Tue, 11 Sep 2001 00:57:13 -0400 (EDT) Karsten M. Self writes: > Lessig Is GodŽ. > > Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace is highly recommended. His NYT > editorial on Sklyarov is featured at the http://www.freesklyarov.org/ > website under literature. He's a boardmember of the EFF. Read his > shit, he gets it. No, actually, he doesn't get it. He complains that libertarians think that the main enemy is government, and that Code Is Law. Problem is: code isn't law. Law is law, and only law can prevent me from changing a program. I have a source code file for MS-DOS's Command.com version 1.0. Nobody gave me this file; I created it myself. I have made improvements to it. Had that code tried to prevent me from doing things, I could have removed the code. Of course, now we have a DMCA that says that I can't do that. We also have a copyright law that says that I can't redistribute my improvements to command.com. But whose fault is that? Not the code itself -- I can change the code. Not the invisible hand which Larry continually faults. Not community norms either. No, it's the fault of the government. It's a failure of collective action. Code isn't law. Law is law. Code is mutable unless law says it isn't. Larry's basic blindness can be seen at the end of Chapter Eleven where he says ".... collective action is just what politics is for." This is wrong. Politics is for deciding who gets to use force and when. Collective action is for groups that have collected together for the purpose of taking action. E.g. the EFF. There's a reason why I'm a libertarian, and there's a reason why I have a free software business, and there's a reason why I run this mailing list. Simply: because I feel that it is immoral to take money from people by pointing a gun at them. Everything political happens because of a gun, even if that gun is holstered. -- -russ nelson <sig@russnelson.com> http://russnelson.com Crynwr sells support for free software | PGPok | The most basic moral/ethical 521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315 268 1925 voice | question is who gets to use Potsdam, NY 13676-3213 | +1 315 268 9201 FAX | force, and when -- ESR