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It is not the entirety of how it works but determining the primary intended use case of a technology is part of how it works.


Sure, but primary intent is open to interpretation too.

Dig down deep enough and you'll find the very core of computers is about making copies. Colloquially we speak about moving data across memory or transferring it over a network swap a buffer to disk, but that's not what happens. We make copies and often, but not always, abandon the original.

So it's always been kind of hair splitting to discern between different kinds of copying. Piracy and fair use, owning a software vs having a license to use it - it's a gray area.


>primary intent is open to interpretation too.

and I wager about a million kids, people who can't afford games, or just self-righteous pirates are the ones who engage in copying data. Primary intent can be warped by consumer usage, even if the original ideals were noble (see: Bitcoin).

That's probably why some philantropist doesn't want to try and challenge matters like DMCA. It may only make things worse.


with scanner and printer i printed material for my school colleagues in the german version of highschool, because they could not afford some of the specialized books.

i do not say, piracy is always okay, but the intended use is VERY MUCH open to debate, depending on the view point and the money.

and even more volatile, if much money can influence the societal debate and the law system.

many people are very much we-trust-authority-and-companies-to-do-nothing-wrong.


>i do not say, piracy is always okay, but the intended use is VERY MUCH open to debate, depending on the view point and the money.

I completely agree with this POV. But it also seems like we always get an influx of users who want to unironically destroy (not simply readjust) the idea of IP and copyright everytime topics like this occur. So it can be hard to navigate a discussion like this where some people have such radical mindsests to begin with (and usually not anything resembling a model for their plan)

>many people are very much we-trust-authority-and-companies-to-do-nothing-wrong.

yes, I get that a lot just because I want to simply limit copyright terms down to its original 14/14 terms instead of the absurd 95 years or soemthing, or remove it entirely. 28 years happens to be most of a traditional career, so it seems fair for creators to benefit from their creation for assumedly the rest of their career and a bit into retirement before throwing it out for the public for others to iterate on.

The general idea of "well companies can pay to license it out" hasn't worked out to well in hindsight. Lots of companies will happily sit on projects for years, decades, because sometimes denying others of a project is better than giving it out. I'd also be interested in some sort of "use it or lose it" clause of maybe 10 years or so to prove you have an actual proudct in production before an IP goes into the public domain. It'd also solve those weird licensing hells we run into as companies shut down, but I also see a few obvious loopholes to close.




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