[NCLUG] Re: Linux World domination (was "Re: NCLUG Digest...", etc.)

[John L. Bass]

Scott Kleihege wrote:
> > I did not claim authorship as a natural right, I do claim authorship as
> > a legal right in the USA. I really don't care about, or care to debate,
> > that right is not universal on this planet.
>
> Straw man fallacy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man].  I was not 
> questioning the "right of authorship", but the right to profit from 
> creative works.  The right to profit from creative works, particularly 
> software, is a political issue under debate in the USA at this point, 
> with active lobbiest groups, including the RIAA, MPAA, and on the 
> other side, the FSF.

The right to profit, is exactly the right secured by copyright. It's the 
right that you can prevent others from giving your work away to deprive 
you from that profit. It's the right to prevent others from profiting 
from your work, and deprive you of the income from your work.

GPL take that one step farther, and uses that same right, to give away 
your work to the public, and prevent others from profiting from it.

Questioning any authors right to profit from their work, *IS* 
questioning the "right of authorship".

So, how about thinking, rather than the personal attacks?