Vince wrote:
> Now, if I came to you and said "Don't buy the Ford; let me buy it when it
> goes on half-price clearance, and I'll let you borrow it on Saturdays",
> that would be more analogous, and not really fair to Ford.
If I only need it on Saturdays, this seems like an entirely reasonable
thing for us to do, and I don't see how Ford would have any basis for
a complaint.
If we go down this path of deciding that buyers have to be "fair" to
sellers, pretty soon we'll have bans on lending your lawnmower to
your neighbor or checking out books from the library, because neither
are "fair".
Of course, what the lawnmower manufacturers will really do is put
DRM in the lawnmower. It will have a GPS, and you'll have to register
the mower with the manufacturer and specify what property it will be
used to mow. They will get the survey data from the county, and
program the mower to only work within those bounds. Then they'll
use the DMCA (or new legislation of a similar nature) to make it a
criminal offense to tamper with their DRM.
I think I'll go read Stallman's "The Right to Read" story again, while
I'm still allowed to do so:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
When he first published the story, I thought it was completely over
the top, but recent events have shown that he's exactly right and we
are headed down that path.
Eric
Received on Sat Feb 12 2005 - 02:09:48 GMT