There's a bigger issue here that I rarely see addressed and
that is: "copying" files on a computer network is a silly idea
to begin with. Current file systems are a result of the
massive latency of older networks - i.e., trading media such
as floppy disks, CD-ROMs, etc. Right now we're stuck in
limbo; we threw out the physical media but forgot to throw out
the physical media metaphor. Copying information on a network
is hack for controlling the availability of information; this
is something that should be controlled dynamically according
to demand, bandwidth, latency, etc. This entire issue comes
down to who gets access to what, not who copies what. To my
mind, *access control should be in the hands of the creator,*
I should be able to state, for example, who can view, edit,
annotate, cite, and quote my documents; if I should ask money
in return for these priviledges, so be it.
BM
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:15 MDT