Church History Paper on Copyright

My paper can be found here on Academia.edu.

This paper is a first attempt at writing a historical paper, so if it seems somewhat elementary or crude, please excuse the author. This paper has been a labor of love, but such love does not necessitate that such labor is excellent labor.

If after reading the paper and Poythress and Frame, you still feel that copying a copyrighted work is theft, consider my previous post specifically arguing against this assumption.

Is Copying a Copyrighted Work Theft?

This post/essay is dedicated to Poythress and Frame. Any faults arising from this post are solely mine. I thank Poythress and Frame for engaging so helpfully with the issue of copyright, and Soli Gloria Dei (to God alone be the Glory).

Note the question is not, “Is copying a copyrighted work illegal?” The answer is obviously yes, but that is not what I am concerned with. [Let me be clear. I am not advocating that you go out and break the law! Christians ought to follow the law obediently, but no slavishly and unquestioningly.]

Patents: Baloney and Crookery and Cronyism/Abuse of Power

I recommend seeing this excellent video on patent absurdity. (You will see that the site is actually http://patentabsurdity.com/.)

You can see the abuse with this patent from Apple (and also this NYTimes article, “The Patent, Used as a Sword.”)

Food for thought: did Beethoven or Mozart need to protect their musical tricks and methods? Do they (or anyone) have a right to limit/prevent others from using certain musical twists or melodies? Do chefs these days need to patent recipes? Do they have the right to? [Hint: the answer to all four is a resounding “ABSOLUTELY NOT!”] And imagine if courts ruled in favor of patenting recipes. Then you wouldn’t be able to serve food in particular ways. And you think this is crazy? This is exactly what happens to software and ideas. You can’t do things anymore without asking for permission. It’s almost like asking for permission to breathe whenever someone perfumes the air. Because they spent time and effort to add value to air, you now must pay for it or ask for permission!

Government Overreach and Hollywood/Recording-Studios Abuse of Power in Copyright Law

Here is an excellent article on how copyright is totally abused by various private-interest groups: House Republicans: Copyright Law Destroys Markets; It’s Time For Real Reform. From the article, which actually quotes the House Republican Study Report [UPDATE: this is now a DEAD LINK! It was taken down within 24 hours via Hollywood pressure – see this article – Republicans caved in to pressure and apologized for not “adequately” vetting the review… absolute baloney – the report can instead be found here and here – and actually, the fact that it only took 24 hours to bring the Republican Party to its knees for writing something sensible, wise, and concise starkly illustrates the point in my point above, except, read “government” instead of “copyright.”] on three myths that need to be debunked:

Great Caesar Salad Recipe

UPDATE: Check out this new “Master Salad Dressing Builder” post that teaches you the concepts behind a great, easy, and customizable DIY salad dressing. Also, I included some updates on this recipe. YouTube Gordon Ramsey and mayonnaise. I use 3 raw eggs now and a bit of lemon juice or vinegar to ensure that my dressing emulsifies everytime

Why the Current Copyright System Neither Guarantees Nor Provides a Fair Wage

There are many people who believe that a worker should be given his due/just wages (see especially Luke 10:7; Rom 4:4), including myself. But then (well-meaning) people use this to argue that we must then respect intellectual “property” with something very similar to our current copyright system (never mind that most publishers copyright troll and do not put out a good-faith effort to examine if an alleged infringement on copyright is actually fair use and that authors usually gain nothing from royalties) and that that is the only way of viewing intellectual “property.”

How To Invert Screen Colors in (Ubuntu-based) GNU/Linux Distros

Are your eyes getting tired of reading black text on a white background? Particularly if you read in a dark room? (Now a previous post describes how Evince, a freedom-respecting alternative to Adobe’s bloated PDF reader, can do this automatically with PDF files.)

To have your screen invert colors, all it requires is a one-line script once you download one small package! ). [I can only affirm this is so for those using Debian-based GNU/Linux distros (such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc.).]

It can be done by opening your terminal and typing

xcalib -invert -alter

No More Word Attachments Please!

I am cannibalizing a link from this article that shows why no one should use Microsoft Word attachments. Here is the funnily-aggressive, yet not-uncalled-for (and slightly dated) response of one anonymous user (the link, “Here is a response letter” is at the end of the page:

PA Voters: Use this resource!

Changing Presidents doesn’t change Washington. Just as important (if not more) are the Senators and Representatives we choose. Check out vote-pa.org (for other states, substitute “pa” in the URL with your state’s two-letter postal abbreviation, such as vote-ak.org for Alaska). More specifically, check out this site that compares the candidates and summarizes available information (bios and issues/stances). Don’t count on remembering all this. One way is to make a list of who you decide on (so as not to forget)! Go out and vote! Try not to do it out of party lines. Don’t be beholden to any one party!

Putnam on the Intellectual Life: Who Do You Want to Be?

Instead of asking the question, “What do I want to be (when I grow up)?”, you should ask yourself, “Who do I want to be?”. That is a difficult question, because that almost always means we have to ask ourselves if we are willing to do what it takes to be what we want to be. What must I change about myself?