Re: [Fsfe-uk] Young Greens moving on FS

[Mark Preston]

Ian Lynch wrote:

> On Wed, 2004-11-24 at 04:00, Mark Preston wrote:
>
>  
>
> > I agree that in the real world the best that can be hoped for is 
> > reasonable copyright laws,
> >    
>
> What is reasonable will vary from person to person. 
>
>  
>
> > but whatever these may be they will still 
> > mean that electronic communications all have to be monitored to ensure 
> > compliance. Not a desirable state of affairs in my view.
> >    
>
> Not all electronic communications are monitored now. You can E-mail
> encrypted stuff that even if monitored would be difficult to comprehend.
>
> These debates tend to polarise. All electronic communications monitored
> or none, no matter what? Personally, I thnk being unable to monitor any
> EC under any circumstances would also be an undesirable state of
> affairs. 
>
>  
I never wrote that there should be no monitoring. This is not my view.
Like you, I would also want there to be some mechanisms in place to 
allow for some EC monitoring. Rather like those that currently enable 
Police and Security Services to intercept mail and tap phone lines when 
they have "reasonable" grounds. This is completely different to what 
would be required to enforce copyright compliance, or at least it should 
be.

I agree that "reasonable" is open to wide interpretation. In the context 
of Martin Wheeler's statement: "The blatant abuse and corruption of 
copyright law for the purposes of protecting corporate greed and 
maintaining a specific model of consumerism is a very different affair."
"reasonable" was intended to mean less restrictive than those laws 
currently in place, let alone the more draconian laws being advocated by 
the 'pigopolists'.
Regards,
Mark