[Harp-L] Copyright, private property, and fences

["Bob Laughlin" <rlaughlin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Who "owns" the music? Morally, or legally?

Who owns the air, the vibrations, the patterns of sound? The tempo? 

This debate is similar at its core to the debate over immigration law. Just whose land is it anyway?

I recently heard someone of hispanic origin use this phrase: 

"We didn't cross the border. The border crossed us."

Brings to mind a couple of songs of historical worth,,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_My_Country_(song)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Land_Is_Your_Land


Now tell me, is this land really "your land"? "My land"?

Is this "my country"? 

Then why are there large portions of it neither you nor I can access? Enjoy? Travel across? Settle down on? Grow things, hunt, fish, etc..on?

It's not your land if the guy with the title deed says it's not.

And you better not argue with the guy holding a shotgun, saying "get off my land", unless you're a faster draw, or have greater firepower.

Did this "land" belong to the native americans?

What right does someone have to lay claim to something, simply because it's in their "possession?

Where did these rights come from?

Law, you say?

Who made the laws? 

By what right are they enforced? Moral right, or military?

Interesting question.

Jesus of Nazareth, allegedly an author of moral right "of some reputation" suggests, in his "sermon on the mount", that we "give freely", rather than "laying up treasure on earth",,that we "give to him that asks of us", and "turn not away" from those who would borrow.

So,,should I "borrow" a lick from Little Walter? 

Should I "take" a solo from Sonny Boy, I or II?

It all depends.

Buyer beware.

Could be someone will hunt you down, publicly scandalizing you with scathing reviews, crying "COPYCAT!!"

Legalese?

Jesus, a "moral compass" of no small reputation, asserted that "the law was made for man, and not man for the law".

Powerful words.

To what extent we use the law to castigate, eradicate, isolate and incarcerate, says a lot about us, perhaps.

Are we really "protecting others" in every case?

Or not.

?

On an individual level, it's all about respect.

If I respect someone, I'll personally make every attempt not to trample their flowerbed. They went to the trouble of creating it. 

Efficient land usage speaks for itself, and gains the respect of one's neighbors. But then there's always the Huns, and the Visgoths, darn it. Their mommies didn't teach them to share.

Then, it's also everyone's "right" to "carry a gun", at least according to the constitution of the U.S. That'll get you another kind of respect.

Buyer beware.

Sharing, owning, claiming, tall subjects, whether approached from a strictly legal perspective, or a moral one.

Generosity is a virtue. 

Stealing isn't.

Go figure.

Where's my Buddhist buddies? What say the beggar monks?