Categories
Free Culture

Grrrr (Via Lessig’s Blog Comments)

The sad old crashed car analogy has to turn licensing into ownership in order to work. You don’t own a recording or a piece of software, you license it (read the small print). It’s not like crashing your own car, a physical item that you own, and then demanding a replacement. It’s more like hiring a car, it failing, and the hire company refusing to replace it. Or worse, it’s like not being allowed to refill your car’s tank with petrol. Want to drive any further once you’ve “broken” your petrol tank? Well, make sure you buy a new car rather than engaging in “car piracy” by visiting a node on a petrol-sharing network.

As for backing up money, I do this regularly. Indeed I use my backup more often than the notes that I use to make the backup. Sometimes I don’t even bother with banknotes, I just get the money over the network from someone else. I think people even make a profit from distributing other people’s money in this way.
If I remember correctly, these networks are called “banks”.
I’ve long enjoyed the convenience these “banks” provide, but I now realise that they will destroy our society’s supply of money. Clearly they must be outlawed immediately and their operators imprisoned to serve as a warning to others who would threaten our economic wellbeing.