So what’s the difference? Why do you folks defend one and attack the other?

MITCH: The work (characters, stories, etc) is owned by the writer and therefore his or her intellectual property. Whenever it is resold (usually for great profits) the writer SHOULD get another piece of the profit. If it wasn’t for him or her, the (poor) producers who invested money (with the hope of MAKING money off of someone’s labors and talent) wouldn’t continue raking in the bucks. Furthermore, MANY of the TV writers who rightfully demand royalties don’t have the same sort of benefits — health, retirement, etc — you have while working for a corporation (I know, I’ve done both: freelance and work for “the man”). So the monies paid for reuse is basically their annuity. Begrudging them that seems _very_ Republican of you.

Finally, MITCH: I saw the video you mentioned. In that case, Ellison was (rightfully, again) complaining about being asked to spend part of his working day doing an interview — offering commentary that would help sell the DVDs — for free. When is the last time you offered your valuable time gratis to a company that is looking to make as much money as it can?

NANCY: Regarding the Ellison/Willis imbroglio at the above-mentioned convention. First, the two have been — or at least were — friends for a very long time. They were into doing silly schtick when at such gatherings. Willis was going on and on, making Ellison (who was being _honored_) sit like a child in front of her. I looked at the video. Best I can tell, he probably grazed her breast when overzealously acting the fool in return. It didn’t look to be a malicious move on his part. But most importantly: _She_ never came out in public and said she was molested. Ellison has made a lot of enemies in the SF industry. My gut reaction is that they (and those who don’t like out spoken people like Ellison) used the opportunity to insert their uninformed opinions and get back (for whatever reason) at a guy whom they just don’t like.

I’m not defending Ellison, but I’m not condemning him, either. That would be up to Connie Willis — a smart, secure, successful confident and outspoken woman — should she feel the need.

So I guess I’m saying that I think you were right to sing Ellison’s praises for fighting the good fight against internet piracy where writing is concerned. He was one of the first to do so — I wrote an article about it for “Pages” — even when MANY writer’s organizations (and many writers) refused to help out.

I don’t think it is a zero sum game either, and I think it is often kind of complicated. At the macro level, I’m hard pressed to think of an example where less freedom lead to greater security.

As a gneral rule, I prefer to see the tax code used to raise revenue, not to overtly influence behavior. But, in many instances I can see the benefit of user fees, which is sometimes contrary to my general rule, sometimes not.

I like freedom also, and I don’t subscribe to the view that there is a zero-sum equation that dictates more of one thing equals less of the other. (Is a tax automatically an infringement on freedom? — or is it most often a ‘force multiplier’ of freedom?)

As for history being in agreement with the idea that freedom and security are in conflict — I’m hip-deep into the book “Mellon” by David Cannadine (which, by the by is an EXCELLENT book, and one that Dorothy should check out — if only because it’s also very much about Pittsburgh), and Andrew Mellon and Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Carnegie WOULD agree with that definite “I got mine” construction

Free/paid/copyright warrior — it just isn’t that simple any more.

Facts in the modern world. Israel is spectacularly brutal and regressive, and engages regularly in spying on the US, from which it gets the bulk of its income. But if you point any of these facts out, you’re not disgusted with the obscene politics of the state of Israel, you’re anti-semitic, even though those nomads are semites too..

Anybody that doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with AIPAC’S obscene influence on US voting is seriously too stupid to be allowed to vote.

Coozledad, I’ve been just gobsmacked by the secession talk ever since I first heard of it a few weeks ago via the Texas gov. Unbelievable, just unbelievable, after all this time of using patriotism as a bludgeon. Words fail.

Do you really want government deciding who gets to be a writer and who doesn’t and what gets published and what doesn’t?

“downloading a book is not the same as stealing it from a bookstore but more like making use of work that has already been sold.” So is it the same as stealing it from a USED bookstore?

“but I don’t see how you can provide a living to creative people and distribute their work widely any other way.”

It’s not my responsibility to provide a living for creative people. You don’t have a moral right to take from me to give to them. You don’t have the moral right to give away their work to me. It’s their work, the product of their creativity, and their’s to sell, give away or hide in the attack.