quote, complete with fictional character attribution and > real author attribution. > > """ > As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free > flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The free > nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun > its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access > to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. > > Commissioner Pravin Lal > "U.N. Declaration of Rights" > """ - from "Alpha Centauri" by Sid Meier > > > (And, as I > > pointed out, this character was talking about an entirely different > > subject, so your quotation was doubly a lie.) > > Copyright can deny one access to information, by definition. Sure, but the expression 'public discourse' refers to free speech, not piracy. And the advice is 'justified' by a paragraph of fantastic fiction, which clearly has little bearing on life in the Americas today (if it were referring to recent history, other exemplars would clearly have been chosen). - Gerry Quinn .