[Buddha-l] Good resource site shut down

[Richard Hayes]

On Mar 16, 2012, at 08:59 , Erik Hoogcarspel wrote:

> There is one flaw in this reasoning, Richard, Robin Hood stole real 
> money or goods, while downloading a copy of a text is just called 
> metaphorically 'stealing' or 'piracy'.

I'm not sure about that, Erik. When I lived in Québec, I developed a taste for French Canadian music. Every time I purchased a recording (mostly audiotapes in those days), I noticed a plea printed on the tape cassette not to make a copy of the tape. The Québec music market is small, and every sale helps to support a musician. Every pirate copy of a tape is a potential sale lost. Fewer sales means less revenue for the musicians, and diminished income increases the likelihood that musicians will drop out of the recording scene. So I was always happy to purchase tapes. I think similar cases can be made for software and literature. While I love the concept of open-source software and make abundant use of it, I have never resented commercial software and have always paid for any of it that I used.

> And the metaphores are based on 
> financial interests, haphazardly made laws and on an outdated 
> individualist metaphysics.

I don't think that's entirely true. I see it as a much more practical matter. Producing recordings, software and literature and distributing it takes effort, and I have no objection to compensating effort. Naturally, in principle I wouldn't mind living in a moneyless society in which people traded goods and services through bartering, but given that I have no skills that anyone else would want in exchange for something of value, I'm happy enough to pay cash for the service of a plumber, as opposed to explaining bahuvrihi compounds to the plumber for five hours for every hour of work he does on my toilet.

> What would you do if someone acquired the copyrights on the Pali
> canon?

The Pali Text Society has copyright on their editions and translations. I pay for them. But I also make ample use of on-line editions that have been provided by people who are happy enough to give away their labor rather than selling the fruits of it. So I guess my rule of thumb is that if someone offers to give something away, I accept it with gratitude. If they prefer to sell their goods or services, I'm happy to buy them if I can afford them or to go without them if I cannot.

One good thing that came out of library.nu is that it made people aware of the small island nation of Niue, whose main commodity seems to be providing an Internet domain for cyber-pirates. I guess Niue is to the Internet as Liberia is to unseaworthy oil tankers. 

Richard Hayes