It’s Like a Metaphor

Kevin Marks’ blog reflects on the analogies the handcuffs-and-copyright crowd are using:

“If someone figured out how to unlock the gas in the gas station, people would be outraged,” Mr. Eisner added. “They wouldn’t say to the oil industry, `You need a different business model.’ ”

If someone worked out how to make gas from water using a chemical reaction, you would expect the oil industry to adopt it instead of passing a law against it so they can continue to spend millions drilling holes in the ground and storing highly explosive chemicals every 10 blocks in our cities.

But Mr. Chernin of the News Corporation suggested that matters might be different if the tables were turned. “Let’s say I decide to broadcast on my network the code for how to make Intel chips or Microsoft software,” he said. “I think they’d find a way to stop it.”

Yes, they’d sue you. They wouldn’t lobby for a law making TV illegal. After all, the code for the Linux Kernel is being broadcast on the radio…

I’ve quoted beyond Fair Use (yeah, so sue me, Kevin!) but it’s just too good…

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