[Fsfe-uk] [Fwd: [Upd-discuss] Copyright has no purpose]

[Richard Smedley]

FYI:

-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Richard Stallman <address@hidden>
To: Union for the Public Domain <address@hidden>
Subject: [Upd-discuss] Copyright has no purpose
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 21:25:48 -0500

The UNCTAD Expert Meeting on Free and Open Source, which was held in
Geneva in September 2004, was graced by a visit by Lucinda Jones,
Senior Legal Officer of the copyright department of WIPO.  She made a
most amazing statement:

    Copyright does not have a purpose.

Lest people misunderstand, I should explain that Ms Jones did not mean
to say that copyright is pointless, or that the companies behind
recent extensions of copyright power have no purpose in mind.  What
she meant was that the public should not ask that copyright serve any
particular purpose, and particularly not a purpose for the good of
society.

Ms Jones asks us to think of copyright as something that simply
exists, the way earthquakes and hurricanes exist.  It is beyond
question, so we are supposed to accept the restrictions of the
copyright system--both the present ones, and the new ones that
megacorporations regularly ask for--without question.

In other words, WIPO says, "Don't ask us to justify copyright policy,
just submit."
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A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation.
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