I lied. As much as this hobby and the people within it annoy me, for some unfathomable reason, I really do care. Probably because I want "right" to triumph over "wrong". Naive maybe, but at least I'm prepared to stick my neck out for what I believe in.
The reason I am so vehement about insisting that people stick to the correct legal terms and not emotive but false accusations is that trying to get illegal uploading or downloading classified as theft is not going to happen, and for very good reason. The effects of a theft are far greater - whether a developer wants to admit that or not - than of someone illegally uploading copyrighted software. I really shouldn't need to explain why again, but I was not merely throwing a paddy in the aisle by telling you to get that through your skulls, I am trying to help you get what you want.
What is entirely achievable, if enough weight is put behind it, is getting the Copyright laws brought up to date to represent the world as it now stands and as it is most likely to move forward. There still needs to be categorisation of the offence - for profit, not for profit - and the effect of the offence has to be taken into consideration, but the law must be changed for this problem to be dealt with.
I am not a lawyer. All I have is my own feelings of what is right and what is wrong, but it's clear as day to me that right now none of you are doing a damned thing to help yourselves, individually.
So here is my challenge to all those who are complaining about their add-ons (specifically commercial add-ons in this case) being illegally uploaded and distributed.
One of you per country, I don't care who, with the evidence to prove the damage done - as you claim here to have - will step forward and say that you will contact the appropriate authority in your country and request a meeting with your appropriate representative to discuss a request for a change in the law. ALL other developers in that country need to support the person who puts forward the request.
The change to the law is this: That the act of uploading or making available copyrighted material without authorisation be moved from civil law to criminal, in order to reflect the damage that is being done by out of date and no longer relevant legislation. That regardless of the destination of that material (e.g. a server in a foreign country or a distributed Peer-to-Peer network), if the material is uploaded from within the sovereign territory to which the law applies, then the crime shall be taken to have occured within that country and can be tried within that country.
Note one thing. As developers, YOU will need to provide the evidence. YOU will need to be prepared to make your case and support it. You will need to find developers from outside the FS industry and convince them to support you as well. I, or any other user or developer of non-commercial software, can do very little but offer our support.
Individual developers, as John says on the other thread, are not in a position to do this alone. You will need to do something utterly unheard of in this industry and, regardless of target market, regardless of product quality or past disagreements, WORK TOGETHER.
Is anyone prepared to do this?
The reason I am so vehement about insisting that people stick to the correct legal terms and not emotive but false accusations is that trying to get illegal uploading or downloading classified as theft is not going to happen, and for very good reason. The effects of a theft are far greater - whether a developer wants to admit that or not - than of someone illegally uploading copyrighted software. I really shouldn't need to explain why again, but I was not merely throwing a paddy in the aisle by telling you to get that through your skulls, I am trying to help you get what you want.
What is entirely achievable, if enough weight is put behind it, is getting the Copyright laws brought up to date to represent the world as it now stands and as it is most likely to move forward. There still needs to be categorisation of the offence - for profit, not for profit - and the effect of the offence has to be taken into consideration, but the law must be changed for this problem to be dealt with.
I am not a lawyer. All I have is my own feelings of what is right and what is wrong, but it's clear as day to me that right now none of you are doing a damned thing to help yourselves, individually.
So here is my challenge to all those who are complaining about their add-ons (specifically commercial add-ons in this case) being illegally uploaded and distributed.
One of you per country, I don't care who, with the evidence to prove the damage done - as you claim here to have - will step forward and say that you will contact the appropriate authority in your country and request a meeting with your appropriate representative to discuss a request for a change in the law. ALL other developers in that country need to support the person who puts forward the request.
The change to the law is this: That the act of uploading or making available copyrighted material without authorisation be moved from civil law to criminal, in order to reflect the damage that is being done by out of date and no longer relevant legislation. That regardless of the destination of that material (e.g. a server in a foreign country or a distributed Peer-to-Peer network), if the material is uploaded from within the sovereign territory to which the law applies, then the crime shall be taken to have occured within that country and can be tried within that country.
Note one thing. As developers, YOU will need to provide the evidence. YOU will need to be prepared to make your case and support it. You will need to find developers from outside the FS industry and convince them to support you as well. I, or any other user or developer of non-commercial software, can do very little but offer our support.
Individual developers, as John says on the other thread, are not in a position to do this alone. You will need to do something utterly unheard of in this industry and, regardless of target market, regardless of product quality or past disagreements, WORK TOGETHER.
Is anyone prepared to do this?
ffice
