RE: [Marxism] "Eyes on the Prize" torrents offline

[Joaquín Bustelo <jbustelo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

There is one significant lapsus in this post. That is the sentence: "Nor can
it be claimed that the commercial interest of holders of the copyrights are
being damaged." It SHOULD HAVE said something like, "Nor can it be claimed
that the commercial interest of holders of the copyrights of news clips and
other material originally licensed for inclusion in the documentary are
being damaged."

In the post, I address the interests of two different groups of copyright
owners. One is the corporation through which the producer of the series
worked when he was alive. The others are the copyright holders in archival
news footage, musical compositions and so on who licensed the use of "their"
content to the producer.

Neither one has any reasonable claim that their commercial interests have
been damaged, for they have abandoned commercial exploitation of this work.
On the contrary, I would suggest that this, if anything, will enhance
commercial opportunities that they have failed to take advantage of until
now, should they choose to do so in the future. 

And implicit in my argument is that permanently *preventing* the
distribution of a work is not a legitimate use of the limited monopoly which
the constitution authorizes Congress to grant authors, because the
constitution specifies this monopoly is for a specific purpose: "To promote
the Progress of Science and useful Arts." ("Science" in this usage is
something close to "knowledge" in modern usage, and "useful Arts" to
technology.) 

*  *  *

I've gotten a couple of queries about reposting this and the earlier post on
this issue. Please feel free to repost anything I write here on any social
movement or independent (from corporate domination) or antiwar or
pro-working people or pro-human rights or political and/or technical geek
internet space or dead-tree publication.

I prefer that a note be included indicating that this comes from the Marxism
List (www.marxmail.org) and ask that I be notified, but don't feel you have
to wait for my specific approval: you have my blessing to go ahead. 

Also, I realize that sometimes my posts combine comments on disparate
matters or on different aspects of some situation (as in this case, where
there is a tossed salad of political analysis and technical details about
bit torrent). It is fine by me if your judgment is that for your readers
some of that technical stuff (for example) is better left out. I just ask
that you be transparent about it and say you've excerpted this from a longer
post on Marxmail. 

Joaquín


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