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> Because the main thing copyright does is curtail speech. You lost me, there. That's a twisted reading of copyright.
by spacemanmatt 12y ago
> Because the main thing copyright does is curtail speech.
You lost me, there. That's a twisted reading of copyright.
- Dylan16807 12y agoIt's simple. Every original work is a form of speech. Reproduction and retransmission, that's speech too. Copyright places restrictions on this. That's pretty much the only thing it does. The words you use, the sounds you make, these have to abide by copyright. I'm not saying that makes copyright bad. Laws against fraud also work by curtailing speech. But I think it's a reasonable description.
- spacemanmatt 12y agoYou are wrong on the facts, about how laws against fraud work. At least in America, courts only hear actual and not hypothetical controversies. Judges also do not grant a priori restraints on speech very often or very lightly. Laws against fraud criminalize (and preclude 1st amendment protection for speech implementing) dishonesty in certain contexts. But they do not restrain it by punishing the speech itself.
- Dylan16807 12y agoYou've lost me. I never said the restrictions were a priori censorship. You can make the speech, and then you will be punished after based on it violating the law. And what do you mean by "punishing the speech itself"? Does "speech itself" mean the existence of speech or the contents of speech? If the former, I never claimed that, if the latter, they do punish that.
- spacemanmatt 12y agoI guess what I'm getting at is, the freedom of speech is a bit stronger than you have suggested, but it is only a shield, not a sword.