Subject: | |
From: | |
Reply To: | |
Date: | Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:06:04 -0400 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
from [log in to unmask]
I am passing along this very interesting passage from this week's NY
Times Magazine Ethics column. In answer to a question about the
rightness of copying works as a whole, the NY Times "Ethicist" notes:
"Although copying an entire work is seldom legal, it is sometimes
ethical - for example, if the work is unavailable for purchase (most
books ever published are now out of print); if it is available only in
an archaic format (a 78-r.p.m. recording, a Betamax tape, a clay
tablet); if you already own a copy and want another in a more usable
format (less scratchy, fewer coffee stains). But such reasonable
situations might not inoculate you against lawsuits. The law is an
expression not just of ethics but of power. "
Shortcut to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/magazine/08wwln_ethicist.html
This distinction between legality and ethicality is curious. Is this a
rationalization? (And what about the last sentence in the quotation?)
Ed
"Thoughts of a dry brain in a dry season"
T.S. Eliot, "Gerontion"
***********************************************
LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for
Language Learning (http://iallt.org/), and The Consortium for Language Teaching
and Learning (http://www.languageconsortium.org/).
Join IALLT at http://iallt.org.
Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask])
***********************************************
|
|
|