From: "johwait@..." Date: 2007-03-23T23:25:06+09:00 Subject: Re: free pdf ebook On Mar 23, 2:00 am, Chad Perrin wrote: > On Fri, Mar 23, 2007 at 03:36:35AM +0900, Austin Ziegler wrote: > > On 3/22/07, Phillip Gawlowski wrote: > > >Kyle Schmitt wrote: > > >> OK guys, stop jumping down my throat for using the common term for > > >> something. > > > >> Legally is it theft? Maybe not, but commonly it is referred to as such. > > > >> He did ask for something illicit, knowing full well it was illegal. > > >> Why was the use of one word in a response diverting all focus from the > > >> original intent of the post? > > >Because programmers thrive on exact language, and exact meanings of > > >terms, maybe? ESR has written some interesting stuff about that. > > > Nah. It's a bikeshed to the nuclear power plant of intellectual > > property discussions in general. > > Speaking solely for myself here . . . > > Since I have an (admittedly non-mainstream) interpretation of the ethics > of "intellectual property" (note scare-quotes) that is decidedly not on > the side of counting it as "theft", I find that simply distinguishing > between theft and copyright infringement is the best compromise I can > generally come up with between ignoring the subject because it's > off-topic and refusing to let a bit of FUD go unchallenged. I don't > like to let such FUD go unchallenged, of course, because unchallenged it > becomes a meme, and propagates. Not my idea of fun. > > -- > CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [http://ccd.apotheon.org] > "Real ugliness is not harsh-looking syntax, but having to > build programs out of the wrong concepts." - Paul Graham- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - The original book mentioned, along with quite a few other books are available on line via Safari Books Online http://safari.informit.com/0672322528 There are also several, shorter-than-book-length PDFs available including: http://www.informit.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=9780321474070&rl=1 http://www.informit.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=9780321483508&rl=1 and the second edition of Hal Fulton's book is available as a PDF: http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=91-9780768666304-0 In full disclosure, I both program a bit in Ruby, and am employed by the company that publishes the above mentioned titles. But hey, I read them. And I managed not to stand on my copyright soap box and mention what happens to authors when... Cheers, John Wait