[free-jon] Re: [free-sklyarov] Neutralizing the Stealing Meme

[tom poe]

On Friday 11 January 2002 18:09, Seth David Schoen wrote:
>- - -snip - - -
> There is _no_ threshold at which noncommercial copyright infringement
> can't be the subject of a civil lawsuit in the sense that you can be
> sued even if there's no particular commercial value or market for the
> work in which the copyright was infringed.  There are many limitations
> on copyright and defenses to a charge of copyright infringement; fair
> use is one of them.  (I also think that "fair use is a right" but some
> representatives of copyright industries like to say that "fair use is
> a defense, not a right", just because there's no statute in the U.S.
> which says that people who _prevent_ fair uses are committing a crime.)

Hi, Seth:  I thought our First Amendment was that "statute", and, indeed, 
those who restrict it are committing a crime.  hmmmm.  When I read about all 
of the researchers and academicians that did, are, and will be going silent 
as a result of the RIAA tactics, I shuddered, but felt that, as in the 
McCarthy era, reason would return, and because of the technological 
advancement with the Internet, the word would move faster, the response time 
shortened.  Naive, aren't I?  Thanks, Tom