[mythtv-users] A new theme on the way...

[Christopher Meredith]

On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 4:54 PM, ryan patterson <ryan.goat at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 2:54 PM, Christopher Meredith
> <chmeredith at gmail.com> wrote:
>> It is fundamentally unfair to tell someone they can have
>> something for "free," but they can't enjoy it as they please.
>
> Okay imagine you spent months of your life painting a public mural on
> the side of a building honoring Linus Torvalds (trying to pick
> somebody we all like).  You donated your time to the local community
> to do this.  Then the a week later somebody comes along and defaces
> the mural by painting a giant cock and balls on his face.  You would
> be okay with that?  (I hope I didn't go too far with that example).

The fact that it's one-of-a-kind completely destroys the analogy. Of
course I wouldn't want him to do that, but only because it amounts to
destruction of my work. If the guy took a photo of it then drew on the
photo in his own home, I wouldn't care at all.

> Of coarse the mural in my example was a one of a kind item where the
> Arclight can be duplicated perfectly any number of times.  But still
> to Robert Arclight is a work of art that he has spent many hours/days
> working on.  He doesn't want it to be defaced by some idiot putting a
> giant Comic Sans font on it.

First, even granting the assumption that Comic Sans amounts to a
defacement, what difference does it make what I do with it in my own
home? It may be an expression of *his* artistic vision, but it's still
*my* copy that I will do with as I please. The same goes for purchased
DVDs. The "artists" don't want me to rip the DVD to make vieweing more
convenient for me. But I have a legal right to do so, the creators'
wishes notwithstanding.