Philosophy Wire: Antigua, copy right, Port Royal…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2013-01-27]: Antigua is seeking permission to run a website that sells music, movies and software - but ignores copyright law. [source: BBC News] Like the old era of pirates in the Caribbean, small states are always a refuge of the outlaws. And how “unlawful” is that is determined by no one else than the powerful who set the laws…

 

Economy is based on the protection of property. But in order to have the right for your property to be protected, some basic conditions must be met.

 

Should a Britney Spears song be protected by copyright laws? For me, people who download her songs should be put to jail for lack of taste. Not for copyright infringement.

 

Should Star Wars be protected by copyright laws? Yes. How could we have the next Star Wars if the owners of the movie do not get nothing out of the previous one? (something which does not apply to Britney Spears: who cares if we do not have new songs from that singer)

 

Should Harmonia Philosophica articles be protected by copyright laws? No, because I do not want to. You can buy them as a book at Amazon, but you can read them free here as well.

 

Should Aristotle books be protected by copyright? No, but who would quote Aristotle without mentioning him as a source?

 

Copyright and respect (on which the copyright is based) are EARNED, not imposed.

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Philosophy Wire: Libya, International Law and the limits of foreign country intervention for the protection of human rights...

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-02-26]: The international community is imposing sanctions to Libya, while thoughts of NATO intervention are lingering in the "air"... In the context of "International Law", every "civilized" (western) leader is ready to intervene in a foreign country in order to defend "human rights". But what are these human rights? Is the self-determination a "human right"? Is the right to "conduct civil" war a human right of a country's peoples? Would we like our neighbor to come into our house when he hears a fight? Would we like "aliens" to intervene during the Second World War? What constitues a "war crime", that may give the right of NATO to invade legally sovereign countries? If today the international community has the "right" to intervene in Libya due to the "unjust massacre" of protesters there, we should also consider answering the question: is there a "just massacre"? How many western leaders now crying for "justice", had been going out for dinner with Gadhafi only months ago? The limits of "international law" are based on many definitions. And definitions are always subjective...

(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective...