Zero Powers wrote:
>
> >From: "Jason Joel Thompson" <jasonjthompson@home.com>
>
> > > >Jason Joel Thompson wrote:
> >
> > > > > By your argument, it should be legal to counterfeit money.
> > >
> > > Nice rhetoric, but its not *quite* the same thing. The main reason its
> > > illegal to counterfeit money is that the only purpose of counterfeit
> >money
> > > is to use it to dupe people into giving you things and services of value
> >for
> > > something which has no value. In other words, its raison d'etre is to
> > > facilitate the commission of fraud.
> >
> >Okay, well this is a -new- argument. The first argument was that we could
> >steal music because we weren't physically taking it from someone-- an
> >argument by which counterfeiting should also be allowed.
> >
> >The -above- argument says that we shouldn't counterfeit money because it's
> >fraud. It doesn't say -why- we shouldn't commit fraud, but I'm guessing
> >its
> >because you believe that getting (your words:) "services of value for
> >something which has no value" is wrong.
> >
> >I appreciate you making my argument for me.
>
> I just *can't* let a faulty argument go by without making a comment. Call
> it a character flaw. But anyway...
>
> Getting something for nothing is not necessarily "wrong." If I give you my
> lunch because I happen to think you're a neat person, and you take my lunch
> and eat it, neither of us has committed a moral lapse. On the other hand,
> if you print-out from your computer a bogus, but realistic-looking, front
> row ticket to lollapalooza and tell me it will get me into the concert and
> that you'll give it to me in exchange for your lunch, and by means of this
> trickery you hoodwink me out of my lunch, it is clear that you will have
> been a naughty boy.
>
> The lines become less clear if you buy my lunch from me, then proceed to
> dismantle it in order to discover my secret recipe for making the best
> bologna sandwich this side of the Mississippi, and then you proceed to
> reproduce those sandwiches and give them to your friends. You have gained
> something, but I have not lost anything (namely my recipe for bologna
> sandwiches).
Ah, but if you were making your living as a balogna sandwich maker, you
would be ruined.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:35:35 MDT