[Amps] Heath copyright

[Jim Brown]

On Thu, 20 May 2010 12:40:10 -0700 (PDT), Glen Zook wrote:

>Many of the people who object to copyright laws want to profit from the 
>works of others without having to pay for the material.  Although an 
>individual may not think that they are profiting by ignoring copyright law, 
>every single person who ignores the copyright law contributes to the loss 
>of income rightfully due the holder of the copyright. It is up to the 
>holder of the copyright to decide if they want to profit from the copyright 
>or if they basically want to allow free use of the material and/or put it 
>in public domain.

YES! It may come as a surprise to some, but there are people who LIVE by 
creating things that we benefit from. Their income DEPENDS on receiving 
money from the sale of their work, whether it's writing, playing music, or 
creating art of all sorts. Although I don't make my living solely from 
writing, I've done a lot of technical writing, some of it for hire, some of 
it for my own amusement. Some of it I have chosen to share with the public 
on my website. My wife is a technical writer, and it's how she makes her 
living. I can tell you from my direct personal experience, and from hers, 
that it is a skill that must be developed like any other skill, and it takes 
a lot of work to do it well. 

Copyright is NOT an abridgement of FREEDOM -- the constitution does not 
allow us to steal bread off of our neighbor's table, nor from the cash 
register of a business that bought a copyright, and that's what you're doing 
when you violate a copyright. 

73,

Jim Brown K9YC