From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,915d37e7b8e0ec69 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII Path: g2news1.google.com!news4.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!nx02.iad01.newshosting.com!newshosting.com!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!news.tele.dk!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!newspeer2.se.telia.net!se.telia.net!masternews.telia.net.!newsb.telia.net.POSTED!not-for-mail From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Bj=F6rn_Persson?= User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.7-1.1.fc4 (X11/20050929) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: and visual library once again References: <1129902844.300659.188970@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com> <1129918793.065783.214240@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com> In-Reply-To: <1129918793.065783.214240@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Message-ID: Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 22:01:47 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 217.209.116.179 X-Complaints-To: abuse@telia.com X-Trace: newsb.telia.net 1130277707 217.209.116.179 (Wed, 26 Oct 2005 00:01:47 CEST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 00:01:47 CEST Organization: Telia Internet Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:5940 Date: 2005-10-25T22:01:47+00:00 List-Id: Hyman Rosen wrote: > Larry Kilgallen wrote: >>Certainly you can. Harper & Row does that all the time after >>they buy a book from the author. > > They don't buy a book. They buy the right to make copies, which > otherwise is restricted to the copyright holder. In many cases > the contract specifies circumstances under which the publisher > will lose that right and it will revert back to the author. > >>Perhaps you are thinking of "sell a copy of a book". > > No. When I go to a bookstore and make a purchase, no one makes a > copy of a book. There are piles and cases of books available, and > I pick one up and buy it. This is what happens when we take words like "buy" (or "steal") that apply to material objects, and try to use them on information such as software or literature. The book example makes the confusion extra visible because "book" can denote both a material object, a bound sheaf of pages, and a piece of information, a literary work. Everybody knows what buying a material book means. What it means to buy a literary work is a lot less clear. -- Bj�rn Persson PGP key A88682FD omb jor ers @sv ge. r o.b n.p son eri nu