[free-sklyarov] Roger Parloff Inside Article

[Bob Smart]

On Wednesday 01 August 2001 21:39, you wrote:

> roger needs to be reminded that individuals are never
> required to assert an alternative business model,
> simultaneously with asserting their first amendment
> rights, however desirable that may be.
>
> of course we are all struggling with how to protect
> fundamental rights simultaneously with fundamental
> business principles in a digital age. however, if this
> is not possible it is clear the former takes
> precedence over the later.
>

I think it's important to remind people when the publishers are sniveling 
about how hard it is for them to make money on digital media, that nobody 
INVITED them to the digital party.  If, in their business opinion, the 
inherent risks of working with digital publishing technology outweigh the 
commercial utility, then the solution is not to gut the Constitution--the 
solution is for them to turn their attention to businesses they think they 
CAN make money at.

Not everything in the world necessarily needs to be about commercialism.  If 
the Internet isn't well-suited to commercial exploitation (or they just can't 
figure out how to exploit it), then it does not follow that the Internet 
needs to be "fixed."

-- 

What I wrote above is hereby dedicated to the public domain and may be freely 
used, in whole or in part, with or without attribution.